Strategic E-Marketing

Dr. Yannis A. Pollalis

Summer Institute 2003

Course Syllabus

Course Introduction & Description

The Internet represents a tremendous opportunity. For customers, it gives a much wider choice of products, services and prices from different suppliers and the means to select and purchase items more rapidly. For organizations marketing these products and services it gives the opportunity to expand into new markets, offer new services and compete on a more equal footing with larger businesses. For those working within these organizations it gives the opportunity to develop new skills and to use the Internet to improve the competitiveness of a company.

However, it seems that the distance between aiming for and actually achieving profitable growth not only remains, but, in these early days of our so-called “new economy”, it has actually widened. While the powerful technology of the internet era opens the way to new opportunities (new markets, new channels, new customers, new products, and new ways of doing business), it carries in its wake the threat that the pursuit of opportunity will be driven by what is now technologically feasible, rather than what is strategically desirable. And at the same time, the Internet gives rise to many threats to organizations. For example, start-up companies such as Amazon (books) (www.amazon.com), Expedia (travel) (www.expedia.com), AutoBy Tel (cars) (www.autobytel.com) and CDNow! (CDs) (www.cdnow.com) have captured a significant part on their market and struck fear into the existing players. Indeed the phrase “amazoning a market sector” has become an often-used expression among marketers. Thus, marketing managers would do well to scrutinize e-marketing opportunities more carefully, and consult marketing and strategy principles more explicitly. In this course we will bring to light such principles, as well as present decision frameworks that can guide managers’ judgment and formulation of an e-Marketing strategy.

Electronic marketing is based on the Internet technologies and is also interactive, customer-based marketing and an extremely powerful tool for any organization. Effective e-marketing means integrating database structures, corporate-wide technologies and external sources to power the site, create value for e-customers, and deliver products and services efficiently in the new economy. In order to fully cover this topic, we must first understand marketing and direct marketing principles, electronic technology and business and economics as well. Therefore, this course will start from the fundamentals of marketing and will move towards the specifics of the e-marketing processes and tools.

Finally, with the success stories of companies capturing market share together with the rapidly increasing adoption of the Internet by consumers and business buyers has come a fast-growing realization that all organizations must have an effective Internet presence to prosper, or possibly even survive! Are existing marketing concepts, theories and models still valid? What is the effect on channel and market structures? How should the Internet be used to support existing business and marketing strategies? How should the site be promoted online and offline? How can the Internet be used to communicate with the costumers and build loyalty? How can we assess whether we are achieving these objectives? The aim of this course is to answer the above type of questions so that graduates entering employment and practitioners can help the companies for which they work to compete successfully using this new, digital medium in conjunction with existing media.

Text, Readings & Handouts

Ø E-Marketing, by Judy Strauss, Adel Ansary and Raymond Frost, Prentice-Hall, third edition, 2003.

Ø Readings, Cases and Videos will be used in class as vehicles for discussion (the final selection will be distributed at the beginning of class in July)

Ø Additional articles and handouts on special topics, as well as case preparation material and assignments will be distributed in class (“class package”).

Course Learning Objectives

Ø Understand the similarities / differences between traditional and internet marketing

Ø Understand how marketing strategy and marketing technology decisions are related

Ø Understand how to apply industry analysis in the marketing technology context

Ø Understand issues in Internet marketing as they relate to bricks & clicks and click-only companies

Ø Understand how the Internet has impacted the "Four P's" of Marketing

Ø Understand principles of Customer Relationship Management and Relationship Marketing

Ø Understand the major web sites and electronic resources available for marketers

Ø Conduct a case study of a traditional business. Students will submit a plan to develop an e-marketing strategy and implementation plan for launching the new program initiative by the organization.

Teaching Philosophy

In class, I will act as a lecturer, moderator and facilitator to help you gain a better understanding of strategic analysis of information resources. By actively participating in class discussions, you will sharpen your own insights, and those of your classmates.

Class Projects & Assignments

The course will include various assignments and presentations and, if possible, the participation in a computer-based marketing simulation game. All assignments (case analyses and presentation, essays, evaluation and development of websites, etc.) will be provided at the beginning of the class and will be due within the time period the class is taking place (except the final “marketing plan” project which will be due a few days after the class is over).

