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E-Business
Issues
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EFFECTIVENESS
OF THE NET IN REACHING OUT TO THE MASSES
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Marketers
around the world have from time immemorial tried to
reach their target audiences through various media.
Scientific and technological advances have and will
continue to create newer media to improve communication,
and marketers will try to use the same to effectively
address their audiences. Internet is one of the latest
to join the list of such media inventions.
We shall through this article try and put across our
views and experiences with the Internet as a medium
of communication specifically for marketing or selling
products in the Indian market.
Indian Audiences: Are they ready for the Internet?
Let us first take a quick look at the audience that
this medium is trying to reach (see chart below).
The above table shows that even in the top 8 metros
of the country, the scope of the Internet as a medium
to reach out to a large number of people is presently
limited. However, some of these limitations can be addressed.
1. Internet is available in regional languages also.
Even today this medium is largely confined to only those
who are literate in English.
2. Internet is accessible though other media also and
not only through telephone lines. In the current scenario,
the scope of the growth of Internet is mainly restricted
to the telephone access itself. With the penetration
of cable networks however, this limitation will be addressed
to some extent.
3. Government policies are aimed at broadening and strengthening
the infrastructure required for Internet accessibility.
There could be several other modes to increase the reach
of the Internet. However, with the current limitations,
the projections on Internet usage appear to be as follows:
Media usage of the Indian audiences
Going by the chart below (Reach), TV, print and cinema
have penetrated the most. Clearly, in absolute terms,
Internet is no match for the other media.
Does that mean that Internet is not an effective
tool for reaching out to people? Or is it likely to
work very well under certain conditions?
To understand this better, let us compare Internet and
other traditional media, first from the customer’s point
of view. Current media options serve two broad benefits
to the customer:
1. Information
2. Entertainment
The reach or popularity of any media is related to
1. The extent of benefits perceived to be delivered
2. The cost of acquisition of the media itself
In short, the reach is related to the net value perceived
by the customer about that particular medium.
The table below qualitatively compares various media
based on perceived costs and benefits.
If one agrees with the above classifications, Internet
appears to have a comparatively higher cost of acquisition.
(After all, if one were to use the Net in a small town,
one might have to set up the telecom infrastructure
there first.) However, Internet has brought with it
a very high degree of control to the media user. Not
only are there a plethora of sites catering to every
imaginable need, there is also a high degree of flexibility
in what the user is able to do. All of this makes Internet
a highly interactive media.
Next, one can also evaluate Internet as a media from
the marketers’ point of view by way of a similar classification
(see chart below). If evaluation as per the above classification
is done, the Internet does not appear to be a very advantageous
option either in terms of reach or in terms of cost-effectiveness.
Having said that, it is important to state that the
Internet does indeed have other advantages. These stem
mainly from the ability of this medium to allow a far
more focused targeting as compared to other media
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If
the Net is treated and used exactly like any other medium,
it is unlikely to yield major benefits to the marketer.
Its effectiveness is dependent not only on the target
audience one is talking to, but also largely on the
ability of the marketer to make use of the real advantages
of the Net (interactivity, flexibility, ability to monitor
etc). |
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