Internet Marketing Strategies

Abstract

Internet Marketing strategies across categories

Full text

Course of Independent Study
Term 6, PGP 2011-13
“Internet Marketing Strategy”
Under the guidance of
Prof. Suresh Paul Anthony
Submitted By
Isha Suman-1101015
Srujana G-1101092
Indian Institute of Management
Tiruchirappalli

Acknowledgment
We would like to thank Prof. Suresh Paul Antony for his
continuous support and motivation during this course.
He helped us in making our concepts clear and wide
coverage of topics within the limits of time. We are
obliged to him for the learning we developed during
the course of our project.
Isha Suman
Srujana G.

ABSTRACT
This paper attempts to cover different aspects of Internet Marketing strategies
employed by marketers. On different situations, different types of tools are advised
to be used in order to optimize content and increase the return on investment. It has
been shown for instance, that the ROI of email marketing is the highest. So, when
limited budgets are present, companies should migrate to this as the medium for
marketing. Similarly, display advertising is the one medium that is useful in
affecting decisions across all the touch points of customers with brand. Thus display
advertising is the one that must be taken into consideration in order to influence the
consumer decision making process. The presence across all the channels ensures
higher visibility of brand and helps to foster profitable relationships with customers
in the long run. With the advent of these online marketing tools, the marketers are
further challenged to make decisions in less time. This field has also led to
development of new businesses that provide online reputation management and
other tools discussed in the paper.
Introduction to Internet Marketing
Internet marketing differs from traditional forms of advertising channels and
marketing. There are two important ways in which the two are different. One is the
measurability and the other is targetability. Measurability in case of internet
marketing is higher because there are metrics available and responses to any
marketing campaign can be tracked very easily and quickly. On the other hand, in
traditional forms of advertising, it becomes difficult to measure the impact of
advertising. For example, the effect of billboards on highways helping in making the
consumer make a purchase decision is very difficult to measure. Sometimes, people
driving on the highways don‘t even observe the billboards and if there is something
really catchy or attention seeking, it could lead to annoyance. The second aspect is
targetability. Targetability is high because the type of content that reaches to a
particular section of people by age, geography, hobby and other forms of
segmentation variables, can be controlled. The ads shown to different groups can be
tracked at individual level. For example, consider email marketing. It is the most
customized form of internet marketing. Such levels of customization cannot be
obtained in traditional forms of marketing. The data on demographics, preferences
of individual customers are available and based on that available data, customized
ad emails are sent to them.
In online world of marketing knowing who to target (the data or cookie list) is
important, but it is not enough. It is also crucial to know when (purchase funnel
management), where (context and placement), how often (frequency) and how much
to pay (auction strategy).

The Internet Marketing Funnel
Like the traditional marketing models correspond to consumer decision making
journey and theories of motivation, in the online environment also, there is a
consumer decision making funnel1. This funnel is getting shorter day by day with
the availability of more tools which provide customers with more data on product or
service they want to purchase. There are three parts of the funnel2. First is the top
part of funnel. The top part of funnel consists of brand awareness and recall. Second
part of funnel contains the content engagement and education. This is specifically
true for high involvement products. The last part is the bottom part of the funnel.
This comprises of lead generation and sales3, 4. Customers may not always take the
linear path in this funnel. Broadly, it can be said that they pass through stages of
brand awareness, education, evaluation, proposal and final purchase5. Social
media touches customers on brand awareness and education. Email marketing
touches on evaluation, proposal and purchase. Paid search touches on proposal and
purchase. But it is only display advertising that touches on all stages of consumer
decision making journey in online environment6.
Email marketing
Email marketing is a form of permission based marketing. It is an important way for
companies to stay close to their customers and build long term profitable
relationships (Mc Closkey, 2006, Chaff et al, 2003). Email marketing is the core of
internet marketing. By many marketers it is regarded as the least expensive tool for
marketing online. According to Pavlov et al. (2008), email marketing campaign gives
twice the returns on investment compared to other forms of internet advertising
including web banners and online directory advert. It is regarded as the platform
that links social media, other cross channels, thus binding cross channels together.
Despite the importance of email marketing in fostering relationships, there is little
literature available on the design of emails to avoid annoyance on the side of the
customer. Following section covers the execution tactics for email marketing.
Execution tactics for email marketing
The email design affects the perception of recipient about the brand There are certain
ways in which the mails can be designed in order to overcome annoyance. These
ways have been crafted after years of research and experience7. First is the Length of
email. The length of email depends on the type of message being sent. If the mail is a
newsletter for which user has opted in, then it is a page length. If it‘s a sales email, it
should be short. But if the mail takes form of a catalogue presenting range of

products, then it becomes a page length. Researchers suggest variant testing before
adopting the final length of mails. Second is the use of illustrations. Pictures used for
illustration helps to keep the user attentions retained. They also make the mail more
interesting. Third is the inclusion of a Subject line. Content of subject line plays a
crucial role in catching the attention of user. Strongest messages should be conveyed
in message line . Here also, researchers suggest variant testing. Fourth is the
presence of a Headline. Nearly, 75% of marketing emails analysed by the researchers
over a period of 3 weeks have a headline apart from subject line. Clearly, the
headline should act as a bridge between subject line and body of mail. Generally, it
has been found that sale mails lead with sale word at the beginning and if it‘s a new
product introduction, then it tends to be longer. Fifth is the Message content.
Researchers say that there should be a link and a flow of creativity from subject line
to headline to body of the mail. A recipient opens an email reading the subject.
Therefore it is important that the body of mail is closely aligned with its headline
and subject. Otherwise, the recipient may not read the entire mail and simply close
the mail. Sixth is the Inclusion of brand logo. Almost all marketing emails have the
brand logo on the top left corner of the mail. According to them, it helps in engaging
the recipient. Seventh is the presence of Hyperlinks. Many mails can contain a link to
another web page. But large number of hyperlinks may obscure the recipient and
annoy him. Thus the number of hyperlinks to be included in the mail should be
optimum. It should neither be zero or less nor too large in number. If the hyperlink
is not present in mail and in case recipient is interested in more information, it
becomes difficult for him to use search engines. Eighth is the amount of Interactivity.
Adding more interactive features to mail helps in increasing user engagement,
retaining their attention. But there is an optimum level depending on the type of
message being communicated. Ninth is the amount of Animation present. Very few
(only 2% of mails analysed by researchers) use animation in their mails. There is a
huge scope to attract attention of the user given its limited use in the mails8.
Traditionally, email has been just used by marketers to sell everything to customers.
But with changes taking pace in the digital space, it is much more than just selling to
customers. Email marketing has to be done in such a way that it is able to connect
with customers more and more and not just be the tool for throwing information on
them trying to sell at every point in time9.
Email marketing has got several advantages10. Firstly, email generates almost
immediate results which allows for rapid testing and optimization in marketing
campaigns. Second, in email marketing there is a provision for consumers to reply
easily if interested. Thus in the long run, it results in more targeted marketing
efforts. This proves to be useful to the organization because they can concentrate on
a base of would be loyal customers than being undifferentiated. Third, email is the

only technique that leads to complete customization of content at the end of the user.
Other techniques like social media, although attractive, have generally the same
content for a community of users and little level of customization can be obtained in
such cases. Fourthly, there is an element of trust in the case of email marketing. This
is because of features of authentication, spam complaint process, reliable
unsubscribing, and transparent opt in policies. Lastly, email marketing has the
ability to generate the largest ROI among all the marketing channels.
Email marketing has mostly been used to generate sales. But generating sales is just
one part of the marketing process using email. There are other areas where email
marketing can be applied and a direct customer relationship can be established.
Especially, in times of crisis, email marketing can be used to reassure the lost belief
in the brand/company. For example, in the secondary research, we came across a
customer who had direct relationships with three commercial banks in the era of
financial breakdown. During those rocky years, only one of the banks communicated
with him, reassured him, explained company actions, and advised on how to
weather this financial crisis. This action of company led to development of faith in
the customer. A survey from Opinion Research Corp. found at the time that 46
percent of respondents said the bank in which they have the most assets was not
communicating with them enough.
There are other areas as well apart from crisis where effective email marketing can
lead to good results. Those include11
 Update-customers should always be updated on the current issues that affect
the product or service offered. They don‘t like surprises every time.
Especially, in the arena of crowd sourcing, it is imperative to update the
customer developers of product through email.
 Remind-reminder email includes everything like out of stocks, due amounts,
appointments, travel reservations, registration deadlines, etc. These help in
seeding a feeling of sincerity of brand amongst its customers.
 Nurture-with recession setting in, especially, in the US, sales cycle length has
increased. In such cases, regular emails help in top of the mind recall amongst
customers and lead to faster conversion of conversation to sales.
 Retain-email marketing can be used to retain the price sensitive customers by
making them offers and continuing relationship with them. With this, the
customer sticks to the brand in both B2B and B2C world.
 Share- email can be used to foster ideas amongst customers about any issue
from product development to corporate social responsibility (CSR).

 Listen- survey customers on their feedback, send them a mail with an
acknowledgment that company will try its best to use the recommendation of
the customer.
But with email marketing, care has to be taken that proper segmentation of
customers is done on the basis of level of internet activity and then mails are sent.
For example, if a person has never tried a product, then sending him/her full details
about the same may irritate him12. Another issue is that the frequency should be
adjusted in such a way that mails do not become ―too much‖ for the receiver and he
should loose interest in the company12.
Two things that are most important for an email to stay relevant to the customer are
context and intent13. Context refers to data about customer location, device, buying
stage, social activity. Intent refers to behaviour of customers based on purchasing,
clicking/not clicking on email messages, browsing history. When these two things
are not taken care of, then it leads to spamming of email messages in the inbox of
customers.
In order to avoid the customer marking the email message as a spam, following
considerations are to be kept in mind14:
 Frequency- the frequency should be apt for the user. Even if a very famous
retail store sends 20 mails for 20 days continuously, then interest of user dies
out, annoyance arises and he prefers to opt out of the mail service.
 Relevance-this is the key to email marketing. Based on data about context and
intent, targeted and personalized email messages should be sent to customers.
Even if the message is found to be irrelevant, the brand should provide an
option for the receiver to opt out through a unsubscribe button.
 Brand trust-building trust is of utmost importance in using email messages.
For example, if an email is sent from an unknown brand then users are more
likely to reject it. Whereas, if the message is from say, Dabur, then there are
high chances that the user will at least open the mail to read.
These days the importance of email marketing has been undermined by most of the
marketers because of the upcoming trends in social, local and mobile marketing,
collectively known as Mocial or SoLoMo marketing14. But email marketing can be
integrated with these to improve the ROI of investments. There are a few examples
of how this can be done:
14Sweepstakes-prizes based on when or how often one checks in to a location on Foursquare or
Facebook. Whenever the participants register with sweepstakes, they share their social media
email account that automatically gets added to email list. With this, there is an excitement

around the brand, building email contact address and also, preferences and lifestyle of
customers through their data on places they visit.
In the same way, several techniques can be used to capture data on customer
locations, social activity, and customer preferences using location data. These all can
then be used to building contacts, targeting email messaging to customers making it
more relevant and personalized and generating higher ROI for the marketing
investments14.
Social media, local marketing techniques and mobile marketing can complement
email marketing in the various ways12, 19. First is Creating a content that is human.
Social media has humanized the brand by putting faces and expressions to the
brand. The same human touch can be borrowed from the social media and
incorporated into email marketing to better improve the readability of email
messages. Second is Increased multi channel integration. Email and social media form a
natural collaboration. Email messages invite subscribers to follow brands on social
media or sharing content. Similarly, the social media should have tools that can
allow users to opt in for mails. It should be always kept in mind that social media
can get people to talk about the brand but final conversion can happen through
email. This is possible through right message to the right person at the right time.
Third is the increased use of user generated content in email messages. The same will be
discussed in more detail in the following case King Arthur Flour. Fourth is sharing of
email content. Like social media content is made in a way that its virality increases,
marketers can borrow the same concept and craft the email messages in such a way
that its share ability increases amongst its users.
Benchmarks for email marketing
There are several benchmarks available for measuring the effectiveness of email
marketing15. They are summarized below:
o Open rates-open rates is measured as the number of measured opened
messages-including emails in which images were enabled and implied opens
in which there was a link without the image enabled by the sender-divided by
the total number of delivered messages.
o Click through rates-it is the number of unique clicks on links in email message
divided by the number of such delivered messages.
o Click through open rates (CTOR)-it is measured as the ratio of unique clicks as a
percentage of unique opens. It measures the rate at which links are opened
over the number of messages opened and not just delivered.
o Opens per opener-it is obtained by dividing the total number of opens by the
number of unique opens. It indicates how many times the same particular

message has been reopened by the recipient or recipients in case of
forwarding of the email.
o Clicks per clicker-in the same way as opens per opener, it measures the number
of clicks made by the clicker in the same message. It can either be clicking the
same link again and again by the recipient or recipients in case of forwarding.
Or it can also be the multiple
Numbers of clicks made in the same message.
Apart from the above metrics, there are also some metrics available to measure the
churn rates of the customers15. These include the hard bounce rate and
unsubscription rate. The former that is bounce rate indicates that the address
directory of customers or prospects is not up to date. Because mails are sent to
invalid email addresses, there is a bounce back. This is the metric which
distinguishes top performers the most from average or low performers. The top
performers bounce rates are 1/20th of the average performers. Another metric is un-
subscription rate. Higher rate of un- subscription means that the content is no longer
interesting the recipient and he is finding it irrelevant so he prefers to unsubscribe.
In these cases, the content presented to recipient at the time he registered and the
present content should be mapped and differences should be studied.
Following are different case studies of companies who have used email marketing
successfully and made it a form of loyalty channel.
#1. Air New Zealand16
This airline has very few flights from UK to Los Angeles and New Zealand.
Therefore, for such flights, attracting frequent travellers is not the issue but to make
sure that it retains its existing base of customers through word of mouth effects and
brand building activities. Like any other pre trip email, it contains information about
duration of flight, ticket details, weather forecast, local attractions, safety and
security instructions, etc. But along with these, it also contains a personalized
message for each of the travellers and includes a photograph of the in flight manager
during the trip. This is highly attractive for customers.
#2. Mud Pie17
This is an online website that allows people to remember birthdays of their spouse
by sending reminders 21 days before the birthdays. The user needs to enter the
birthday of the spouse in the website and then they send reminders 21 days before
the event. Along with the email reminder of the upcoming birthday, it also gives
plans and discount coupons for the receiver to purchase gifts. This is highly
successful. Since this is meant for spouse, the discount coupons are highly relevant
and useful for the receivers.

