The Study:

Effectiveness of Digital Marketing on Consumer Behavior

Introduction:
Digital marketing is referred to as web marketing or online marketing. Through this, marketing of
products and services is done over the Internet. The interactive nature of Digital marketing wherein
instant and elicit responses are unique, has attracted the global audience.

The objective of this dissertation is to find factors that influence the online consumer’s buying
behavior. After reading the literature regarding consumer characteristics and online consumer
characteristics, I acknowledge to suggest certain factors that have certain significance for the online
consumer.
The Internet may be a worldwide accessible series of computer networks that transmits information
by packet switching using the quality Internet Protocol. It is a "network of networks” that inheres
many smaller business, domestic, academic, and government networks which together carry
discrete data and services, through the interlinked Web Pages and other documents of the World
Wide Web.
Initially, the research scientists, students and academicians used the Internet essentially.
Nevertheless, we see the changed scenario nowadays, as many commercial organizations have
switched on to associate with the World Wide Web for giving an opportunity for online shopping as
well as for their promotional campaigns. The Internet has developed into a worldwide susceptible
marketplace for information exchange and e-commerce. The World Wide Web is of crucial
importance to the consumers as it supports with information and services which is particularly
relevant to firms.

According to Vesterby and Chabert (2001) the Internet is obvious for companies to acquire
information about their products or services gettable to their customers or potential customers. A
company can please the consumers’ individual need of information at a low cost corresponding to
sending out product brochures for instance. A user has the liberty to select any information from the
websites through which the information provider may achieve better understanding of the user’s
needs and wants by gathering data.

On the other hand, there is no much structure or rules for accessing the Internet. A lot of efforts are
required in order to visualize the consumer where a particular site is located, and the available
services on that site. Vesterby and Chabert (2001) claims that companies which don’t have
physical presence should market themselves significantly, both online and offline, for the buyer to
recollect their names.

The marketer must understand the consumer and how he makes his decisions and purchasing
choices whether it is the traditional market or the online market, because the consumer is under a
constant flow of stimuli from the marketers’ advertisements. The marketer has the feasibility to
decide and to control the production that will be delivered to the purchaser, but when the
advertisement reaches the consumer that control ends. The consumer then clarifies the information
that has been sent out in his own way based on specific factors for every purchaser. Therefore
marketers have developed different theories that can justify why consumers interpret information in
a certain way, and there by understand certain behaviours (Kotler&Armstrong,2007).

Various articles have been set out to analyse the characteristics of the online consumer. Allred,
Smith and Swinyard (2006) have determined the online consumer to have the following
characteristics: younger, wealthier, better educated, having a higher “computer literacy” and are
bigger retail spenders. Donuthouand Garicia (1999) has pinpointed that the web consumer as: older,
makes extra money , convenient seeker, innovative, impulsive, variety seeker, less risk aware, less
brand and price conscious, and with a more positive attitude towards advertising and marketing .

Some of these characteristics are similar, while others are opposite. Trying to analyze the online
consumer is crucial since the rapid development of e-commerce has also led to boost both
technologies and different kinds of consumers. It is also known that the brand of product has a
strong influence on the online consumer’s behaviour which makes it more difficult to analyze the
consumer characteristics (Christopher&Huarng,2003). There are still some characteristics that can
specify the online consumer and the given below text will take the effort to do so.
SCOPE:
In the current world, Digital marketing is not only blooming in the developing countries but also
finding an important place in the most developed countries. A lot of job opportunities are created in
the digital marketing domain which is calling for the need of understanding the consumer behavior
in the digital world.

 Digital media is attracting mass attention as it’s the newest thing in town. Since we live in a
new era and are experiencing a revolution; we are moving from our traditional to digital
media.
 Digital marketing is very flexible. There is absolutely no restriction of the place you are.
These days of COVID-19 are a great example as all work in the digital world are
spontaneous and can be done from home. Even wanting to order and buy food can be done
at your fingertips through your smart phone or a computer.
 Accessing internet is very easy. It is user friendly and its operations really ease all
consumers.
 Communication through digital media has the fastest reach. Any information posted or
wanting information can be done at the fastest mode.
 The statistic growth of job opportunities are being increased and many professionals are
entering this field.
 The internet led digital marketing has overshadowed the traditional media by its high
engagement factors. The revolution has begun as the brands and companies emphasize on
ad campaigns which run on the internet over the television.
 Digital marketing ad campaigns are of lower investment which in turn draws higher returns.

Digital marketing is at its peak. It enables any business to be open round the clock. The
products that is offered on the internet is convenient for customer, They can browse online
stores and place orders at any time.
NATURE OF CUSTOMER BEHAVIOUR:

Donal Rogan (2007) defines the interrelation between consumer behaviour and marketing strategy.
He states that “strategy is about increasing the probability and frequency of buyer behaviour.
Requirements for succeeding in doing this are to understand the customer and the consumer’s
needs.” Chisnall (1995) points out that human needs and motives are inevitably connected and that
the relationship between them is very close that it turns to be challenging to identify the actual
difference that characterize them. People may buy new coats because it protects them against the
weather, but in real the underlying significant requirement may be to follow the latest fashion trend.
Buyers’ characteristics are important theories and they explain the way that the consumer depicts
and accepts stimuli from the advertisements. The choice of consumers are influenced by a number
of individual characteristics that are linked to the consumer’s specific needs (Kotler & Armstrong,
2007).

 Consumer Characteristics:
Consumer characteristics can be categorized as: Cultural characteristics, Social characteristics,
Personal characteristics, and Psychological Characteristics. These characteristics are identified,
by the marketer, in order to identify the consumer and to be able to decide on the strategy to
what kind of consumer to target. Hence, these characteristics are used in order to segment the
market and target specific consumer groups.

Personal characteristics

The personal characteristics are classified as: Age and Life-Cycle Stage, Occupation, Economic
Situation, Style of living, Personality and Self-Concept.

The Age and Life-Cycle Stage:

These stages point out distinct periods in life that the consumer experiences as he goes through life.
These distinct stages also represent various changes that the consumer may experience when
reaching a new stage. According to Kotler and Armstrong (2007) marketers, therefore, define their
target markets in terms of the different stages in order to develop appropriate marketing plans.
Occupation:
The occupation influences to have an impact on the products and services bought by the
consumers. This leads to the feasibility of developing different types of products or services that
suits the interests identified to be above average within an occupation.

The Economic Situation:

Money in abundance will affect a consumer’s product choice. A consumer may be price- sensitive
or not depending on the level of income, level of savings, level of interest rates, and also the
product or service itself.

Style of living:
This is identified to be a person’s way of living which is identified by the activities, interest, or
opinion he or she has and it also explains the way a consumer connects in the world.

Personality:
The personality of a consumer can be considered on the inner strength, dominance, affability,
autonomy, defensiveness, flexibility and hostility. These psychological factors are a result of one’s
environment. Personality can be exemplified as an active and organized set of characteristics
possessed by an individual that specially influences his or her motivations, and behaviours in
distinct situations (Ryckman,2004).

Self-concept or Self Image:

The theoretical understanding that people’s proprietary reflect their personalities. This approach
does bring some conflicts in case people may have an image that pleases who they are but does not
agree with who they want to be (the ideal self-concept),the question then arises which one I would
like to satisfy.

Psychological Characteristics:
The psychological characteristics are classified into the below mentioned concepts: Motivation,
Perception, Learning, and Beliefs and Attitudes.

Motivation:
Motivation refers to a person’s needs that must be satisfied. These needs are of different kinds;
some are biological, such as hunger, thirst and discomfort ,and some are psychological such as the
need for recognition, esteem and belonging. Needs are not satisfied until they reach a certain point
of intensity and become a motive for the consumer to satisfy them. Kotler and Armstrong (2007)
discuss several motivation theories, among them are Freud’s and Maslow’s theories of motivation.
Freud argued that a person does not really and fully understand his or her motivations. Maslow on
the other hand wanted to understand why some people set out to satisfy some needs before others.
He then came to the conclusion that human needs are arranged in a hierarchy from the most
pressing to the least pressing. As Kotler and Armstrong (2007) explains it ; These needs are listed
as psychological needs, safety needs, social needs, esteem needs, and self-actualization needs.
When one need has been satisfied, a person moves on to satisfy the next.

Perception:
This characteristic is based on the understanding of how differently I perceive the same situation or
the same stimuli. Kotler and Armstrong (2007) explain perception as the process by which people
select, organize, and interpret information. There are three different processes that decide how I
interpret certain information. These are Selective Attention, Selective Distortion, and Selective
Retention.

Learning:
Learning is, according to Kotler and Armstrong (2007), an act that changes people’s behaviour
because of their experience. It occurs through drives: strong internal wants that call for action,
stimuli: object that drives for certain action, cues: small stimuli that determinate when, where and
how the person will respond and reinforcement: when the response and stimuli towards an object is
experienced more than once.

Beliefs and Attitudes:

These are acquired by people through learning and experiencing. They influence the buying
behaviour by making up brands and product images in the consumer’s heads. A belief is explained
by Kotler and Armstrong (2007) as a descriptive thought about something and is based on real
knowledge, opinions or faith. Beliefs can also be emotionally charged. Attitudes are described as a
person’s evaluations, feelings, and tendencies towards something, but also determinations of people
such as likes and dislikes.
  ONLINE CONSUMER CHARACTERISTICS

More specific identifications of the online consumer needs to be made in order to understand the
online purchase behaviour. The identified characteristics are some key characteristics in regard to
the online consumer. These key characteristics were made in order to identify online consumers and
to be able to segment them.

Cultural Online Characteristics:

Smith and Rupp (2003) identify that the difference in social class creates a difference in purchasing
Online Behaviour. Consumers from a higher social class generally purchase more and have a higher
intention to purchase online because there is a higher probability that they possess a computer and
also have greater access to the Internet. Consumers from lower social classes would not have the
same properties. The authors also point out that consumers with lower social class, and there by not
having the same properties, would not have the needed computer literacy to be able to leverage a
computer.

Personal Online characteristics:

Monsuwé, Dellaert and Ruyter (2004) explored the private online consumer characteristics and
concluded that income features a vital role for online purchasing behaviour. The authors
discussed Lohseetal (2000) who acknowledged that buyers with higher house hold income would
have a more positive attitude towards online shopping. Smith and Rupp (2003) also identified
the age factor as a determinant for online purchase intentions. They argued that older people had
no frequent interactions with the web and therefore they wouldn't use the web as a medium for
purchases, while young adults would. The conclusion was that the young adults used the
web and computers more frequently. Younger people were also identified to possess more
technical knowledge.
Motivation:
The consumers reasons for incentives to engage in a particular behaviour. He may ask himself
questions like:
Should I shop around for better price?
If online shopping saves me time, should I shop online more often?
How much do I really need this product?
Perception:
The buyer interprets acquired information by classing it. Subsequent Questions and thoughts
may come around his mind: I feel that this site seems pretty secure.
Attitude:
The buyer functions out what his likes and dislikes are in reference to a specific situation. He
may ask himself:
I'm pretty unsure about extra costs, should I actually be buying items from the Internet?
Emotions:
The consumer has difficulty with his conscious effort detecting how he suffers from his
cognitive choice. He may ask himself:
The last time I ordered from the web I had a very bad experience. Should I try buying online
again?
What is the future of buying online?
If Websites get better should I invest more time in buying online?

SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION (SEO)

Search engine optimization is that the process of affecting the web visibility of an
internet site or an internet page during a web search engine's unpaid results - often mentioned as
"natural", "organic", or "earned" results.

SEARCH ENGINE MARKETING ( SEM)

Search engine marketing may be a sort of Internet marketing that involves the promotion of
internet sites by increasing their visibility in program results pages primarily through paid
advertising.

SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING (SMM):

Social media marketing is that the use of social media platforms and websites to market a
product or service. Although the terms e-marketing and digital marketing are still dominant in
academia, social media marketing is becoming more popular for both practitioners and
researchers.
WEB ANALYTICS:

Web analytics is that the measurement, collection, analysis and reporting of web data for
purposes of understanding and optimizing web usage.

STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM:

With the rapid raise in the usage of technology, the web is becoming a crucial one stop point
for consumers most of their needs. Be it communication, entertainment, shopping, information
search, internet is a panacea for all their requirements. This has led 70% of the ever users to
attach themselves to the web and access it on a daily basis. The problem is that, volumes of
consumers are online everyday for their personal work, but do they notice the ads, banners etc.
displayed thereon webpage, most vital what's their recall/remembrance value. What about the
reach of online advertising, is it effective over all target groups? To fill these gaps, the
present study ought to work out the effectiveness of internet advertising on consumer behavior.

OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY:

 To understand the element in digital media .

 To understand the effectiveness of branding through digital media .

 To understand the effort behind fulfillment of brands objective through campaigns .

 To choose appropriate media for communication .

 To maintain relationship with clients .

 To study the different criteria of digital marketing services.

 To study the growth of Digital marketing.

2. Review of Literature
Literature on Integrated Marketing Communication

Philip Kotler & Kevin Lane Keller, Marketing Management, New Delhi, Pearson Education, 2006,

Integrated marketing communication can produce stronger message consistency and greater sales

impact. It forces management to think about every way the customer comes in contact with the

company, how the company communicates its positioning the relative importance of each vehicle

and timing issues. It gives some responsibility to unify the company’s brand image and messages as

they come through thousands of company activities. IMC should improve the company’s ability to

reach right customers, with the right message, at right time in the right place. Thus personal and

non-personal communication channels should be combined to achieve maximum impact.

