P4 Describe the benefits and opportunities to the business of using internet marketing within the marketing mix of a selected business

P4 - The news yesterday stated that a recent survey by the Boston Consulting Group showed that the UK is leading the world in the commercial use of the internet.  Do you think that this is a good thing for the UK economy? Click here to read.  Click here to listen.  The recent report suggests that the UK is a leading user of the internet in retail sales.  Summarise the report in less than 200 words.  You can find it here.

Having just explained the benefits to the customer of IM, it is now the turn of the Business itself! So, you will need to refer to your Business (ASOS, Amazon etc) closely and talk about the benefits under 3 main headings - Access, Availability and Business Efficiency. Alternatively you might wish to access this Tower Trophies business by clicking the link here

I was hoping to get you a guest speaker for today or set up a live video link with the owner who has taken a real business online but it was not possible to synchronise this to the lesson time today so I emailed him some questions that you might wish to read in terms of some of the research for this unit's P4 task.  Click here for Lionel Wrigth's answers and feel free to email him if you need further information using the contact details here: lionel@towertrpohies.com

P4 is looking for you to understand the theory around the following key topic areas

Access - Cover more frequent individualised communications to build relationships; use of communications to promote eg special offers, product launches; new services; use of purchase history to tailor offers to individuals, easier and cheaper to alter adverts, quicker response times to changing market needs, better information to guide stock holding.

Availability - increased range of customised buyer menus resulting in more accurate responses to customer needs and wants; use of internet information to identify product development opportunities; opportunities for immediate sales of products eg banking, insurance policies; possibilities of substitute online forms of products eg music, films, radio and TV programmes; podcasts; market development,

ability to expand markets more cost-effectively; lower entry costs for small businesses; opportunities to offer services ‘virtually’ eg virtual tours by estate agents; operating 24/7 eg internet banking; ability to link traditional methods with online marketing (‘bricks and clicks’); market diversification opportunities eg http://www.tesco.com/

Business Efficiency - use of internet to manage supply chain; use of electronic communications to reduce staff costs; opportunities for increased sales from existing customers; opportunities to monitor competitor activity; internet business opportunities eg use of paid-for promotion on websites, through search engines,
portals and links.  Deadline date Wednesday 19th March 2014

Key Terms that might be new to you include:

• Market diversification
• Search engine advertising
• Reciprocal and Affiliate links