#3. King Arthur flour18
The company is involved in selling premium bakery products. The company uses
web, social connect and email to connect its bakers and enthusiasts through building
communities and blogs. This way it promotes its products and services. It conducted
an experiment whereby it sent two types of email to equal number of participants.
One type of email contained testimonials for the product and services and the other
did not. It was found that the former type of emails was able to generate a significant
increase in revenues and engagement as against the latter.
This way, the company was able to use user generated content in email and make it
more personal. Other forms of user generated content that can be used in this type of
email are reviews, comments, media/original content, call centre where customers
leave their comments, inbound email messages, blogs, social community pages,
product review pages, blogs, media sites, solicited comments. But it should be noted
that before the use of these data, legal issues are clarified with respect to sharing of
information provided by customers and third party media providers.
#4. Fabric.com case19
The company is an online fabric retailer. It began by segmenting the customers based
on the repository of customer behaviour it had. It created three levels of customers-
most active to least active. Then it began sending out offers customized to each
segment. The main objective of this was to retain the most active customers and
entice back the activity of least active users.
The company also created a preference centre which asked subscribers about
birthdays, email and frequency preferences, and details about their sewing habits
including experience level, kind of sewing, whether for personal or business use.
Then the company integrated this data with the analytics centre data. Three key
approaches helped the company‘s email messages get noticed in the inbox.
 The birth date data collected helped to create an automated birthday email.
 The analytics program also generated a happy anniversary email on the first
anniversary of customer‘s first purchase from the company.
 It also sent shopping cart reminders to customers who leave the site with
items in their carts or who buy fabric swatches but don‘t return within two
weeks to buy the full fabric.
The results of all these email strategies were a 40% increase in conversions, and 100%
increase in open and click through rates. It also helped the company to generate
sales during slow periods thus leading to better planning and revenue management.

#5. Garden Fresh Restaurant Corp .20
Garden Fresh Restaurant Corp. operates 102 casual-dining buffet-style restaurants in
15 states under the name Souplantation or Sweet Tomatoes. The company‘s niche
positioning is to have a different food theme each month. The company began its
―Club Veg‖ email club in part to keep customers informed about current and future
themes of the month. Patrons could sign up by giving their contact details at the
restaurants or by going to the Souplantation website. Within 18 months of its launch,
Club Veg had half a million members. With so many members having joined Club
Veg, Garden Fresh realized that it was time to try to do more than just send those
emails. It wanted these members to do more than receive emails—to visit its website
and learn more about the restaurant‘s offerings. In short, it wanted to be more
interactive with its email members
1st Initiative:-Garden Fresh sent its first interactive email to Club Veg members to
promote its Cherry month. The personalized email featured artwork and invited
readers to go to the Souplantation website and visit its cherry tree. If a website
visitor put their mouse over a cherry on the tree, either a fact about cherries or
information about one of the cherry-related menu items would come up. The email
also offered the chance to win two free meals.
2nd initiative:-As the company geared up for its annual Chicken Pot Pie theme,
Garden Fresh sent its members an email with a link to a clock on the Souplantation
homepage; the clock counted down the days, hours, minutes, and seconds until
chicken pot pie became available in its restaurants Nov. 1 2010. The personalized
email offered Club Veg members a chance to win 30 free meals if they visited the
countdown clock after it was launched. On Nov. 1, the clock changed, instead
counting down the exact time left until the end of the month, when the item would
stop being served.
Result: The two promotions led to a huge increase in site traffic to the company‘s
homepage: The cherry email campaign garnered a 906% increase in site visits on the
day the email was sent, while the chicken pot pie menu initiative led to a 1,430%
increase in visits.
Search advertising
With the advent of social media and growing importance of word of mouth, people
look to Google search engine for a particular problem or a new product. They read
the reviews of their product and then decide what to buy. This forms the zero
moments of truth22. Earlier the model of buying process was problem
identificationshelfexperience. But with the higher penetration of internet and

advent of new portable devices like tablets and smartphone, which provide internet
on the go, there is another element added between problem identification and shelf.
That is searching online and this constitutes the zero moment of truth. When the
user actually experiences the product, it forms the first moment of truth. In this
context of zero moments of truth, search engine advertising plays a key role. The
main purpose of search advertising is to lead the customer or prospect from search
to conversion.
It has been proven that the ROI of search advertising is more than web banner21. The
ROI of web banner is measured on two bases. First is brand awareness-
remembrance of the brand of message. Second is Click through Rate (CTR). Web
banners do not perform well on the second dimension. CTR rate of Web banner ads
is just 0.5% as compared with that of search advertising which yields CTR of up to
5%.
Search advertising is being increasingly used by marketers these days. The
marketer‘s perspective is that more number of searches led to impressions which in
turn mean more number of clicks. Finally more number of clicks can lead to more
reservations.
And even on the consumer‘s side, there is a spill over effect of generic search23.
When a consumer searches for generic problems and if the name of a brand appears
in that in the sponsored links, then customer becomes aware of the brand and
believes that the brand can be used to solve the problems of users. Then over time,
form generic search, the consumer migrates to branded search where he searches for
the brand he became aware of earlier and few others about which he would have
known. This can be illustrated using an example from a research paper. Three weeks
before the holiday, the generic searches like hotels Los Angeles ran at 114% of
average, and branded keyword search activity at 92% of the average. Two weeks
previous to holidays, the generic activity dropped to 93% of average and branded
keyword activity rose to 110%. In the week just before the holiday, the generic
activity was 90% of the average whereas branded keyword activity stood at 98%.
The difference between awareness and awareness of relevance can be seen from the
pattern in generic and branded keyword searches23. When a consumer searches for a
generic problem say, looking for a hotel in Los Angeles, and if some brands are
shown up, he need not become aware of the brand but he becomes aware of the
relevance of the brand. Over time, this awareness of relevance spills over to the
branded search and then consumer searches more of brand he observed during
generic searches through sponsored links. This way, as the final purchase day nears,
and a particular brand has more of branded activity search, it is highly likely that the
same brand is purchased.

There are two types of ads that appear on any particular search page of Google21.
1. List of WebPages displayed in the screen. This is an organic search result.
Google does not charge money for the appearance of a website link in this
section. It is purely based on relevance. Relevance is judged from the criteria
outlined below. This is form of Search Engine Optimization (SEO).
2. The other section is sponsored links where adwords are used. The marketer
pays the search engine and based on an auction process, the search engine
places ads on its page. This section is also called as the Adsense section.
Generally marketers place their Adsense section on the top, right or left of the
page. This is done to catch the attention of the user. This is the part of Search
Engine Marketing (SEM).
The following figure clearly shows the difference between two:
Source: Google Search Engine Optimization Starter Guide
In order to pass the relevance test of Google, some conditions must be satisfied24.
First, Ads must be relevant to the search. Second, Ads must not intrude, distract or
annoy and no pop up or flashy ads. Third, Sponsored links are clearly identified and
kept separate from organic search results. Fourth, at most three sponsored links
appear before the organic ads.
SEM and SEO are not separate from each other. Following sections elaborate on each
of them separately.

Search Engine Marketing
In this type of advertising, the marketer pays search engines for displaying a
particular brand name on top of the page in case that particular keyword is used.
Appearance on the top of the page as well as on the first page, increases the
likelihood that customer will see the website of the brand or at least will become
aware about the brand. This form of advertising where marketer pays the search
engine through bidding of keywords is called Search Engine Marketing. The
keywords are often purchased from Google or Yahoo! Search Marketing-YSM. The
bidding occurs 24X7X365 through auctions to obtain the highest page rank25.
SEM aims to increase both traffic on targeted websites and consumer awareness of
websites through enhanced visibility. In order to achieve these objectives, both
organic results and sponsored results are available to advertisers. Organic results are
generated through the search engines‘ basic searching and indexing activities. They
are sometimes also described as editorial results25. Sponsored results, on the other
hand, appear because an advertiser has a paid agreement with the search engine
relating to a number of previously defined keywords25. A pay per click (PPC)
agreement is set up with the search engine consisting of a previously established
amount being due whenever a consumer clicks on a sponsored result. Sponsored
results generally appear next to other search results: either at the beginning or on the
right-hand-side or sometimes at the end of the list.
There are few important parts under SEM. They include paid inclusion, Traditional
Ads, Pay per Click Advertising26 . The advantage of SEM is the immediacy of
results. If marketer wants its prospects to look at the webpage quickly, this is the
easiest option than SEO.
Type #1 Paid inclusion26
Paid inclusion, as the name indicates, is the process by which a website is added to
the directory of search engines after a payment is made to the search engine. In this
case, marketers tend not to concentrate much on the relevance of the site because
through paying the search engine, they are making their webpage visible on the
results page. Such type of paid inclusion technique can be useful to track the effect of
changes in the website. For example, if any changes have been made recently to a
website, and through paid inclusion, it is made to appear on the top of the results
page, then depending on the traffic and opinions, effect of those changes made can
be tracked easily.
Type #2-Tradi tion al ads2 6, 25
This involves placing paid advertising on the search engine result page. Normally
these ads appear based on the keywords entered into the search engines, and one is

charged based on the number of impressions, i.e. appearances, of the ad. In other
words, marketers pay whether the ad sends anyone to the web site or not. But this is
changing its form to pay per click form of advertising model because it is difficult to
gauge the effectiveness of this type of ad.
Type #3-Pay pe r click adv e rtising 27
They are text only ads. They are completely controlled by the advertiser. The
advertiser decides which keywords should bring up the ads, what should be the
copy of the ad, and how much should be paid for the keyword. An advertiser must
choose the right keywords and then bid correctly for each keyword in order to
maximize the expected revenue or attain a certain level of exposure while keeping
the daily costs in mind. There are different techniques through which an advertiser
chooses keywords for placing the ad26. They are as follows:
 Defend strategy- this is the lowest cost search media. It has also got the lowest
reach as compared to the following. In this the marketer pays the search
engine for certain specific keywords which are highly brand specific. For
example, for searching Listerine, the latter may pay Google only for
appearance of its webpage when user searches for mouthwash or Listerine in
specific.
 Conquer strategy- as the name indicates, this type of search strategy is used
when the marketer wants to have a presence amidst its competitors in the
page display. For example, if a user searches for Halls, Clorets and if Listerine
appears in that, then it is conquer strategy. It also consists of reasons causing
bad breath coverage. For example, if a user searches for bad breath remedies
or smoking side effects cure, then also Listerine can appear. This also forms a
part of conquer strategy. Therefore, conquer strategy has got two parts-one is
competitors and other is problem coverage.
 Expand strategy- this is the most expensive form of advertising on search
engine. This is because this has got the highest reach amongst all. It tries to
capture the context in which user searches for a problem cure and then a
category and then a brand. For example, a person may be looking for a job
interview preparation and Listerine may be shown up in the page indicating
the advantage of having fresh breath during the interview. This is completely
out of box appearance for Listerine. Due to this, it has got the highest reach
and thus is the most expensive form of advertising.
The only loophole in pay per click advertising is that advertisers tend to focus much
more on paying for the clicks and less on the actual rate of conversion and ROI for
such clicks28. This results in losses and they become huge if the practise is sustained

over a long period of time. Following is a case study of a company (whose name has
been edited for security reasons) which turned around its search advertising strategy
and started making profits with the tactical use of pay per click advertising.
Sponsored results are composed of different elements, one of which is the
description of what surfers are supposed to find if they click on the link. This
description is textual and limited to a certain number of characters. Consumers will
decide whether or not to click on the link using this text as the principal
motivation29. How it is written and the chosen content are therefore essential for the
consumers' decision-making process.
Case study: P ay per click30
The original AdWords for Google were Low Cost Bicycle Parts, Order online today.
These ads didn‘t perform well – their ranking, click through and conversion rates
were very, very poor. There were three reasons. First, the ad was far too general –
someone searching for a bicycle part on Google would most likely search for the
specific part, not for sites that sell everything. Second, the ad didn‘t make any strong
value proposition – anyone advertising on Google can very likely take an order
online, today. Finally, the ad didn‘t optimize for the search terms used to find it.
As a result, the company was paying about $1 per click for a #1 rank, with 800 clicks
per day and less than a 1% conversion rate and an average profit per order of $6.
There was no chance of making any profits with that kind of performance. 1% click
through rate, 1% conversion rate, 800 clicks per day, 800 clicks * $1.00 per click =
$800 cost per day, .01 * 800 * $6 = $48 profit per day.
Then they changed the ad format. They developed four ads, each focusing on a
single keyword combination or group Campagnolo Components-A Complete
Selection, Delivered Overnight!, Shimano STI Component Sets-Overnight
Delivery on Dura Ace, Tubular Racing Tires-Continental, Michelin, Delivered
Overnight! Phil Wood Bearing Grease, 32oz Jars and Cases Delivered Overnight.
Each ad targeted a keyword combination (in the title) that was found to be searched
more than 50 times per day. A number 3 rank for each ad costed $.15 per click or
less. Within a few days, the company‘s performance was: 12% click through rate, 8%
conversion rate, 200 clicks per day, Average profit per order: $6.00, 200 clicks * $.11
per click = $22 cost per day, .08 * 200 * $6 = $96 profit per day.
The bids they placed earned them a #3 rank, but their high click through percentage
bumped them up to the #2 or #1 spot for every keyword and phrase.

