INMA_A01.QXD

However, they may take longer to develop suitable customer service facilities. Stage
models can be usefully applied to SME businesses and Levy and Powell (2003) have
reviewed different adoption ladders which broadly speaking have four stages of (1) pub-
lish, (2) interact, (3) transact and (4) integrate.

Stage models have been criticised for a variety of reasons. First, as a generic model
they typically apply to businesses that have products which are suitable for online sale,
but may not apply to the full range of businesses such as the four types of online pres-
ence introduced in Chapter 1. Secondly, these stage models are externally focused and
do not address the broader development of Internet marketing capabilities within an
organisation. Dave Chaffey writing for E-consultancy (2005) has recently developed a
framework for assessing internal digital marketing capabilities across a range of compa-
nies (Table 4.1). In the Internet marketing context, ‘capabilities’ refers to the processes,
structures and skills adopted for planning and implementation of digital marketing. This
was inspired by the capability maturity models devised by the Carnegie Mellon Software
Engineering Institute (www.sei.cmu.edu/cmm/cmm.html) to help organisations improve
their software development practices. Table 4.1 is intended to help:

1 Review current approaches to digital marketing to identify areas for improvement;
2 Benchmark with competitors who are in the same market sector or industry and in
different sectors;
3 Identify best practice from more advanced adopters;
4 Set targets and develop strategies for improving capabilities.

Of the companies assessed within the research, the majority were at Level 3 or 4 over-
all, although companies may occupy different levels according to different criteria. We
return to assessing capabilities using the 7 Ss to implement Internet marketing strategy
at the end of the chapter.

SITUATION REVIEW

Figure 4.6 Levels of web site development in: (a) the information to transaction model
and (b) the transaction to information model of Quelch and Klein (1996)

Personalisation

1. Image/product
   information


2. Information
   collection


3. Customer
   support/service


4. Internal
   support/service


5. Transactions
   
   
   1. Transactions
   
   
   2. Customer
      support/service
   
   
   3. Image/product
      information
   
   
   4. Information
      collection/
      market research
   
   
   
   

(a) Multinational companies (b) Internet start-ups