SCOPE OF E-MARKETING

DISSERTATION

Submitted To Submitted By
MS. RUCHIKA JAISWAL AKHIL SHARMA
Faculty Guide A3906412217
BBA(Gen) 2012-2015

AMITY SCHOOL OF BUSINESS

AMITY UNIVERSITY UTTAR PRADESH

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 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I wish to express my heartfelt appreciation to many who have contributed to this study. I
would like to thank to my Faculty Guide Ms. Ruchika Jaiswal, ASB, Amity University,
Noida for her valuable guidance.

I wish to convey my heartfelt thanks to all my friends for their encouragement and moral
support during the course of my project work. The inspiration behind successful
completion of my project work is their endurance, everlasting strong support and endless
prayers.

Lastly I express my thanks to all those who helped me directly or indirectly for the
successful completion of this project.

AKHIL SHARMA

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 TABLE OF CONTENTS

 Rationale

 Introduction
 Definition
 Indian Overview
 Environmental Analysis

 Literature Review
 Prior Research on Marketing with Internet
 The Arena of Marketing Research
 The Art of Database Building
 The essence of Customer Service

 An Insight
 Role of Internet in Marketing
 Fundamentals of effective marketing on the internet

 Research Methodology
 Data Analysis
 Results & Findings

 Discussion
 Recent Trends in Indian Market
 Indian dot com Scenario

 Summary & Conclusion

 Suggestions
 Annexure
 Questionnaire

 References

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 RATIONALE

Marketing has faced a paradigm shift in 21 st century through its amalgamation with IT
enabled services. E Marketing is marketing that utilizes the Internet as a communications
and distribution channel. This includes using email and the Web. E-marketing is an
upcoming area. E - marketing is one of the most effective ways to keep in touch with
customers. It is generally cost-effective, and if done properly, can help build brand
awareness and loyalty.

Objective:

 TO STUDY THE FEASIBILITY OF E-COMMERCE FOR A WIDE RANGE

OF ACTIVITIES SUCH AS ADVERTISING, CUSTOMER SERVICES ETC.

 EXPLORING THE COST ASPECTS OF MARKETING ON THE NET

 PAST AND FUTURE TRENDS OF E-COMMERCE & INTERNET

MARKETING AT A GLOBALISED LEVEL IN TERMS OF BUSINESS
VOLUME, USAGE PATTERN AND CONSUMER INCLINATION
TOWARDS USING E-COMMERCE.

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INTRODUCTION

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 DEFINITION

Electronic marketing is rapidly transforming the way hospitality and travel organizations
conduct business. Electronic marketing is normally associated with Internet marketing.
Internet marketing captures data which feeds into the firm’s database; the database is
used to generate profiles and lists, which enable the firm to have effective direct
marketing campaigns; and two of the media for direct marketing are the Internet using e-
mails and CD-ROMs with hyperlinks to the Internet. Underlying electronic business are
two phenomena: digitalization and connectivity. Digitalization consists of converting
text, data, sounds, and image into a stream of bits that can be dispatched at incredible
speeds from location to another. Connectivity involves building networks and expresses
the fact that much of the World’s business is carried over networks connecting people
and companies. These networks are called intranets when they connect people within a
company; extranets when they connect a company with its suppliers and customers; and
the Internet when they connect users to an amazingly large information superhighway.”

How Electronic Marketing will Change Marketing

Marketing Traditional Marketing Cyber Marketing
Activity
Advertising Prepare print, video, or voice Design extensive information and
copy and use standard media put it on the company’s Web page;
vehicles such as television, CD brochures linked to your site;
radio, newspapers, and distribution of public relations
magazines. Usually only very information over the Internet.
limited information can be
presented.
Customer Provide service five days a Provide seven-day, twenty-four-
Service week, eight hours a day in the hours service response; send phone,
store or over the phone in fax, or e-mail solutions; allow
response to customer calls:; customers to co produce their
provide on-site visits. customer service; access to frequent
guest diner and flyer information
over the Internet.
Selling Phoning or visiting prospects Videoconferencing with prospect;
and customers and showing the product on the
demonstrating product computer screen; enabling
physically or by projective customers to purchase their own
equipment. hospitality and travel products.
Marketing Use of individual interviews, Use of newsgroups of conversation
research focus groups, and mailed or and interviewing,
phones surveys. e-mail questionnaires; access to
focus groups over the Internet.