This is how the company underwent a solid turnaround. They started focusing on
conversions, instead of clicks and hence got a better result.
Thus before designing any pay per click format of online marketing, it must be noted
that they satisfy the following requirements31:
 Keywords chosen should have a high quality score and appropriate cost per
click.
 Keywords should not be too broad to bring in too much of unwanted traffic.
 The number of negative keywords should be wise and not too less or more in
number. When one adds terms as negative keywords or as keyword
exclusions, the ads won't show to people searching for those terms or visiting
sites that contain those terms. Negative keywords can be explained with the
help of an example. Say, if the keyword is tennis shoes and the user searches
for tennis shoes-red, then because the search term contains a ‗-‗, then your
website will not appear in the SPR. If one uses too many negative keywords,
then their ads might reach fewer customers. If one doesn't use negative
keywords, then their ads could show to people who aren't interested in
business or service. This can lower their keywords' Quality Score and hurt
return on investment.
 Conversion tracking is very important
 The keywords should be tightly related in each ad group.
Search Engine Optimization
No SEM campaign is complete without SEO. The purpose of SEO is to make the site
better for both user and search engines. SEO is the practice of optimizing a website
so that it achieves higher rankings in organic results rendered by search engines
such as Google, Yahoo!, and Bing32. It should be noted that SEO affects only the
organic page results and not the paid or sponsored ad links displayed on search
pages.
There are factors which affect the page being displayed in the first page of the
SERP32. The first group includes webpage metadata structure and webpage content.
These factors are internal and are determined by the webpage itself. They can be
obtained or parsed from a webpage. The second group includes hyperlink cited
status, query expansion, and possible others. These factors are external to the
webpage and cannot be obtained from the webpage itself. The factors in the first
group can be controlled and manipulated by webpage designers or developers due
to their internal nature. The factors in the second group cannot be controlled and
managed by the webpage designers or developers because of their external nature.
That is, hyperlink cited status of a webpage totally depends on whether other
websites cite or hyperlink to a webpage. Query expansion relies on users_ search
behavior. There are various techniques advised by Google through which the
ranking of a page can be improved33:

o Create unique and accurate page titles. The page content should be visible in
the search page. This helps in increasing the relevance of website to user if the
content of the title tag falls within the search query of the user. Extremely
lengthy titles should be avoided as they are unhelpful to users.
o Title tags should be created. They should be as short and as relevant as
possible. Unneeded words should be removed.
o The meta description tag should summarise in brief the content of the web
page. Unnecessary key words should be avoided.
o It is better to create friendly simple URL such that the user gets an idea of the
contents inside web page even before opening the web page. On the other
hand creating a complex URL may confuse the user. For example,
http://www.brandonnaseballcards.com/folder1/1089257/x1/0000023a.htm
is much more complex than a simple and user friendly
http://www.brandonbaseballcards.com/articles/ten-rarest-baseball-
cards.htm
o The navigation on the web page should be very simple. A hierarchical model
should be followed. Complex navigation links should be avoided. For
example, linking every page to every other page is very complex.
o Content of the website should be easy to read, precise without any
grammatical mistakes. It is important to stay organized around a topic.
Inserting too much of keywords for search engines becomes annoying to
users. Thus content should be designed keeping in mind the user and not the
search engine alone.
o Optimum use of the images on a website increases the readability of webpage
content. But the number should be balanced as too many images cannot be
good for search engines in tracking text.
More will be discussed in the section on website design.
One strategy for successful SEO involves determining which keywords are used to
search a particular product or service in question and knowing how to use them
strategically in the Web site development34. Keyword research involves figuring out
what words and phrases potential customers are using to search for product or
services being offered. But it should be noted that web sites overstuffed with
keywords may be permanently or temporarily banned from top search engines. To
check the ―keyword density,‖ there are free tools available which analyse the site
and present a detailed list of how often words are repeated throughout the text.
Case study: S EO 35
Eclipse Medical is a distributor of mobility products and daily living aids across
Canada. By partnering with dealers throughout Canada they are able to offer

exceptional service and value on products including Shoprider™ scooters, power
chairs, scooter accessories and Eclipse lift chairs. Eclipse Medical had its website
built in September 2008. Similar to other businesses that were launching new
websites, their traffic expectations were quickly crushed: they had no visitors to their
website for more than 2 months after the date of launch. Eclipse Medical soon
realized that they need to have a strong presence on the search engines to reach
potential customers online, and determined that this was achievable through search
engine optimization (SEO).
In order to improve the ranking of the website and increase its incidence in branded
search, a thorough keyword analysis was conducted to understand the target
audience and their search behaviour. The keyword analysis revealed that most of the
target customer groups were actually searching for Eclipse products using their
brand names. In the first stage of the SEO process, an extensive audit of the existing
website was done which included the identification of the pages with the most SEO
potential based on keyword research and an extensive analysis of the source code.
The audit analysed the website for more than 50 SEO factors like Canonical issues,
Organization of the web pages, Use of Meta information on each page, Internal
linking structure. Based on the audit, changes were made to the existing website-
 The URLs restructured and the website architecture changed to include the
targeted keywords in the directories‘ structure and file names.
 Category type pages such as scooters and power chairs created to target
category related keywords.
 All product pages restructured to have a proper document structure, e.g. the
most competitive keywords (Shop rider) given more emphasis than the less
competitive.
Once the onsite optimization was completed, the website got indexed by Google.
The primary focus of the SEO campaign was to rank www.eclipsemedical.com for
keywords such as Shoprider, Shoprider Canada and Shoprider scooters on the first
page of Google search results. Strategies such as directory submission, search engine
submission, article submission and content creation were used in the link building
efforts.
In less than a month after the completion of onsite optimization, Eclipse Medical‘s
rankings increased from nowhere-to-be-seen to page 6. Eclipse Medical started to
receive visitors coming Google and Yahoo!, which translated into web leads and
revenue. In less than three months the website was ranked on the first page of
Google.com, and in six months Eclipse Medical was ranked right below the
manufacturer‘s website.

The website is currently getting approximately 2000 visits per month from the
optimized keywords and has an overall bounce rate of less than 20%. More
importantly, Eclipse Medical is generating sales and revenue from the visitor traffic
every month.
Optimal Bidding models in SEM
As seen above, the key issues in Search Engine Marketing are two fold36. First, the
marketer needs to figure out which keywords to include in an advertising campaign.
The next important step is to determine how much to bid for each keyword in the
marketing campaign.
In selecting keywords, some important characteristics of the keywords that must be
considered include the number of impressions per unit time – number of times that
the keyword is typed by the users of the search engine or keyword popularity), and
the click-through rate (CTR) – the ratio of clicks to total impressions, which depends
on where the ad is placed on the results page37. Researchers recommend using
keywords that are focused and targeting the ―long tail” of advertising opportunity,
as the best strategy37. Long tail is the phenomenon of making profit by targeting
many specialized market niches instead of spending advertising efforts on a few
very popular markets. Instead of making one website aiming at making the most
famous website, several can be created. These several web pages can serve different
niche market segments34. Similarly, optimizing the web page for one or two
keywords, several keywords can be used across different web sites. This has less
intense competition and is a win-win situation for advertisers, consumes, and search
engines.
There have been different optimal bidding models for keywords proposed by
various researchers. Feldman et al. (2007) consider the question of how much the
advertiser should bid for a set of relevant keywords. They introduced the notion of a
click price curve, where clicks are assumed to increase as the cost-per-click rises.
They show that a simple randomized hybrid of two uniform bid strategies performs
surprisingly well compared to the theoretical maximum. Zhou et al. (2008) consider
the bidding optimization under budget restrictions to be analogous to a multiple-
choice knapsack problem. They develop heuristic bidding strategies that produce
reasonably acceptable results as compared to the solution produced from the
complex and unwieldy optimization. Their solution assumes that the bidder does
not need explicit knowledge of competitors‘ bids and CTRs. Zhao and Nagurney
(2008) propose a network equilibrium framework that allows for the determination
of both the equilibrium online advertising budget as well as the advertising
expenditures on the different websites. Their approach examines the problem where
multiple firms compete for advertising spaces on multiple websites. Ozluk and
Cholette (2007) address the advertisers question with a model where the advertiser

has to specify a bid price which determines the ad placement. In turn, ad placement
affects the CTR, which, given the number of impressions, determines how many
clicks the ad receives. Each click has the potential to generate revenue, but also costs
to the advertiser. They define the advertiser‘s objective as to find the right bid value
that maximizes revenues while obeying budget limitations. According to B. Selçuka
and Ö. Özlükb, the bid prices increase in an ―elbow‖ fashion as the target CTR for an
advertising campaign increases. That is, for target campaign CTRs less than 70%, the
bid prices are not extremely sensitive to the actual target. However, after this
neighborhood, they tend to increase exponentially – especially the bid prices for
more competitive keywords. If there exists a strong relation between the keyword
popularity and the competition then the advertiser must bear higher costs in order to
reach a desired level of exposure. Common bid price strategy is suitable if the
advertiser aims a low level of target campaign CTR. The advertiser must focus on
bidding less competitive keywords if the target campaign impression is low.
Content of Sp onsored and O rganic Ads
The organic and sponsored ads show the message in part of the SERP. Once the user
clicks on any webpage, importance of content becomes central. (Hotchkiss et al.,
2004) empirical studies have also shown that surfers consider search results to be
unbiased, so consumers' expectation when using search engines to gather online
product information is that obtained results are unbiased and therefore neutral.
Based on this, it can be concluded that descriptive content is preferred over
commercial content in messages. Descriptive message content is characterized by
factual, descriptive information about products or services on the other hand;
commercial content is defined as offer-focused with an emphasis on consumer
advantages40. Consequently descriptive content is likely to conform to consumers'
neutrality expectations, whereas commercial content is more likely to appear biased
to consumers. Descriptive content messages are more suited to reflect a firm's unique
selling proposition (USP) and positioning than merely commercial content focusing
on price-offer.
The type of content in ads attracts users based on their price consciousness. Research
shows that low price-conscious consumers tend to click more easily on commercial
content messages, while high price-conscious consumers prefer descriptive
contents38. The gap between descriptive sponsored ads and commercial sponsored
ads increases significantly when consumers are highly price-conscious. This gap is
less important in the case of low price-consciousness. It has been observed that low
price-conscious individuals are less influenced by sponsored results content. Price-
conscious individuals tend to spend more time on gathering and processing price-
related information and this includes not only explicit price-information but also
other product information. This suggests that price-conscious consumers tend to

have a wide view of price evaluation, including non-price features39. The attention
paid to price is enlarged to complimentary elements. Hence price-conscious people
may be even more attentive to each specific product characteristic. From a
theoretical viewpoint, this suggests that the price consciousness construct involves
much more than strict price information.
Video advertising
After Google, Youtube is the world‘s second largest search engine. This shows the
growing importance of video. Some of the reasons among many attributed towards
the growth of videos are time poor consumers, increasing affordability of
broadband, growing youth population in India, technological developments for
faster access to internet at all times like the tablets, PDA, smartphones.
As video becomes a mainstream communication medium, marketers are surrounded
by many questions including the content that would generate the best impact on
video, the role of branded content on video and its effect on people, the length of
advertising on the internet and its effects on brand recall and the like. Specific Media
in the UK developed a new insight engine called Specific Media VITAMIN-Video
Testing and Measurement Insights40. In a simulated online environment, they test
the effectiveness of advertising and also the format metrics are tested. Any number
of content and creative combinations can be tested amongst key consumer segments.
Specific Media conducted tests among key demographics of target customers to test
the above mentioned metrics for different combinations of advertising. There are
three key findings41. Firstly, Video length has no effect on advertising effectiveness.
Long form is not more effective than short form. In fact, they found that short form
of advertising actually increased the brand favourability more as compared to long
formats of advertising. Secondly, use of original branded content resulted in twice
the unaided brand recall compared with the rest of formats in which the branded
content was not used. Thirdly, the content should be designed to make the viewers
enjoy. If the enjoyment is there in the video, it develops positive brand favourability.
On the other hand, if the content and format is not enjoyable, then the brand liking
decreases and also it creates a negative halo effect on all advertisements of the same
brand.
The video content matters a lot. If the marketer makes the video content that is
engaging, enjoyable and interesting for the viewers, then the probability of them
sharing the video increases manifold. The sharing of a video has an immediate effect
on the entire purchase funnel. The key findings of the white paper social video

advertising platform Unruly Media are manifold. The study surveyed online video
viewers aged 18 to 34 years across four social video campaigns from Guinness, Coca
Cola, Unilever‘s Cornetto and Energizer batteries to measure the impact of peer
recommendations.
 Video enjoyment increases the purchase intent by 97% and brand association
by 139%. If a video is shared or recommended, then the enjoyability of the
shared video increased by 14%. Further the shared video reduced the number
of people who did not enjoy the video by 41%.
 Shared content plays more vital role in forming opinions about brands and
forming brand associations. The shared content had more brand connects by
7% compared with the videos seen through browsing.
 Recommendations caused a greater brand recall. The difference in brand
recall of the video ads seen through browsing and those shared was found to
be 7% with the latter being higher. Thus the recommendations make
consumers more receptive to brand messages and increase the associations.
Also, they increase the point of sale brand recall.
 Social videos have an effect on all parts of the purchase funnel in real time
situations. It was found that
o 49% of social video viewers purchased the advertised product within
three days of the view.
o 38% of viewers spoke to someone in person about the video, showing a
social video view to stimulate real life conversation.
o 9% of users searched for the brand and,
o 4% of users searched for products of that type.
In summary, the power of online videos lies in the shareability, recommendability of
the content.
There are two important components of a viral video. They are Interesting video
content and embedded brand information (Carlin 2007; Hinz et al. 2011).After
viewing a viral video, people engage in two interdependent activities. Those are
video sharing and embedded brand information processing. It has been found that
sharing of a video not only depends on attitude towards the viral video as seen
above but also the attitude formed towards the brand. Interesting content enhances
the possibility of video sharing or the formation of sharing intention. And
embedding brand related information in the video affects the marketing
effectiveness of the viral video like the formation of brand attitudes.
Attitude toward the Viral Video advertisement plays a critical role in forming
intention of video sharing and formation of brand attitudes42. When exposed to a VV
advertisement, people will form a positive or negative attitude toward it, and then

generate an intention to share or not share the video with others that is their sharing
intention SI. At the same time, VV advertising contains brand information, and its
working is same as that of traditional advertising. It has been found that even
purchase intentions can be affected by means of positive attitude towards viral
videos43.
Marketing Managers need to be concerned not only about consumers' purchase
intention, but also about their sharing intention as a result of the interactive
advertising environment. Also, there are important managerial implications for the
conceptualization, production and distribution of video advertisements44. For
example, when managers take audience's sharing intention into consideration, for
production they will incorporate content that can increase consumers' sharing
intention, and for distribution they will typically take advantage of not only
traditional mass media but more importantly social media for better communication
and advertising effects. Attitude towards the Viral video not only directly impacts
Sharing Intention in the context of VV advertising viewing, but also impacts Attitude
towards the brand and Purchase Intent PI via peripheral persuasion and the affect
transfer process46.
Affect transfer is the process by which emotional components related to a brand or a
theme of a message get applied to all the things that relate to the liked brand or
theme of message. For example, if one likes Unilever, then the viewer is most likely
to share the video ad of Dove which shows the symbol of Unilever towards the end
of the advertisement. Similarly, if one strongly feels about the cruelty done to
animals, then irrespective of the brand, the same theme of message is likely to be
shared by the viewer47. The peripheral route to persuasion occurs when the listener
decides whether to agree with the message based on other cues besides the strength
of the arguments or ideas in the message. For example, a listener may decide to
agree with a message because the source appears to be an expert, or is attractive. The
peripheral route also occurs when a listener is persuaded because he or she notices
that a message has many arguments -- but lacks the ability or motivation to think
about them individually)47.
There are about a series of tradeoffs when a company delivers a VV
advertisement48.
 First, ―provocative‖ content may trigger higher SI, but it may also carry
negative content that decreases PI. Therefore, a company taking advantage of
VV advertising should consider how provocative the content should be.
 Second, certain socially inappropriate or unethical content may lead to higher
SI (e.g., violence). In this context, managers must make a conscientious
decision weighing the potential benefits of better reaching the audience

