it has to think beyond its own web site to third-party web sites where it can promote its
services. Successful retailers are those that maximise their representation or visibility on
third-party sites which are used by their target audiences. These third-party sites will
include search engines, online portals about mobile phones and product comparison
sites. When thinking about representation on third-party sites, it is useful to think of the
long-tail concept (Anderson, 2004) referenced in Figure 5.4. Across all Internet sites,
there are a small number of sites including portals such as Google, MSN and Yahoo!
which are very popular (the head which may theoretically account for 80% of the
volume of visitors) and a much larger number of sites that are less popular individually,
but still collectively important. Similarly within a category of sites, such as automotive,
there will be a few very popular sites, and then many niche sites which are collectively
important in volume and may be more effective at reaching a niche target audience.
When considering Place and Promotion, it is important to target both the head and the
tail to maximise reach and to attract quality visitors to the destination site.
The main implications of the Internet for the Place aspect of the mix, which we will
review in this section, are:1 place of purchase;
2 new channel structures;
3 channel conflicts;
4 virtual organisations.1 Place of purchase
Although the concept of place may seem peculiar for what is a global medium that tran-
scends geographical boundaries, nevertheless, marketers still have several options for
managing the place of purchase. Allen and Fjermestad (2001) argue that the Internet has the
greatest implications for place in the marketing mix since the Internet has a global reach.
The framework of Berryman et al. (1998), introduced in Chapter 2, is a simple frame-
work for reviewing different places of promotion and/or distribution and purchase.
However, McDonald and Wilson (2002) introduce two additional locations for purchase
which are useful (Table 5.2):(A)Seller-controlled sitesare those that are the main site of the supplier company and are
e-commerce-enabled.
(B)Seller-oriented sitesare controlled by third parties and are representing the seller rather
than providing a full range of options.
(C)Neutral sitesare independent evaluator intermediaries that enable price and product
comparison and will result in the purchase being fulfilled on the target site.
(D)Buyer-oriented sitesare controlled by third parties on behalf of the buyer.
(E)Buyer-controlled sitesusually involve either procurement posting on buyer-company
sites or on those of intermediaries that have been set up in such a way that it is the
buyer that initiates the market-making. This can occur through procurement post-
ing, whereby a purchaser specifies what he or she wishes to purchase, this request
being sent by e-mail to suppliers registered on the system and then offers are
awaited. Aggregators are groups of purchasers who combine to purchase in bulk and
thus benefit from a lower purchase cost.Evans and Wurster (1999) have argued that there are three aspects of ‘navigational
advantage’ that are key to achieving competitive advantage online. These three, which
all relate to the Place elements of the mix, are:CHAPTER 5· THE INTERNET AND THE MARKETING MIX