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Selling
Hotel, cruise, and airline companies are using the Internet to distribute their products
directly to the customer. On-line travel agencies as well as discounters sell a variety of
travel products through the Internet. One of the advantages of the Internet as a sales
channel is that the customer does the work. The availability of technology to the typical
customer has enhanced the opportunities for self-service. For example, a good Web site
allows airline customers to choose their flight, select their seats, and make arrangements
for special meals. A passenger that wants to explore all options and take twenty minutes
to book a reservation can do this on the Internet; thus, the airline does not have the
expense of an employee personally going through all the options with the passenger,
making the Internet is an effective and efficient way of taking reservations. Internet
technology can enhance customer satisfaction as it allows customers to access services
when and where they want without the complications of interpersonal exchanges.
One important aspect of an Internet site is to enable customers to contact the company
and talk with an employee. American Airlines has found that in addition to a telephone
number, a Web chat option is useful for clients using their home phone line. If they have
a question, they can contact, a representative without going off line. LowAirfare.com
features working with a live agent on its site. Agents can assistant several on-line
customers at on time. While one customer is reviewing his or her options, the agent
works with someone else. By providing personalized service through text chat, Low
Airfare is able to keep 92 percent of those who begin a transaction. This is a much higher
average than most travel online agents.
The Internet is also a good way to get rid of excess capacity. For example, Continental
Airlines sends messages to its frequent travelers referring them to the Web site for
specials. They can distribute low fares over the Internet, rather than advertise them
publicly and set off a potential price war with a competitor. Airlines give the option of
listing flights from lowest price to highest price. Thus, price-sensitive travelers can
choose the flights where the airlines need customers. Cruise lines and hotel chains also
list "specials," hoping to attract price-sensitive customers to fill up their ships and cruises.
Restaurants use their sites to sell merchandise such as gift cards and to take reservations.
Dunkin' Donuts is known as much for its great coffee as it is for its donuts on the east
coast of the United States. In the past Dunkin' Donuts could only distribute their coffee
through their stores. Now they have an Internet site that allows them to sell their coffee to
customers who have moved from the East Coast and find themselves without a Dunkin'
Donuts near them. Their site features coffee "subscriptions," allowing customers to
receive two pounds of coffee delivered to their door on a monthly basis.
Red Lobster sells both live lobsters and complete lobster bakes on its Web site. Morton's
Steak House makes its custom-crafted wood-handled steak knives available. Even
individual restaurants and smaller chains can sell merchandise over the Internet. For
example, Cheeseburger in Paradise on Maui sells clothing.
Communication
One of the important uses of the Internet is communication. It can provide color views of
the destinations and its related activities. The activities may be listed on a menu; thus,
someone wanting water sports, hiking, art museums, or historical tours can click on the
appropriate menu item and get the information needed. Information is presented in a way

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that will make potential customers want to come to the destination. A destination
marketing organization (DMO) must work to see that the official site is well situated in
the main search engines, so that it conies up when someone searches for information on
the destination. If the DMO does not do a good job at managing its presence on search
engines, a site not portraying the desired image of the destination may be the top one in
the search engine. The task of managing the placement of a site near the top of the search
engine lists is becoming more difficult as more and more engines are selling placements.
Thus, one must pay to be at the top. Marketing Highlight 16-1 looks at some of the issues
of designing a Web site for a tourism destination, as well as managing the destination's
Web presence.
Web sites for hotels have the chance to communicate information to a number of
different segments. The home page, can provide information targeted to reach a number
of different audiences. For example, a food and beverage director of a hotel can develop a
special site for banquets and catering. In addition to being linked to the home page, these
specialized sites can be submitted to search engines. Thus, someone looking for a place to
hold a banquet can come to the hotel's banquet site directly. Remember that all a
company's potential markets may not think of them as a provider of the service they
desire. It is up to the company to communicate directly with the markets they wish to
serve. Focus groups are a good way to evaluate the content and accessibility of sites
designed for different clientele. Someone using an Internet site should be able to access
the page with the information they need in three clicks or less.
Hyatt hotels home page provides an example of a home page that is well indexed. From
the home page, the user can go to a specific type of Hyatt (i.e., Park Hyatt), make a
reservation, check on special offers, or order a gift certificate. For professional users there
is a Press Room, a section for Travel Professionals, and a Meeting Planning Index. Each
section provides information that will be relevant to the user.
Providing visual information on the Internet is certainly more cost-effective than printing
and mailing out brochures. Many hotels offer visual tours and some chains, such as
Courtyard, offer visual tours of the different types of hotels they have such as classic,
downtown, and vacation hotels. Those hotels with a focus on meetings may use one of
the meeting software packages such as MeetingMatrix, Optimum Settings, or Room
Viewer, allowing the meeting planner to diagram the rooms with their desired set-up and
e-mail it to the hotel and facilitating communication between the meeting planner and the
convention service manager at the hotel.
The Internet allows companies to have a global reach. Someone from England traveling
to Malaga, Spain, can find out about tourist attractions, places to stay, and places to dine.
The English traveler does not have to know Spanish, as smart hospitality and travel
companies will translate their information on their sites into the languages spoken by
their target markets.
The Internet is an excellent medium to communicate what products are offered and the
benefits of those products. However, information that is communicated should be
accurate. Showing seven-year-old photos that were taken after a hotel's last renovation
will not create trust with the buyer if they do not accurately represent the present
condition of the hotel. Discussion with meeting planners has revealed they do not trust
information received over the Internet. They view it much the same way as they view
information received in an advertisement. They know the seller created it, and they are