versus the potential costs involved in distributing socially inappropriate or
unethical content.
 Third, the content that consumers are willing to share does not always go
along with what a brand stands for. For instance, sometimes consumers are
more interested in sharing content depicting humour or violence, but content
of this nature does not match a brand image that evokes steadiness or
dependability. In that case, managers must find a balance between their brand
image and the need to better reach potential consumers with content desirable
for the target audience.
 Fourth, there may be a gap between consumers' higher SI and their PI, and
managers need to strike a balance between those two elements.
It has been found that while a viewer tends to be more willing to forward a VV
advertising when the video strikes a chord in him or her, how the advertised brand
is presented at the conclusion of the video would change viewer's attitudes toward
the brand. This in turn might strengthen or weaken his/her intention to share the
video with friends. Therefore it is important for the marketing manager to test the
video in pre launch phase and focus on the appearance of the brand towards the end
of the advertisement44, 47.
Further the importance of video advertising will be discussed through means of
several successful case studies.
#1-Heineken turns ‘likes’ into balloons… and gets thousands of fans in a
day46
On Jan 11 2012, Going beyond the usual ―like us and we will give you a discount‖
tactic of many brands, Heineken offered to inflate one green balloon in its office for
every new like it got on its Facebook Brazilian fan page. This simple tactic helped the
brand gaining more than thousands of fans in one day. The campaign was called
―one like for one balloon‖. Heineken also personalised the campaign by reading out
the names of the some of the users who liked the fan page on Youtube.
#2-Cadbury highest ROI for every £1 spent through online video49
Cadbury launched a chocolate charmer campaign and put it online in the UK on 9
April 2011. The online exposure for the advertisement increased top of the mind
brand recall, boosted sales, and increased engagement amongst its users.
According to the panel measuring the media consumption against FMCG sales,
online exposure for a Cadbury ad delivered more than £2 of short term sales for
every £1 spent. TV reached a bigger audience but delivered only 60p of short term
sales. Online delivered 19% more reach than the TV and in particular higher amount
of younger generation of consumers. Cadbury's 'Chocolate Charmer' campaign was

tracked by the Media Efficiency Panel, a joint initiative between GfK NOP and
Kantar World panel that was seed-funded by Google. Planned by PHD, the
campaign ran last year from 9 April to 3 June and used TV, cinema, video-on-
demand and online. The YouTube Promoted Video activity delivered 14.5%
additional reach to TV alone. The majority of people – nearly two out of three – who
saw the ads online did not see them on TV. A higher proportion of younger
consumers saw the ad online (48%) than TV (46%).
This case shows the use of digital platforms across traditional media to boost the
performance and optimise efficiency of campaigns.
#3-Pepsico India strategy to amplify the effect of TV ads through online
videos44
Around the cricket world cup 2011, Pepsico India created a Facebook Reach Block.
This featured Premium Video ads for a period of 24 hours. The first ad featured a
video plus poll engagement format that incorporated a TV commercial, the second
was a premium video like ad that encouraged people to watch another Pepsi TV
spot, the third drove people to ‗The Biggest Wave‘ – application on Pepsi‘s microsite,
where users could create an avatar of themselves, the avatar could also share with
their friends.
The brand achieved high engagement with 53,000 people responding to its poll in
the 24 hour period. The Reach block ads were viewed more than 19 million times,
145 % more than the estimates. During the campaign nearly 16,000 people connected
to the Facebook page. The page now has more than 1 million fans.
#4-Dove New Product: Increasing the consumer Base48
Dove wanted to expand its consumer base to include younger and more vibrant
woman, and they wanted to do it with the new product: Dove Go Fresh. The
strategy followed was using online medium. They gave chance to every girl to
become a celebrity by sharing the shower experience online and thereby reinforcing
Dove‘s Go Fresh positioning as a fun and energetic shower experience. The shower
remixer microsite allowed users to customize their shower experience, selecting
different fixtures, floor designs, shelves and window scenes. As girls remixed their
shower, the musical theme also changed. The Showeroke, online singing contest,
culminated in a live talent show.
The results were amazing for the company. Showeroke video and blog entries were
picked up in several blogs generating a readership of 18,000. Dove Bar annual
penetration went up from 13.7% to 18.4%. Dove Body wash loyalty went up from
24% to 27.6%. Winner of the Best Creative Campaign ICON Award (Havas Digital
awards)

#5-Get the Label: Retargeting Video Advertising42
Getthelabel.com is a division of Topgrade Sportswear Limited, which is a subsidiary
of JD Sports Fashion plc. Get The Label offers discounted branded fashion wear,
sports-wear, and footwear for all the family. In order to ensure that a succinct brand
message was conveyed on and offline the TV commercial got edited to suit video
format. Retargeted video advertising was shown to drive sales from users who were
already interested in the advertisers offering but needed a reminder to convert.
Brainads were used for retargeting video advertising as a unique creative display
format known for driving brand awareness online. The inventory could be
purchased on a CPC model. The 30 second video showed the user the web address
and informed them that Getthelabel offered up to 70% off the RRP price. At the end
of the video, users were shown an offer of a man‘s polo shirt which was deeply
linked to that item on the website. Next to this particular offer the web address was
clearly shown encouraging traffic to visit the website.
The result of this was that 50% of videos viewed were viewed all the way to the end.
Click Through Rates reached up to 1.7%, more than double 0.06% industry average.
After clicking through, 6.25% of users went on to buy a product from the site.
#5-Kellogg's: Special K – Map My Fitness web application41
Kellogg‘s wanted to lift their marketing message into the lifestyle space and align
themselves deeply with the values and experiences of their target consumers. They
stepped above simple advertising campaigns to create a fitness platform they could
own and a marketing initiative that would be integrated across many channels.
There were several key objectives of this marketing programme and the website at
the heart of the campaign. They relied on- Build engagement and cut-through,
achieving consumer connections on the customer‘s own terms, Create discussion
and pass on messaging through peer groups, Support wider brand marketing and
brand positioning, reinforcing brand values, and Develop added value for loyal
consumers.
Map My Fitness was developed as part of the wider Remember You campaign
designed to communicate Special K‘s commitment to helping women manage their
shape. The team developed a digital platform that would act as the heart of personal
sporting events and jogging. The route provided their target group with not only the
products but also the tools to get active and improve their health and wellbeing.
Message association with the brand became deeply woven into every aspect of the
activities. The team constructed collaboration with ninemsn which resulted in the
creation of a unique website about women‘s health and fitness. By partnering with
an advanced online media owner, they could harness high end web publishing
toolkits and have them bolted effortlessly into a cutting edge site.

The most compelling part of the proposition was the innovative Special K navigator
which integrated a complex mapping system with Microsoft‘s Virtual Earth
technology and embedded it in the site. Participants could then map jogging routes
around the city, rank and swap favourites and view street level plans of routes.
Additional features included play lists and general health/exercise information.
Alongside the advanced content there were more traditional editorial and
competition mechanics. As part of the campaign, the agency also negotiated a cross
media advertising deal to drive traffic to the site through online activity across
female orientated content on the ninemsn network and in ACP magazines. Kellogg‘s
added their own media support by incorporating this into on- pack promotional
space for Special K in the region product in the region.
This marketing activity combined the Creation of an online community, Delivery of
a sporting event, Social media and consumer discussion, Delivery of brand
messages; integrated campaigns that touch consumers in several ways typically
demand several routes for measurement and evaluation.
Each strand could be measured in isolation to track the number of consumers, target
consumers and brand adorers it touched. Hard analytics from website reporting
systems could be combined with brand effectiveness tracking to test movements in
key variables such as Brand image, Message association and Purchase intent.
The initiative created a social media platform and the basis for long term permanent
engagement with a key group of target consumers. The related publicity and
discussion delivered wider brand messaging benefits with Special K‘s brand values.
#6-Nokia: Nokia Original Accessories 40
Nokia wanted an approach for marketing their accessories in a unified way across all
markets. Arnold KLP decided that as part of a new identity for Gear, they should
reposition accessories and persuade their audience that they were more than simply
functional items. They wanted to encourage people to believe that Nokia accessories
could enhance their mobile experience and enrich their enjoyment of the things they
loved. The resulting communication focused on the compelling idea that whichever
device and service you‘re using, wherever you are, a Nokia Original Accessory will
‗Make a good thing even better.‘ Since this line conveys such a powerful sentiment
so well and as it also works on a global level, it is now used across all Gear
communications worldwide.
The elegant style of the communication was designed to hero the premium design of
the accessories as well as communicating the emotional benefit of the products. By
using a silhouette treatment that disguised both the product in the shot and the
models ethnicity, any global sensitivities could be overcame.

The design was modular to make life easier for all markets who wanted to create
effective, inspirational advertising on any budget. The campaign covered all Gear
products and ‗in use‘ scenarios, from Bluetooth headsets, music speakers, car kits,
Internet sticks and power packs to business solutions.
The results were tremendous. First, a fully integrated campaign (print and OOH,
retail, digital, activation, training, sell-in and conference materials), with assets being
used by countries around the world – 35 countries have downloaded the Global
materials; to date there have been over 540 assets downloaded. Second, there were
direct requests for assets from markets; Australia, China, Italy and Poland. Third,
Face-to-face workshops in India, China and UK to exploit materials to the maximum
and develop market specific promotions. Fourth, Nokia CK-200 Video received over
11,000 hits on YouTube in one day. Fifth, product sell-in film adapted for use as TVC
in Poland.
#7-Pedigree: Adoption Drive48
The 2010 Pedigree Adoption Drive focused on a hard hitting message: 1 dog is put
down every hour in the UK. Central to the campaign was a four-part film ‗Charlie‘s
story‘‘; for every 25,000 views, a new chapter of the story was unlocked. For every
view received, Pedigree donated £1. People rallied behind the idea and helped drive
up viewing figures and spread the message. Successful re-homing stories were also
celebrated on YouTube in the form of Dogumentaries. In addition, a number of
powerful messages were created, that lived in the real world. Then, branded skips
and ghost leads were distributed in 5 cities nationwide as a powerful reminder of the
107,000 dogs abandoned every year in the UK.
Result: Much of the campaign was orchestrated through Youtube, Facebook and
Twitter, with every ‗Like‘ on Facebook triggering a donation from Pedigree. Over
145,000 views on YouTube, and over 31,000 Likes on Facebook were generated
during the campaign period.
#8-Orbit Chewing Gum: Wrigley's Orbit Gum Viral Video Distribution 43
Orbit Gum and Sharethrough called upon ViralMS to assist in their viral video
distribution campaign. A Stop-motion animation was created and posted on
YouTube. The stop-motion animation video gained massive viral success with over
1,000,000 views reported on YouTube. As a result of huge popularity on Youtube,
Orbit Gum got a heavy presence. The company still continues their viral video
efforts with new videos to enjoy the presence.

Display marketing
Display advertising occurs in many forms on the internet. The most prominent
among them is web banners. These banners consist of static or animated images, and
interactive media that may include audio and video elements. The main purpose of
display advertising is to create brand awareness. Therefore, for the display
advertising, the most important metric is interaction time. Higher is the interaction
time, higher are the chances of the user being actually rolling down the purchase
funnel. Many websites use cookies and use browser history data for knowing the
demographics and interests of the viewer so that more targeted advertisements can
be made for the users. There are different types of targeting mechanisms used by
web designers including behavioural, demographic, geographic, and site based
targeting.
Display marketing effect on each part of online marketing funnel
Top funnel impact50:-There is a top funnel impact of display advertising. As
mentioned in the earlier sections, display advertising is the only form of advertising
that forms customer touch points across all stages of consumer decision making
journey. It has been found from research that display ads are highly useful in
unaided and aided brand recall. Therefore, for retaining the brand in the minds of
consumers, display ads are the best option. Thus it helps in creating brand
awareness.
Middle funnel impact50:-once prospects become aware of the brand, they try to become
educated about the brand attributes against other available options. In this
evaluation stage, it is extremely useful for the marketer to promote educational
content like white papers, webinars to establish relationship with the customers. It
has been found through research, that those prospects who had been exposed to a
display ad, are more likely by 82% to download content and travel further into sales
funnel.
Bottom of the funnel impact50:- Targeted display advertisement helps in driving leads
and sales and generates even more powerful results when they are combined with
search advertising. Several instances show the effect of display advertising on the
bottom of the funnel. First, A targeted Bizo display campaign for Superpages led to
substantial lead generation in combination with other advertising methods: During
the campaign, the company saw a 180% increase in click-throughs for its search
marketing campaign. Second, in a recent comScore study, researchers found that
prospects who viewed search marketing ads for a company were 82% more likely to
buy the product in question than if they received no exposure52. However, when the
search ads were paired with display ads, the researchers saw a 119% lift in sales.

