Personal Experience of Marketing Management in the 21st Century and Term Paper

Personal Experience of Marketing Management in the 21st Century and Emerging Issues - Term Paper Example Internet marketing is the future of marketing. The challenges that this field can face in the future will mainly be related to the quality of content involved in the promotion. However, challenges which do occur in relation to internet marketing will cause difficulties for both consumers and companies. One example of this is connection speed. The speed that consumers can access the internet, and as a consequence web based content varies significantly. If a consumer has low bandwidth, or for other reasons is unable to access the internet at a fast rate, this can affect the use of animate movies, such as flash animations, as well as graphics that are very large or detailed as methods of advertising. The amount of consumers that suffer from slow internet is rapidly decreasing, with dial-up and slow connections being replaced with cable internet and high speed broadband. Another problem with the use of internet marketing is that there is often no method for consumers to try a product bef ore they decide to buy it. Some exceptions to this would be services that offer a full refund if the customer is not happy, or that offer a trial period. For other situations, such as purchases from online stores, consumers get around the problem of not being able to test a product by getting familiar with it at physical stores, testing it there if required, before buying it online. This however is only possible for products that are accessible from a physical store, and consumers that are able to go to the stores. It is important that promotion and marketing strategies are effective and that they can reach out to the maximum number of people. Good quality of content can make sure that people get interested in the product or service. The emerging issues that internet marketing professionals face are mentioned as follows: Commodity (Product) – It is important that products and services sold over the internet are of good quality and that they are able to compete successfully wi th physical stores as well as other online ventures. Price – Monitoring prices and being aware of where they stand in relation to prices of competitors is an important factor in internet marketing. The costs in relation to hosting products and services on the internet and advertising them are low compared to that of a physical store. As a consequence price of online goods and services is generally lower than that of physical goods and services. However, this is not always the case, especially with cost of shipping involved in many internet purchases. Promotion – There are a large range of tools available to help a company or an individual promote both their site in general as well as their products and services. Such tools include search engine optimization (SEO), which involves manipulating particular components of the site, such as use of specific words in order to make it appear early in search engine listings, the use of advertising such as banner ads on other webs ites, and communication with consumers and marketing through email. Other tools include affiliating with other websites, using social media such as Facebook and Twitter for marketing as well as using forums and blogging as means of more effectively engaging the consumer. Point of sale – The point of sale is the physical location where the sale occurs. For a store that operates electronically this is the website, or for a store this is the physical l