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skeptical. However, once they find out through use of the product that the Internet is an
accurate portrayal, then they view the Internet site as providing accurate information.
When this happens they make greater use of the information and services the site
provides. The Internet also provides the opportunity for interactive communication
between the customer and the business. Basic principles of electronic marketing are
explained in Table 16-2.
Three Basic Principles of Electronic Marketing
1. Build and actively manage a customer database. In this era of scarce customers,
companies need to capture the names of and as much useful information as possible
about potentially valuable prospects and customers. A rich customer database can
provide the company with a strong competitive advantage. The company can search
and rate different groups and individuals for their probability of responding to a given
offer or highly tailored offers. A database permits a company's targeting to be super
efficient.
2. Develop a clear concept on how the company should take advantage of the Internet.
A company can develop a presence on the Internet in at least seven ways. The
company can use the Internet to do research, provide information, run discussion
forums, provide training, carry on on-line buying and selling (i.e., e-commerce),
provide on-line auctioning or exchanging, and even deliver "bits" to customers.
The company's Web page must be appealing, relevant, and current if it is to attract
repeat visits. Companies should consider using state-of-the-art graphics, sound, and
video. They should add weekly news or features ("coming next week: Chef Lambert's
summer barbecue recipes"). The site can be developed to provide valuable help, such
as links to a map showing the location of the hotel or restaurant. Virtual Vineyard
provides product expertise and a personal connoisseur to recommend choice wines,
Holiday Inn books rooms over the Internet, and Chili's tells where its restaurants are
located.
The company must view its Web page critically and ask a number of questions: Why
would someone want to surf to our site? If I view the site using the equipment my
customers use, does the site load quickly or is a customer likely to leave while they
are waiting for graphics to load? What is interesting about our page? Why would
someone want to return to our page? Why would someone want to advertise on our
page?
3. Be easily accessible and quick in responding to customer calls. Customers have high
and rising expectations about how quickly and adequately they should receive
answers to questions and complaints sent in by phone or e-mail. Make sure the
Internet user can communicate directly with the company on-line. People like to be
able to communicate with other people. One advantage of the Internet is that we can
communicate automatically. The computer can be programmed to book reservations,
select and confirm seat assignments on airlines, and send confirmations of
reservations, changes in flight plans and other information to the customer or per
sportive customer. However, when the user has a question that the computer can not
answer or they have a problem they would like to discuss, they should be given a
phone number to call and an automatic e-mail option. Too many sites have the goal of
having 100 percent electronic communication, and they do not include telephone

