Zine 98

One of the things they teach in marketing is to ensure that you can reach as many people as possible with your message. In order to generate a high number of sales, you have to contact a high number of customers. The traditional methods of doing this (paper, radio and television) are slowly but surely being upstaged by the newest medium, the Internet. More and more companies are discovering the values of marketing their products online. Not only is it free to set up a web site in your company's honor but you have the advantage of being able to explain more about your product than in a 30-second commercial. With a web site, a company can expound on the values of its product so long as it is displayed in an interesting and informative manner. The web site "Channel Seven" ranks Internet marketing campaigns. Among its list this week are M&M's and Honda, but also other unknown companies. Another important thing to consider is that most other forms of advertising are one-way. A radio ad will tell you that you should buy Paul McCartney's latest CD because it's good but you can't ask them why they think that. With the Internet, there are many possible ranges of dialogue. A person can email someone at MPL Records and ask them about McCartney's new CD and find out how well it's doing. Someone could also go onto any number of McCartney web sites and ask other people, fans or otherwise, what they think. It is difficult for established companies to gauge how successful their Internet advertising campaigns are. There is no way to judge whether a sale at a store was due to which media of advertising. But, they can't afford not to advertise on the web. Don Tapscott , author of the book "Growing up Digital: The Rise of the Net Generation", says that the ability for someone to find out the specifics of a product through dialogue over the web is potentially dangerous for name brands. He argues that people who are willing to buy something over the Internet want to know everything about it. A person can go online and find out that Brand A doesn't get clothes as white as Brand B. No amount of commerical time saying otherwise will change this person's opinion, says Tapscott. As the power of mass communications declines, he says that brand loyalty will be determined by substance rather than flash. "In marketing, interactivity equals increased power to the consumer to make informed choices and to buy products that deliver real benefits and value over those that do not," he says. Kathy Peterson, partner in a web company, may not have to worry about brand loyalty but she does have to worry about people buying things over the web. Her web page, The Capitalist Pig , has been selling goods over the Internet since January 1994. It is just one of the growing field of Internet-only companies. These companies are built and maintained on the web have only the web to rely on for a customer base. Peterson says that they have had sales from all over the world and everywhere in the U.S. "Being an Internet-only company places us firmly in the "cutting edge" of technologically advanced companies, indicating to the public at large that we are "forward looking" and giving us a "New Millenium" personae. The new generation of college students, who cut their teeth on computers, and live and breathe Internet in the classrooms and dorms, are not threatened by online companies, and will propagate the technology in the next few decades," she says. As the global market grows in importance, so will grow the necessity to contact everyone within the market. Not only will the Internet make that easier, but it may also make it enjoyable at the same time.