Third, Salesforce.com used display advertising and retargeting to boost form
conversions by 30+%51. Fourth, a Bizo display advertising campaign in support of
Express Employment Professionals‘ simulcast event led to a 25% increase in event
registration, ultimately generating the same number of event registrations as a
national TV campaign—but at 5% of the cost53.
Thus, display marketing can help business leaders learn about a brand, motivate
them to do further research and analysis and when they are ready to make a
purchase such display campaigns can increase the likelihood of conversion54.
Further, half of all marketers participating in a 2012 B2B Magazine survey reported
that the most significant benefit of online display advertising was its capacity for
complementing the entire marketing mix, leading to a fully integrated approach.
Combine Search and Display-the new mantra of success
Advertisers use display advertising basically for branding efforts. They tend to
allocate budgets separately across search and display depending on whether they
want performance marketing that is accomplished by search advertising or they
want display advertising55. But research has shown that search advertising along
with display shows better results than just using display or search. If both display
and search advertising are combined, advertisers can optimize their campaigns
while increasing both their reach and results56.
Display advertising generally is measured by direct responses—usually clicks
through rates. But this method misses ad‘s effectiveness and does not accurately
determine the return on a campaign spend. That‘s because nearly as many Internet
users respond to online display advertising by performing a search on a search
engine (27 percent) as those who simply click on the ad itself (31 percent), according
to iProspect‘s study Search Engine Marketing and Online Display Advertising. This
means that when users are exposed to banner or display ads, there are significant
increases in related brand-term searches, such as for the name of the brand, company
or product. Aligning the messaging in display and search marketing ads maximizes
their impact by creating a cohesive experience for users55.
Case study: Valu e City Furni t ure 56
Value City Furniture ran display ads along with search ads. The company
discovered that its Yahoo! display campaign increased branded-term searches by 168
percent. As a result, Value City Furniture increased its display advertising budget by
30 percent. An extensive study by Specific Media in 2008 tracked more than 60
campaigns over 12 months and found distinct evidence that display advertising and
search supported each other. The study confirmed that consumers exposed to
display advertising were significantly more likely to search for brand terms (i.e.
automotive manufacturer), and segment terms (i.e. vehicle class), than unexposed

consumers. On average, there was a 155 percent lift in search activity across eight
industry categories. Therefore, running a display campaign causes a statistically
significant increase in search traffic, whether measured by search visits, unique visits
or paid search click-throughs.
Case study: He wlett Packar d 57
Yahoo! Rich Ads in Search (RAIS) are an innovative ad format that allows
advertisers to include video, custom search boxes, logos or images alongside a
traditional text search ad. Hewlett-Packard‘s Personal Systems Group tested RAIS
after its strategic digital marketing partner; Performics saw the potential for
combining the relevance of search marketing with the impact of rich media,
especially given the current prominent page location for RAIS. In 2009, HP
conducted a one-month test based on keywords that previously performed well in
paid search to which it added a logo and a video clip. The company realized an
astonishing 774 percent total increase in click-through rates over traditional search
ads and a 19-42 percent increase click-through per keyword, exceeding Yahoo‘s
benchmark expectations of 15 percent.
Time based display advertising
Display advertisements are typically sold by the number of impressions. Impression
is simply one download of an ad. Either they are sold through Google Double Click
Exchange or Yahoo!'s Right Media Exchange (RMX) 58. In both the cases, the cost of a
2 minute display ad will be the same as a 2 second display ad depending solely on
the number of impression. The sole aim of any display advertising, as seen above, is
to create a high degree of brand awareness and recall. These are called memory
metrics for the display ad.
But it has been found that the amount of exposure time affects the recollection of a
display ad59. Hence, it is important to incorporate exposure time into the pricing
model of display ad.
The longer an ad is seen on the screen, the more likely it is that user remembers it.
But there are also diminishing returns to the length of time an ad should be
viewed60. Through experimental research, it was found that the probability of a user
remembering the ad was steeply increasing up to 40 seconds duration of ad. Beyond
that the probability increased but less steeply as duration of exposure increased.
Thus, users remember two short ads more than one long ad of twice the duration.
But this effect holds true for a certain value of original time t. If the value of t
increases, then the phenomenon starts to diminish. Therefore, a pricing scheme is to
be designed that at least relates to the exposure time and not solely related to the
number of impressions. Therefore, if two slots have been reserved for the marketer

by the publisher, then marketer should try to show two ads per slot than showing a
single ad in the single time slot available. This is because the former method
increases the memory recall per slot. This is a win-win situation for both marketer
and publisher. The marketer gets more of memory metrics success with this scheme
and the publisher gets more revenues61. Thus, a move will be seen in the industry
standard towards a pricing mechanism that relates not only to impressions but also
partially or fully incorporates exposure time.
Trends in Display Advertising
The latest trend in display advertising is the incorporation of two things. First is the
personalization and second is the automation62. Earlier, publishers used to show the
same ad to everyone. But, now, with the help of complex targeting algorithms, it is
possible to personalize and automate the ads that appear for a particular user. With
the help of use of semantic technology and psychology mathematics, the publishers
are able to do the same.
Another very recent trend is Real Time Bidding63. This will be discussed in more
detail in the subsequent section. But before that, some case studies on successful
deployment of display advertising are discussed below.
Case 1: Financial services company rai ses engageme n t by dou b li ng ads per
page on MSN62
A leading financial services provider wanted to see how running two ads at once on
the MSN® Money stock quote page would affect consumer interest and engagement.
Microsoft® Advertising split visitors to MSN Money into two groups. One group of
viewers saw two of the financial company‘s ads, a 120x60 tile ad and a 300x250
rectangle ad. The other group saw only the tile ad. Microsoft tracked the number of
viewers in each group who clicked through to the financial company‘s website and
viewed the research or trading sections on that site. Microsoft also tracked viewers
who expressed interest in opening an account with the company by visiting its
application webpage, and searched for information on the company‘s brand through
a major search engine.
Results: The advertiser achieved higher levels of consumer engagement with the
combination of rectangle and tile ads. Consumers viewing both ads were more likely
by 14 percent to visit the advertiser‘s website during the campaign than those who
were exposed to only one ad. In the week following the campaign, consumers that
viewed both ads were 17 percent more likely to visit the research section of the
advertiser‘s site and 16 percent more likely to visit the trading section than those
who only saw one ad. In addition, consumers exposed to both ads were 27 percent
more likely to visit the application section of the financial company‘s site during the
campaign. The campaign also had an impact on search behavior. Consumers who

were exposed to both ads were 27 percent more likely to search for information on
the advertiser‘s brand during the campaign over those who saw only one ad.
Case 2: Window s Live drives new subscri b e rs to Toyota A rgentina 63
Toyota Argentina wanted to drive new subscribers to its "Toyota al Día" newsletter.
Toyota Argentina turned to Microsoft Advertising to launch an online advertising
campaign on Windows Live™ Hotmail and Windows Live Messenger. One of
Toyota‘s distinct trademarks is its constant effort to grow and improve. In tune with
this, the company set a clear goal for the second quarter of 2009 to expand its
communications audience spectrum. Toyota Argentina sought to attract new clients,
maintain the loyalty of existing customers, and build brand recognition by growing
the subscriber base of its "Toyota al Día" e-newsletter by 25 percent, or 1,500 new
subscribers. With creative concepts aimed at associating the brand with technology,
quality, durability and reliability, Toyota Argentina‘s subscriber campaign used
audience segmentation tools.
Toyota Argentina‘s online campaign involved four strategies: First, marketing email
messages were sent to 58,000 registered Windows Live Hotmail users who opted in
to receive information from auto manufacturers. Second, Microsoft Advertising
launched 1 million 728x90 printed banners on Windows Live Messenger Pre-Roll.
Third, Microsoft Advertising launched 1 million 300x250 printed banners on
Windows Live Hotmail. Finally, Microsoft Advertising employed a tool known as
―re-messaging‖ that can ―mark‖ users who visited the Toyota site during the last six
months. When these users visited MSN, Windows Live Messenger, Windows Live
Hotmail or Windows Live Sharing, the re-messaging tool identified them and
displayed Toyota advertising. Microsoft Advertising created two different marketing
messages: one for men and the other for women. Toyota Argentina offered no gifts
or prizes as part of the subscriber drive. The only value of the proposal was in the
content of the e-newsletter.
Results: The primary objective—an increase in the number of active subscribers—
was far surpassed in only one month of planning and production. Toyota Argentina
saw 3,799 new subscriptions, some 247 percent over what was expected. Of these
new subscribers, 88 percent were men (3,332) and 12 percent were women (467); 28
percent had previously owned a Toyota (1,068), while 40 percent had a 2006 or
newer vehicle (1,531). The campaign‘s CTR was nearly six times above traditional
online advertising.

Case 3: De ad liest Catch uses combination of web banners and mobile
advertising to g r ab finale viewers 64
Discovery Channel needed to compel TV watchers to tune in to the series finale of its
highly rated ―Deadliest Catch‖ reality series and position the show for a strong
season-six debut. Microsoft® Advertising launched a campaign that combined the
strengths of online and mobile advertising to increase the impact of the message. The
campaign focused on raising awareness of the final two episodes of the popular
series and driving viewership with mobile alerts. Microsoft Advertising and
Discovery Channel deployed eye-catching banners on MSNBC, Microsoft Video
Sites, and Fox Sports featuring dramatic images of the crew fighting the elements.
Mobile homepage takeovers on MSN and Fox Sports offered a series of banners
inviting viewers to sign up for text alerts reminding them of the season finale.
Results: When consumers were exposed to both the online and mobile
advertisements for the Deadliest Catch season finale, Discovery Channel saw a 133
percent increase in unaided brand awareness, a 46 percent increase in
recommendation intent, and 40 percent increase in intent to watch the show.
The Deadliest Catch campaign proved that using both online and mobile
components gave advertisers the opportunity to unlock combined value that neither
channel provided on its own. This also allowed for audience diversification, with
mobile audience skewing younger and online audiences skewing more affluent.
Using these two mediums together allows advertisers to reach a broader population,
while potentially exposing some consumers to ads on both mediums, increasing
their intent to tune in.
Evolution of online marketing models-Real time bidding
RTB first started in 2009. According to IDC, Global RTB sales will reach $13.9 billion
by 2016. From pay per click model of revenue, search engine giants like Google are
moving towards Real Time Bidding. In real time bidding, there is an auction and
bidding process for each of the impressions63. Through this, the advertisers know
how much should they be paying for each impressions. They pay higher for high
quality impressions. This results in more ROI for the marketers. It is a win-win
situation for search engines also because they get more revenues per impression.
Plus it alone delivers more relevant messages for consumers.
As against Pay per thousand Impressions or Pay per click, the marketer bids for each
and every impression separately. The logic behind this is that some types of users
are more likely to generate action, and thus different degree of placements may have
varying level of effects on consumers64. That makes some impressions more valuable
than others. For example, an executive planning a two-week business trip to Brussels
will undoubtedly spend more than a student looking for a cut-rate weekend in

Vegas. To the right kind of advertiser, an impression delivered to that executive is
worth far more than an impression to that student66.
There are a number of criteria available to make the impression valuable. They
include description of Viewer of the ad, the site where the impression appears, the
placement of the ad unit, the context of the page, the time of the day and the number
of ads that viewer has already seen64.
According to Quantcast, it has been predicted that the effectiveness of real time
bidding for impressions is 100X more than that compared to traditional pay per click
or pay per thousand impressions. This effectiveness is calculated in terms of
changing consumer behaviour62.
The application of RTB for marketers is that there needs to be a change in focus from
cost to value. Now they should start looking at the value of each impression than
calculating its cost. Marketers face with an undesirable situation when the number of
irrelevant clicks increases. It means that the number of clicks is high enough for
them to pay the search engine67. But out of that number of clicks, the number of
conversions is very less. This ultimately leads in marketers making losses. Thus a
new concept of cost per action is emerging which is incorporated into RTB.
Marketers now see the cost per action (CPA) and avoid paying higher for
undesirable impressions that do not generate profitable results. In order to choose
the media, marketers calculate the effective CPA as Total Media Spend with a
Partner/Total actions attributed to that partner. Here action can be described as per
the marketer. It can be completing a checkout for a prospect, downloading a coupon,
signing up for a test drive, buying an insurance policy67.
Content Marketing
Message content refers to the words that are chosen to convey the message and the
features that are highlighted for the receiver. By varying the content of messages,
marketers can influence one dimension or another in receivers' mind and create an
appropriate reaction. Anderson and Jolson (1980, p. 57) emphasized that marketers
―usually present the message in a manner highly compatible in both linguistic
structure and semantic content, consistent with that commonly experienced and
expected by the intended receiver‖. Content is salient here. In the context of durable
consumer goods, the researchers examine how technical wording influences
consumers' product and advertising judgment. They show that technical content
does not necessarily increase ad believability but that it does increase the
purchase intention of those consumers with prior product experience. This

highlights the importance of content in effective communication. Content is also
reflected in the use of appeals which fall into two general categories: soft-sell versus
hard-sell. Rational, or hard-sell, appeals exhibit content ―that provide details, facts and
figures‖ whereas emotional, or soft-sell, appeals link consumer decisions to supposed
psychographic needs.
Content has to be relevant, creative and interesting for the user to attract him
towards the website or blog or email or anywhere and subsequently push him down
the marketing funnel. This section specially holds good for B2B context. Many
websites have content but that needs to be optimized across various channels in
order to do content marketing. There are various ways in which content can be
optimized68. First, Articles which are created by the company must be published in
addition to adding them to the company‘s newsletter or posting them on blog or
web. Sharing articles with industry publications and media channels helps to
increase the visibility and also gets more number of new audiences.68 Secondly,
Wikipedia articles should be created for the company or brand or product. This is
because Wikipedia is a trusted website and its pages rank well in SEO. 68Third,
successful whitepapers can be created for the users to provide deep insights into an
issue. In case of research phase of high involvement products, buyers especially B2B
ones download whitepapers to compare the features of products and also learn
about the issues in nutshell. Similarly, the company should release ebooks, case
studies at relevant intervals. 68Fourth, online seminars and webinars can be
organized. Webinars are used by buyers to research on products and vendors. The
advantage of these webinars and seminars is that the viewer registers for the same
and provides his/her email id and other details. This can be later used for direct
marketing efforts by the company. 68Fifth, videos must be created. It has been found
through research that videos support the content at the best and has chances of
going viral. The content in articles and other forms of text can be put in the form of a
video with interesting animation, themes and info graphics. Along with video,
podcasts, online games can also be created. Online games can be used for brand
engagement. They have the advantage of addiction and also carry the benefit of
group consumption leading to more ―buzz‖ around the product or the brand. 68Last,
use of user generated content increases the engagement levels and relevance of
readers. Timely updating and identifying individual contributions are the key to
success. Contests can be organized to invite a large number of entries. Favourable
reviews, ratings, testimonials, and endorsements are for SEO also and can be
integrated with other content, even when gleaned from third-party sites.
Now some successful content marketing case studies will be discussed in the next
section.

