The Marketing Book 5th Edition

E-marketing 645

It is also important to understand the
barriers and motivations that affect the use of
digital media by consumers. The reasons,
aspirations and expectations can then be reflec-
ted in your communications.

Competitor analysis

For competitors, benchmarking will reveal how
digital media are being exploited. For e-tailers
continuous monitoring is required and services
such as that of Gomez.com provide independ-
ent scorecards. Criteria include ease of use,
customer confidence (e.g. availability, depth
and breadth of customer service options,
including phone, e-mail and branch locations),
on-site resources, relationship services and
overall cost. The success of different companies
in and out of sector in achieving on-line sales
should also be benchmarked (see Table 25.1 and
the section on objective setting).

Intermediary analysis

For distributors and intermediaries, a key
influence of the Internet is its impact on
channel structures. These marketplace phe-
nomena should be assessed and then evaluated
as part of strategy:

 Disintermediation– the removal of

intermediaries such as distributors or brokers

that formerly linked a company to its

customers. A car manufacturer selling direct to

customers rather than through a dealership is

an example of this.

 Reintermediation– the creation of new

intermediaries between customers and

suppliers providing services such as supplier

search and product evaluation. Many new

brokers offering discounted cars have had a

significant impact on the car market.

 Countermediation– the creation of a new

intermediary by an established company. Here

an existing player or players form a new

intermediary to compete against new

intermediaries.

Internal analysis

Internal analysis involves assessment of the

current status of e-marketing implementation.

Quelch and Klein (1996) developed a five-stage

model referring to the development of sell-side

e-commerce. For existing companies the stages

are: (1) image and product information; (2)

information collection; (3) customer support

and service; (4) internal support and service; (5)

transactions. Considering sell-side e-commerce,

Table 25.1 Variations in on-line revenue contribution

Organization Sector On-line

contribution (%)

Overall

turnover

Cisco B2B Networking hardware 90 $19 bn

easyJet B2C Air travel 85 £264 m

Dell B2B, B2C Computers 48 $25 bn

Land’s End Clothing B2C Clothing 11 $1.3 bn

Book Club Associates B2C Books 10 £100 m

Electrocomponents B2B Electronics 7 £761 m group

Domino’s Pizza B2C Food 3.4 £76 m

Tesco B2C Grocery 1.4 £18.4 bn

Thomas Cook B2C Travel <1 £1.8 bn

Source: Company websites, end 2000.