Question

Describe the evolution of the Internet and the impact this has had on marketing over the past 5-10 years. Provide specific industry examples to illustrate your ideas. in 250-350 words please

Answer 1

The mass adoption of the internet into everyday life is one of the single events till date that has swayed marketing over the last three decades. Although early desktop publishing software in the traditional computers caused a rush in print marketing in the 1980s, the computers accessed with internet were a lot more than a just glorified typewriter. Launched by Tim Berners-Lee and his team-mates in 1991, the World Wide Web project didn’t really get the needed attention until the first successful mass-market browser, Netscape, was brought to public in 1994. In the next two years, the number of people using the web escalated from 16 million to 70 million.

As number of users increased, the landscape also evolved, from email to search engines like Yahoo! (1994) and Google (1997) and then e-commerce sites like Amazon in 1994 and eBay in 1995. For marketing, this was nothing less than a goldmine. Email became a new and common out-bound marketing tool, joining the traditional range of radio, Television and print advertisements and telephone sales. While search engines systemized the new websites that were being developed and allowed customers to find the information, services and products they desired from the comfort of their own home.

Marketers used early Search engine optimization (SEO) techniques like keyword stuffing, backlinks and excessive tagging to generate high rankings. Razorfish was one of the successful companies at the time known for its aggressive marketing tactics.

The Internet has completely turned around the dynamics of the business world. Customers now go to the Internet to start their purchasing/buying process. In order to stay competitive, companies are using inbound marketing techniques to get found by the users online.

With the help of internet, companies find out where your audience hangs out on the internet. Then organizations use those social media platforms to publish your information and spread awareness about their companies and products in order to collaborate with your customers on Facebook, Twitter, Google+, LinkedIn and others.

Using only traditional outbound marketing techniques such as print advertising and trade shows is less effective nowadays as compared to earlier marketing techniques, because people are better at blocking out pushed or interruption-based messages. The Internet presents easy and quick ways for users to learn and shop to pull information whenever and wherever they want it. Instead of flying across the country to gain information, a prospect needs only to go to the Internet and research the services and products

It’s important for companies to tailor their tactics and approach to the business environment and wherever their customers can be found on the Internet.The structure of the industry and market will directly influence the selection of tactics. If the market is saturated, companies must pursue innovative approaches to gain a competitive edge, such as a thought-provoking video. If a company is in emerging field, the company must invest resources into educating the public through articles and white papers online. If the service or product of a company is complex or difficult to understand, companies use tactics that enable the company to conduct discussions with the audience through chat, blogs, forums and social media platforms such as Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter.

Example: In the electronics industry, companies like OnePlus or Apple use the help of internet to launch their new products. The launch event of their new products is displayed live on online video streaming platforms for customers to better understand the product sitting at home. Then these users can compare features, specifications, cost etc of these products with each other and choose a product that suits their pocket and needs.