Warren J. Keeyan, Global Marketing Management, USA, Prentice-Hall of India Pvt. Ltd., 2002,

A revolutionary development in the shift to the strategic concept of marketing is in the marketing

objective – from profit to consumer benefits. There is a growing recognition that profits are a

reward for performance (defined as satisfying customers in socially responsible or acceptable

ways). To compete in today’s market, it is necessary to have an employee team committed to

continuing innovation and to producing quality products. In other words, marketing must focus on

the customers and deliver value by creating consumer benefits. This change is revolutionary idea

that is accepted today by a vanguard minority marketing practitioners.

The idea of integrated marketing communication (IMC) is to create consistency and synergy by

combining marketing communication elements so that they support and enhance each other, to

promote potential communication understandings (Duncan and Everett, 1993).

Integrating Online & offline marketing together, Fitzpatrick Michele, Direct marketing, Oct 2003,

The concept of integrating online & offline marketing to build success is one who time has come.

While many companies still view their online & offline efforts as separate entities, savvy marketers

are slowly realizing that success comes through integration through all channels to provide

consumers with what they demand-accessibility, choice & convenience.

Viral marketing is an IMC technique that is mostly used for trendy brands; Marketers are increasing

acknowledging Viral marketing as an important IMC tool because it offers the traditions benefits

and effectiveness of advertising. In viral marketing the organization promotes its product using

Word of Mouth Marketing (WOMM), utilizing individual's communication networks, and relying

on their individual recommendations to sell the product. Companies actively seek viral marketing,

by fueling discussion on their offerings. (Groucutt, J. et al 2004).

As per Don Schultz (2008), ―IMC is a strategic business process used to plan, develop,

execute and evaluate coordinated, measurable, persuasive brand communication programmes over

time with consumers, customers, prospects, and other targeted, relevant external and internal

audiences. The key difference in this definition of IMC from that of simple Marketing

Communication is highlighted by use of three words: i) strategic, ii) evaluate and iii) measurable. In

essence, IMC enforces use of marketing communication mix in such a way that it is strategically

designed to achieve certain objectives, measured to enforce accountability over marketers and are

evaluated over time. These elements are also stressed on by various IMC authors (Schultz, 1996;

Duncan & Caywood, 1996), who believe that although the concept of IMC is not new, but the fact
that previously marketing communication was not coordinated strategically and strategy is now

believed critical, gives this concept a new look.

In another definition of IMC given by a well-known author on IMC literature, Kliatchko (2005)

reflects the same concept. As per the author, IMC is the concept and process of strategically

managing audience-focused, channel-centered andresults-driven brand communication programmes

over time. This definition is a bit more specific and along with strategy and accountability it

emphasizes specifically on communication being channel-centered and audience-focused.

Managing and coordinating the integration of company‘s communication across different media

and channels is an important aspect of IMC. IMC does involve a process/plan aimed at providing

consistency and impact through integration of communication via different mediums (Larich &

Lynagh, 2009)

Kitchen and Schultz (1997) believe that integrated marketing communication has significant value

for the organization, specifically in lowering costs and having greater control over the marketing

communication program. This is supported by Duncan and Everett (1993) who extend the benefits

to include gaining competitive advantage through IMC.

Radio, Newspapers, however, now the future of marketers appears to be digital as technology has

become an important part of daily lives (Pall & McGrath, 2009). Concepts like convergence have

come in to bring more versatility in the communication mediums being used. Convergence

represents a paradigm shift – a move from medium specific content towards content that flows

across multiple media channels, towards the increased interdependence of communication systems,

towards multiple ways of accessing media content, and towards ever more complex relations

between top-down corporate media and bottom-up participatory culture.(Jenkins, 2006)

According to Kotler & Armstrong (2003), there are five traditional IMC elements quoted as

Advertising, Sales Promotion, Direct marketing, Personal selling and Publicity/Public relations.
According to Institute of Practitioners in Advertising (IPA), Advertising refers to "the means of

providing the most persuasive possible selling message to the right prospects at the lowest possible

cost". Kotler and Armstrong (2003), provide an alternative definition: "Advertising is any paid form

of non-personal presentation and promotion of ideas, goods and services through mass media such

as newspapers, magazines, television or radio by an identified sponsor".

According Perkin (2003) “as media-blitzed, ad-cynical, time-poor, channel-flicking audience living

in a fast-paced, attention-challenged world” The fact is that due to fast pace of technology, and

globalization of the world, consumer behavior around the world is changing. Today customers have

more control over what to see, and read and therefore IMC need to tailor the organization campaign

as per the requirements of the market.

IMC tries to maximize the positive message and minimize the negative once and communicate

them using the proper tools. A successful IMC program uses the combination of the right tools,

define their role and coordinate their use. The company should use the contact method that offers

the best way of delivering the message to the target audience. (Duncan, 2002).

IMC supports the AIDA model where in it helps to gain attention of consumers, generate interest,

create desire, and result in purchase action.AIDA model developed by Elmo Levis is the set of stair

–step stages, describes the stages through which every potential customer passes till the act of

purchase.

This basic model guides the copywriters in writing persuasive copy. AIDA is an acronym of

Attention –grab the attention of target audience and attract them towards admessage. It leads to

generate -

Interest –in the central theme of the ad that presents a forceful selling point,which arouses

Desire –to give positive response and act in a favourable manner that ultimatelyleads to –

Action –of purchasing product or making an inquiry for the product.

Tools of IMC

As stated earlier, more and more resources are allocated away from the traditional mass media

advertising and used on other communication tools. This allocation of communication budgets is

deeply connected to the appearance of, and is the major part of IMC. (Holm, 2006)

The classic tools –

It is very seldom that companies use one tool of marketing communication. Companies have used a

mix of tools for a long time but that does not mean that they are practicing IMC. The difference

when using IMC is the strategy behind the use and how the mix is coordinated. Duccan (2002) lists

the different tools or functions as advertising, public relations, sales promotion, the personal

connection

(direct response & personal sales) and experimental contacts (events & sponsorships).

Advertising

Mass media advertising, or the awareness builder, consists of “non-personal, one way, planned

messages paid for by an identified sponsor and disseminated to a broad audience in order to

influence their attitudes and behavior.” (Duncan, 2002, p. 506). Advertising is the most common of

all the IMC tools and this is equal to marketing for many people. It is a very broad tool and primary

objective is to create awareness.

Personal selling

Personal selling is defined as “Two way communication in which a seller interprets brand features

in terms of buyer benefits.” (Duncan, 2002, p. 617). Also called the face-to face function, it
involves one-to-one marketing using face to face communication. Before, personal selling was

focused primarily on sales, but now has to focus on salving problems and adding value.

Public relations
Also called as credibility builder, public relations seek to affect the public opinion as well as

company stakeholder. It can be a concept, a profession, and a management as well as a practice.

Public relation can create a goodwill and a positive understanding between an organization and its

stakeholders. Marketing PR is defines as non-paid media to deliver positive brand information

designed to positively influence costumers & prospects.” (Duncan, 2002, p. 543)

Sales promotion

Sales promotion [SP] and the value added communication, is a communication tool that encourages

people to action by adding value. It is “a short term, added- value offer designed to encourage and

accelerate a response” (Duncan, 2002, p. 569). SP can be coupons, price reductions, rebates to

name a few and is used to persuade the customers to buy or motivate in other stages of the decision

process. Important to know is that it works in the short term.

Events & sponsorship

Event marketing & sponsorship are not the same but they overlap and have many things in

common. They are designed to create involvement and are effective to bond customers to a brand or

company. Event marketing a used to involve, increase awareness, reach audience and gain

publicity. Sponsorships have increased over the year and both differentiate and add value. The

definition is the

“the financial support of an organization, person or an activity in exchange of brand publicity and

association.” (Duncan, 2002, p. 640)

Internet (the contemporary tool of marketing)

The advances in technology has led to one of the most dynamic and revolutionary changes in the

history of marketing, the dramatic changes in communication using interactive media such as

Internet. Interactive media allows communication on a two way form instead of one way

communication. And a two way communication plays vital role in IMC. (Belch, Belch, 2001)

Mohammed Bin Afif (2012) believes that the power of ideas; integration across all media: The P's

of the marketing mix are argued by some to be the four C's, with communication replacing

promotion. This article champions communication as an effective tool in marketing. Within the

marketing sphere there are many mediums by which advertising messages can be conveyed to

consumers. The marketing manager must utilize all of the mediums in their thinking in order to

determine the right mix of mediums to use and in the right frequency in each to best convey their

message to the selected target market.

This article argues that mediums must work together for a unified message to be conveyed to

consumers with a feedback mechanism in place for consumers and the organization to be involved

in two-way communication. Also stated is the importance of word-of-mouth communication, which

is often overlooked by marketing managers. This ties in closely with integrated marketing

communication as the mediums must come under one umbrella, or message to be communicated,

that covers all the mediums used to ensure a single clear message is communicated to consumers.

The marketing manager must therefore be creative in their planning to not only differentiate their

marketing from the clutter that exists in the advertising world but also to create the most effective

and cost efficient marketing mix as possible. The brand must engage with the consumer to facilitate

its success and one means of achieving this is to advertise in a setting or context that the brand can

borrow the interest from or that compliments the brand.

Literature on Digital Marketing

Digital Marketing users in One to one marketing, Fosket, Sally, Direct marketing; Nov 1996,
Online services will drive marketing to the opposite end of the spectrum from

“mass” marketing to customized “one-to-one” marketing. Online marketers communicate instantly

and directly with the prospective customers and can provide instant fulfillment as well. Marketers

with carefully designed World Wide Web sites are already interacting computer to computer, with

prospective customers or an individual basis, much as ATM does in very primitive fashion. Online

one to one approaches while innovative and still glamorous in their pioneering aspects, offer

significant new challenges. The significant aspect is the access with the customers. Communication

and information technology development has encouraged the emergence of new communication

channels that have increased the options available to organizations for building relationships with

clients.

How important is Internet marketing to the success of an organization?

There are no exact answers for this question. It depends on the nature of one company business line.

There are many companies currently using the Internet as their main business transaction such as

DELL, AirAsia, etc… However, companies such as UPM, the world’s leading forest products

producer only uses the Internet as a media to introduce the company and its products to customers

via its website.

Besides that, during the whole purchasing decision making process, customers not only use the

Internet in isolation to search for products but other media such as print, TV, direct mail and

outdoor as well. These media still play an extremely

important role for the marketers to communicate with customers, for example, direct or face – to –

face marketing more or less helps marketers build up the trust in customers and encourage them to

purchase the products. Therefore, it is better to use the Internet as part of a multi-channel marketing

strategy which “defines how different marketing channels should integrate and support each other
in terms of their proposition development and communication based on their relative merits for the

customer and the company.” (Chaffey et al. 2006, 5)

Mohan Nair (2011) takes social media as a complex marriage of sociology and technology that

cannot be underestimated in its impact to an organization marketing communication, choice as to

when to engage, how to manage and measure, and whether to lead or to follow is complex but not

an impossible task. These cannot be answered simply by one formula because the context and the

market dynamics are strong variables in these decisions. Even though the interest for social media

is huge, few companies understand what the term ―social media can mean to their businesses. But

how much it has been given importance, as an IMC tool, varies from region to region

(PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), 2009; BuddeComm & Chiltern Magazine Services Ltd.

(BCMSL), 2009).

According to research conducted by Nielsen, we know that 92% of consumers report that “word-of-

mouth and recommendations from people [they] know” are the leading influence on their purchase

behavior. Only 37% trust search engineads, and just 24% trust online banner ads. They trust their

friends and family the most when looking for brand recommendations. But what types of

recommendations carry the most weight? Brands are eager to tap into the power of

recommendations, and many companies measure an “NPS,” or Net PromoterScore, which

illustrates how likely someone is to recommend a specific brand or company. According to a U.K.

study by Fred Reichheld, “a 7% increase in word of-mouth advocacy unlocks 1% additional

company growth.” His research alsoshows that “a 12% increase in brand advocacy, on average,
generates a 2x increase in revenue growth rate plus boosts market share” and, conversely, “a 2%

reduction in negative word-of-mouth boosts sales growth by 1%.”

It is important to understand the relationship between digital communication and traditional

communication in the old media; for example, TV, radio, newspapers, magazines and billboard ads,

the communication model was and is one-to-many compared to one-to-one or many-to-many

communication model in digital media like blogs, social networks, wikis and other social media

(Chaffey, 2003).

The increased fragmentation of media and customers, as well as the revolution in mass

communication by the new communication channels – internet and mobile communication

technologies – has created the need for a new approach to marketing communication that can

ensure centralized management and a consistency of communication messages sent towards various

audiences (McArthur and Griffin, 1997; Semenik, 2002; Smith, 2002).

Foux (2006) suggests Social media is perceived by customers as a more trustworthy source of

information regarding products and services than communication generated by organizations

transmitted via the traditional elements of the promotion mix.