Each day of class will have 5 different sessions, 2 morning sessions (9:00 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.) and 3 afternoon sessions (2:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m.). The morning sessions will include lectures and coverage of class material while the afternoon sessions will consist of cases, in-class exercises, discussions on videos and possible presentations. Lunch breaks will take place between the morning and afternoon sessions and their duration will depend on material covered in class. The final grading scheme will be announced at the beginning of class.

Grading Policy

I. Attendance & Class Assignments 50%

II. Final Project (e-MKT Plan) 50%

Recommended Additional Class Resources (Optional references to complement class material and learning)

I. “Marketing in the Computer-Mediated Environment”, Project 2000, This site at Owen Graduate School of Management offers an example of a curriculum in computer-mediated marketing communication, full text of a number of good papers resulting from the project and links to other related sites: http://www2000.ogsm.vanderbilt.edu/

II. “Growing Up Digital”, This is an unusal site, in that it is half academic and half commercial and is based around a book by Don Tapscott called Growing Up Digital: The rise of the Net Generation. It contains useful links and references to other related sites: http://www.growingupdigital.com/

III. Revolution, Home page of the magazine for new media marketing by the Marketing Society of America: http://www.revolution.haynet.com

IV. Other Useful books:

· Marketing in the Digital Age (by O`Connor & Galvin, Prentice-Hall, 2001)

· Internet Marketing (by Chaffey, Mayer & Johnson, Prentice-Hall, 2002)

· e-Business 2.0: Roadmap for Success (by Kalakota & Robinson, Addison-Wesley, 2001)

· Internet Business Models and Strategies (by Afuah and Tucci, McGraw-Hill, 2001)

· Web Page Design (by Stubbs, Barksdale and Crispen, South-Western, International Thomson Publishing, 2000)

Class Mechanics & Descriptive Schedule

Module I (Monday, June 16)

1. Principles of Marketing
2. The Marketing Process and Challenges in the New Economy
3. Defining Customer Value & Satisfaction
4. Developing, Differentiating and Positioning Products through

Product Life Cycle (PLC)

5. Assignment 1 Due (to be completed in class)

Module II (Tuesday, June 17)

1. The New “e-nvironment” & Key Internet Marketing Concepts

2. Internet User Characteristics & Behavior

3. Marketing Channels, Market Structure and the Internet

4. The Virtualization of Distribution Channels and Payments

5. Assignment 2 Due

Module III (Wednesday, June 18)

1. A New Marketing Model for the Digital Age
2. Creating a Knowledge Organization: Customer Insight & Segmentation
3. Internet Strategy Development & Internet Advertising
4. E-Marketing Strategies: Communication, Product, Pricing &

Website Promotion Strategies

5. Assignment 3 Due

Module IV (Thursday, June 19)

1. Internet and Marketing Research
2. Business-to-Business (B2B) and Business-to-Consumer (B2C) MKT
3. Creating Customer Data Bases
4. Leveraging Technology for E-Marketing Needs
5. Assignment 4 Due

Module V (Friday, June 20)

1. Putting It All Together: The E-Marketing Plan
2. Strategic Partnerships and Outsourcing
3. Budgeting Issues
4. IT trends, E-MKT and the Digital Future
5. Presentations of e-MKT Plans

Class Handouts, Readings & Exercises

Module I (Monday, June 16)

1. Introduction to Marketing Management (Class Notes & Transparencies)
2. Handout: Marketing Principles & Mini-Cases
3. Experiential Exercise: SWOT Analysis

Module II (Tuesday, June 17)

1. Guidelines for Case Analysis in Marketing & Mini-Cases
2. Readings: Marketing Strategy in Action
3. Handout: Developing a Marketing Strategic Plan (Cranfield University)
4. Case Study: Bank Marketing of National Bank of Greece (Transparencies)

Module III (Wednesday, June 18)

1. Marketing in the New Economy (Class Notes & Transparencies)
2. Reading: Amazon’s Wild World (Business Week)
3. Reading: How to acquire customers on the web (HBR)
4. Case Study: Travelling via the web-The changing structure of an industry

Module IV (Thursday, June 19)

1. Case Study: adM@rt, “If you build it, will they come?”
2. Electronic Customer Relationship Management (Transparencies)
3. Reading: “E-Hubs: The new B2B Marketplaces” (HBR)

Module V (Friday, June 20)

1. Retail Database Marketing & Internet Advertising: Transparencies
2. Internet Advertising 101
3. Presentation: Business models of the financial sector in mobile banking