Case: JER Envi ro tech 68
JER Envirotech is a custom formulator and manufacturer of environmentally
friendly thermoplastic biocomposite materials (polypropylene combined with
organic materials such as sawdust, rice husk,and palm fiber). Competing against
traditional manufacturers with its nascent technology was difficult. One of the
company‘s largest challenges was figuring out how best to highlight the durability
of its recycled-material products to other manufacturers hesitant to use ―green‖
materials. In August 2007, the company decided that a whitepaper could present the
company to a larger audience, initiate possible leads for reaching new customers,
and build credibility and awareness for JER Envirotech. The whitepaper was
intended for a B2B audience, focused on the benefits and durability of recycled
material products. The whitepaper got developed at a minimal cost of $4,000. The
eight-page document, titled ―Injection Molding with Thermoplastic BioComposites,‖
was placed on the company‘s homepage for download and highlighted on the
website with a distinctive download box. The paper also served as the foundation
for the presentation by Edward Trueman, president and CEO of JER Envirotech, at
the Leading Edge Molding Conference in September 2007. Trueman presented the
education-focused whitepaper in conjunction with a PowerPoint presentation.
Moreover, the whitepaper was the primary sales collateral in the company booth at
the same conference. During Trueman‘s presentation at the conference, an editor of
Plastics Technology Magazine, which had a readership of 85,000 readers, found the
content of the whitepaper and Trueman‘s presentation compelling enough to offer to
become the first magazine to publish an article about it. The bylined article, titled
―Injection Molding Wood-Plastic Composites,‖ was written by Hunnicutt and
appeared in the December 2007 issue of Plastics Technology Magazine.
The article generated from the whitepaper was featured as an inset on the front
cover, feature photo in the table of contents, and a five-page full-colour spread, all at
no charge.
Result:-As a result, more than 500 leads got generated from the whitepaper, with an
enormous exposure in the industry‘s leading trade magazine, Plastic Technology
Magazine. The paper also helped strengthen relationships with clients. One of their
long-standing accounts, Rolco, Inc., became much more active after reviewing the
whitepaper on our site. The whitepaper was also a fantastic means of developing
customer loyalty. Given the potential size of the accounts with their customers, the
cost of the whitepaper was relatively insignificant. The benefit of creating the
document and hosting it on site was that it would continue to develop new contacts
for opt-in database and new leads indefinitely as long as the content was relevant.

Unlike investing in an advertisement, the whitepaper has a long shelf life and has
the potential to create opportunities for our company for years to come.
Crowdsourcing
Crowdsourcing is one of the phases of cocreation. It is one of the ways in which
marketers and product developers can engage with their customers online69. It is
defined as the process by which a function previously performed by employees is
now outsourced to the undefined and large network of people who can also be
customers. There are different advantages of crowdsourcing69. First is the Product
development process. During crowdsourcing, marketers constantly interact with
customers and potential end users of the product. In the process, many unmet needs,
unaddressed concerns of the users, and new ideas are uncovered. These act as useful
inputs for the development of new products for the market. Second, it also helps in
developing the Market research capabilities. In the process of conversation with end
users and customers about the product or service, useful insights can be gained
about the details and preferences of customers and that can act as a useful and
timely input for the marketing research report carried out by the company. Third,
crowdsourcing also helps in the advertising and promotion activities. For example,
some works which are time consuming for product companies like development of a
customer friendly website can be outsourced to third parties that help in reducing
the wastage of time. Similarly, with the help of direct interaction with the customers,
a buzz can be generated as mentioned above and that can help in branding purposes
of the company.
Crowdsourcing is becoming more and more popular because of two main reasons.
70First is that customers' preferences are changing rapidly. Hence, marketers want to
stay connected with their customers always in order to track any changes in their
needs and desires.71 Second reason is that there is a wide diverse talent available
outside the company R&D and the marketer wants to make use of that with the help
of increasingly penetrating technologies like Internet and Smartphones. There has
been a number of leading examples of companies who are successfully deploying
the concept of crowdsourcing. 72Examples include P&G which is developing 50% of
its innovation outside the organization. 72Another example is of Apple where the
customers are involved in developing iPhone applications. Crowdsourcing helps in
reducing the stickiness of information between the end user and the manufacturer.
73The world's largest encyclopaedia, Wikipedia, is an example of a task that can only
be achieved through crowd participation. Crowdsourcing is not limited to volunteer
efforts. 74Amazon Mechanical Turk (AMT) and CrowdFlower are 'labour on

demand' markets that allow people to get paid for micro-tasks, as simple as labelling
an image or translating a piece of text.
But it has also got a flip side to it.74 Firstly, the target group as well as the end user
who are contributing to crowd source must be clearly identified. It is desirable that
crowd sourcers are early adopters and lead users of the product who use it
massively in a niche area. They are believed to have more knowledge about the
product. Otherwise, if just anyone and everyone try to take part in crowdsourcing,
the ultimate goal may become too far to achieve.
Case study: Ush ahi di71
It is a non profit organization that develops free and open source software for
information collection, visualisation and creative mapping. Ushahidi‘s servers and
software let anyone send in information-via a cell phone and the Web-that is then
displayed on the map. During events like the Arab Spring, the earthquake and
tsunami in Japan, people could view crisis maps to get instant, specific details on
what was happening. This is one of the best cases of crowdsourcing.
Crowdsourcing and cocreation
Often cocreation and crowdsourcing are used interchangeably. But they are not the
same. Cocreation is the process by which the customers are involved in the product
development. Crowdsourcing is a step in cocreation71. There is one crucial difference
between the two. In crowdsourcing, the global audience at large is involved from
diverse backgrounds. On the other hand, cocreation is much more focused towards a
particular group of users and target customers, long term and deep in nature72.
Therefore, it can be said that crowdsourcing is about reach whereas cocreation is
about richness. For brand building activities, cocreation is important and companies
should not stop at crowdsourcing alone73.
A research was conducted on Japanese consumer goods brand Muji to find out the
profitability and market performance of designer generated products and user
generated products69. It was found that the user generated products performed
better than the designer generated products. Specifically, in the first year after
introduction, sales revenues from user-generated products were three times higher
and gross margins were four times greater than those of designer-generated
products. The corresponding average margin was 619 million yen (approximately 8
million dollars) higher, or six times greater, than the margin for designer-generated
products. Finally, user-generated products were more likely to survive the three-

year observation period than designer-generated products (i.e., were still on the
market three years after introduction).
Cocreation leads to customers patronizing a product. This was found by a research
conducted by researchers70. Relative to no input, soliciting advice tends to have an
intimacy effect whereby the individual feels closer to the organization. On the other
hand, soliciting expectations had the opposite effect, distancing the individual from
the organization and diminishing their likelihood of donating to or purchasing from
the organization. Stating expectations tended to make consumers focus on
themselves and their own needs, and that the organization existed merely to service
their needs. This perspective created a sense of distance between the participant and
the organization, thereby reducing subsequent purchase. The authors also found
that when companies pay customers for advice, it does not increase purchase
likelihood, as it shifts the customer's relationship to one based strictly on economic
exchange72.
Case study: P r octor & Gam b le 73
P&G has initiated their Connect + Develop concept that invites people to submit
their innovative ideas. According to their website, "External collaboration plays a
key role in nearly 50 percent of P&G's products. We've collaborated with outside
partners for generations but the importance of these alliances has never been
greater." Open innovation at P&G works both ways, inbound and outbound. They
are aggressively looking for solutions and innovations in packaging, design,
marketing models, research methods, engineering, technology, etc. They also have a
number of assets available for license including trademarks, technologies,
engineering solutions, business services, market research etc. More than 1,000 active
agreements are the result of P&G's Connect +Develop strategy. Fabric and Home
care product revenues in 2008 were up by 6%, driving significant profit for P&G.
Online Reputation Management
More and more number of customers are now buying the products online only after
looking at the reviews. With increase in this trend, companies have to be careful in
presenting a good stand to the customers with the help of their feedback
management. Anyone can fill out a negative comment about a company‘s product
which may or may not be true. This affects the perception of viewer about the brand
and the corporate too. Due to this, online reputation has been regarded as the most
important part of marketing on the Internet75. The process involves reducing the
impact of negative comments on the reputation of the company or brand. According
to Ying-Hsun Hung et al, ORM is the process of analysis and management for

people and organizations‘ reputation represented by content among all kinds of
online media. Fundamentally, it is fast enough to be able to respond, when people
express things online about brands75.
Through research it has been found that for positive tone conditions, there is a linear
relationship between the number of comments and people‘s positive perception
about the company‘s corporate reputation. On the other hand, for negative tone, it
has been found that there is no linear relationship between the number of comments
and the formation of attitude towards reputation of company. This implies that even
if one negative comment is posted, it has an exponential effect more than that of
multiple positive comments about the company76. This attracts the attention of
marketers more to balance the negativity in the internet about the company or brand
so that people perceptions about reputation are not affected. Online communication
has positive impacts on the structure and advantages of reputation and these two
aspects are strongly dependent on each other. Thus, online communication can be
used to influence the assessments made by stakeholders about an organization‘s
products and services, corporate responsibility, success, its ability to change and
develop, and its public image. Accordingly, reputation is described as having these
six dimensions, each of which is defined by four sub attributes76.
Research has indicated that one can gain up to 30% more click-throughs if he has a
positive or neutral page one77. This statistic highlights the importance of having a
clean Google page one, and the consequences of having negative comments
especially in the current economic conditions.
Few of the successful reputation management vase studies are discussed below.
Case Study: Ec om merce Websi te m anaged Negati v e Reputation 77
The company is a manufacturer of daily use commodity. They have a large factory in
China and sell their products across the world. They are UK based and near recent
past their profile across the Internet was positive- no bad reviews or any negative
listings. Then suddenly they were doing a search on their company name (as many
people do) and a site popped up on the first page of Google that was a blog slating
their business. The blog owner did not leave his name or contact details. Over the
next few weeks, two more negative listings showed up on the first page of Google.
One was a video on Vimeo, the company‘s CEO and the other was a review site.
It was necessary that all 3 listings were removed off the first page as soon as possible
and to find out who was behind all of this. The company was having for the first
time to explain to customers and potential customers, that what was written on the
Internet was not true.

The company in collaboration with third parties was able to find out through the
registering of one of the domains that the person behind this was an ex-employee
who had left the company a few months back.
The first action they took was to set up a monitoring campaign on the name of the
company and a few other chosen keywords. It is like Google Alerts, but monitors the
whole Internet continuously; it then sends an email alert telling which Internet
property has mentioned the keyword the company is monitoring.
Immediately the company set out to expand their Internet properties and optimised
each page fully and started a link building campaign for each of the properties. At
the same time, some mini niche sites were created with their name in the domain
and unique content was added on each of these sites. They also created a number of
Social Media profiles on sites rank very well. Each site was fully optimised and links
were created back to all of the other sites.
Results: After 6 weeks, two of the ‗negative sites‘ were off the first page. After 10
weeks all three ‗negative sites‘ were off the first page. The number of search referrals
to the site has more than tripled Sales compared to the previous year have increased
by 73%.
Case study: R e staurant Ov erc omes Nega tive Commen ts 78
When searching for a new restaurant the user always types the name of the
restaurant into Google. Post that the most important thing he sees is the reviews. If
the page has all negative reviews, his perception towards the restaurant immediately
changes. This puts people off booking the restaurant and it has an adverse affect on
their business. The company had got lots of bad reviews on the first page of Google.
Because of this, their revenues decreased compared to the same time last year.
The company did not create fake reviews in a hope that these could push the
negative reviews of the first page. Instead, they created positive and fresh content
about the restaurant. Social Media profiles and mini niche sites were created. The
restaurant encouraged to ask diners before they leave for feedback and that feedback
is used to create real life positive reviews on sites.
Result: Restaurant has now reversed the negative effect. They incentivised their
current customers to leave positive reviews as well as getting some video
testimonials that have ranked really well for them. After a relatively short period of
time, the number of negative reviews on the first page of the search engines
disappeared. The first page became full with fresh content with real life testimonials
of customers that have enjoyed their experience in the restaurant. Revenue and
profit increased to more than double this time last year.

Case study: A c onsumer Com pany 79
The Google page one for this consumer company was littered with negative reviews
and comments about their work. This window fitting company had lost a large
proportion of its sales revenue as the bad reviews had been putting off potential
customers from using the business. The lower levels of traffic had decrease the
business opportunities.
This company was very well established and a reputable organisation so it already
possessed a variety of online assets. The business already had 2 high quality and
interactive microsites that were high on Google page one, therefore they were
promoted to ensure that they remained on Google page one.
The company developed the social media profile in order to help maximise sales
potential and to interact in the correct manner with the public. Then other social
networking tools and sites such as: Google Plus and LinkedIn were utilized in order
to have more than one channel to communicate with the public. With these sites,
sufficient amount of online assets were created to lower the negative reviews from
Google page one. Furthermore various articles were produced in relation to the
window fitting industry and the business itself, this in depth content provided with
more online content and links to lower the negative comments. More importantly for
the business the articles presented the business in a positive light and therefore
levels of traffic and sales were restored and improved upon.
The Outcome: Google page one for this business was clear of all negative comments,
and all the pages on there were either positive or neutral. The amount of traffic on
the company‘s website increased, that in turn led to more sales from the business.
Case Study: O wner’s Persona l Negative R e p utation harm i n g Business 80
The person came under lots of criticism. There had been allegations levelled against
the person. These left a tarnished reputation which impacted businesses belonging
to the individual. The negative reviews and stories on Google page one of a name
search discouraged consumers from using the organisation. Furthermore, the articles
brought the person‘s name into disrepute, which led to this person being put under
investigation.
The company used the third party for managing the tarnished reputation. It created
social media profiles on different networking sites such as: LinkedIn, Twitter,
Google Plus, etc. By launching these social media sites it enabled the person to have
a channel in which he could communicate with the public and potentially present
his counter argument to the claims on Google page one. Furthermore, through the
use of sites such as Twitter the person could develop a relationship with the public,

and in turn try to regain a good reputation. The company used these sites because
they are a common platform that people and businesses use to show they are
interactive with the public, and to show that the public matter, so through the use of
frequent ―tweets‖ the person could engage and inform the public.
Due to the fact that a personal identity wasn‘t as strong as a corporate brand, the
company had to produce a vast number of articles frequently in order to help clean
up the Google page one. Promotion of these sites helped to push down the negative
stories that were highly ranked. They were not deleted but lowered. In addition to
this they created more online assets such as a personal website and other microsites.
They did link building and ensured that they were highly optimized in terms of
SEO.
The Outcome: Page 1 of Google – all positive and neutral content was achieved. The
positive influence of relocating the negative feedback was that there came a higher
level of trust in the person, which as well as restoring peace of mind has had a
positive effect on a new business venture and existing businesses.
SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING:
Social Media refers to online communication mechanism that involves
interactions between users like creating, sharing or exchange of information on areas
of interest81. Companies have realised the importance of social media and now are
implementing various marketing techniques to attract customers as social media
offers a unique way of instantaneous two-way communication, wide-reach and
engaging the customers when compared to other media like print ads or TV
commercials.
According to ‗The Social Media Report 2012‘ published by Nielson82 social
networks dominate internet usage, 30% of mobile time and 20% of PC time spent on
them: over any other category of site usage. Facebook dominates the internet usage
time, with around 17% of PC time spent on the site. Interesting observation among
them is that in 2011, while usage of Facebook and Blogger which occupy first and
second positions in social networks went down by 4% and 3% year-on-year, usage of
twitter went up by 13% and occupied third position. While this gives us an idea on
the penetration levels of various social networking sites, its relevance to different
brands is also quantified to some extent.
The report says around 47% of the overall social media users engage in
‗customer service via social media‘ which is termed as social care. In this about 28%
use their personal Facebook account and 14% use their twitter account. With regard

to the brands, people complimenting brands form 53% of social media users while
50% complain or express their concerns once a month. As high as 70% of them listen
to others experiences with brands, atleast once a month. Also 26% of the users would
not mind advertising depending on their profile info.
Internet has transformed ‗Brick-and-mortar‘ stores to ‗brick-and-clicks‘83.
There has been an evolution of how social media is used for marketing and selling
purpose. As shown in the below figure, it all started with companies thinking that
with the rising use of internet and social media, it is necessary that they should also
have a presence on it and that is by just having a dedicated page for the company on
Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn etc.,. They used these to just give information of the
company and a brief description of products. Now there is a huge leap in the way
companies look at social media in terms of sales. Right from awareness to sale
execution to after sale service can be completely handled online with internet and
social media. Following figure depicts the way relevance of sales to social media has
changed over time and it is necessary for the companies to evaluate themselves as to
in which stage are they currently and try foray to next levels.