Johnson and Greco (2003) explain that desires and different hopes from different clients can

sometime require certain unique information and contact strategies. Communication channels and

strategies now differ broadly from the ones in former times or offline times.

Digital Marketing is today seen by many practitioners as the new arena for market communication

and on top of the list of users of the different mediums is Facebook, Blogs, Twitter, YouTube and

LinkedIn (Steltzner, 2009).

Kaplan and Haenlein (2010) define social media as ―a group of Internet-based applications that

build on the ideological and technological foundations of Web 2.0, which facilitates the creation

and exchange of user-generated content. It consists of different Internet applications such as blogs,

social networking sites, content communities, collaborative projects, virtual game worlds and social
worlds. Russell S. Winer (2009) affirms that many companies today are using some or all of the

new media to develop targeted campaigns that reach specific segments and engage their customers

to a much greater extent than traditional media.

Mangold & Faulds (2009) argue that marketing managers should comprise social media in the

communication mix when developing and executing their Integrated Marketing Communication

strategies and they presented the social media as a new hybrid element of promotion mix.

Even as organizations realize the need to engage customers at as many touch points as possible,

there is still a need to stay ahead of the rapidly shifting marketing and communication landscape by

integrating social media into traditional strategies to reach out to B2B and B2C audiences. Online

opportunities and their future impact on traditional marketing are as expensive as your imagination

can provide. (Pownall, 2011).

The role of exigencies in marketing: a rhetorical analysis of Three online social networks, thesis

presented to the graduate school of Clemson university, By Greg Brian Martin, May 2007,

Traditional marketing efforts have focused on determining exactly what channel to advertise

through, in order to properly segment the potential audience, but users of online social networks

have often times segmented themselves. Users of Joga, for instance, are soccer fans, users of the

Communities are interested in Adobe, and users of MySpace have the option to supply whatever

information about themselves that they wish. Marketers can spend more effort focusing on the

messages that they will use, and less time on proper audience segmentation.

Another benefit to marketing in a virtual community is that once the audience enters the network,

they may be able to ignore advertising messages, but they cannot avoid them (immersion). Consider

the Adobe Communities, for instance, which uses no outside advertisements or popup ads (that the

typical user can avoid easily), but rather advertise through immersion in that the entire network is

the respective marketing effort.

The structure of Digital Marketing communication channels, Robert Owen

Texas A&M University-Texarkana; Patricia Humphrey, Texas A&M University-Texarkana;

Journal of Management and Marketing Research,

Digital Marketing communication are moving toward interactions between individual recipients

and consumers rather than being directed from a marketing organization to masses of consumers. It

is now possible for an individual to be just as efficient in broadcasting information, both positive

and negative, about an organization as it is for a large corporation to promote itself. The social

networking that allows the quick and easy dissemination of information and mis-information is in

part a product of changes in online communication channels, but these communication channels are

in part enabled by such social networking.

From a marketing perspective, we are at a pioneering stage in understanding how these work. The

emergence and popularity of social networking websites and social media has made it just as easy

for an individual to communicate in real time with thousands of total strangers as with a single

close friend. Social networking websites have also been a great equalizer, making it just as easy for

an individual to build or break a marketing brand as for a large corporation – as well as making it

easy for a large corporation to mimic a sincere "grassroots" individual who lacks corporate motives.

A social networking website is defined here as "one that allows internet users the ability to add

user-generated content such as: comments, feedback, ratings, or their own dedicated pages"

(iProspect, 2007, p. 3). Websites such as epinions.com, for example, allow product users to post

ratings, comments, opinions, and full reviews about products. Wikipedia.com makes it possible for

anyone to edit information about an organization or person, enabling a view that is not necessarily

the official whitewashed company version.

The distribution of products, information and promotional benefits to target customers through

interactive communication in a way that allows response to be measured. It accounts for direct
connections with carefully targeted individual customers to obtain an immediate response and

cultivate lasting customer relationship. (Jobber, 2007)

Forbes Magazine reports retail is down and e-commerce is up. One clear example of the power of

e-commerce comes from Macy’s recent returns. Forbes reports the

154-year-old retail chain saw online sales rise 40% in 2011 while same-stores sales grew just 5.3%.

Maybe you’re not a billion-dollar business like Macy’s, but the numbers don’t lie. Online sales are

overtaking retail sales. Safe to say e-commerce is trending upward more and more each year. It’s

not too late to jump onboard the e-commerce train.

According to Forrester research, considering the current volume of internet marketing business, it’s

hard to believe how young the internet marketplace is.

While the timeline of internet marketing has been short, the cumulative events leading up to where

we are now have impacted the entire globe faster than any marketing revolution in history. In 1994,

spending for internet marketing totaled nearly nothing, but increased to over $300 million in 1995.

Now, little more than a decade later, marketing spending and internet marketing business has

exploded to nearly $200 billion.

Quiroga & Kamila (2010) in their research- Marketing and Facebook, describe how fashion

companies promote themselves on social media platforms such as Facebook. This study took 34

Swedish companies into consideration. Nida, Sadaf, Sanya & Umair (2010) in their research-

Evolution of Digital Media as an IMC tool and its relevance for Pakistan aim to analyze the trends

of digital media within IMC over the years in Pakistan, the factors that have contributed to the

change and explore the importance of digital media in the marketing mix in future. Chen et al.

(2007, pp.1047) notes that ―from both theoretical and practical perspectives, it is worth studying

what makes marketing communication introduce and promote products effectively, especially in

high-tech industries.
User Generated Content

User generated content (UGC) includes online blogs, contributions to wikis, comments in forums,

and pictures and status updates on social networking sites.

It‘s also called consumer generated media‘, or consumer created media, and is a core component of

the so-called second generation web or Web 2.0. (Chris Grannell, 2009).

According to Constantinides and Fountain (2009), the power structure has changed due to fact that

customers have access to information which previously was not available for them. As a result, the

consumer attitudes changes leading to new consumer needs, values and buying behavior. Also

Hearn, Foth and Grey (2009) acknowledge that the participatory culture, enabled by recent

technological innovations, shifts the communication flows away from a central business-to-

consumer model. The development is towards consumer-to-consumer flows ofcommunication as

customers start to create content on their own by using new media applications and services.

(Hearn, Foth and Grey 2009, pp.49.)

Mangold and Faulds (2009) point out that the popular business press and academic literature offers

marketing managers very little guidance for incorporating social media into their marketing

communication strategies. Social media should be included in the promotion mix when developing

and executing their integrated marketing communication strategies. It is a hybrid element of the

promotion mix because it combines characteristics of the traditional integrated marketing

communication tools with a highly magnified social media influence whereby marketing managers

cannot control the content and frequency of such information. Social media is also a hybrid due to it

springs from mixed technology and media origins that enable instantaneous, real-time

communication. Is also utilizes multi-media formats and numerous delivery platforms, with global

reach capabilities. (Mangold and Faulds 2009, 359.)

The internet has become a mass media vehicle for consumer sponsored communication. It now

represents the number one source of media for customers at work and the number two source of

media at home. Customers are turning away from the traditional sources of advertising: radio,

television, magazines, and newspapers. Customers also consistently demand more control over their

media consumption. They require on-demand and immediate access to information at their own

convenience. Customers are turning more frequently to various types of social media to conduct

their information searches and to make their purchasing decisions (Lempert, 2006; Vollmer &

Precourt, 2008).

The internet and the marketing mix

Nowadays, the concept of Internet marketing has expanded and brought more opportunities for

companies to approach their customers. In the past, the Internet was only used as a tool to contact

customers, part of direct marketing. Nowadays, the Internet, particularly websites has been

becoming a popular media for any firms to introduce their products and services. The Internet is

considered as an independent and effective marketing tool. During eight years, from 2000 to 2008,

the number of Internet users has increased by 4 times from about 361 millions to more than 1, 46

billion (http://www.internetworldstats.com/stats.htm ), in which, Asia, the continent with the

biggest population accounts for 39.5% of World Internet Users.

In Finland, nearly four out of five Finns aged 15 to 74, or over three million persons, used the

Internet in Spring 2007 (www.stat.fi). To understand precisely how the Internet offers new

opportunities to traditional marketing model, it is necessary to examine it based on the marketing

mix which is traditional but still applicable.

In 1960, Jerome McCarthy introduced the marketing mix - widely referred as the 4 Ps of Product,

Price, Place and Promotion. Until now, it still plays an important role in formulating and

implementing marketing strategy. The 4 Ps have been developed and extended to the 7 Ps with the

appearance of People, Process and Physical evidence (Booms and Bitner, 1981). It provides an

effective strategic framework for changing different elements of a company's product offering to

influence the demand for products within target market (Chaffey et al. 2006, 215).

However, the researchers only focus on the first main and traditional 4 Ps in this paper due to some

limitations.

According to Philip Kotler (2003), Product is the solution to customers wants or/and needs. It

refers to the characteristics of a product, service or brand. The Internet offers options for varying

the core product, options for changing the extended products, conducting research online, velocity

of new product development and velocity of new product diffusion (Chaffey et al. 2006, 217 - 222).

Many digital products now can be purchased easily over the Internet via providers’ website. For

other products, instead of providing actual products to customers, many companies publish the

detailed product information with pictures or images. Thanks to this, consumers still have concepts

about different kinds of product even when staying at home. Besides that, for some companies, it is

possible for buyers to customize products. Dell is a typical example. Through its websites, a

customer can build a laptop or a desktop with the desired functions and features. Besides that,

companies also can supply more extended product user guides, packaging, warranty, after sales

services in a new method. For example, new drivers or updated package for a computer or software

are easily downloaded via producers’ websites. It brings conveniences for both of buyer and seller/

producers. In addition, it is obvious that the Internet provides a new tool to collect customer

feedback quickly and accelerate new product development since process of testing new products is

more rapid and effective. The information about new products will spread out more wildly and

quickly.
Price is the most flexible element comparing to other three elements of themarketing mix, since it
can be changed quickly to adapt to the market's demand.

Companies can use the Internet to build differential price for different customers in different

countries, based on IP (Internet Protocol) analytic technologies. For buyers, they are able to find out

the price differences by visiting companies' websites or price comparison sites. In addition to this,

the Internet also reduces costs and price per product by reducing operating costs of stores and

number of staffs. Therefore, the Internet is considered as the most effective marketing tool.

(P S Verma et al. 2003, 135-156). Together with these advances, many new payment methods are

created. The online payment method using credit cards is the most popular, efficient, convenient

and flexible way for companies and customers. Bills can be paid at any time and in anywhere.

Moreover, companies can cut costs by reducing paper works since the customers fill all the

necessary information such as their own private information and credit cards information by

themselves.

Beside these conveniences, online customers still have to worry about securities and privacy

matters. Hence, some third parties provide services to protect consumer privacy and to secure

transactions. PayPal is one of the most successful companies in this business sector.

Place in the marketing mix refers to how the product is distributed to customers.New method of

distributing goods through online selling is offered by the improvement of the Internet. It is

possible for customers to make their purchasing decisions anywhere at any time. The Internet has

the greatest implications for the Place in the marketing mix because it has a large market place

(Allen and Fjermestad 2001, 14-23). Companies now can expand their business from local areas to

the whole country even to international market. They also can use the Internet to exploit new

markets with low cost international advertising since theydo not have to establish sales

infrastructure in different countries (Chaffey, 2006, 237-243).

The Promotion element of the marketing mix refers to how marketing communication are used to

inform customers and other stakeholders about an organization and its products (Chaffey, 2006,

243). The Internet can be used to review new ways of applying each of elements of communication

mix such as advertising, sales promotions, PR and direct marketing; assess how the Internet can be

used at different stages of the buying process; and assist in different stages of customers

relationship management from customer acquisition to retention (Chaffey, 2006, 243 - 245).

Internet Advertising: It is a form of advertising that uses the Internet to attractcustomers by

delivering messages through websites or advertising banners on other popular websites which leads

online users to a company site. The company website must be well-organized, well-designed and

user-friendly in order to attract more target customers. (Rowley, 2001)

Sales promotion: Thanks to the Internet, sales promotions such as competitions orprice reductions

can be provided to visitors of the company’s website in a cost-reduced way. Not only encourage the

customers to visit the company website again, this also provides the means for the company to

build a long term relationship with their customers (Chaffey, 2006, 243-245).

Public relations: The Internet is a new medium for Public Relations (PR). Blogs,Podcasts / Internet

radio shows, online newsrooms and media kits offer companies a new opportunity to publish the

news directly while in traditional marketing they would wait for periodical publications (Chaffey,

2006, 243-245).

Direct marketing: Thanks to the Internet, companies nowadays have a new toolfor direct

marketing and advertising that may be cost effective and maximum delivery to targeted customers.

By using e-mail addresses, the company can establish a two way communication method with

customers (Chaffey, 2006, 243-245).

The 21st century is predicted to be a century of technologies when everyone, every company, every

organization apply them to make their works become much easier and more effective. The

popularity of using the Internet, together with the improvement of computer hardware and software

industries, completely boost the development of e-marketing in the whole process of buying from

pre-sale to sale to post-sale and further development of customer relationship. New comers in this

area have to consider very carefully the use of these modern channels. Since, the role of Internet

marketing is to support the multi-channel marketing which is the combination of digital and

traditional channels at different points in the buying cycle (Chaffey et al. 2006, xiv - xv). They have

to understand which the main marketing channel is and which the supportive marketing channel is.

