E-marketing

E-marketing is completely revolutionizing the way marketing is being done. With recent advancements in technology and with virtually everyone in the entire country using the internet on a daily basis, e-marketers are finding it easier and easier to get the word out about their products. Out of the 4 P's of the marketing mix, I believe that the place and promotion factors are impacted the most by the advent of e-marketing.

The place factor has been greatly impacted by e-marketing because any and every product is available nearly instantaneously. The distribution factor should have products available at the right time at the right place and in the right quantities. Since the global market is so highly integrated now, customers looking at products will be able to see exactly how much of a product a company has, when it is able to be shipped, when it will arrive at the customers' house, etc. Also, e-marketing has benefited companies with inventory control. Companies such as Wal-Mart have instant inventory systems in which, as soon as a product is sold in a store, the information to order a replacement is already in China and will ship domestically extremely quickly. This allows companies to always have the correct amount of any given product, whenever the customers want it.

Promotion is probably the most affected factor by e-commerce as companies can target market their product(s) on any website that they would like. This allows companies to market to only the customers they believe will buy their product, hence saving thousands of dollars a year and avoiding marketing to customers who are unlikely to buy that product being advertised. Companies are also able to publish information about their products such that customers can do research and find out background information about the company or product, or simply look at the features a product has. Since a customer who visits a firm's website is interested in the products that that company has to offer, the company can highlight the products it wants to sell the most.

I believe that e-marketing is one of the most useful tools that marketers can use, and as a result, they can target market their customers like never before, all while saving thousands, if not millions, of dollars a year. With all these new forms of internet marketing, what do you think we will see in the next few years? What new ways can marketing managers take advantage of e-marketing?