4 Portal or media site
Provide information or news about a range of topics. ‘Portal’ refers to a gateway of infor-
mation. This is information both on the site and through links to other sites. Portals
have a diversity of options for generating revenue including advertising, commission-
based sales, sale of customer data (lists).
Visit these examples: Yahoo! (www.yahoo.com) (B2C) and Silicon (www.silicon.com)
(B2B).
Each of these different types of sites tend to increase in sophistication as organisa-
tions develop their Internet marketing. Many organisations began the process of
Internet marketing with the development of web sites in the form of brochureware sites
or electronic brochures introducing their products and services, but are now enhancing
them to add value to the full range of marketing functions. In Chapters 2 and 4 we look
at stage modelsof the development of Internet marketing services, from static brochure-
ware sites to dynamic transactional sitesthat support interactions with customers.
A powerful method of evaluating the strategic marketing opportunities of using the
Internet is to apply the strategic marketing grid of Ansoff (1957) as discussed in the strat-
egy formulation section of Chapter 4 (Figure 4.10). This shows how the Internet can
potentially be used to achieve four strategic directions:1 Market penetration. The Internet can be used to sell more existing products into exist-
ing markets.
2 Market development. Here the Internet is used to sell into new geographical markets,
taking advantage of the low cost of advertising internationally without the necessity
for a supporting sales infrastructure in the customers’ countries.
3 Product development. New products or services are developed which can be delivered
by the Internet. These are typically digital products.
4 Diversification. In this sector, the Internet supports selling new products which are
developed and sold into new markets.As well as assisting large corporate organisations develop their markets, perhaps the
most exciting potential of the Internet is to help small and medium enterprises (SMEs)
expand. Read Mini Case Study 1.1 ‘North West Supplies extends its reach online’ which
also illustrates some of the challenges of managing an online business and highlights
the need for continual investment.CHAPTER 1· AN INTRODUCTION TO INTERNET MARKETING
Brochureware site
A simple site with
limited interaction with
the user that replicates
offline marketing
literature.
Stage models
Models for the
development of
different levels of
Internet marketing
services.
Transactional sites
Sites that support
online sales.
NWS commenced operations in March 1999 when Andrew Camwell, a member of the RAF Volunteer
Reserve at the time, spotted a gap in the UK market for mail-order supplies of military garments to
people active in the Volunteer Reserve and the Air Cadet Force. Andrew, his wife Carys, and her sister
Elaine Hughes, started running a mail-order business out of shop premises in the village of Cemaes Bay.
The web store at http://www.northwestsupplies.co.ukhas been on-line since November 2002. As it can
take several months for a web site to be indexed by search engines, NWS used pay-per-click advertising
(PPC – see Chapter 8) as a method of very quickly increasing the web site’s presence in the major search
engines. This marketing method proved successful. The directors were pleasantly surprised as they had
previously been somewhat dubious about the prospect of the Internet generating sales in their sector.
Within six months of running the web site, the company had increased turnover by £20,000, but furtherMini Case Study 1.1 North West Supplies extends its reach online