The delivery of marketing has changed since I started in the 1980s. Back then, there wasn’t the internet. Now the ubiquitous internet is part of just about every marketing plan today. What is internet marketing and how has it changed how advertisers think and react?
A little bit about the basics of marketing. For those of you who are not “old school”, you may not know the basics and base of the Marketing Mix. So to refresh your memory or to go to marketing 101, let’s take a brief moment to review the Marketing Mix or the 4 Ps and the 4 Cs.
Now, I won’t charge you tuition for this review and education. Many of you already know this stuff. But, for you new marketers, you may be actually following the basics but don’t know it. Not sure that business schools still teach the basics?
The 4 Ps:
1. Product – it is that thing that you produce and sell. A tangible or a service will fall under this P.
2. Price – what will the market pay for the product?
3. Promotion – advertising, public relations, marketing, point of sale, direct sales, whole sale, word of mouth, internet marketing.
4. Place – where can the products be purchased. Stores, and of course, you youngsters know about e-commerce. You grew up on e-commerce. Just buy it online.
The 4 Cs:
1. Consumer – who is likely to buy this product? Who is the target market?
2. Cost – what will the product fetch in the market? Retail and discount and wholesale.
3. Convenience – in today’s marketplace, convenience is critical. We want it now and we want it fast and we want it cheap.
4. Communication – means to get the word out about the product.
The 4 Cs seem to have superseded the 4 Ps. Guess the Cs is the 1990s version of the Ps. Because of the changes in buying and the focus on online compared to retail stores, we are seeing a paradigm shift in marketing today. It is a move to an internet marketing business model with a big push to marketing on the internet. If a business doesn’t have an internet presence to sell products, then they don’t sell. Name a business that is not a dinosaur, that doesn’t sell or promote on the internet. Write me if you found one.
So, the internet has had a major impact on marketing. Getting black ink from a newspaper’s pages you hold will be a thing of the past. My grandkids will not know what a newspaper is. They will get news from their mobile device or hologram news person. Magazines are adjusting too. The book market is changing. Soon we will not hold a book. Buy music is done mainly on line and mega retailers have closed up. TV, the once premier medium is now taking second seat to the internet. Advertiser know you have control with the clicker to get away from their ads. TV ads placement has dwindled over the years. Even the networks have an internet presence to show that week’s shows after they have aired on network.
Where does a company want to spend its promotion or communication money? The internet, of course. Not just the internet, but where on the internet? Pay per click? How about, social media? Doesn’t it make sense to spend money in a targeted market that tells you all about what they want and what they do and what crazy photos or information they share with the world? Social media is an advertisers dream and a user’s nightmare.
The internet has had a major impact on the 4 Ps and the 4Cs. The internet marketing medium is still really in the early stages. Social media is still young and poised to grow. In the not too distant future, the vehicle of choice will be mobile device and about internet marketing. So, with that in mind create your sites so that the little screen makes your site look great. Forget the flash and concentrate on content and e-commerce. Also, start thinking about creating that APP that you can put on your site to allow your clients and prospects to download to their mobile device so they can buy your offering easily and anywhere.
About the Author
Years of experience in Internet Marketing, specializing in Internet Branding for small businesses. See how we can transform you.