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 contact information. When designing a Web site, one must not forget the customer
and the importance of communicating with the customer in the method they desire.
Often the preferred method for some communication is not electronic.
Web Site Development
A company's Web site must project its brand image. People coming to the company's site
may not know anything about the company. They may have simply found the site on a
search engine. Thus, the site should convey what the company is and what the company
has to offer. It should be easy to navigate. Users are not going to wait for graphics to
load; if they take too long, they will exit. It is important to access your Web site the way
that most customers will access it. If most of your customers are individual consumers,
access the site from a modem. Some sites offer a choice of formats, a simple version for
low-tech users and a version with enhanced graphics for those who have the technology.
The site should also be organized so the users can quickly get to the information they
need. Table 16-3 is a summary of the advice of Internet marketing experts regarding the
design of a Web site.
Business-To-Business E-Commerce
Business-to-business e-commerce accounts for the majority of Internet commerce. This is
in part due to the size of business-to-business transactions and the efficiencies the
Internet offers businesses. In the hospitality industry, the Internet is being used to create
marketplaces where companies wanting supplies can be matched up with sellers of those
supplies, The marketplaces match multiple purchasers with multiple sellers. These
electronic hubs go by the name of vortexes, butterfly markets, or net market makers. In
the absence of these hubs, each buyer and seller would have to first identify each other
and then contact each other. This process would have to be repeated each time a
transaction took place. With the electronic hub, the searching and contacting is done
automatically. The buyer receives the benefit of receiving offers from multiple
companies, and the seller has the advantage of being linked with multiple buyers.
In addition to the marketplaces, the Internet facilitates one-to-one relationships between a
buyer and a seller. Food supply companies and office supply companies use the Internet
to receive orders from customers. As the Internet matures, its importance to the
hospitality and travel industries will increase. The Internet has also had a significant
effect on how database marketing is conducted.
Developing A Marketing Database System
To implement successful integrated direct marketing, companies must invest in a
marketing database system. A marketing database is an organized collection of data about
individual customers, prospects, or suspects that is accessible and actionable for such
marketing purposes as lead generation, lead qualification, sale of a product or service, or
maintenance of customer relationships.
Building a database involves investing in central and remote computer hardware, data-
processing software, information enhancement programs, communication links,
personnel to capture data, user training, design of analytical programs, and so on. The
system should be user friendly and available to various departments. For example, in a
hotel, reservations, sales, reception, food and beverage, accounting, and the general
manager would all need access to the database. Building a database takes time and

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involves much cost, but when it runs properly, the selling company will achieve
substantially higher marketing productivity.
Tips for Managing and Developing a Web Site
 Remember people coming to your site may not know anything about the company.
The site should convey the company's identity and what it offers.
 Make sure users can easily navigate through the site and can get back to the home
page from every page.
 Remember your clients are coming to you for travel services. Keep graphics simple
and enable your clients to move quickly through the site.
 Make sure you have a "contact us" page on your Web site. When you are contacted
respond quickly, within six hours is desired, over twenty-four hours is too long. Make
sure you give clients alternative ways to contact you such as toll-free phone numbers.
 Collect information and e-mail address through a "contact us" area. Ask permission to
send information on specials.
 Make sure users can purchase your products over the Web. One hotel offers in-
formation on availability and pricing, but makes you call the hotel to make the
reservation. To make matters worse they did not have the hotel's phone number on
their site. Use automatic response mechanisms when appropriate, such as
confirmations of reservations.
 Hillary Bressler states that a challenge faced by hotels is that sales leads don't trickle
down from their corporate Web sites. A "microsite" or page linked to the corporate
site to provide information about your hotel can solve this problem.
 Keep on top of the search engines to make sure your site comes up in the top listings.
If you do not have the internal resources to do this, hire outside expertise.
 Keep up with new trends of communication such as wireless phones, PDAs, and other
devices.

THE INTERNET MAKES IT EASY FOR CUSTOMERS TO FIND PRICE

INFORMATION
Hotel used to sell excess inventory to wholesalers. The wholesalers would then bundle
the rooms with air, ground transportation, and other activities creating a package. The
package would then be advertised and sold through travel agent. The person that would
buy the package was usually not the hotel’s customers. Thus, the wholesaler created extra
demand for the hotel, justifying selling the rooms at a lower rate to the wholesaler. The
Internet has changed the relationship between the hotel and the wholesaler. Now some
wholesalers contract for inventory and simply resell the inventory over the Internet, in
direct competition with the hotel.
Competition should increase in the future as consumer advocates are teaching consumers
to check Internet wholesalers. Jayne Clark, in an article in USA Today, write that
consumers should first check the hotel’s Web site, then check the site of two hotel
discounters, then call the hotel’s toll free number and ask for any discounts for which

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they might qualify such as the Automobile Association of America or hotel and airline
loyalty programs, then go back and recheck the discount sites again. Following her
process we came up with the result on the facing page for a weekday room booked two
weeks out.

