Internet Business and Marketing

Internet Business and Marketing

A Look at Today's Growing Internet Business

In what way does the Internet effect marketing in business? Today's industry must be profitable and continually seek to improve the profit margin set forth by the shareholders. In order to be on top of the ladder and rise above the ever-growing list of competitors, companies must stay in line with technological advances. The means of marketing a company's services has changed at a near daily pace over the last several years. In present time, a company's success would be elevated by the use of Internet services.

Marketing on the Internet requires an explicit knowledge of not only the user's needs, (Stibel, 2005) but also the information to meet the needs.

In an Internet article (Gromov, 2001) concerning Internet pre-history, it is reported that the real beginnings of computers as we know them today, lay with an English mathematics professor, Charles Babbage (1791-1871). Since the invention of his "Difference Engine", which was as large as a locomotive, and later restructured and called the "Analytical Engine", today's computers and applications, including the Internet have advanced at a perpetual speed. This advancement in technology has created a competitive world of cyber marketing and businesses must keep up with the competition to assure a prosperous future for their company.

According to a study of Internet usage (Poon, 1997) from the Swineburne University of Technology, the number one Internet usage driver is direct and indirect advertising. In the past ten to fifteen years, the commercial use of the Internet has risen from a researcher's tool to an everyday business necessity (Forman, Goldfarb & Greenstein, 2003) and will continue to grow for generations to come. The ever accelerating progress of the Internet and its vast world of information will only continue to give us the knowledge we need to survive in today's marketplace.

The largest growth in marketing techniques was Internet advertising (Johnson & Bradley, 2005), which surged 21.4% in 2004. This statistic was up 72% over 2000.

The Internet

The Internet is a computer application that connects a vast array of interconnected computers around the world. These computers are connected merely by the use of telephone wires, cable connections, fiber optics, and satellite signals. The user is tapped to other computers usually with a charge per month fee assessed. When connected, the user has access to millions of websites. This alone can be a useful resource for any business. The Internet can elevate a company's growth by providing information relevant to the product being marketed. If a consumer wants to know about a particular product a company sells, they can go to the website and search for information concerning the product. If the website is appealing, the consumer will spend more time searching. No one wants to navigate around a website that is difficult to search or doesn't have the proper links to the information they are wanting. If the website is laid out to catch the user's attention it is more apt to be successful. Specific links to information should lead the user to their desired destination. Try to imagine having a company's information available for the entire world to see.

Advantages of Internet Technology

One advantage of the Internet is the ability to shop around without ever leaving the comforts of home. A user can sit at a desk, make a few clicks of the mouse and order anything desired from anywhere in the world with the use of specific tools and a credit card. When dialup was the only option it seemed the speed was unbelievable. For instance, switching to a cable service provider and having broadband capabilities will drastically increase a system's send and receive rates. The speed compared to dialup is like comparing a square wheel chiseled from stone to the advancement of the present steel belted radial tires. With the services the Internet provides, a company can market products with a variety of different advertising techniques. EbayTM, for instance is an Internet auction service where products can be sold to the highest bidder. This service has evolved into a multi-million dollar business. Other online auctions have tried to follow suit but were unable to do so. EbayTM has cornered the market by a direct correlation to advertising on the Internet. Where would they have been today without the Internet? It would be merely a dream waiting to come true.

Companies turn to Internet marketing solutions for many different reasons. The main desire would be to increase sales and profits. By putting a company's future in the hands of electronic and Internet marketing you can increase the company's visibility. Companies that have their own website have a competitive edge. Customers can access a company's product line in just a few moments. Many companies have increased their profits substantially by using the Internet. A company is ahead of the field when they decide to market their product and services on the Internet. Advertising on the Internet can be a very prosperous investment for any company. Advertising (Funk and Wagnall, 2002) is a "collective term for public announcements designed to promote the sale of specific products or services. Advertising is a form of mass selling, employed when the use of direct, person-to-person selling is impractical, impossible or simply inefficient". In today's busy world the marketing strategy of Internet advertising is not only practical but also very efficient.

Disadvantages of the Internet

Most likely, the largest disadvantage of the Internet is a security concern by all users. There are computer gurus that can actually "hack" into an individual or company's computer system and steal any sort of documentation they have on their system. In a recent Internet article titled "Securing E-business" (Newton, 2005) from the website cio.com, users should be very afraid and aware of the potential dangers of computer security breaches. They estimated that these breaches cost $10 billion dollars a year. This was information gathered from the FBI. The Federal Bureau of Investigation released information and statistics that show the well-known "Love Bug" attack of May 2000 was estimated to have cost between $2 billion and $10 billion. Others have said that viruses and other destructive actions by computer hackers cost businesses