Below is some results drawn from different articles and researches which touch upon different

parameters that make many companies pursue Internet marketing.

Consumer privacy

In an effort to understand New Zealand consumers more, Chung W. and Paynter J.(2002, 2402-

2411), based on their work, drew a conclusion that it was a must for companies to have privacy

policy statements under their website to protect consumer privacy information, to make sure that

their customers’ information cannot be misused. Some solutions were also discussed in this study to

protect customers' privacy. For the authors, solutions such as legislation, self-regulation and

technical solutions had be combined together to maximize its effectiveness.

According to Liebermann Yehoshua and Stashevsky Shmuel (2002, 291-300), the factors which

can prevent customers from using and believing in e-commerce include: Internet credit card

stealing, fear of supplying personal information, pornography and violence, vast Internet

advertising, information reliability, lack of physical contact, not receiving Internet products

purchased, missing the human factor when Internet purchases are made, Internet usage addiction.

The participants for this study come from different genders, group ages, high/low education
background, and different marital status. Other variables are also examined for example Internet

user/non user, bought online/not bought online and heavy/light Internet user.

According to Chaffey et al. (2006, 381), Paid search listings or sponsored links are very important

for any company to be visible in all search engines. To achieve highest positions and regularly

appear, websites should take bid strategy and click through rate into consideration very carefully.

Bid strategy helps advertisers maximize their exposure on PPC search engines such as Google,

Yahoo or MSN.

In cases when using Google, setting a maximum bid in the Adwords platform means how much an

advertiser is willing to pay for a click on a specific keyword. Based on what other advertisers are

bidding for the same keyword, you may be charged less but will never be charged higher than your

set limit. The maximum bid you set will be one of the main factor determines what your rank

number in sponsored links list. If for a same term, you bid

higher than other advertisers, your ad will probably appear in the top three positions. If you bid too

low, your ad may not be listed on the first page of result or even will not appear at all. Meanwhile,

the click through rate refers to the 27 number of persons who click on the link. Google also takes

click through rate into account to rank the sponsored links. When the click through rate of a link is

low or a zero, the link will be dropped down or taken away from sponsored link list.

Google Adwords is not the only choice for PPC advertising. Yahoo Publishers or

Microsoft’s MSN are main competitors of Google in this market. Any company must be careful in

calculating the advertising costs which relate to the actual purchase or lifetime value they can get

from the average customer. As well as examining the cost-per-click (CPC), companies also have to

take into account the conversion rate when visitors come to their websites.

Interactive marketing refers to place ad banners on other websites. If ad site visitors click on ad

banners, visitors will be redirected to destination sites. In some aspects, it is quite similar with Pay-
per-click search engine. The main difference between these two types of marketing activities is:

there is no interference of the third parties or search engine providers. Besides traditional banner

ads (468 by 68 pixel), there are now many different forms of interactive advertising such aspopups/

layer, video ads, or new large-format ad spaces (button 2, skyscrapers, wide skyscrapers,

Leaderboards). The main purposes of interactive advertising for example are: delivering detailed

information of a destination site’s offer, leading to a sale, and brand awareness.

The foundation of interactive advertising results in the appearance of many new different terms, for

instance page impression (occurs when an Internet user views a webpage), ad impression (occurs

when a person views an advertisement on the webpage), reach (a number of unique individuals

view an advertisement), Click through (occurs each time a webpage visitor clicks on an ad banner

which leads them to destination website) and click through rate (CTR) (is the number of clicks your

ad receives divided by the number of times your ad is shown (impressions) in ad sites

(http://adwords.google.com)). According to an ADTECH research (2007), in Europe, the click

through rate has fallen from 0.33% in 2004 to 0.18% in 2007. Compared to other countries, the

CTR in Finland is the lowest one, only 0.09%.

Dirk Freytag, CEO, ADTECH, said: “The decreasing numbers overall in my opinion are due to the

fact that the users have increasingly gotten used to online advertising during the last years. Banners

are now commonplace on the Internet. New formats, such as video ads are needed to draw attention

and generate clicks. Layer and Leaderboards in contrast have a high reminder potential even

beyond the Web.” (http://www.adtech.info/archive2007_1/pr-070510.htm)

What is Viral Marketing?

Viral marketing [VM] may be a mixture of marketing techniques that use pre-existing
social networks to increase brand awareness or to realize other marketing objectives of a
business. Viral marketing helps to extend product sales with the help of varied processes and
modules that resemble viruses. Video clips, interactive Flash games, advergames, ebooks, brand
able software, images, or maybe text messages are a number of the sorts of viral marketing
services to feature to the promotion of a website/business. Sometimes, WOM [word-of-mouth]
communication and network effects of the web also work as a tool of viral marketing.
Viral Marketing is any marketing technique that encourages internet site, Internet, email
or wireless users to expire a message to other sites or users, creating a potentially exponential
growth within the message's visibility and effect. Viral Marketing is extremely attractive to
businesses because it can deliver astounding leads within a comparatively short period of your
time. Advertising and marketing budgets do not stretch as far as they want to and therefore
the perceived savings by using viral web promotion techniques are too attractive to ignore.
A documented example of successful viral email marketing is Hotmail, a company, now
owned by Microsoft that promotes its email service and its own advertisers' messages at the
top of each Hotmail user's e-mail notes. Viral Marketing methods include email marketing,
"refer-a-friend", "pass-it-on", "send-an-article", ecards, ebook distribution, video email, and lots
of more. Internet experts at Viral Buzz can implement web promotion strategy to virtually
any internet site or promotional campaign.
According to the Double click website, there are three key measures for email marketing:
delivery rate (non-bounce rate), open rate and click on through rate (click rate). Delivery rate
simply shows the share of delivered emails. Emails will bounce when the e-mail addresses do
no longer exist or blocked by a spam filter. Open rate indicates what percentage emails are
opened, however these figures aren't accurate. It is often explained that variety of users have
preview panes in their email reading programs which load the image albeit it's deleted without
reading. Besides that, some email readers like Window Live Mail block images by default. It
results to the open rate decline gradually through time. Click through rate or click rate refers
to the amount of delivered emails are clicked through by readers.

Online PR:

PR stands for “public relations”. In some cases, it's also used as an acronym for “press
release” or “press relations”. Online PR refers to maximizing favorable mentions of a
corporation, its brands, products or websites on third-party websites which are likely to be
visited by its audience . Online reputation management, which controls the reputation of a
corporation through monitoring and controlling messages placed about the organization, is
another aspect of online PR.

There are many activities which belong to Online PR. Communicating with media
(journalists) online is one among Online PR activities. It uses the web to open up press releases
via email and on-site. A corporation can create a press-release area on its webpage or send email
alerts about news to the journalists and other third parties can check in to. It can also prefer
to submit its news stories or releases to online news feeds. Link building is another activity of
Online PR since it aims to form your brand visible on third parties’ webpage.

Joanna Lord (2013) states that Digital Marketing in 2012 might be summed up using
a few words: mobile, big brands and Google updates. As we glance back at the events and
advancements that shaped last year in Digital Marketing, naturally we should
always anticipate and wonder if the coming years would have future. While the execution of all
this might vary wildly, there's little question a couple of areas will capture our attention and be
the driving forces behind business decisions over subsequent 12 months.

1. A surge in 'second screen' value:

By second screen I'm pertaining to mobile. With quite 75 percent of the planet having
access to mobile devices, today’s marketer can’t ignore the value of offering second
screen value for his or her brands and clients.
Last year we were tasked with making our websites mobile-friendly - meaning
 responsive and straightforward to use on mobile devices but this year we are going to
be all about offering value through mobile app form.
What value can your brand or client offer a mobile device user?
It goes beyond simple use and searching ability. This type of value is going to be in
new information, new formats for consumption and completely with new resources.

2. The evolution of 'attribution modeling':

Last year was one heck of a year for analytics. We saw the rise of analytics packages
and solutions, breaking down channel silos and marketers taking a more holistic
approach to what's called attribution tracking -- the process of assigning a
selected value to a marketing action that leads to a conversion.

3. The rise of gamification:

Applying game-design, thinking to non-game applications to make them more fun
and engaging has been growing steadily, but expecting it to reach a tipping point. Big
brands, new startups and each company in-between are going to be spending extra
money and resources on "gamifying" their products and services this year. The rise of
easy-to-use platforms, like BigDoor and PunchTab, and therefore the inherent value
of an engaged user, have made this a must-consider marketing strategy.

4. An increased focus on 'inbound marketing':

With the growth of social marketing, marketers now must invest in adding a new kind
of value. Enter "inbound marketing,” a kind of selling during which brands spend
resources to
create content, conversations and valuable resources that draw customers to their
products or websites without paid marketing.

5. Improved data visualizations:

It is believed that there will be a renewed focus on beautiful data visualizations in the
upcoming years, which is the way we visualize complex data sets in easy to
understand formats that are worth sharing.

6. More loyalty marketing:

 By now, we are all pretty aware that it is more costly to acquire a new customer than
to retain an existing one. Adding to that how consumers haven't before been so
connected and willing to share opinions on purchases and knowledge, Marketers`
brainstorm creative ways to make customers feel appreciated and satisfied.

7. Brands as social influencers:

Thanks to the platforms such as Pinterest, Facebook and Foursquare, we've seen
brands build followings of unparalleled size, which has left them with legitimate
influence over consumers. The brands still grow their communities and therefore
the reach of their voice, opinions and products.

8. More analytics:
As we see more marketing channels in play and an improved ability to understand
how they all touch, it is predicted that marketers will be seeking out new ways to
prioritize their many opportunities. Unlike traditional web analytics -- the
measurement of how your website is performing – marketing analytics is the
measurement and optimization of your marketing activities.

9. Design is king:
Piggybacking the growing importance of inbound marketing and the trend in
improved data visualizations comes a rising of the bar around web design. With
designer community sites like dribbble and forrst, we’ve seen the
design community grow in leaps and bounds. Beautiful design has never been so
affordable and in demand.

10. Local marketing goes mainstream:

Local companies have never before had so many tools available to understand how to
improve local search results, engage with customers and measure their success. Sites
like GetListed have made local marketing easy to trace and manage, at a price small
businesses can afford. That is why it's believed that everybody will see local
marketing demystified for the masses, and more successful small businesses as a
result.
Krishan Kant (2005) states that Integrated Marketing Communication is a term
 used to describe a holistic approach to marketing communication. It aims to make
sure consistency of message and therefore the complementary use of media. The
concept includes online and offline marketing channels. Digital Marketing channels
include any e-marketing campaigns or programs, from search engine optimization
(SEO), pay-per-click, and affiliate, and email, banner to latest web related channels
for webinar, blog, micro-blogging, RSS, podcast, and Internet TV. Offline marketing
channels are traditional print (newspaper, magazine), order, PR , industry relations,
billboard, radio, and TV. A company develops its integrated marketing
communication program using all the weather of the marketing mix (product, price,
place, and promotion).

Jerry Ihejirika (2009) believes that Marketing on the web became the simplest and most
generally accepted sort of global communication. Internet marketing communication consists
of the worldwide sharing of ideas, concepts, and knowledge about products and services.
Digital Marketing communication is initiated through the use of marketing media vehicles such
as social media networks, forums, e-mail, ads, blogs, press release, RSS distribution, and other
promotional tools.

If you've got an internet site selling products or services, it can assist you generate traffic of
tourists to your website and before you recognize it, you're getting leads and making sales.
Generating traffic to your website is extremely important, but in fact, your website must look
unique, well-structured, rich contents, and program optimized. This will cause you to stand out
and above your competitors. However, those new visitors will help in word-of-mouth
communication by telling others about your unique and rich content website.
The internet marketplace is getting flooded day by day . These have resulted to several large
companies hiring Digital Marketing specialists to do a great job in promoting their web
businesses. It is the small- and medium-sized enterprises who are trying to find cost effective
solutions. Of course, if a corporation doesn't have the cash to rent service providers and that
they are willing to find out the maximum amount as they can about marketing on the
internet, they might do an excellent job of promoting their website.
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
For accomplishing this project, I planned to use two methodologies. One is gathering data from

client servicing executives at SONAIYA SOFTWARE SOLUTIONS and another one is a research

to understand the consumer buying behavior of Indians in digital era using an online questionnaire.

Sonaiya Software Solutions – Organization Worked

Pitch Presentation: Presentation made by the Sonaiya Software for client based on the brief, by

analyzing industry and digital media. Mostly used for new clients;

Figure 3.1: Systematic Flow followed in Sonaiya Software Solutions

Proposal: Proposal put forward by Sonaiya Software including campaign objective,

target market, strategy, approaches, estimated cost and outputs.

DIGITAL MARKETING – SEO

SEO (or Search Engine Optimization) is defined by Wikipedia as: “the process of improving
the volume or quality of traffic to a web site from search engines via “natural” (”organic” or
“algorithmic”) search results”.

Search engine optimization can be split into 2 main areas;

• “On-Page SEO” (changes to the subject website and its pages, also known as Technical SEO”). It
provides about 20%-30% of the total ranking score.

• “Off-Page SEO” (getting links from external websites, otherwise known as Content Marketing &
Online PR). It provides about 70%-80% of the total ranking score.

