MKTG2032 / MKTG7037 E-Marketing

The Internet. Neither a truck nor a series of tubes

MKTG7037 / MKTG2032

E-marketingWeek XI

Course StructureWeek No Week beginning Topic(s)/Task(s)

1 19 February Chapter 3 Unique features of internet-based marketing

2 26 February Chapter 4 Consumer behaviour

3 5 March Chapter 5 Creating cybercommunities

4 12 March Chapter 6 Applications for business and non-business

5 19 March* Chapter 7 The internet in marketing strategy

6 26 March Chapter 8 The role of product in internet marketing

7 2 April Chapter 9 Promotion: the internet in the promotional mix

8 23 April Chapter 10 Promotion 2: the internet as a promotional medium

9 30 April Chapter 11 Pricing strategies

10 7 May Chapter 12 Distribution

11 14 May Chapter 13 Services marketing online

13 28 May Chapter 14 Relationship marketing

12 21 May Chapter 15 International marketing

Assessment Due Dates

Task Weighting Due• Essay Registration 01 March 16• Solo Assignment 20 March 26• Group-Optional Essay 29 May 21• Final Examination 30 June• Online Forum 20 During semester

MKTG2032 / MKTG7037 E-Marketing

The Internet. Neither a truck nor a series of tubes

Any questions about the assignment?

MKTG2032 / MKTG7037 E-Marketing

The Internet. Neither a truck nor a series of tubes

A follow up from previous weeks

Icanhascheezburger.comsocial media link strategy

• Subscribe to this feed• Google Bookmark This • Email this • Stumble It!• Save to del.icio.us• Digg This! • Bookmark With Yahoo! Bookmarks • Twit This! • Submit to Reddit • Add to Technorati Favorites! • Share on Facebook

Online services

• http://30boxes.com/welcome.php

• http://www.socializr.com/

• http://twittervision.com/

MKTG2032 / MKTG7037 E-Marketing

The Internet. Neither a truck nor a series of tubes

Services marketing

Goods versus Services

Source: A. Parasuraman, V.A. Zeithaml, and L. L. Berry, “A Conceptual Model of Service Quality and Its Implications for Future Research,” Journal of Marketing 49 (Fall 1985), pp. 41–50.

The intangibility continuum

• Purely intangible service outcomes• Intangible service outcome bundled with a product• A tangible service outcome• A tangible service outcome bundled with a product

Implications of Intangibility

• Services cannot be inventoried

• Services cannot be easily patented

• Services cannot be readily displayed or communicated

• Pricing is difficult

Implications of Heterogeneity

• Service delivery and customer satisfaction depend on employee and customer actions

• Service quality depends on many uncontrollable factors

• There is no sure knowledge that the service delivered matches what was planned and promoted

Implications of Simultaneous Production and Consumption

• Customers participate in and affect the transaction

• Customers affect each other

• Employees affect the service outcome

• Decentralization may be essential

• Mass production is difficult

Implications of Perishability

• It is difficult to synchronize supply and demand with services

• Services cannot be returned or resold

Service/good analysis process

Source: Langford, B. E. & Cosenza, R. M. 1998, ‘What is service/good analysis?’,Journal of Marketing Theory and Practice, Winter, pp. 16–26.

Challenges for Services

• Defining and improving quality• Designing and testing new services• Communicating and maintaining a consistent

image• Accommodating fluctuating demand• Motivating and sustaining employee commitment• Coordinating marketing, operations, and human

resource efforts• Setting prices• Finding a balance between standardization versus

personalization• Ensuring the delivery of consistent quality

MKTG2032 / MKTG7037 E-Marketing

The Internet. Neither a truck nor a series of tubes

Online Service Delivery

Impact of online delivery for traditional service concepts

• Reduce time dependence• Consistent service delivery• Consistent imagery and branding• Customer-led customisation• Consumer empowerment • Effective separation of product and

consumption

Classification of service products:

• People-directed versus thing-directed services– People directed is applied directly to the

consumer• people directed services aimed at people’s minds

– Thing-direct• Virtual goods?

• Customisation versus standardisation

• Discrete versus continuous service

Services online

• People directed or thing directed?– http://www.stashmycomics.com/default.asp– http://www.eyemelt.com/ – http://www.yvoschaap.com/wpthemegen/

Customisation

• You know I was going to say Twitter, right?

• Well, maybe not.

Customer support

• Online service as the core product

• Online service as the augmented product– Other uses of online services as part of the

augmented service product are:• To be a venue for entertainment to create and

sustain brand loyalty• Reinforcement of the decision to purchase• Additional services which complement existing

products

Search behaviours and service type

• The way in which consumers seek information, choose services and evaluate their effectiveness depends on the characteristics of the service-product combination in question

• Attributes that determine style of consumer search behaviour are:– Search attributes– Experience attributes– Credence attributes

Search attribute products

• In terms of consumer behaviour, search attribute products:– Have relatively low levels of perceived risks– Can be evaluated prior to purchase– Involve relatively low search times – Have decisions made about them strongly

influenced by mass media such as advertising

Other service issues

• Training the customer to be a co-producer• Technology as the means, not the end

Weak links in customer-technology interface

• Weak links in customer-technology interface that marketers need to be aware of:– Automated idiocy– Time sink– ‘Law of the hammer’– Technology lock– The last inch– High-tech versus high-touch

Smooth delivery of Internet services

• To ensure delivery of Internet-based services is smooth and effective, the following steps need to be taken:– Provide marketer with input into the

technology of customer interface design– Stay customer- and not machine-focused– Make services technology invisible to the

customer– Insist on flexibility and less complexity

Discussion Questions for the Board

• Answer either…

– What are the three types of service attribute? How do these differ from each other?

• OR– Is technology a means to an end or the end

in itself? Should services adopt technologies that might be beneficial in the future or use only proven technologies for service delivery?