Increasingly, companies are keen to understand the effect and impact of their promotional spend and par-
ticulary how different marketing communication tools perform. As with broadcast media advertising, it can
be difficult to assess the impact of Internet marketing initiatives on offline sales. Traditionally, in the retail
sector, it is not common practice to track the reasons why consumers arrive in a particular store to make
their purchase. However according to Hewitt (2004) the Internet is ‘not just a great promotion vehicle, it’s
also the tracking source that enables us to close the loop and see what happened after the visitor left the
Web site and went shopping’. He suggests several ways in which retailers might use the Internet to follow
their customers’ offline purchasing behaviour. Tactics to gather information include the following.Pre-purchase Internet surveys
Certain products and services are ideal for selling online; books, travel and entertainment tickets, and finan-
cial services whereas other products such as cars, consumer electronics and clothing are researched but
not often purchased online. AOL conducted a series of surveys of 1,004 people who had purchased TVs
within the last six months and 521 people who intended to buy a TV within the next six months to find the
differing types of media such consumers employed to find information to inform their purchasing decision
(see Figure 10.5). The surveys revealed that in-store displays (58%) and past experience/previous owner-
ship (48%) are the most important sources of TV purchase decision making, while retailer flyers (13%) and
online (12%) are ranked by TV purchasers as the most important media sources for new TV information.
This kind of survey is useful as it provides an indication of the effectiveness of online promotion. It
also suggests that it is necessary to link online promotion with in-store promotion, especially if retailers
are solely using the Internet as a marketing communication channelMini Case Study 10.5 The offline impact of online marketing
CHAPTER 10· BUSINESS-TO-CONSUMER INTERNET MARKETING
Figure 10.5Sources of information for new TV purchases
Source: Hewitt, D. (2004) ‘You CAN Tell How You’re Selling Offline’ from http://www.imediaconnection.com/
content/2892.asp, March 01, 2004None of the above 4 %Other 22 %Radio 0%TV commercial 6 %Magazines 6 %Newspapers^8 %Product brochure 10 %Online info. (Internet) 12 %Media sourcesKeyNon-media sourcesRetailer flyer 13 %Friends/Family/Word of mouth 33 %Store/salesperson 38 %In-store display 58 %
Past experience/previous ownership 48 %0 % 10 % 20 % 30 % 40 % 50 % 60 % 70 %