Keyword Planning is an essential one before starting the process:

a) Search a Target keyword using Google Ad words
b) Select High monthly searches & Low completion keywords

SEO FACTORS
1. Domain Age – Age of the domain will increase the authority of the website and improve
ranking.
2. Keyword Appears in Top Level Domain
3. Keyword as First Word in Domain
4. Domain registration length – Should be less than 63 characters.
5. Keyword in Sub domain Name – Put the keyword in the sub domain or pages.
6. Domain History: A site with volatile ownership (via who is) or several drops may tell Google to
“reset” the site’s history, negating links pointing to the domain.
7. Country TLD extension: Having a Country Code Top Level Domain (.in .cn, .pt, .ca) helps the
site rank for that particular country…but limits the site’s ability to rank globally.
8. Keyword in Title Tag: The title tag is the webpage’s second most important piece of content
(besides the content of the page) – Less than 160 characters.
9. Title Tag Starts with Keyword: Title tags that starts with a keyword tend to perform better than
title tags with the keyword towards the end of the tag:
10. Keyword in Description Tag: Another relevancy signal.
11. Keyword Appears in H1 Tag: H1 tags are a “second title tag” that sends another relevancy
signal to Google.
12. Keyword is Most Frequently Used Phrase in Document: Having a keyword appear more
than any other likely acts as a relevancy signal.
13. Content Length: Content with more words can cover a wider breadth and are likely preferred
to shorter superficial articles.
14. Keyword Density: (3%-10%) Keyword density is still something Google uses to determine the
topic of a webpage. But going overboard can hurt you.
15. Latent Semantic Indexing Keywords in Content(LSI): LSI keywords help search engines
extract meaning from words with more than one meaning .
16. LSI Keywords in Title and Description Tags: As with webpage content, LSI keywords in
page meta tags probably help Google discern between synonyms. May also act as a relevancy
signal.
17. Page Loading Speed via HTML: Both Google and Bing use page loading speed as a ranking
factor. Search engine spiders can estimate your site speed fairly accurately based on a page’s code
and file size.
18. Duplicate Content: Identical content on the same site (even slightly modified) can negatively
influence a site’s search engine visibility.
19. Rel=Canonical: When used properly, use of this tag may prevent Google from considering
pages duplicate content.
20. Image Optimization: Images on-page send search engines important relevancy signals through
their file name, alt text, title, description and caption.
21. Magnitude of Content Updates: The significance of edits and changes is also a freshness
factor. Adding or removing entire sections is a more significant update than switching around the
order of a few words.
22. Historical Updates Page Updates: How often has the page been updated over time? Daily,
weekly, every 5-year? Frequency of page updates also play a role in freshness.
23. Keyword Prominence: Having a keyword appear in the first 100-words of a page’s content
appears to be a significant relevancy signal.
24. Keyword in H2, H3 Tags: Having your keyword appear as a subheading in H2 or H3 format
may be another weak relevancy signal.
25. Keyword Word Order: An exact match of a searcher’s keyword in a page’s content will
generally rank better than the same keyword phrase in a different order.
26. Outbound Link Quality: Many SEOs think that linking out to authority sites helps send trust
signals to Google.
27. Grammar and Spelling: Proper grammar and spelling is a quality signal.
28. Syndicated Content: Content should be original, i.e., Unique.
29. Number of Internal Links Pointing to Page: The number of internal links to a page indicates
its importance relative to other pages on the site.
30. Broken Links: Having too many broken links on a page may be a sign of a neglected or
abandoned site. The Google Rater Guidelines Document uses broken links as one was to assess a
homepage’s quality.
31. Reading Level: There’s no doubt that Google estimates the reading level of webpages.
32. HTML errors/W3C validation: Lots of HTML errors or sloppy coding may be a sign of a
poor quality site.
33. URL Length: Long URLs may hurt search visibility.
34. Website traffic
35. Bullets and Numbered Lists: Bullets and numbered lists help break up your content for
readers, making them more user friendly. Google likely agrees and may prefer content with bullets
and numbers.
36. Priority of Page in Sitemap: The priority a page is given via the sitemap.xml file may
influence ranking.
37. User Friendly Layout
38. Site Architecture: A well put-together site architecture helps Google thematically organize
your content.
39. Terms of Service and Privacy Pages: These two pages help tell Google that a site is a
trustworthy member of the internet.
40. Duplicate Meta Information On-Site: Duplicate meta information across your site may bring
down all of your page’s visibility.
41. Breadcrumb Navigation:
42. Mobile Optimized – The website should be mobile friendly.
43. YouTube: There’s no doubt that YouTube videos are given preferential treatment in the
SERPs (probably because Google owns it).
44. Bounce rate.
45. Use of Google Analytics and Google Webmaster Tools: Some think that having these
two programs installed on your site can improve your page’s indexing. They may also directly
influence rank by giving Google more data to work with (ie. more accurate bounce rate,
whether or not you get referall traffic from your back links etc.).
46. User reviews/Site reputation – Need to have positive reviews with large numbers in our
website and other websites.
47. Alt Tag (for Image Links): Alt text is an image’s version of anchor text.
48. Links from .edu or .gov Domains
49. PR of Linking Page: The Page Rank of the referring page is an extremely important
ranking factor.
50. Authority of Linking Domain: The referring domain’s authority may play an
independent role in a link’s importance (ie. a PR2 page link from a site with a homepage PR3
may be worth less than a PR2 page link from PR8).
51. Social Shares of Referring Page: The amount of page-level social shares may influence
the link’s value.
52. “Sponsored Links” Or Other Words Around Link: Words like “sponsors”, “link
partners” and “sponsored links” may decrease a link’s value.
53. Internal Link Anchor Text
54. Links from “Hub” Pages: Getting links from pages that are considered top resources (or
hubs) on a certain topic are given special treatment.
55. Link from Authority Sites: A link from a site considered an “authority site” likely pass
more juice than a link from a small, microniche site.
56. Linked to as Wikipedia Source: Although the links are nofollow, many think that getting
a link from Wikipedia gives you a little added trust and authority in the eyes of search
engines.
57. DMOZ Listed: Many believe that Google gives DMOZ listed sites a little extra trust.
58. Yahoo! Directory Listed: The algorithm might also have a special place for the Yahoo!
Directory, considering how long it’s been cataloging sites.
59. Forum Profile Links: Because of industrial-level spamming, Google may significantly
devalue links from forum profiles.
60. Word Count of Linking Content: A link from a 1000-word post is more valuable than a
link inside of a 25-word snippet.
61. Organic Click Through Rate for a Keyword
62. Direct Traffic: It’s confirmed that Google uses data from Google Chrome to determine
whether or not people visit a site (and how often). Sites with lots of direct traffic are likely
higher quality than sites that get very little direct traffic.
63. Repeat Traffic: Sites with repeat visitors may get a Google ranking boost.
64. Chrome Bookmarks: Pages that get bookmarked in Chrome might get a boost.
65. Number of Comments: Pages with lots of comments may be a signal of user-interaction
and quality.
66. Dwell Time: Google pays very close attention to “dwell time”: how long people spend on
your page when coming from a Google search.
67. Local Searches: Google often places Google+ Local results above the “normal” organic
SERPs.
68. Facebook Shares: Facebook shares - because they’re more similar to a backlink
69. Authority of Facebook User Accounts: As with Twitter, Facebook shares and likes
coming from popular Facebook pages may pass more weight.
70. Pinterest Pins: Pinterest is an insanely popular social media account with lots of public
data. It’s probably that Google considers Pinterest Pins a social signal.
71. Verified Google+ Authorship:
72. Number of RSS Subscribers
73. Disavow Tool: Use of the Disavow Tool may remove a manual or algorithmic penalty for
sites that were the victims of negative SEO.
74. Reconsideration Request: A successful reconsideration request can lift a penalty.
CLIENT SERVICING

Analyzing the industry and digital media for clients, formulating strategies and

executing them based on the objectives of client.

Figure 3.2: Digital Marketing Flow – Executives wise

LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY

Although Digital marketing is an advanced way to publicize there are few limitations involved
which make it less productive. There are demerits involved though online marketing provides with
benefits. Online marketing is, by all means, the next big thing, in fact, it is already a thing as a wide
number of people are using it. Though there are advantages, limitations stays as a barrier for the
marketers which can prevent them from succeeding. They are as follows:

Financial Investment:

The understanding of most of the people is that digital advertising and digital branding isn't
costly when in reality it is. The companies make use of the digital advertising tools which involves
a high cost as do the software and hardware. There is a fixed cost that a company has to pay for
every software which is being used, so that the software keeps running. Besides this online
marketing needs regular consultation with digital marketing agencies that provide digital marketing
tips and manage online pages at an agreed cost. Furthermore, experts who deal and manage online
pages charge a good amount and if a business itself needs to learn online marketing then there will
be a cost of taking a digital marketing course online.

Trust Factor:

There is always a trust factor with traditional marketing ways even though the Internet is a
safe medium still people prefer traditional marketing ways over online marketing in most cases.
When costly goods are involved the internet cannot be chosen as a medium of purchase. For
example, if a person wants to buy a car, he can’t just buy it by just getting information from the
web. It needs live interaction between the consumer and the seller. But for sure a website can give
information regarding the specification, a purchase decision could be made only when the seller
and the buyer meet.

Internet Fraudulence And Cybercrime:

The security of Internet marketing is still a question since frequently we hear about cybercrime
and internet fraud which makes people wish to rely on traditional ways than online marketing.

Website breakdown and no internet access

The availability of internet is the utmost need for Online marketing and if the internet isn't
available people can't access. Since everyone doesn't have internet , a business has to indulge in
traditional methods of marketing. Literate people will have the knowledge to operate internet.
Others may find it difficult. When there is functioning issues of the website, a business may lose
out on sales.

Continuous updating requirement:

A website requires to be updated regularly on a daily basis because the customers hope the
business to be dynamic and flexible. There will be queries that has to be dealt with timely, for
which a 24-hour customer service needs to be present. If a website is outdated customers may not
show interest in purchase.

DATA ANALYSIS & DISCUSSION

This chapter makes detailed analysis of the info collected from respondents with the
assistance of statistical tools. Analysis of knowledge has been presented in tabular forms,
graphical illustration and outline thereafter. This systematic analysis has majorly helped to drag
the final conclusions so as to achieve the objectives of this study.

The term ANALYSIS refers to the computation of certain measures, checking out patterns of
relationship that exist among data groups.

The data after collection has got to be processed and analyzed in accordance with the
outline laid down in research plan or research design. This is essential for a scientific study and
for ensuring that we've all relevant data for creating comparisons and analysis. Technically,
processing of knowledge implies editing, coding, classification and tabulation of collected
data in order that they're available for analysis. Analysis particularly just in case of surveys
involves estimating the values of unknown parameters of the population and testing of
hypothesis for drawing inferences.

Thus in the process of analysis, relationships or differences supporting or conflicting with

original or new hypothesis should subject to statistical tests of significance in order to
determine with what validity data are often said to point any conclusions.
Analysis therefore may be categorized as descriptive analysis and inferential analysis which is
often known as statistical analysis.

 Descriptive Analysis:
Descriptive statistics is that the term given to the analysis of
knowledge helps describe, show or summarize data in a meaningful way. For
instance, patterns might emerge from the info.
 Descriptive analysis is essentially the study of distribution of
1 variable. This study provides us with profiles of companies, work
groups, persons and other subjects on any of a multiple
characteristics like size, compositions, efficiency, preferences etc.

 Descriptive analysis is more specific therein they direct attention to

particular aspects or dimensions of research target. Such studies reveal
potential relationship between variables, thus setting the stage for
more elaborate investigation later.

 It is an enquiry for broader meaning and research findings. It is the

device through which the factors that appear to elucidate what has
been observed by researcher within the course are often better
understood and provides theoretical conception which serve as a guide
for further researches. It is essential because it'll lead towards findings
of the study and proper effective conclusions of the study.

 Descriptive approach is one of the most popular approaches in these

days. In this approach, a drag is described by the researcher using
questionnaire or schedule. This approach enables a researcher to
show new ideas or areas of investigation.
Direct contact between respondents and researcher is brought through
this descriptive approach.
  Inferential Analysis:

Inferential analysis is employed to generalize the results obtained from a

random (probability) sample back to the population from which the sample
was drawn. This analysis is merely required when: a sample is drawn by a
random procedure; and therefore the response rate is extremely high.
The methods of inferential statistics are (1) the estimation of parameter(s)
and (2) testing of statistical hypotheses.

In the present study, the researcher has used descriptive statistical tools. Primary data is used
while analyzing and drawing inferences.

Descriptive Analysis of Primary Data:

This part of study is especially focused on verifying the main objectives. The Researcher has
used statistical tools like mean, standard deviation and graphs for analysis of primary data.

Survey for research work was conducted in the city of Chennai keeping in mind that Digital
Marketing is still a metropolitan phenomenon in the developing country like India. Sample of
200 respondents was selected for survey. The questionnaire includes a segment on customers
profile as a classification of their demographic factors such as gender, age & occupation. During
data collection phase, due care was taken in order to make sure that the given questionnaire is
completely filled by the respondents.