E-Business Barriers
If e-commerce is so hot, why has it still made no major impact in India? There are many
reasons.

Internet usage
If computer usage itself is insignificant, Internet usage is almost non-existent. The largest
ISP, VSNL, has about two and a half-lakh subscriber. All the other ISPs put together may
add an equal number. E-commerce happens over the Internet and with low Internet usage.
The governments role also seems useless when compared to forecasts which promise
telephone lines to 15% of the country by 2010!But maybe our internet usage will speed
up due to the fact that industries, services i.e. banking, appliances etc are being net based.
Also, the introduction of wireless application protocol and generalized radio services
internet and other forms of electronic exchange will come onto the scene.
Bandwidth
The lack of bandwidth is a major cause for concern. Currently all international
connectivity is through VSNL and is limited to a very slow speed of 165megabits per
second compared to other countries i.e. in China the speed is of almost 2 gigabits per
second. But there have been have several applications with the DoT by small ISPs to set
up their own gateways, which would definitely mean the introduction of newer and faster
technology.
Cyber laws
People have had problems of non-delivery of orders placed on Rediff on the Net. And it
takes only one scam to shake the confidence from the system. Legal shelter is extremely
imperative for confidence to build up. Then there is the issue of insurance against fraud.
Whether the centralized insurance agencies, which are opposed to the very idea of
privatization, will provide low-premium insurance cover to a high-risk, totally intangible-
based area like transaction indemnity anytime soon is anybody's' guess. The lack of a
secure online payment mechanism and the continued debate on passing the Digital
Signature Act are all major stumbling blocks.
Business-to-business sites are comparatively better off, as they normally have negotiated-
contracts, with governing laws and jurisdiction set out clearly. Also, the transactions are
normally between known entities that have, or are actively looking for long business
relationships.
Digital identity
How can you trust the site you are doing business with? Similarly, how does the site
ensure that you are not using a stolen credit-card number? The answer to this is digital

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certificates. But, to issue a digital certificate, you need an extremely trustworthy agency
issuing the certificate of identity.
Inter-state goods movement regulations
Anyone involved in selling and shipping goods across the state borders will testify what a
nightmare this can be. No two states have the same sales tax and excise-duty rules. The
rates differ, the forms to be filled in differ (so do the rates of bribe). And then there’s
octroi.

Setup and infrastructure costs

In spite of what many vendors would want you to believe, e-commerce is not a one-man
operation that can run from a couple of servers stashed away in a corner in a basement.
Equally big is the cost of software, Web-hosting services, bandwidth, and proper
security…All these could add up to quite a big amount, both in initial investments and in
running costs. Though as industry progresses several companies that offer specialized
services have come into existence. E.g. Dynamic logistics offers inbound as well as
outbound logistics for offline companies that want to go online, SEEC, will help online
companies to adapt to new technology. New software like Screen Scraping or Legal
Wrapping etc have revolutionized infrastructure support system in India.
Advertising costs
The Internet is often likened to a high-speed digital highway with millions passing by
every minute. No way! It’s more like a mess of alleyways that no one has ever mapped
out.. Having a cool Website will not bring in people. People come to a Website either by
typing the URL directly in their browser, or by clicking on an interesting link seen on
some other site. Either of these costs a lot of money.
Again, in the case of business-to-business sites, this may not be a major factor.
All these are applicable to business-to-consumer e-commerce. In case of business to
business, the very high cost of building the systems is often the biggest stumbling stone.
And it’s often a Catch 22 situation, with everyone waiting for others to start off, so that
they can see the results and then follow. Hopefully, some one will…
The Internet is a computer network that connects millions of computers globally and
provides worldwide communications to business, homes, schools and governments.
Internet has grown explosively in the 1990s. There is more than four million server
computers on the Internet, each providing some type of information or service. World
Wide Web(WWW), the newest Internet service, has accelerated the growth of the
Internet by giving it and is to use, point and click graphically interface. Users are
attracted to the WWW because it is interactive, because it is to use, and because it
combines graphical text, sound, and animation making it a rich communication medium.
The WWW is many things to its millions of users. It is used as a market place, art gallery,
library, community center, school, publishing, house and many more. It is based on
documents called pages that combine text, pictures, forms, sound, animation and
hypertext links called hyperlinks. These web pages are prepared using the Hypertext
Mark-up Language (HTML). To navigate the WWW, users “surf” from one page to
another by pointing and clicking on the hyperlinks in text or graphics.