Social Media helps the sales process right from understanding the customer
like knowing the preferences of the customer, lead generation, prospecting,
identifying the buying situation. Once this is done a customer is approached by
gaining attention, establishing credibility, building rapport. In this process
companies will discover the changing needs of the customer and their underlying
motives for buying. When these needs are met, it will lead to closing of sales where
negotiation and making customers aware of terms and conditions is done. This will
lead up to follow-up process which will pave way for better service, gaining referrals
and understanding future sales opportunities.
Phase 4
1. Social media is employed to facilitate learning processes
2. Real time service and pricing; value is co-created.
3. Complete integration with sales strategy.
Phase 3
1. Social media viewed as an additional or even a primary sales channel
2. Transformation of sales strategy
Phase 2
1. Efforts to drive customers and prospects to firm's social media pages
2. Two-way flow of information
Phase 1
1. Establish Social media presence(Facebook, twitter, LinkedIn etc.,)
2. Information flow in only one direction i.e., firm to customer

One of the best examples of brands that used social media to compete in an
already highly competitive segment with many competitive players is Tata
DOCOMO83. When it was planning to enter as the 9th GSM operator in the Indian
market, it faced deeply established incumbents and high brand communication
barriers. However Tata DOCOMO decided to change the game plan by new
techniques of communication by imbibing innovation in its integrated
communication processes. In June 2009, Social Media is one area which had not been
chosen by most Indian brands and the telecom operators. This new endeavour
induced the wow element and social media helped in associating the brand with the
image it wanted to.
Its social media strategy was to humanize a telecom brand and make it friendly,
warm and conversation so that it reaches to the Target Group and engages the
customer one-on-one relating to anything about the brand so that this customers
become loyal and serve as marketing agents in their micro- communities. For
execution of this, a dedicated Social Media team was built; Twitter, Youtube,
Facebook, Orkut accounts were opened up even before the brand launch. The
website actively encouraged visitors to sign up to the Tata DOCOMO communities,
months before it became a craze for others. The Social Media team targeted each of
the Social Media platforms differently.
Twitter: All products and offers were first announced to the Twitter followers before
they were let out on any other media. They were also given prelaunch feelers before
the product was even ready for launch. Today Tata DOCOMO has 52,855 followers
and the team has solved their telecom problems, passed on their
complaints/concerns to relevant people in the company and brought about
necessary changes.
Facebook: Similar to Twitter, a one-on-one communication was maintained for
exchange of information, resolve problems and report issues. The users were kept
engaged through a variety of status updates including discussions on current
events, TV commercials, product service launches, jingles and games.
Youtube: It has been a central repository for all brand videos and commercials. Tata
DOCOMO has also showcased user generated content via a platform,
create.tatadocomo.com like animation videos etc.,.
Third party blogs and forums: It is the only brand that created official accounts on
many third party blogs and forums and gave quick response through its official id.
These strategies are mainly focused on the following key goals:

a. Build Consumer Engagement : Consumer engagement programs
b. Address and Resolve Complaints: Dedicated Customer response mechanism
c. Crowd Sourcing: Receiving new ideas on product-service offerings
d. Build Brand advocacy: In addition to above, recognising fan of the week.
e. Micro communication: High impact due to individual messaging.
Earlier Nike has used a strategy that could be described as hero worship.
Basically, Nike used to sign an endorsement for brand ambassador with a top athlete
in a sport, next Nike created ads that focuses on the athlete using and endorsing
Nike products to send out a message similar to ―As I use this product , you should
also do the same.‖ When competition has increased and few emerging brands like
Under Armor posed serious threat, they realised that they have to use new means to
reach out to its customers and keep them loyal to the brand.
Not only did they think of using new forms of marketing like using social
media, but they came up with a very innovative way of engaging the customers to
start conversation on ‗make it count‘ campaign by Nike by using the hash tag on the
website itself that can be used as reference in twitter/facebook conversations84. This
is in a way, throwing up challenge to friends and asking them to participate along
with.
In addition to the above they clearly mentioned the next steps to be taken
after throwing up the challenge and clearly sending out heir message that using
nike+ they can compare their scores and motivate each other with healthy

competition. So this is in turn educating customers on how to set goal and drive
towards it without losing focus on emphasizing importance of Nike in the process.
When Asian Paints85 decided to communicate its core message that of safe
vibrant colours, their objective was to create a campaign that was self sustainable,
true to their brand image of Asian Paints and viral. Thus, they conceptualised an
application called Tag-A-Friend-Holi. With the application, the users can play holi
with other users with a chance to win an iPod nano and conveyed an eco friendly
message pertaining to water conservation. This application tried to successfully
link Asian Paints with safe and colourful fun while engaging users with the brand
Asian Paints at every level. This strategy that was innovative and very different from
other brands strategies, met the needs of creating curiosity, maintaining an active
buzz and engaging users in social interaction during the festive period of Holi.
The strategy and planning that went behind this marketing program is that Holi is
synonymous to colours which is very much related to Asian Paints, so they choose
that festival for the launch of such an application. Also along with fun, if the brand
can come up with socially relevant message like saving water and celebrating Holi in
an eco-friendly way, that would help customers/users to associate the brand ‗Asian
Paints‘ as a positive brand that is genuinely concerned about environment and the
people. This application allowed users to pick any of their friends photo and splash
different colours that are available in the Asian Paints colour palette and post them
on the friend‘s wall. So this is in turn engaging more customers and creating ripple
effect. This was a successful campaign in 2010 which beat other similar applications
for Holi by about 10000 monthly active users. This campaign can be said as just a
brand building exercise that created awareness and engagement. Motivated by this
achievement in 2011, they ran another successful campaign that associated Holi to

the most anticipated Cricket World Cup Tournament to create buzz and it had 10000
active users in the first week.
In 2010, Adidas86 had set a goal of associating itself very actively with cricket which
can be considered as religion in India through social media campaigns. Their main
aim is to achieve engagement, interaction, word of mouth and buzz. For this they
had to create a platform where the cricket fans can discuss, consume content and
spread word of mouth among their friends/contacts so that it snowballs into a
movement and it becomes the platform with which the cricket fans can identify with,
by the time the World Cup starts. The target group would consist of teenagers
extended until 25 who have greater affinity to use the social media for discussion/
interactions, entertainment, online videos, sports etc., thus this led to creation of
facebook.com/adidascricket where users can share their passion and love for cricket.
They implemented this by frequently starting conversations on various cricket
events and also long term games like Fantasy cricket which kept users engaged
continuously. Sneak peeks and premiering of the new campaign TVC‘s were
released first on Facebook before exhibiting on TV which has imbibed excitement
factor. It had grown to more than 1.1 million members in less than one year. As per
allfacebook.com, depending upon on fanning the ideas, it was considered as one of
the most explosive fan pages globally. There would be virtual teams formed on the
page. They can participate in different contests conducted on the page like Predict
and Win, Rapid fire Contest, Spot the Ball Contest, Immortal words contest.
According ACNielson report, even though Nike was officially associated with ICC
World Cup, Adidas was the most talked about brand on social media with regard to
cricket.
Not only are campaigns like these are very popular but many of the applications
built for marketing purposes are a big hit with the users. For example, Titan came
up with HTSE watch application87. The application to get lit up, it needs a light
source to be pointed at the web cam and when the application gets powered up, the
users can see different HTSE watch models and descriptions. The ‗Try Now‘ feature
on the application would allow the watch to be placed on the webcam image so that
a picture can be taken with watch on the user‘s wrist. This can be used for later
reference and comparison with other models. This is based on the ‗augmented
reality‘ concept that is interactive and attractive to customers.
For Kurkure87, it releases different flavours at regular intervals, it is major challenge
for the company to make customers try them, educate them about the ingredients

especially when there are wrong rumours spreading against the brand like use of
plastic in the Kurkure chips. They came up with an application as solution for this
problem which will ask the users to mix the right ingredients that constitute Kurkure
chips, three wrong choices would exit the user from the contest. Also if they have
succeeded, they can share the results with their friends to enter the contest to
improve their chance of winning the contest. It also makes people to spend some
with the brand that may lead to buying of the product as it is a low involvement
product.
As part of their Integrated Marketing campaign, Airtel87 came up with an
application that is integrated with Facebook API where participants can select a
friend and select one the tags like SMS friend, MMS friend, joke friend, kanjoos
friend, poke friend etc., This contest would give free access to facebook through
airtel connection upon registration. Also lucky participants would get tickets for trip
to Vegas which were enough for the participants to participate and spread the buzz.
If the participant tags many people, he can win Samsung Galaxy everyday that
allows it to go viral.
The craze for cricket, especially for IPL88 has increased many fold with regular
twitter updates on the score and live commentary. This encouraged more
participants to continue discussions in a crispy manner. Also interesting comments
would be posted in the scrolling when the match is proceeding by many TV
channels, this encouraged quality comments, more TV viewership and excitement
while channelling these comments through hash tags on twitter. So as most of the
customers today browse through internet using smart phones while watching TV
has more content to view and excitement. This will also help in engaging customers
with a particular TV channel.
Facebook and other social media are not only useful for big businesses but also
useful for smaller ones90 mainly due to less costly and wide scope model. It is golden
opportunity for many new businesses which can‘t afford to pay huge amounts for
TV commercials, print ads and hoardings. Also due to its huge scope of going viral,
reaching to more number of customers while engaging them in considerably less
time, social media is the most sought after option these days. Some business like
boutiques, fashion jewellery, photography businesses are taking social media
especially Facebook as the main media of communication for creating awareness,
communication and selling process.

BLOGGING
Blogging is the act of posting any kind of content on a ‗web log‘. Blogs allow internet
users to interact with each other and also share ideas with a large number of other
people using the world-wide-web. Blog marketing is a way of internet marketing
where brands use a blog to reach business prospects. Usually, these blogs are
updated regularly with new information on the topics or products that they are
telling about. So, they have become a popular source for search engine optimization
(SEO) as search engines like Google and Bing frequently look into the blogs to
update their index with new content from them. Readers can be kept updated
through RSS (Really Simple Syndication).
Many businesses/brands make use of this simple yet powerful method of electronic
communication to reach their customers and prospects. People often consider
information from blogs to be more trustworthy than what is communicated through
traditional channels like television commercials or product brochures. This is a quick
and very easy way to drive traffic to the brands‘ website and improve its rank in
search engines index, increasing its chances to get noted by prospective customers.
Brands can get their customers attention by introducing and promoting their
products and services. They can notify about upcoming events, and special
promotions or discounts. They can interact directly with the customers and gain
valuable feedback through their comments. Brands can answer the customers
regarding any questions or concerns. This way of approach makes brands look
accessible and builds credibility with the customers and prospects.
Different brands use blogging in different ways to gain customers attention.
Apparel and fashion Brands like Gap and Coach are collaborating with bloggers to
create new forms of advertising to attract customers in the current social age. They
might invite a blogger to guest blog, sponsor a series of daily outfit posts featuring
their products, create a video about the brand or wear the product for the video.
J.C.Penney, another apparel brand, gave video bloggers gift certificates to buy the
brands clothes and blog about it in back-to-school themed videos, which became a
huge hit. Another way of blog marketing is to use blogs as editorial outlets rather
than just advertising ones. The brands work with bloggers helping them get deep
insights into their brand, let them understand the brand and what the brandis

doingat the moment. Fashion brands like Diane von Furstenberg, David Yurman,
Burberry, BCBG, Lord & Taylor and St. John are following this approach92.The
message from a brand needs to be consistent across all channels to be believable. The
blog should complement the information from the brands website or other ad
campaigns. Many cosmetic brands and small business use this approach.
Some brands publish whitepapers and e-books on their company‘s blogs to let
readers know that they are experts in their field. Examples are companies in
semiconductor industry like Intel, Analog Devices, Freescale Semiconductor, Texas
Instruments etc.,. Proctor and Gamble has been effective at targeting mothers with
their ‗SuperSavvyMe‘. They honed down into the persona of a mother: kids,
cooking, beauty, cleaning. They publish some on-topic articles and coupons to
promote their products. The content posted on the blog can‘t be just vacuous. There
should be some value in it. If it doesn‘t entertain, inform or atleast ‗wow‘ the reader,
it is bound to fail. An example of this is Pepsi Pulse which failed miserably trying to
emulate Virgin Mobiles success with their live site. The blogs should inform readers
on how a brands technology, products or services can help customers improve their
lifestyle. Readers don‘t care about the brands if they think the brand is not helping
them. For example, GE educates its customers through their blog,‗eco-imagination‘.
It does this by introducing the innovations developed at GE and how they can
improve the customers‘ lifestyle.
Some blogs integrate the general content in the articles with the use of their
products. For example, bodybuilding Inc., gives sample recipes on its blog,
integrating the use of protein and vitamin supplements that it makes. Tablespoon
from general mills is another such example. Marketing blogs should also focus to get
creative with photos, images, memes and anything else that contain a striking visual
rather than just posting articles with text based information. London Organizing
Committee of the Olympic (LOCOG)used Tumblr to give fans a closer look at the
opening and closing ceremonies at both the Olympic and Paralympic Games93.More
than half a million people visited the blog, which featured images, information and
links to videos. Blogs may also get creative in a way that theycan reuse or curate
content that is funny, entertaining and engaging. Whole Foods Market, the food
retailer, used blogging in such manner. It used blog to republish its monthly
magazine with added video content, unusual images, and spoof interviews with
dandelions and bumblebees! Whole Foods also shares content from other blogs to
ensure it has a steady stream of daily updates93.

