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Advertising Media
PARTICIPATING IN FORUMS, NEwSGROUPS AND BULLETIN BOARDS: this involves companies’
participating in various groups that are not organized specifically for commercial purposes. Such
participation can increase the company’s visibility and credibility. Groups with highest visibility are:
• FORUMS: these are discussion groups located on commercial online services. A forum may operate
a library, a conference room for real-time discussion and a classified advertisement directory. To
participate, a person subscribes to the forum at a nominal cost or no cost. The forum’s home page
will show symbols on the subscriber’s computer screen for newsflashes, libraries, messages and
conference rooms. Most forums are sponsored by general or interest groups.
• NEWSGROUPS: they are the internet’s versions of forums, but they are limited to people
posting and reading messages on a particular topic, rather than managing libraries or
conferencing. Internet users can participate in newsgroups without subscribing. A list of
newsgroups can be obtained in THE INTERNET YELLOW PAGES.
• BULLETIN BOARD SYSTEMS (BBSs): are specialized online services that centre on a
specific topic or group. Its subscribers tend to be loyal and active, and resent very obvious,
shameless marketing efforts. Various topics dealt with on bulletin board systems include
vacations, health, computer games, real estates and others. Marketers can identify a few
bulletin board systems that have the type of subscribers who fit their target market and
then participate in the system subtly.PLACING ADVERTISEMENTS ONLINE: companies and individuals can place advertisements on
commercial online services in three ways:
• The major commercial online services offer an advertisement section for listing classified
messages; such messages are listed according to when they arrived, with the latest ones
heading the list.
• Advertisements can be placed in certain newsgroups that are set up for commercial purposes.
• Advertisements can be put online billboards, they appear while subscribers are using the
service even though they did not request for the message. For example, a subscriber may
be looking up movie ratings on Prodigy and suddenly an advertisement for Rent-A-Car
might appear with a message.USING ELECTRONIC MAIL (E-MAIL):
a marketer can encourage prospects and customers to send questions, suggestions and complaints to
the company, using its e-mail address. Customer service personnel can respond to the customers in a
short time through e-mail.
The firm may also gather the names of prospects or customers and send periodic or special information
to their e-mail address. (Kotler, 1980 and 2013)