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The World Wide Web is non-linear with no top, or no bottom. Non-linear means you
don’t have to follow hierarchical path to information resources. As the Web is not
hierarchical and can handle graphics, it offers a great deal of flexibility in the way
information resources can be organized, presented, and described. Thus one can:
 Jump from one link (resource) to another
 Go directly to a resource if one know the Uniform Resource Locator(URL)
 Even jump to specific parts of a document
No other medium has this big an audience. More than 1,00,000,000 potential educated
people access the net. This tremendous growth of the Internet, and particularly the World
Wide Web, has led to a critical mass of consumers and firms participating in global
online marketplace. The rapid adoption of the Internet as a commercial medium has
caused firms to experiment wi6th innovate ways of marketing to consumers in computers
mediated environments. The present popularity of the WWW as commercial medium is
due to its ability to facilitate global sharing if information and resource, and its penitential
to provide an efficient channel for advertising, marketing and even direct distribution of
certain goods and information survives.
The 1990,s developments where as follows :

1990 The ARPANET is dissolved

Gopher is developed at the University of Minnesota. Gopher provides a hierarchical,
menu-based method for providing and locating information on the Intranet, This tool
mails using the Internet much easier.
1993 The European Laboratory for Practical Physics in Switzerland (CERN) releases the
World Wide Web (WWW), developed by Tim Berbers-Lee. The WWW uses hypertext
transfer protocol (HTTP) and hypertext links, changing the way information can be
organized, presented and accessed on the Internet.
The NSFNET backbone network is upgraded to “T3” which means that it is able to
transmit data at speed ofd45 million bits of data per second, or about 1400 pages of text
per second.

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1993-94 The Graphical web browsers Mosaic and Netscape Navigator are introduced and
spread through the Internet community. Due to their intuitive nature and graphical
interface, these browsers make the WWW and the Internet more appealing to the general
public.
1995 The NSFNET backbone is replaced by a new network architecture, called VBNS
(Vary High-speed Backbone Network System) that utilizes Network Service Providers,
regional networks and Network Access Points (BAPs). A team of programmers at Sun
Microsystems release an Internet Programming language called Java, which radically
altos the way application and information can be retrieved, displayed and used over the
Internet.
1996 Users in almost 150 countries around the world are now connected to the Internet.
The number of computer hosts approaches 30 million
What is E Business?

E-business is what happens when you combine the broad reach of the Internet with vast
resources of traditional information technology systems. It uses the Web to connect
together customers, vendors, suppliers and employees in a way never before possible.
The actual e-Business operation can be described as follows:

1. The client uses the web browser on the local terminal to connect to the e-Commerce
site via the Internet / Intranet.
2. The site presents the client with the products/services offered
3. The client chooses to make an online transaction, and the e-Commerce site requests the
client browser to enable an SSL-protected link. This link-to-link encryption offers high
level of security to the entire process.
4. The e-Commerce site (also called the server), requests personal and financial
information from the client that is relevant to the authentication and validation of the
transaction in process. This is sent for validation to a transaction server connected to all
the databases of all the supporting financial institutions. (For example, the authentication
databases of MasterCard, American Express or VISA), or the internal authentication
database of an Intranet. Depending on the values returned to the transaction server by the
authentication databases, the client’s transaction process is further processed.
E-business really means, the extension of business systems and providing an easy-to-use
interface between the external world and the organization, while increasing reach. Where
one can complete the transaction online and integrate the supply chain into transaction
management process.