Adidas uses the blogging platform mainly to share lifestyle content such as
images of graffiti and fashion designers94. All the content is liberally interspersed
with Adidas products and the brand logo, complete with links back to online stores
so users can buy the products on show, there by attempting to directly convert leads
into sales. The Economist magazine has embraced blogging by using it to promote
and tease upcoming editions. All the content it publishes on the blog is short-form
and shareable, such as charts, videos, cartoons, covers and quotes, which makes for a
very entertaining blog. Fashion site ModCloth shares new looks and styles from
around the web in its blog94. Like Adidas, it uses a similar layout to display content
that fit its brand image and give inspiration for new looks with the am that viewers
will ultimately buy from ModCloth.com; It‘s a great example of how even small
businesses can make use of blogging platform to drive traffic to their sites.
Publishers such as The New Yorker, GQ and others use blogs to expand the
brand‘s audience and attract traffic to their main site. They posts frequent images,
videos, quotes and short-form content that contain links back to articles. Some
brands might just concentrate on building the brands image rather than directly
driving traffic to their sites or increasing sales. Calvin Klein shares pictures of
fashion shoots and models in the brand's outfits and build the brand identity rather
than directly sell the products. 'Bldg 25 Blog' of FreePeople, Alice + Olivia tumblr,
Tory Burch Blog, Just Another Colette Blog, New News by Ceremony, Urban
Outfitters Daily Posts, Shop Bop's Shoptalk blog and many more successfully
created a brand value by using blogging as a prime platform in their internet
marketing campaigns.
Blogging improves a brands positioning as a thought leader, customer focus,
market research by informing product development, and public relations as it is a
trusted resource for news media. FitStudio, blogging platform of Sears is a very
good online wellness resource containing valuable content from fitness experts.
Colgate maintains an online resource with articles and interactive guides on oral
healthcare. P&G provides interesting content for pet owners on training,
petproducts, and adoption resources in its blog, Petside. These are good examples of
brands seeing themselves as publishers and leveraging their depth of knowledge to
provide valuable information to people, which is the key to their marketing
success95.

Some brands primarily use pictures to market their brand. Such brands often
use smartphone apps like Instagram to do this. Red bull promotes itself as a brand
for extreme sports through its images showing skaters, skydivers, etc. Starbucks‘
photo blog includes photos of its products, but with a focus on what people do while
drinking their beverages. Burberry, a British brand, established its image as a
cosmopolitan, British brand by posting majority of its photos taken around central
London. It improved its brand loyalty by rewarding its followers with exclusive
behind the scenes content from its launch of new range96. ASOS is another fashion
brand using photo blogs is same manner and additionally featuring reader
generated content. The success or failure of any of these blogging campaigns is
based on whether the brand is trying to push simple cold brand messages or
positively associating the brand with a lifestyle.
WEB ANALYTICS:
According to a report by McKinsey, the world of digital information is
expected to increase more than 20 times by 2020 and to meet this huge surge, atleast
another 1.4 -1.9 lakh jobs pertaining to web and data analytical positions need to be
created in next few years. This demand is mainly due to huge leap in internet
marketing and the necessity for the companies to analyse huge stacks of information
pertaining to customers that are easily available because of many software,
marketing programs conducted online. So here are few examples where web
analytics which helped business find their customers, improve business and deliver
service to the customers that excite them of the product.
In service industries, building customer loyalty is very crucial for sustainable
success of a business. This is because consumer tastes and behaviour keeps
changing. The customer, in today‘s arena, where he is bombarded with so many
cheap and price competitive offering, final choice is not based on price alone. Thus
any company in service industry should not focus on price alone but on customer
relationships over long run in order to stay ahead of competitors in the long run.
Customer relationship management focuses on three things related to customers:
customer satisfaction, customer loyalty building and thus increasing profitability.
Enhancing the customer relationships helps in boosting profitability in three ways:

a. By attracting suitable customers with similar preferences as that of core
competence of the company- for this the company needs to know about the
markets and its customers. Detailed customer data helps the company in
identifying the potential and profitable customers and at the same time
eliminate those who are no longer profitable.
b. Increasing customer retention- special customers are contacted regularly and
serviced faster on call centres, thus helping in increasing their loyalty and
retention. Special customers can be identified based on the sale history,
underlying potential of the customer through data on his other purchases, etc.
c. Generating profits through cross selling and up selling- the company
develops different offers based on the behaviour of its customers captured
through the data. The offers are presented in a way that they are tailored at
the maximum to the needs and desires of the customers. Along with
development of different products, suitable campaigns are designed for
different customers based on their behaviour. In other words, huge amount of
data helps in customizing the marketing campaign for the prospects and
present customers.
Thus the Customer Relationship Management has become a very important
concept for long lasting relationships with customers and managing an efficient
profitability with delighted customers over the years. And this can be achieved by
retrieving relevant information and applying right techniques in web analytics.
Marriott International uses CRM to better manage its corporate accounts and
business travellers. These are the two most important segments for the company.
Through the use of CRM, the key account holders no longer have to wait for making
prior reservation to the hotel. The company integrates its consolidated data about
the customer profile and upcoming trade events or conference shows, and makes
reservations automatically. As a result, it attains high level of customer satisfaction
driving greater number of closures and ultimately seeding of loyalty in its
customers.
Marriott‘s business travellers contact the company through the use of
multiple channels. Therefore the company integrates data from different channel
sources and offers a consistent experience across the customers.
Starwood analyses customer and occupancy data stored in a data warehouse.
This warehouse information is combined with customer‘s transaction information
(like OLTP) from all company hotel branches and different channels. Result indicates
where customers who visit a specific hotel live. If the data reveal that the Sheraton
Fisherman‘s Wharf in San Francisco gets its maximum proportion of visitors from

Fort Lauderdale in April, hotel marketers can increase promotional efforts in Fort
Lauderdale during the late winter months. In this way the Return on Marketing
Investment can also be increased.
According to a study conducted by Orbitz, Apple is creating its own
demographic. Orbitz found that Apple Mac computer users spend more money than
their PC counterparts on hotels per night, and stay in higher-ranked hotels . So it has
started showing Mac users costlier hotels in some search results. However Orbitz
claims that it doesn‘t show higher prices for the same hotel that a PC user sees, and
all users can sort search results by lowest price. By defining the characteristics and
behaviour of the Apple demographic, it is found that the average annual household
income for adult owners of Mac is $98,560, compared with $74,452 for a PC owner97,
according to Forrester, a market data firm. So Apple Mac owners indicate people
with higher incomes which in turn indicate higher spending.
Back in 1997, a loyalty program called ‗Total Rewards‘ was introduced by
Harrah’s hotels and casinos98 which was a customer-oriented strategy using data
mining techniques. Under this program they used to collect all properties customer
related information from the whole chain of Harrah and used to share it company-
wide. They used a WINet system for this and they used to track the gaming patterns
and their hotel usage to offer relevant offers. So the customers who live outside used
to receive complimentary hotel rooms and transportation while those who used to
drive in used to receive entertainment, food and cash incentives.
Another case of successfully implemention of data mining techniques was a
13-unit Italian dinner-house, Louise’s Trattoria98. It filed bankruptcy, in late 1997 but
now successfully came back to the business which used credit-card transactions
analysis and customer-purchase data. President of this restaurant chain believed that
such credit-card transactions gave him more precise information about his
customers than traditional surveys did.
Different kinds of hotels like extended-stay hotels, convention hotels,
transient hotels etc., segment guests differently. For example, Holiday Inn or Best
Western property-management systems (PMS) segment and code markets at each
property level, since every location has its own unique segments. A given property
may serve a group of government clients, a set of clients, and social-event clients
(reunions/weddings/anniversary etc.) and marketing efforts differ according to this
different set of customers.

These types of management systems have become much more relevant with
ever changing consumer behaviour. These basically use forecasting models or the
artificial neural networks to predict the behaviour or the future usage of services by
the customer, being analysed the history. By recent techniques like associations and
sequences, one can also predict the combination of services one prefers.
Now, this is much more relevant in case of big events like World Cup, Asia
Cup, Olympic games where a whole new villages/residential areas (games village
in India) are built and after the event completion, property management becomes a
challenging task. In such occasions, they are sold /rented for hotels or other
purposes. Finding the relevant target customer base by advertising on Internet and
see that such properties are occupied can be accomplished by web analytics.
WEB SITE DESIGNING:
Different ways are used to woo the customers to visit the business website,
some them include ads on Google, references on other web pages, web site details on
the social media pages etc.,. But once the customer visits the website it is the design,
crispiness, informative and attractive web sites that get more involvement and
engagement of the customers which will lead to a better brand building and sales
process. Some steps99 that would come to aid in such circumstances are:
1. Posting relevant content in concise way: Relevant, short and to the point
content is not only attractive for the visitors but it itself has an advantage of
highlighting more features on the home page in disguise. This would make
browsing effortless for the visitors and make them aware of all the available
things at one go.
2. Make the website easily readable: Instead of using too flashy things that
hinders readers from finding relevant information, putting table/ list of
contents with a brief description of company is the practice many companies
are following now.
3. Using more visuals at strategic locations: Users comprehend visuals like
videos photos, graphs, charts better and they are worth hundreds of words.
Placing at right places is the key.
4. Enough spacing between different categories: When different blocks are
used to represent different sets of data, it is important to uses necessary
spaces between the blocks.

5. Use of Bulleted text and Text Formatting: Using different colours and font to
clearly distinguish the headings and topics will make it user-friendly and
attractive.
The above mentioned are different ways of Internet marketing that try to
persuade the customers to buy their products and the conversion rates only through
internet marketing is an ambiguous parameter to measure unless the company has
only virtual presence i.e., they market and sell goods only through internet but
nothing else. Hence calculating ROI is what many researchers are trying to measure
in the case of Internet marketing.
Internet Marketing Ethics:
With the use of internet, reaching a vast number of consumers and marketing
a brand‘s products and services to them has become easier, faster, and more effective
than other forms of communication and marketing. This has led to aggressive and
intrusive form of internet marketing too, such as pop-ups, deceiving banners,
hyperlinks, location tracking, spamming in public forums or specific interest email
groups and collecting web surfers‘ browsing information100. These kinds of
marketing practices have raised serious concerns over ethics of internet marketing.
Employing such forms of aggressive but unethical kinds of marketing may
sometimes result in short-term gains, but the brand loses its credibility and other
long term gains. It is recommended that brands would have to build their internet
marketing strategies based on marketing ethics in order to gain and keep consumers
and differentiate themselves from their competitors. Short-term thinking would only
push them towards ever shorter marketing campaigns and advertising plans, and
put them in an unethical stance.
Brands should adopt an ethical attitude towards their customers across their
marketing model. Gauzent and Ranchhod introduced seven criteria for judging the
ethicalness of marketing practices and also explained the potential advantages of
ethical marketing on the Internet. The seven criteria are notice, choice, access,
contact, security, horizon, and intrusiveness. Notice is sent to the consumer about
what information is collected, how it will be used; whether it will be disclosed to
third parties and whether cookies are used or not. Choice should be given to the
consumer to agree with aspects of information gathering. Access should be given to

the consumer to the information gathered. Consumers should be given a contact
person or address for asking questions or registering complaints regarding privacy.
Security concerns the protection of information transfer and subsequent storage.
Horizon is the time frame in which the information will be utilized. Consumers
could be given a choice to receive marketing incentives for either a short or a long
period of time. Consumers should be able to decide on the degree of intrusiveness;
some consumers might be willing to participate in a viral marketing campaign but
some prefer an official letter of introduction as an invitation for a third party offer.
Each criterion can reflect the level of sensitivity that a brand is showing towards the
consumers. This is likely to produce consumers who feel empowered, creating
competitive advantage for brand.
So as this is a new medium of communication, lot of ambiguity surrounds
even the Business on how set a standard for the practices that guide the internal and
external operations of a company and ensure that the customer is notified about
such things so that customers would be more willing to participate in the Brand
building and selling processes of the Companies101.
Future Research
The paper has attempted to cover all facets of internet marketing strategies that
companies are and should undertake. In order to do future research, the concept of
Marketing Automation can be covered. A kind of marketing dashboard can be
developed for the company that tracks each customer on an individual basis or
segment basis. Such large data can be supported with the latest CRM technologies
available. Then accordingly, if a particular customer is dissatisfied, diagnosis and
action can be taken. We also propose the method of Net Promoter Score to rank the
loyalty of customers. Then loyal customer base can be taken online and buzz should
be spread to make more traffic and capture more new customers. These two can be
the future trend of Internet marketing in terms of their widespread use.
Limita tions
The research has got few limitations. First is the paucity of time in which the report
has been crafted. Second, an attempt has been made to cover all the new and latest
trends in Internet Marketing but with the high speed of evolution in technology,
these trends are bound to become obsolete with time and new mechanisms will be
available for marketers to connect with their customers. Third, the cases covered
have been as diverse as possible but due to paucity of space, several other
dimensions of case could not be covered.

Conclusion:
Internet Marketing is the buzz word for the companies today, that are trying
to make their products and marketing campaigns create a buzz among potential
customers. There are numerous ways to proceed in this direction as observed in the
study and there have been continuous innovations by companies to differentiate
themselves from the competitors. The ones that create, share and most importantly
sustain the marketing efforts to excite the customers emerge out as winners and lead
to high conversion rates.
However due to some limitations as discussed, companies are still not yet
ready to completely rely on Internet Marketing. For this each company should also
include standards for Internet Marketing in the policy design for the company so as
to not get carried away or land in trouble while utilising internet marketing
strategies to the maximum extent.

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