As the twentieth century passed by, it churned out one of the greatest technological innovation the world has ever seen- the Internet. Internet has altered the way of our communication, learning and our business. Today at the start of twenty first, we can say that Internet has become a major medium for marketing. Marketers around the world are racing to take advantage of its interactive nature to communicate and foster exchanges and relationships with customers, suppliers, and the public. One thing which is to be noticed is that impact of Internet and WWW (World Wide Web) have spawned every type of business to explore the nature of e-marketing and to enrich relationships with customers, employers and suppliers.
There are several models available when we consider the area of e-marketing in a broader perspective. Each model can be more applicable to different business types and are designed to provide a company with the tools to support the essential elements of marketing, price, promotion, product and place. But only few of these models come into the picture when we consider a particular company or organization
Two of the models which we are discussing here are Brokerage Model and Advertising Model. Before venturing out the idea of they supporting the 4Ps. Lets give a brief idea about each one of them. Brokerage model main idea revolves around Brokers who are also called as market makers. Their role is to bring buyers and sellers together and facilitate transactions. The major areas where they play a role are business-to-business (B2B), business-to-consumer (B2C), or consumer-to-consumer (C2C) markets. Usually a broker charges a fee or commission for each transaction it enables. Some of the areas which are part of brokerage model are Market Place exchange, Buy/Sell Fulfillment, Demand Collection System, Auction Broker, Transaction Broker, Distributor, Search Agent and Virtual Market Place. Advertising model on the other hand can be termed as an extension of the more conventional media broadcast model. The broadcaster, in this case, a web site, provides content and services (like email, IM, blogs) mixed with advertising messages in the form of banner ads. The banner ads may be the major or sole source of revenue for the broadcaster. The advertising model works best only when the volume of viewer traffic is large or highly specialized. The model includes Portal, Classifieds, User Registration; Query based paid placement, Contextual advertising and content targeted advertising. We all know that 4Ps of marketing are very crucial for the success of any organization products and its business and in the Internet arena too, they form an integral part of the marketing schemes and strategies. Product focuses on individual goods and their product line. Products could be any of the electronic or digital products and in with internet retailing just starting to explode, various technologies like email newsletters and online shopping through internet have become the norm. If we consider the brokerage model, we can see that a sub section of it deals with online auctions and here is where these e-marketing technologies come into picture. Auction broker conducts auctions for sellers and charges the seller a fee based on the transaction. He can use the concept of online auction wherein the successful bidder is notified through email. Similarly news regarding auctions can notified to all the people who are registered with the auction portal and in this the concept of email –newsletter work effectively in marketing a particular product. Similarly advertising model uses the concept of marketing element-product by the usage of the concepts of classifieds wherein the products are advertised to the customers who are willing to the buy. Now let’s look at the second element of 4Ps-Place. It mainly focuses on getting product to your customer. It includes warehousing, fulfillment, electronic download, shipping, middlemen. E-marketing Technologies like electronic downloads for free and paid in the portal can be one form of marketing wherein a part of the product can downloaded as part of trial edition and it can be upgraded to the full version if the customer likes the product. Brokerage model includes a concept of Buy/Sell fulfillment wherein the delivery of the product is being considered when the product is being bought by the customer. It also provides a feature of transaction broker where a neutral place is decided for the exchange of goods and services between buyers and sellers. Advertising model uses the feature of web portal as the place where the marketing strategies are churned out and implemented. Now let’s focus our attention on one of the most elements of marketing – promotion. It is understood that no matter the quality of the product, it’s the promotion of the product which bring the initial head-start to the whole product marketing. Promotion includes advertising, copywriting, media selection, sales force, personal and mass selling, sales promotion, positioning. In the brokerage model Marketplace exchange and Virtual Market place involve indirectly in the promotion of the item as they are the main centers where whole of the action takes place and where successful marketing schemes is of paramount importance. E-marketing technologies like Banner ads and Internet promotional campaigns through the usage of graphic images and films, enhances the level of promotion. Advertising model is heavily dependent on the promotional aspect of marketing as every major e-marketing technology like email newsletters, banner ads, pop ups and internet search engines are used by the model in order to supplement the whole scheme of marketing. The model uses classifieds wherein the ads and pop ups can be used for the promotion of the item. The model also uses content targeted advertising wherein search engine advertising concept is used. Here it identifies the meaning of a web page and then automatically delivers relevant ads when a user visits that page. Apart from these the usage of Intromercials and ultramercials uses the technology of banner ads and pop ups. Another element of marketing is Price- it involves discounts, allowances and incentives, and strategies like penetration pricing or skimming. Pricing is considered one of the important elements of marketing as it is the only element which generates revenue for the company. Both the models employ marketing technologies to support the pricing concept. Brokerage model uses Buy/Sell fulfillment wherein the price of the product or service is being handled by the employers when selling them to customers. The other thing which the model uses is the demand collection system wherein the buyer makes a final bid for the specified good and broker arranges fulfillment. Here the technologies which are used the search engines and newsletters wherein the search engines help the buyers generate the data, price and other details about the project and newsletters tell the users about the latest price ranges of each service item which the company sells. In advertising model portals and classifieds act as effective way to support the pricing strategies of the company. It can use the e-marketing technologies like banner ads and pop ups wherein ads generate the offers and other pricing schemes which the company uses to attract the customers. Thus in this way we have discussed about the e-marketing technologies which support the 4Ps of marketing using e-marketing models as the backdrop.
