Lecture Mail: Week 1 Day 2
Hi All!
The books are supposed to be in the bookstore sometime next week. We’ll
obviously adjust the calendar if there is a longer delay.
We talked yesterday about the marketing mix. You remember: product, price, place and promotion. The Internet introduces two additional unique levers that marketers can use. They are individualization and interactivity.
Individualism or customization refers to the customer expectation that he or she will have a personal experience with the firm. Interactivity refers to the extent to which a two-way communication flow occurs between the firm and the customers. The Internet enables a level of two-way dialog between customers and businesses that has NEVER been experienced before.
For example, CDNow.com will remember that you bought a particular CD from a particular rock group several years ago. When the group comes out with a follow-up record, CDNow will e-mail and remind you that you bought this group’s album before and that you might like the new one. Retail outlets simply were not able to provide this level of customer service and individual attention before the electronic age.
When you get your group’s web-site set up, one of the first things you’ll want to do is evaluate your assigned dot-coms on their use of individualism and interactivity. Have they made it easy for the regular visitor to customize the site? Is it easy for the visitor to interact with the site or with other visitors to the site?
In the meantime, take a look at how the following web-sites manage these strengths.