How significant is Internet marketing to businesses today? The answer as always, is ‘it
depends’. The relative importance of the Internet for marketing for an organisation still
largely depends on the nature of its products and services and the buyer behaviour of its
target audience. For companies such as easyJet (www.easyjet.com), the low-cost European
airline, the Internet is very significant for marketing its products – the Internet is now a vital
part of the customer journeyas consumers select the best supplier and make their purchase.
EasyJet now achieves over 95% of its ticket sales online and aims to fulfil the majority of its
customer service requests via the Internet (Figure 1.1). The figure shows how it has used the
Internet to support its growth into many new markets. When returning to the site on subse-
quent visits, the relevant home page for that country is automatically displayed. For
organisations whose products are not generally appropriate for sale online, such as energy
company BP (www.bp.com) or consumer brands such as Unilever (www.unilever.com), the
Internet is less significant, but is still rapidly growing in importance. We will see that a dra-
matic change in media consumption over the last 10 years towards digital media means that
the Internet is becoming important for all product categories. Although the Internet is less
commonly used for sale of products by such organisations, it is still important in increasing
awareness of their products and brand values through online advertising on third-party sites.
Once awareness is raised amongst different customer types, content and offers such as those
in Figure 1.2 can be used to encourage them to start an online dialogue. The cover theme of
this new edition of Internet Marketingalludes to customer journeys as we go about our daily
lives. It also suggests the potential the web has for collaboration in communities and the
sharing of information and experiences.CHAPTER 1· AN INTRODUCTION TO INTERNET MARKETING
Introduction – how significant is the Internet for marketing?
Customer journey
A description of
modern multi-channel
buyer behaviour as
consumers use
different media to
select suppliers, make
purchases and gain
customer support.
Figure 1.1easyJet web site (www.easyjet.com)