54 Chapter 3 Electronic Event Marketing Strategies
TheComputer Industry Almanacstates that over 350 million peo-
ple are online today. That’s over 5 percent of the world’s adult
population. And that number will only continue to grow. The In-
ternet is quickly becoming known as the fourth medium of adver-
tising, next to radio, broadcast, and print media. With its ease of
use and initial low cost, marketers are quickly turning to the In-
ternet as the wave of the future.
Note that although the online community is large, its reach is
far less than TV, radio, and other advertising media. This means
that although the Internet has a massive audience, it does not by
any means reach the entire world. With this in mind, electronic
marketing, in the beginning, should only be used as a supplement
to any other promotion and/or advertising you do. Because this
field is ever changing and growing, this chapter will cover broad
generalizations and concepts of electronic marketing. It will not
cover nitty-gritty details of “how-to” create a Web site or “how-to”
design a banner ad, because as soon as it would go into print,
those instructions would be obsolete.
The 14th annual Communications Industry Forecaststated
that, by 2004, Americans will spend more hours annually, an av-
erage of 228, using the Internet than they will spend reading news-
papers (147), books (92), and magazines (77). This means that as
each year passes, more and more individuals will become Web
savvy. Since the entire world population is not online, it may be
helpful to know who is. The following “Internet user profile” was
adapted from Internet Marketing for Dummies:■The online world is still very American, which means online
endeavors that are focused on Americans are more likely to
get results.
■Other areas of the world, including Europe and Asia, are be-
ginning to become more Internet savvy, so be ready in a few
years to target these markets.
■English is the online language.
■Online users are financially well off, so use the Web to tar-
get the middle class or above.
■The majority of Internet users are between the ages of 25
and 44.There are a variety of reasons that the Internet is the ideal mar-
keting tool. It can reach millions of people, while also being used
to target marketing at a smaller group of individuals. The 24 hours,