The glamorous world of diamond trading is in the blood of the founder of Cool Diamonds' Michel Einhorn. In the past, Cool Diamonds has benefited from the positive support of the UK's Consumers' Association in its Which. One of the major forces in the macro environment that challenges marketing strategy and practice is technological change.
With the creation of the World Wide Web and web browsers in the 1990s, the Internet was transformed from a mere communication tool into a certifiably revolutionary technology. The Internet was the revolutionary technology of the new millennium, empowering consumers and businesses with blessings of connectivity. 20; 'Only the strong survive the storm', in 'The Internet revolution, Special report', Financial Times (16 October 2000), p.
The latecomers to the internet party – the so-called old economy companies – are set to dominate the e-commerce landscape. Companies should retain most of the skills and practices that have worked in the past. It consists of the company's efforts to communicate, promote and sell products and services through the Internet.
The marketing side of e-commerce – the efforts of companies to communicate, promote, and sell products and services over the Internet.
For example, ECeurope (www.eceurope.com) is part of a huge business-to-business trading network and there are almost 100 trading sites in this network, including eceurope.com, worldbid.com, the Fita Buy/Sell Exchange etc. Others include Antwerpes (www.antwerpes.com), an internet services company that operates one of Germany's largest online shopping sites for medical products. Trade Networks: Worldbid.com offers companies the chance to search for qualified B2B trade leads in their industry.
Consumers can also use websites such as PlanetFeedback.com to ask questions, make suggestions, file complaints or compliment companies. Several content sites, such as Financial Times (www.ft.com), New York Times on the Web (www.nytimes.com), and ESPN.com (www.ESPN.com), provide financial, research, and other information. Boo.com (sportswear), Boxman.com and Clickmango (healthcare) were among the high-profile e-tail victims.
Leading online retailers such as Amazon.com took six years from inception to turn a pro forma profit – profit excluding losses on investments in other Internet companies and other items. Store-based booksellers including Waterstones and Barnes & Noble have delayed opening their online site to challenge Amazon.com. For example, customers visiting ABB's website (www.abb.com) can draw on pages and pages of information to get answers about the company's products at any time and from anywhere in the world.
FedEx's website (www.fedex.com) allows customers to schedule their own shipments, request a courier and track their packages in transit. But] what kind of banner can encourage any consumer to visit dentalfloss.com?’34For such low-interest products, the company must create a corporate. Customers visiting ABB's website (www.abb.com) can access thousands of pages of information to get answers about the company's products at any time and from anywhere in the world.
For example, visitors to the following websites are invited to rate their satisfaction with the company's website by completing an online questionnaire: construction equipment manufacturer JCB. www.jcb.com); car manufacturer Peugeot (www.Peugeot.com); insurance company Direct Line (www.directline.com); and Cadbury's (www.cadbury.com). To attract visitors to its own Web site, Toyota sponsors Web banner advertisements on other sites, such as ESPN SportZone (www.espn.com). Visitors to the sports section of www.msnbc.com can suddenly look at a separate window with wireless video cameras.
For example, in the US, Alladvantage.com downloads a viewing bar for users where ads are displayed to targeted users. Amazon.com has more than 350,000 affiliates around the globe who post Amazon.com banners on their websites.
Viral boosters for Virgin
The popularity of forums and newsgroups has resulted in a large number of commercially sponsored Web sites called Web communities that take advantage of the C2C features of the Internet. Webcasting (push programming) - Automatic downloading of personalized information of interest to recipient PCs, providing an attractive channel for delivering online advertising or other information content. We now look at both the promise of e-commerce and the 'darker side' of the Web.
In previous sections, we've touched on some of the negatives associated with the Internet, such as spam and the annoyance of pop-up ads. Some social critics and policy makers worry about the so-called digital divide – the gap between those who have access to the latest internet and information technology and those who do not. Four major forces underlie the Internet age: digitization and connectivity, the explosion of the Internet, new types of mediators, and adaptation and customer adaptation.
The Internet has grown explosively to become the revolutionary technology of the new millennium, empowering consumers and businesses alike with the benefits of connectivity. Companies must retain most of the skills and practices that have worked in the past, but must also add major new competencies and practices if they hope to grow and thrive in the New Economy. Despite recent setbacks following the 'dotcom gold rush' of the late 1990s, B2C e-commerce continues to grow at a healthy pace.
Online marketers can also participate in web communities, which take advantage of the C2C characteristics of the web. Internet usage for the European Union and new members of the EU that joined in May 2004, as well as world Internet statistics, are based on data provided by Internet World Stats, accessed at www.internetworldstats.com, March 2004; see also data published in 'Internet penetration and use in The European Marketing Pocket Book (Henley-on-Thames: World Advertising Research Centre, 2004). Data on Internet usage in European countries is also available from Internet Software Consortium at www.isc.org; Internet usage numbers are also published by Nielsen-NetRatings and a variety of local, country sources including IWS (accessible at . www.internetworldstats.com); see also Humphrey Taylor, 'Internet penetration at 66% of adults (137 million) nationwide', The Harris Poll (17 April 2002); and 'Internet Users to Surpass 1 Billion in 2005', press release, Computer Industry Almanac, Inc.
Robyn Greenspan, 'The Web as a way of life', tilgængelig online på cyberatlas.internet.com, 21. maj 2002. R8; se også Shikhar Ghosh, 'Making business sense of the Internet', Harvard Business Review (marts-april 1998), s. Servon, Bridging the Digital Divide: Technology, community, and public policy (Oxford, Storbritannien: . Blackwell Publishers, 2002 ); og Blaise Cronin, 'The Digital Divide', Library Journal (15. februar 2002), s.
Bill Cobb, the company's global marketing director, calls eBay a step toward "the world's first economic democracy." Furthermore, unlike most of the dotcoms that sprung up in the late 1990s, eBay is profitable, generating $138 million in net income in 2001.
