INMA_A01.QXD

3 From one-to-many to one-to-some and one-to-one

Traditional push communications are one-to-many, from one company to many cus-

tomers, often the same message to different segments and often poorly targeted. With

digital media ‘one-to-some’ – reaching a niche or micro-segment becomes more practical

• e-marketers can afford to tailor and target their message to different segments through
  providing different site content or e-mail for different audiences through mass customi-
  sationand personalisation(Chapter 6). Note that many brochureware sites do not take
  full advantage of the Internet and merely use the web to replicate other media channels
  by delivering a uniform message.
  Potentially digital media provide a one-to-one communication (from company to cus-
  tomer) rather than the one-to-many communication (from company to customers) that is
  traditional in marketing using the mass media, such as newspapers or television. Figure 8.2
  illustrates the interaction between an organisation (O) communicating a message (M) to
  customers (C) for a single-step flow of communication. It is apparent that for traditional
  mass marketing in (a) a single message (M 1 ) is communicated to all customers (C 1 to C 5 ).

THE CHARACTERISTICS OF INTERACTIVE MARKETING COMMUNICATIONS

Mass customisation
Mass customisation is
the creation of tailored
marketing messages or
products for individual
customers or groups of
customers typically
using technology to
retain the economies of
scale and the capacity
of mass marketing or
production.

Personalisation
Web-based
personalisation
involves delivering
customised content for
the individual through
web pages, e-mail or
push technology.

Figure 8.2 The differences between one-to-many and one-to-one communication using

the Internet (organisation (O), communicating a message (M) to customers (C))

C 4

M

1

C 3

M 1

C 2

M^1

O

C 1

M^1

C 5

M

1

(a) Traditional one-to-many

mass marketing communication

M 4

C 3

M 3

C 2

M 2

C 1

M^1

C 5

M

5

(b) One-to-one Internet-based

communication

(c) Many-to-many communications via the Internet medium

C 4

O

Cont

ent

Co M

nte

nt

O

M

C 3

M

O

M

O

Cont

ent

C 1

M

C 5

Co

nt

en

t M

Internet medium

O

C 4

C 2

O

Key

O Organisation M = Communicating a message C Customers