The detailed respondent profile is as follows:

Table 4.1: Respondent’s profile

Occupation Gender
Age
 Self
Student Service Total Male Female Total
Employed

18 to 25
81 0 0 81 38 43 81
years

25 to 35
19 41 3 63 31 32 63
years

35 to 45
0 47 9 56 29 27 56
years

Total 100 88 12 200 98 102 200

The above statistics of the respondents’ profile shows that:

Out of 200 respondents - 100 are students out of which 81 are between the age 18 to 25 years &
19 are between the age of 25 to 35 years. There are 88 respondents who are jobber out of which
41 are between the age 25 to 35 years & 47 are between the age 35 to 45 years. There are also
total of 12 respondents who are self employed out of which 3 are between the 25 to 35 years &
9 are between the age 35 to 45 years.
As far as gender wise segmentation cares, there are total 98 males out of which 38 are between
the age 18 to 25 years, 31 are between the age 25 to 35 years
& 29 are between the age 35 to 45 years. And there are total 102 females out of which 43 are
between the age 18 to 25 years, 32 are between the age 25 to 35 years
& 27 are between the age 35 to 45 years.

IMPORTANCE OF INTEGRATED MARKETING COMMUNICATION:

Integrated Marketing Communication (IMC) is an approach employed by organizations to
make brand awareness and coordinate their communication efforts. The American Association
of Advertising Agencies defines IMC as "a concept that recognizes the added value of a
comprehensive plan that evaluates the strategic roles of a selection of communication
disciplines, and combines these disciplines to provide clarity, consistency and maximum
communication impact." the primary idea behind an IMC strategy is to form a seamless
experience for consumers across different aspects of the marketing mix. Marketing mix
includes the combination of various promotion tools such as print ads, outdoor ads, television
commercials, direct mailers, public relations personal selling, sales promotion etc.
It is the guiding principle that organizations follow to communicate with their target markets. It
is the foremost innovative function of selling endorsed by advertising and marketing
practitioners. To understand the importance of IMC, the researcher has asked respondents about
number of medium to urge knowledge about any brand, sources of awareness of varied brands,
amount of data required to take purchase decision and time spent in purchase of any
commodity.
The details are discussed as below.
# Number of medium to get knowledge about any brand:
In today’s market scenario, due to wide number of small & large as
well as local & global competitors; it has become difficult for the
advertisers to reach their target audience accurately. Ever-changing likes
& dislikes of consumers have also provided the impetus to this market
vulnerability. As a result of which, advertisers today, are using the
utmost possible ways in which they can present their ad message to the
proper prospects at the proper time and through the right medium which
can further create brand awareness and influence customers’ purchase
decision.
Mediums used for creating awareness comprise of a number of traditional
as well as contemporary media vehicles such as print media, television
commercials, outdoor ads, advertising through internet etc. Each medium
contributes to mass communication depending upon how target audience
[TA] prefer each medium. When combinations of those mediums (more
than two mediums) are incorporated in marketing strategy, the
phenomenon is termed as Integrated Marketing Communication [IMC].
 IMC is applied with the aim of having maximum coverage of TA so as to
spread more & more brand awareness, to share information about the
brand, to improve brand image, subsequently to boost the sale.

The details of responses given regarding the medium to get knowledge are given in the following

table.

Table 4.2: Do consumers rely on just one medium to get knowledge about any brand

Responses
Frequency Percent

No 82 41.0

Somewhat 23.5
47

Yes 35.5
71

Total 100.0
200

Interpretation:

From the above data, it is observed that when respondents were asked if they rely on just one
medium to get knowledge about any brand:

i. 41% have given negative response.

ii. 35.5% respondents have given complete positive response.

iii. 23.5% responded that they rely partially.

 It means major percentage is with negative response. This reveals that consumers reckon
upon more than one medium to get knowledge of any brand. Due to unlimited brand
 choices & price sensitivity, they undertake a detailed evaluation of various brands by
referring more number of sources of information. So they could also be using
combination of varied mediums such print ads, television commercials, in-store
promotion to understand about different aspects of the brand.

 Excessive competition, globalization, fluctuating wants of consumers and advent of

technology are the main factors that encourage advertisers to form use of varied sources
available to reach their TA. These sources are often through the medium (newspapers &
magazines), electronic medium (like Television commercials, radio spots, Mobile
marketing and online advertising), Outdoor media (like hoardings, banners, neon signs)
and Point of Purchase (like in-store promotion, standees, merchandising racks & cases
etc.) Many a time, consumers may also believe various sources to urge product related
information. Using IMC may help advertisers to convey this information to the
purchasers wherever they go. So while reading newspapers or magazine, watching
Television, halting at railway station or on traffic junctions or while surfing internet;
everywhere advertisers can drag the attention of their prospects towards their brand.

The details of responses given regarding different sources of awareness of various brands
are given below:

Table4.3: Sources of awareness for various brands

Sources of awareness Frequency Percent

Print ads 22 11.0

Television commercials 53
26.5

In-store promotion 37
18.5

Outdoor media 18
9.0

Online media 70
35.0
 Total 200
100.0

Interpretation:

Through the above tabular column, we can understand the responses of the respondents when they

were asked about the source which they prefer the most to get awareness of various brands:

i. 11% have chosen print ads,

ii. 26.5% respondents have chosen Television commercial,

iii. 18.5% have chosen In-store promotion,

iv. Only 9% have chosen Outdoor media,

v. 35 % respondents have chosen Online media, which is the higher of all.

The above data proves that consumers refer various mediums to get awareness but the highest
preference is being given to online media. Online media incorporates blogs, online PR, Window
displays, banner ads etc. And consumers today are more exposed to those sorts of online
advertising as compared to advertising through other mediums.

To analyze further we represent the above data graphically. This is as follows:

Figure 4.1: Graphical representation of Sources of awareness of various brands

(3.)(4.) Amount of information required to make a purchase decision:

Consumers may often get confused in making choice about the brand to purchase. In
such a case, they may require detailed information to evaluate and differentiate among
various brands available. This information can be in the form of brand’s attributes, its
features, functional benefits etc. Sometimes just one medium cannot convey the maximum
possible information to the consumers due to certain limitation of each medium. So
advertisers can mix & match various mediums by adopting IMC in order to spread
awareness, educate & inform them about the brand. Once they get the required information,
it becomes easier to require the acquisition decision consequently saving their time in
evaluation at the last moment of purchase. For example, blending print ads or TVC with
in-store promotion may create positive impact of the brand and may increase confidence
level of the consumer in making purchase decision.

To analyze the above statements in detail, the respondents were asked to give their view on
agreement scale considering two different attributes.
The responses were coded as below:
5. Strongly agree 4.Agree 3. No opinion 2. Disagree 1. Strongly disagree
The results of analysis are tabulated below.
Table 4.4: Details for information and time spend to take purchase of any commodity

Do not require much Do not prefer to spend much

information to take of my time in purchase of any
purchase decision Commodity

Frequency Percent Frequency Percent

Strongly 33 16.5 27 13.5

Disagree

Disagree 80 40.0 38 19.0

No opinion 36 18.0 34 17.0

Agree 28 14.0 68 34.0

Strongly agree 23 11.5 33 16.5

Total 200 100.0 200 100.0

Interpretation:
The above data depicts the rate of percent of the responses to the survey of the requirement
needed whether or not the respondents require much information to make purchase decision;
secondly whether or not they spend much time for purchasing any commodity;

i. 16.5% respondents showed strong disagreement to the primary question and 13.5% to
second question.
ii. 40% respondents disagreed to the primary question and 19% to second question.
iii. 18% were neutral for the first question and 17% to the second question.
iv. 14% respondents agreed to the first question and 34% to the second question.
v. 11.5% respondents have shown strong agreement to the first question and 16.5% to the
second question.

Thus majority of consumers require more information to make a purchase decision but they
don’t wish to spend much of their time for purchasing any commodity. It reveals that buyers
do require more information to take a purchase decision. This information may increase their
knowledge and assurance on brands’ attributes & benefits consumers are likely to realize
which will eliminate their confusion in choosing any particular brand. Once they obtain the
specified information on various brands, they take less time within the purchase of any
commodity.
To analyze further, we represent the above data graphically. This is as follows:
 Figure 4.2: Graphical representation of Details for information and time spent to take
decision purchase of any commodity

Considering the data of complete sample of all respondents, descriptive statistics parameter
scores are calculated and tabulated below.
Table 4.5: Descriptive statistic scores for information and time spent to take purchase
decision of any commodity:

Parameter Do not require Much Do not prefer to spend much

information to take Purchase of my time in purchase of any
decision commodity

Mean 2.6400 3.2100

Median 2.0000 4.0000

Mode 2.00 4.00

Std. Deviation 1.24020 1.30168

Skewness 0.553 -0.314

Kurtosis -0.721 -1.078

Interpretation:
The above data depicts the following statistics:

1. The Mean value scores for parameter of the information to take purchase decision is
not required is 2.64 with positivity, skewness 0.553 indicates respondent disagreement.
It means they really require much information to make a purchase decision. Median
and mode values are adequate to 2 which also supports this result.

2. Mean value scores for parameter wherein time is required to spend to make a
purchase of any commodity is 3.21 with negativity, skewness -0.314 indicates
 respondent agreement. It means they are don’t like to spend much of their time in
purchase of any commodity.

This shows that buyers attempt to gain more information before they create purchase.
They receive this information through various mediums; so integration of
those mediums is required so the information gathered helps the purchasers for
branding their evaluation which in turn will save their time & efforts while making an
actual purchase.

IMPORTANCE OF ONLINE ADVERTISING IN CHANGING MARKET

SCENARIO

Digital Marketing refers to a set of powerful tools and methodologies used for
promoting products and services through the internet. It connects organizations with qualified
potential customers and takes business development to a way higher level than traditional
marketing.
Digital Marketing synergistically combines the internet’s creativity and technical tools,
including design, development, sales advertising, while focusing on the primary business
models such as E-commerce, Lead based websites, Local search etc.
Digital Marketing includes a wider range of selling elements than traditional business
marketing; thanks to the additional channels and marketing mechanisms available on the web.

Digital Marketing can deliver several benefits such as:

• Growth in potential
• Reduced expenses
• Elegant communication
• Better control
• Improved customer service
• Competitive advantage

Digital Marketing is also known as Internet marketing, Web marketing, digital

marketing and search engine marketing (SEM).
 To understand the importance of online advertising in changing market scenario
respondents were asked on their knowledge about the use of Internet, online frequency,
Purpose for using internet and Use of online activities by companies in their marketing efforts.

Knowledge about the use of internet:

Today, Internet is one of the most important parts of our daily lives. There are large numbers
of activities which will be done using internet then it's vitality. Most of the
normal communication media includes telephone, music, film, and TV are being reshaped or
redefined by the web. It has enabled and accelerated new sorts of human interactions through
instant messaging, internet forums, and social networking. Online shopping has boomed both
for major shops, small artisans and traders. Prospects from almost all age group right from
teenagers to adults make the use of internet for their own respective purposes. Such uses can
be social networking, media sharing (photo, songs & video), online shopping, local search etc.
It allows greater flexibility in working hours and site, especially with the spread of unmetered
high speed connections.

To understand whether respondents are convergent with the use of Internet; they were asked
about their knowledge about use if internet. The details of which are tabulated below.

Table 4.6:Knowledge about the use of internet

Code Response Frequency Percent

1 Not knowledgeable about 14 7.0

2 Somewhat knowledgeable about 28 14.0

3 Knowledgeable about 67 33.5

4 Very well knowledgeable about 91 45.5

Total 200 100.0

Interpretation:
The above statistics depicts the rate of percent and its frequency regarding the respondents
convergence with internet:
i. 7% were not knowledgeable about internet.

ii. 14% were somewhat knowledgeable about internet.

iii. 33.5% were knowledgeable about internet.

iv. 45.5% were very well knowledgeable about internet.

This shows that most of the respondents are knowledgeable about internet. They are well

convergent with various usage, functions and benefits being offered by internet. While out of 200

respondents, only few i.e. 7% are not knowledgeable about internet. So it reveals that there is high

degree of literacy on internet usage.

To analyze further, we represent the above data graphically:

Figure 4.3: Graphical representation of responses related to knowledge about the use of

Internet
FREQUENCY OF BEING ONLINE
The number of individuals using internet has really raised nowadays. This is due to the
technological advancements. People use internet for a various reasons. However, the major
reasons why they use internet is to access information, social networking, communication,
transferring files, entertainment, internet transactions, marketing, online education also to make
money.
The internet allows greater flexibility in working hours especially with the
spread of unmetered high-speed connections. The internet can be accessed almost
anywhere by numerous means, including through mobile internet devices.
The low cost and nearly instantaneous sharing of ideas, knowledge, and skills has made
collaborative work dramatically easier, with the assistance of collaborative software. Not only
can a gaggle cheaply communicate and share ideas but the wide reach of the web allows such
groups more easily to make.

The details of frequency of being online are tabulated below.

Table 4.7: Frequency of being online

Code Response Frequency Percent

1 Very Low 16 8.0

2 Low 25 12.5

3 Moderate 44 22.0

4 High 60 30.0

5 Very high 55 27.5

Total 200 100.0

Interpretation:
The above data shows the frequency of the respondents being online:

i. 8% have chosen very low frequency.

ii. 12.5% have chosen low frequency.
iii. 22% have chosen moderate frequency.
iv. 30% have chosen high frequency.
v. 27.5% have chosen very high frequency.

This means that the majority of respondents i.e. 30% use internet with high frequency followed
by 27.5 % respondents with very high frequency of using internet. So, due to its attribute of
making life easier by allowing the users to have instant access with every informational,
educational, interactive & entertaining material; Internet is heavily used medium today.

To analyze further we represent the above data graphically. This is as follows.

Figure 4.4: Graphical representation of responses related to Frequency of being online:

To analyze in detail, some important statistics is calculated and the results of analysis are tabulated
below.

Table 4.8: Descriptive statistic scores for knowledge about the use of internet and

frequency of being online

Are you convergent with the use Frequency of being

of Internet? Online

Mean 3.1750 3.5650

Median 3.0000 4.0000

Mode 4.00 4.00

Std. Deviation .92120 1.23832

Skewness -.901 -.551

Kurtosis -.105 -.662

Interpretation:
Based on the above data, it is observed that
i. Mean value scores for parameter of their convergence with internet is 3.17 with
negativity, skewness -0.901 indicates respondent agreement of being convergent with
internet. It means they are well versed with the use of internet. Median and mode values
are 3 & 4 respectively, close to each other.
ii. Mean value scores for parameter; frequency of being online is 3.56 with negative
indications; skewness -0.551 indicates respondent agreement of being online. It means
they use internet exceedingly for one or the other purpose.

iii. Hence, most of the consumers are well versed with the usage of internet and
they actually make maximum utilization of the varied functions served by internet and
thus their tendency of being online is high.

PURPOSE OF USING INTERNET

Internet is often used for various purposes; out of which the main purposes are social
networking – Facebook, orkut, linkedin are few samples of social networking sites which
help the users to enjoy their social life by giving the scope to find new & old friends and
share views with them; media sharing sites help users to download the enticing material
such as songs, photos, video clips etc.; blogs have introduced a new system of
interaction. Blogs - it's a discussion informational site published on the planet Wide
Web. It can be proved as the best way to one’s voice among online crowd; podcasts &
RSS – Podcast is a digital medium consisting of an episodic series of audio, video, PDF
files downloaded through web syndication to computer or mobile device, collaborative
website are often developed by small or big businesses through web developers. It helps
users to gain more information on various companies in terms of their history, product
offers & features; content sharing websites such as google.com, Wikipedia etc. help
users to gain wide range of information on wider variety of topics; online shopping
offers the wide choices to the consumers while selecting different brands and also save
their efforts and time in travelling to shops.

To understand the real purpose of using internet, the respondents were asked to rank each
purpose between the scales of 1 to 5, where 1 is the most important and 5 is the least
important.
The details are tabulated in the following table.
Table 4.9:Purpose for using internet

Other
Media Collaborat-
Social Podcasts content Online
Sharing Blogs ive
networks & RSS sharing shopping
sites websites
websites

F % F % F % F % F % F % F %

Most 73 36.5 50 25 26 13 33 16.5 32 16.0 43 21.5 60 30.0

important

2.00 65 32.5 48 24 42 21 32 16.0 43 21.5 43 21.5 42 21.0

3.00 20 10 22 11 45 22.5 25 12.5 25 12.5 29 14.5 21 10.5

4.00 20 10 34 17 40 20 47 23.5 38 19.0 37 18.5 40 20.0

Least 22 11 46 23 47 23.5 63 31.5 62 31.0 48 24.0 37 18.5

important

Total 200 100 200 100 200 100 200 100 200 100 200 100 200 100

Interpretation:

Based on the above data, it is noticed that:

i. Social networks are considered most vital by 36.5% respondents and the least
important by 11% respondents.
ii. Media sharing sites are considered most vital by 25% respondents and the least
important by 23% respondents.
iii. Blogs are considered most vital by 13% respondents important by 23.5% respondents.
iv. Podcast & RSS are considered most vital by 16.5% respondents and the least
important by 31.5% respondents
v. Online shopping is taken into account as most vital by 30% respondents and the least
important by 18.5% respondents.

The above interpretation means that Social networking is the foremost purpose for the
majority of respondents to use internet. Certain social networking sites like Facebook,
Orkut, Linkedin etc. became popular in recent times, through which people share the
private & professional views with known and unknown people that are
often acknowledged through these sites.
After Social networking, second preference given to the web shopping. It allows
flexibility to the consumers to look at a good range of products & brands, evaluate
them online by reading their features and making a web purchase. Media sharing is at
third place. It allows them to share media material like photos, music, video, news etc.
To analyze in detailed, some important statistic (parameter) were calculated and
therefore the results of study are tabulated below.

Table 4.10:Descriptive statistic scores: Purpose for using internet

Other
Media content
Social sharing Podcasts Collaborative sharing Online
Network
s sites Blogs & RSS Websites websites shopping

N 200 200 200 200 200 200 200

Median 2.00 3.00 3.00 4.00 3.50 3.00 2.00

Mode 1.00 1.00 5.00 5.00 5.00 5.00 1.00

Percentiles 25 1.00 1.25 2.00 2.00 2.00 2.00 1.00

 50 2.00 3.00 3.00 4.00 3.50 3.00 2.00

75 3.00 4.00 4.00 5.00 5.00 4.00 4.00

Interpretation:
Through the above statistics, the survey is that:
i. Modal value for Social networks, Media sharing sites, online shopping is 1 which
indicates that the majority of respondents feel that these three are the most important
purposes for using internet.
ii. Modal value for Blogs, Podcasts & RSS, Collaborative websites and other content
sharing websites is 5 which indicates that the majority of respondents feel that these
four are the least important purposes for using internet.
iii. Median values and percentile values also support above the interpretations.

Hence, respondents strongly feel that the most important activities to be done through
internet are social networking as it connects them with others, online shopping as it
offers them convenience of shopping and media sharing site because it allows them to
download their favourite enticing material like songs, video, games etc.

USE OF ONLINE ACTIVITIES BY COMPANIES IN THEIR MARKETING EFFORTS:

In the recent days, we find that consumers rely more on the information shared by
internet, they use this information for brand evaluation and for making purchase decision. This
opportunity must be grabbed by both small & large scale businesses by having their online
presence. For them, online presence can be a tactic that involves use of internet as a medium to
obtain website traffic and to target & deliver advertising messages to the right customers.
Online advertising is geared towards defining markets through unique and useful
applications. Having an online presence will first bring their business to the potential customer’s
attention. If online presence is complete with positive reviews and a professionally updated
website; customers will see the reputation of the brand and will be more likely to choose those
brands.
To analyze the above in detail, the respondents were inquired to view on the agreement scale
considering two different attributes.

The responses were coded as below:

5. Strongly agree 4.Agree 3. No opinion 2. Disagree 1. Strongly disagree

The results of the analysis are tabulated below:

Table 4.11: Do companies include online activities in their marketing strategy:

Code Response Frequency Percent

1 Strongly disagree 32 16.0

2 Disagree 41 20.5

3 No opinion 22 11.0

4 Agree 43 21.5

5 Strongly agree 62 31.0

Total 200 100.0

Interpretation:
It is observed that when the respondents were inquired whether companies should use online
activities in marketing efforts;
i. 16% of them strongly disagreed.
ii. 20.5% have shown disagreement.
iii. 11% had no opinion on this question.
iv. 21.5% shown agreement,
 v. 31% have strongly agreed. It means majority of respondents have completely agreed
that companies should use online activities in their marketing efforts. Since online
activities facilitate good access and higher reach to the customers; companies must
take this advantage by incorporating online advertising in their marketing strategy.
To analyze further we represent above data graphically. This is as follows.

Figure 4.5:Graphical representation of responses related to the Use of online activities by

companies in their marketing efforts

To analyze in detail, some important statistics (parameters) are calculated and

the results of analysis are tabulated below.

 Table 4.12: Descriptive statistic scores for Use of online activities in their marketing

Strategy

Parameter Value

N 200

Mean 3.3100

Median 4.0000

Mode 5.00

Std. Deviation 1.48828

Skewness -.268

Kurtosis -1.412

Percentiles 25 2.0000

50 4.0000

75 5.0000

Interpretation:
Based on the above tabular column, it can be strongly said that:

i. Mean value scores for parameter companies who use online activities in marketing efforts is
3.31 with negative; skewness -0.268 indicates respondent’s agreement. It means they strongly
feel that companies must incorporate online activities in their marketing efforts.

ii. Median and mode values are 4 & 5 i.e. close to each other which also support this result.
Hence, consumers are with the strong opinion that companies use online activities to spread
awareness & sell their product.

THE REASONS FOR THE GROWING POPULARITY OF DIGITAL

MARKETING
Internet has changed customer shopping habits and with rapid technological
developments. Accessing the web has become easier than ever. People can access the
web whenever and wherever they like.

Listed below are a number of the advantages of the web for the customer.
a. Customers Stay Updated:
Internet keeps customers updated through websites, emails, online adverts and social
networking sites. Many customers can access the web on the move through things
technology like smart phones and tablets. Manufacturers and retailers can instantly
update their customers through the web.

b. Customers:
One of the best advantages for the customer is that they will compare products or
services they want to get from the comfort of their own homes. Instead of having to go
to variety of various shops, the user simply has got to open different internet window
tabs to match prices or features of the product/service they wish to purchase. There is
also price comparison websites that customers can use to urge the simplest possible
price for his or her products.

c. Clear Product:
Information for the Customer Websites offer clear and consistent product information to
all or any internet users. There is little chance of misinterpretation or mishearing what the
sales person said as during a mercantile establishment. The internet has comprehensive
product information whereas during a shop the customer is reliant within the knowledge
of their sales advisor.

d. Reduction in Personal Carbon Footprint:

 Looking at the environment, consumers may surely think of reducing the carbon
footprints. When consumers shop online, they use their vehicles less and their personal
carbon footprint is reduced. Retailers can support carbon reduction by sorting
deliveries in order that purchases by customers living on the brink of one another are
often delivered on an equivalent day.

e. 24/7 Shopping;
There is no time restriction on when a consumer can shop online; the web is out there all
day. Many online sales now start at midnight on a particular day encouraging customers
to shop all hours of the day. To understand different reasons for growing popularity of
Digital Marketing, the researcher has verified respondents about the important factors
motivating them to prefer the brand on internet, preference for the print ads or television
commercials for awareness and Benefits of Digital Marketing over traditional marketing.
The details are discussed as below:

IMPORTANT FACTORS MOTIVATING RESPONDENTS TO LIKE

THE BRAND ON INTERNET:

 Discount - marketers can offer products at discounted rates as they do not need to
invest in expenses for rent, electricity & channel intermediaries when they are
marketing their products through internet.

 Through internet, consumers stay updated about various activities of companies.

Companies develop their own websites wherein information related to their brand,
its features & corporate identity readily available for consumers.

 Through certain commercial websites like zomato.com, flipcart.com, myntra.com

etc. consumers get knowledge about range of brands available in the market for
the given product category.

 Good imagery & creative inputs make the brand more attractive, entertaining &
interesting for consumers.
  Internet allows getting access to the exclusive content which people do not obtain
from any other medium. They can get access to varied schemes associated
with the brand, description of specific benefits, they're likely to enjoy through
brand.

 Internet is actually an interactive medium when it comes to purchasing the brand,

they can order online and can share their feedback freely with the company on
the strengths & weaknesses of any particular brand.

The details importance of responses are discussed as below.

Table 4.13 :Importance of factors motivating respondents to like the brand on internet

Stay For fun, Get access Interaction

Informed entertain- to the
about The Get updates ment exclusive
Activities On brands content
of and its future
Discount Company extensions

F % F % F % F % F % F %

Most 49 24.5 52 26.0 36 18.0 33 16.5 53 26.5 48 24.0

Important

Important 66 33.0 52 26.0 49 24.5 56 28.0 59 29.5 61 30.5

Least 44 22.0 42 21.0 61 30.5 45 22.5 42 21.0 36 18.0

Important

Not 41 20.5 54 27.0 54 27.0 66 33.0 46 23.0 55 27.5

Important

Total 200 100 20 100 200 100 200 100 20 100 200 100
0 0
 Interpretation:
The following is the observation on the questionnaire of the respondents factors which
motivate them to use internet;
i. 24.4% respondents consider discount factor as the most important and 20.5%
respondents do not consider it as important.
ii. 26% respondents consider other factor ‘to stay informed about company’s activities’
as most important and 27% respondents do not consider it as important.
iii. 18% respondents consider other factor ‘to get updates on brands and its
future extension’ and 27% respondents do not consider it as important.
iv. 16.5% respondents consider other factor ‘Fun & entertainment’ and 33% respondents
do not consider it as important.
v. 26.5% respondents consider other factor ‘to get access to exclusive content’ as most
important and 23% respondents do not consider it as important.
vi. 24% respondents consider interaction factor as the most important and 27.5%
respondents do not consider it as important.

The above interpretation means majority of the respondents are motivated to use
internet as it offers them products at discounted rates, gives access to exclusive
content such as specific functional & emotional benefits of the brand and facilitates
interaction about the brand directly with the company.

Table 4.14: Descriptive statistic scores for the Importance of factors motivating
respondents to like the brand on internet

Get excess
Discount Stay Get For fun, to Interaction
updates the
informed on entertain- exclusive
brands
about the and Ments content
activities of its future
company extensions

N 200 200 200 200 200 200

Median 2.00 2.00 3.00 2.00

 3.00 2.00

Mode 2.00 4.00 3.00 4.00 2.00 2.00

Percentiles 25 2.00 1.00 2.00 2.00 1.00 2.00

50 2.00 2.00 3.00 3.00 2.00 2.00

75 3.00 4.00 4.00 4.00 3.00 4.00

Interpretation:

The following observation speaks of the importance of the factors which motivates
respondents to like the brand on the internet;

i. Modal value for discounts, get access to exclusive content and interaction is 2

which indicates that majority of respondents feel that these three are the most

important factors.

ii. Modal value to Stay informed about the activities of the company, for fun &

entertainment is 4 which indicates that majority of respondents feel that these

two are the least important factors.

iii. Median values and percentile values also support the above interpretations.

Hence, consumers use Digital Marketing extensively as it offers discounts and access to exclusive

content, and it facilitates interaction with the advertisers.

PREFERENCE FOR THE PRINT ADS OR TELEVISION COMMERCIALS

Print ads are the advertisements which get published in print media such as newspapers, bulletins &

magazines, whereas television commercials [TVCs] get telecasted through television. Both the
forms incorporate the ad message and visuals but the major difference is print ad has the static

images whereas TVC includes motion pictures and has more entertainment value than print ads.

Print ads and TVCs both have succeeded to a good extent in reaching the masses and conveying the

advertiser’s intention to the masses for a long time. But with the advent of new & innovative forms

of advertising, these two mediums are losing their popularity.

When the respondents were asked about their preference on the print ads or

Television commercials to get the brand awareness, the following were the responses:

Table4.15: Preference for the print ads or television commercials

Responses
Frequency Percent

Strongly disagree 23 11.5

Disagree 41 20.5

No opinion 19 9.5

Agree 79 39.5

Strongly agree 38 19.0

Total 200 100.0

Interpretation:

The following observation states of the preference for the print ads or television commercials from
the respondents on their liking to choose the products.

i. 11.5% respondents have shown strong.

ii. 20.5% respondents were disagree.
iii. 9.5% were neutral.
iv. 39.5% respondents were agreed whereas.
v. 19 % respondents have shown strong agreement.

The above interpretation can be concluded by stating that the majority of the respondents have

agreed that they do not prefer Television commercials or print ads to get brand related awareness.

So these popular traditional mediums are no longer remaining the first priority for the consumers

to receive ad messages.

Figure 4.6:Graphical representation of Preference for the print ads or television

commercials

To analyze in detail, some important statistic (parameter) were calculated and the results are

shown:
 Table 4.16:Descriptive statistic scores for the Preference for the print ads or television

Commercials

Parameter Value

N 200

Mean 3.3400

Median 4.0000

Mode 4.00

Std. Deviation 1.30880

Skewness -.447

Kurtosis -1.059

Percentiles 25 2.0000

50 4.0000

75 4.0000

Interpretation:

The above statistical data shows that:

i. Mean value scores for the parameter do not prefer the print ads or a Television

commercial to get brand awareness is 3.34 with negative aspects; skewness -0.447

indicates respondent agreement. It means they really do not rely on print ads &

television commercials.

ii. Median and mode values are equal to 4 also support this result.
Hence, the above reveals that today’s consumers do rely on print ads or television commercials
much to get awareness.

BENEFITS OF DIGITAL MARKETING OFFER OVER THE

TRADITIONAL MARKETING
Widely speaking, Traditional marketing assimilates different forms of advertising and marketing. It
is the most recognizable type of marketing, encompassing the advertisements that we see and hear
every day. The strategies of marketing come under the following four categories: print, broadcast,
direct mail, and telephone.

a) Print: Includes advertisements in newspapers, newsletters, magazines, brochures, and other

printed material for distribution
b) Broadcast: Comprises of commercials relating to radio and television, as well as specialized
forms like on-screen movie theater advertising
c) Direct mail: This constitutes of materials that can be printed and mailed directly to the
consumers like fliers, postcards, brochures, letters, catalogs, etc.
d) Telemarketing: The requested calling and the cold calling of consumers over the phone exists in
this. Internet marketing isn't a singular approach to boost interest and awareness during a product.
The field encompasses several disciplines due to the more number of platforms the Internet creates.
It incorporates many things through which the reach can be to an ever-evolving, ever-growing
audience.
The Internet is common and universal which has developed in every aspect of society,
strengthening and replacing older methods of communication. This means that any organization,
from the littlest non-profit, to the most important corporation, and even the individual, has an
incentive to make a robust online presence. It allows great flexibility to choose wide range of
brands demonstrated online without investing their efforts & time.

When respondents were asked about the benefits of Digital Marketing over traditional

marketing, respondents have given following responses.

 Table 4.17:Benefits of Digital Marketing over traditional marketing

Frequency Percent
Wide range of information 48 24.0

Ease of shopping 46 23.0

Time saving 31 15.5

Low cost 24 12.0

Interactive medium 51 25.5

Total 200 100.0

Interpretation:

The above statistical data gives the following observation:

i. 24% of respondents find Digital Marketing advantageous as it offers wide range of

information about the brand,

ii. 23% of respondents find Digital Marketing advantageous as it offers ease of shopping,

iii. 15.5% of respondents find Digital Marketing advantageous as it saves consumer’s time,

iv. 12% of respondents find Digital Marketing advantageous as it involves low cost in

purchase,

v. 25.5% of respondents find Digital Marketing advantageous as it is an interactive medium. It

means majority of respondents favour the interactive ability of Digital Marketing which is

not applied in case of traditional mediums like print ads, television commercials or
 outdoor media. Consumers like to exchange their views and share their feedback when it

comes to evaluating the brand or for taking purchase decision.

To analyze further, we represent the above data graphically:

Figure4.7:Graphical representation of Benefits of Digital Marketing over traditional

marketing

LIMITATIONS OF DIGITAL MARKETING AS IMC TOOL

Digital Marketing has outsold traditional advertising in recent years and continues to be a
high-growth industry. In spite of this growth there are some limitations that make Digital
Marketing disadvantageous at certain extent. They are as follows;

1. Digital Marketing is not free as the cost of hardware, software, wed site design, online
distribution costs, maintenance of your site and yes time, all should be factored into the cost of
providing your product and service.
2. Though the internet is considered as the best source to gather product related information,
there are still many people who prefer the live interaction when they buy.
3. There are many scams on the internet which is a disappointment to the consumers.
4. The time of updates is critical so it’s easy to have outdated information online.
5. Due to the fear of the website’s security, many visitors may not want to use their credit cards
to make a purchase.
6. Majority of online marketers lack inquiry response programs and customer service. There are
bulk of web sites which have poor navigation that creates it tough for the visitor to seek
out what they're trying to find . Many sites are created without the customer service point of
view.

The respondents were asked whether or not they prefer online advertising because it is the
SAFEST to use on an agreement scale. The responses were coded as below:
5. Strongly agree 4.Agree 3. No opinion 2. Disagree 1. Strongly disagree.

Table 4.18:Preference for Online advertising as it is SAFEST to use

Frequency Percent

Strongly disagree 40 20.0

Disagree 58 29.0

No opinion 33 16.5

Agree 34 17.0

Strongly agree 35 17.5

Total 200 100.0

Interpretation:
The above data gives an observation of the responses regarding the choice if the Digital
Marketing is the safest to use:
i. 20% have strongly disagreed.
ii. 29% have shown disagreement.
iii. 16.5% have no opinion on this question.
iv. 17% have shown agreement.
v. 17.5% have strongly agreed.

The above states that the majority of respondents feel Digital Marketing isn't very safe. In order
to know the reasons, respondents were being specifically asked to identify limitations.

To analyze further we represent above data graphically:

Figure 4.8:Graphical representation of Preference for Online advertising as it is the SAFEST:

To analyze in detail, some important statistic (parameter) are calculated and the results of analysis

are tabulated below.

Table 4.19: Descriptive statistic scores for Preference for Online advertising if it is

SAFE to use:

Parameter Value

N 200

Median 3.0000

Mode 2.00

Percentiles 25 2.0000

50 3.0000

75 4.0000

Interpretation:
The above statistics depicts that:
Modal value for parameter preference for Digital Marketing as it is safest to use is 2, this
indicates that majority of respondents feel Digital Marketing is not safe one to use.

Hence it can be concluded, though respondents prefer Digital Marketing to reach their various
purposes, they do not entirely believe that it is safe to use.
LOOPHOLES IN DIGITAL MARKETING OVER TRADITIONAL
MARKETING TOOLS

The rising techno-friendly attitude of the consumers is motivating them to use Digital
Marketing, but at the same time some restrictions are avoiding 100% acceptance of
Digital Marketing; the limitations can be
1) Susceptibility: Consumers may have susceptible approach towards the utilization of
internet.
2) Fraudulent activities: There's a scope of providing wrong information, offering fake
brands or overpromising.
3) Privacy issue: Consumers may be reluctant to share their credit card number, bank
details or any other sensitive information.
4) Lack of demonstration: Some times, there may be creative visualization of products
on the website in order to attract the consumers but in reality these may be different,
this discrepancy may prevent them to prefer online purchase.
5) Often interruptions: Frequent pop ups, spams or web banners may create an
obstacle in web surfing which may lead to generate consumers’ negative attitude
towards Digital Marketing.

To understand loopholes that Digital Marketing carry over traditional marketing tools,
respondent’s responses are tabulated below.

Table 4.20: Loopholes in Digital Marketing over traditional marketing tools

Responses Frequency Percent

More Susceptible 33 16.5

More scope for fraudulent activities 52 26.0

Lack demonstration 40 20.0

Privacy Issue 42 21.0

Often interrupting 33 16.5

Total 200 100.0

Interpretation:

The above data states that:

i. 16.5 % of respondents find Digital Marketing is not safe as it is more susceptible.

ii. 26% of respondents find Digital Marketing is not safe as there is more scope of fraudulent

activities.

iii. 20% of respondents find Digital Marketing is not safe as it lacks demonstrations.

iv. 21% of respondents find Digital Marketing is not safe as it may result in some serious

privacy issues.

v. 16.5% of respondents find Digital Marketing is not safe as it is often interrupting.

The above clearly affirms that the majority of respondents feel that Digital Marketing is not safe as

there is more scope of fraudulent activities followed by privacy issues. These may include cheating

customers by offering them faulty items, giving wrong demonstrations, taking confidential

information such as bank details, credit card details and misusing the same.

To analyze further we represent above data graphically. This is as follows.

 Figure 4.9:Graphical representation of Loopholes in Digital Marketing over traditional

marketing tools

CONCLUSION

The study concludes that buyers depend on quite one medium so as to

reinforce their brand related knowledge. It means they use the mixture of varied sources for
creating final purchase decision. Along with the normal sources, they heavily believe modern
marketing tool i.e. online advertising. The need of the Consumers is the requirement of detailed
information about the brand so that they can examine its strengths & weaknesses; this ample
amount of information then saves their time by allowing them to make the purchase decision
quickly.
 The study also reveals that the main reason for growing importance of Digital
Marketing is the increasing literacy about internet among people. They have identified that
internet is truly advantageous through which they can serve their various purposes mainly social
networking, online shopping & media sharing (photo, music, video). This efficacy of internet
has intensified their tendency of being online. Today’s consumers strongly feel that
each company must use this efficacy to strengthen its marketing efforts. So that they're
motivated to use online marketing with the intent of getting access to exclusive content about the
brand and getting discount and sharing their feedback about brand with the advertiser .

With the arrival of internet technology, consumers’ preference towards traditional

marketing tools has decreased. The mode of traditional marketing tools are television & print
media. The most significant merits of Digital Marketing are its ability of interaction between
consumers and advertisers followed by availability of wide range of data & ease of shopping.
These benefits make Digital Marketing superior than traditional marketing. But at an
equivalent time consumers are susceptible about the user-safety side of internet.

FINDINGS AND SUGGESTIONS:

Clients feel that Digital Marketing is unsafe as it may lead to increase in frauds &
privacy issue. Conclusion given above reveals that consumers use more than one medium to
make brand choice, therefore it's recommended that Companies should mix & match various
mediums to reach their desired target audience. This will help to spread awareness among them
and to influence buyers behavior thus companies must formulate an efficient Integrated
Marketing Communication plan where they will combine various tools to grasp maximum
prospects.
It is also revealed that consumers have good enough knowledge about internet
technology and they are in favor of using online marketing, therefore it is recommended that
web marketing, E-commerce, social media marketing can be developed.Every company big or
small should grab this advantage and include online marketing in their marketing efforts. Online
marketing forms rather thanConsumers find certain benefits in online marketing over traditional
marketing; therefore companies can spend more on online media, the normal tools.
But based on its advantages, online marketing has certain limitations also, limitations like
possibility of fraudulent activities or privacy issues are out of hand . Cyber crime can't be
eradicated easily or completely therefore, it is recommended that
Companies shouldn't rely entirely on online marketing; they need to make it a neighborhood of
Integrated Marketing Communication strategy.