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Within 30 years, the Internet has grown to the Information superhighway. Just as the
railroads of the 19th century enabled the Machine age, and revolutionized the society of
the time, the Internet takes us into the Information age, and profoundly affects the world
in which we live. Today, some people telecommute over the Intent takes us into the
information e.g. and profoundly affects the world in which we live. Today, some people
telecommute over the Intent, allowing them to choose where to live based on quality of
life, not proximity of work. Many cities view the Internet as a solution to their clogged
highways and fouled air. Schools use the Intent Sa a vast electronic library, with untold
possibilities. Doctors use the Intent to consult with colleagues half a world away. And
even as the Intent offers a single Global Village, if threatens to create a 2 nd class
citizenship among those without access.
The web as a Model of Marketing Communications
Firms use various media to communicate with their current and potential customers.
Marketing communications perform three functions: inform, remind and persuade. Most
of the communications are one to many. The Internet, a revolution in distributed
computing and interactive multimedia is dramatically altering this traditional view of one
to many communications. The new one to one marketing communication model defining
the offers a radical departure from traditional marketing environments.
The Internet offers an alternative to mass media communication. As a marketing and
advertising medium, the web has the potential of radically changing the way firm do
business with their customer by blending together publishing real-time communication
broadcast and narrowcast as an operational model of distributed computing, the net
supports –
– Discussion groups (e.g. USINET news, moderated and immoderate mailing lists)
– Multi-player games and communications systems 9e.g. chat)
– File transfer (ftp) remote login (telnet)
– Electronic mail (e-mail)
– Global information access and retrieval systems (e.g. archie, vernica gopher and
WWW)

Why World Wide Web?

Six fundamental capabilities of the WWW give it the comprehensive advantage over
media. These are as follows-
1. Global dissemination- with connectivity in over 100 countries, international
communication is a fundamental facet of the web.
2. Customization- Information can be maintained centrally on a network server and
still be displayed, accessed, and disseminated on an individual basis.
3. Interaction- Two way or multi-channel communication is possible on the net.
You can get immediate and focused feedback from customers and forward the on-
line customer queries to appropriate internal resources so that necessary action
can be taken.

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 4. Collaboration- Seamless access to shared data, project co-ordination and co-
ordinate information management resulting in enhanced opportunity for joint
development for innovative products and services.
5. Electronics Commerce- Support for online ordering, purchase orders, inventory
and delivery tracking.
Integration- One can link on-line activities with internal, backend processes for
maximum impact, distribution information and customer interaction across functions, and
promote new business applications.

GROWTH IN THE NUMBER OF WEB SITES

DATE NUMBER OF WEB SITES %. COM SUTES

6/93 130 1.5

1/94 623 4.6

6/94 2,738 13.5

1/95 10,022 18.3

6/95 23,500 31.3

1/96 1,00,000 50.0

6/96 2,30,000 68.0

1/97 6,50,000 62.6

6/97 1,325,000 67.4

1/98 2,843,000 70.2

6/98 4,264,500 69.8

1/99 5,117,400 76.3

6/99 7,676,100 80.4

1/00 16,887,420 79.4

6/00 25,331,130 76.7

16
 INDIAN OVERVIEW

The Indian private sector has already recognized the attractive economics of e-business.
Clearly, the opportunity (and the need) for Indian businesses to get onto the e-business
power curve is really quite high. Needless to add, that the potential exists. The size of the
transactions were over the net was Rs10 crore, a piddling size when compared to the
world, which is expected to cross $900 billion by the year 2007.
Unlike in the past, where existing attitudes have posed major challenges to adopting a
new way of life, with the Internet it has been rather a smooth sailing, thanks to the
extraordinary levels of Internet awareness in the country.
As a result of this, companies have been more open to taking studied chances, as is
evident. Here, we are not just talking of companies that have static web sites but those
which conduct commerce on the net like Color Plus, India Book Shop, bababazaar,
Rediff-on-the-net and Shoppers Stop, selling from books and shirts to vegetables and
soaps.
The lack of infrastructure was a serious impediment, but bottlenecks are soon being
removed. With several private value-added networks (VANs) coming up and with the
reach of Internet expanding, this is becoming less of a problem.
In fact, collective experience indicates that firms can deploy e-commerce solutions over
the current infrastructure and realize significant benefits from them. To be fair, this is one
area that has received focus from the highest levels and there is feverish activity to build
bigger bandwidth and crucial payment gateways, which will enable online credit card
authorization
Indeed, there is much at stake for, say, an automobile company or a fast-moving
consumer goods company which has multiple offices with different manufacturing sites
and warehouses etc across the country. Infact ,Dynamix-a software infrastructure
solutions company, is in the process of helping TELCO to replicate the Ford “just in time
technology” The recent announcement of Hindustan Lever indicates that soon all of its
cosmetic line will be made available only on the net, with one center in each city acting
as demonstration/guidance center.
The country needs to get its legal, legislative, regulatory, infrastructure and manpower
ready for ebusiness. We already see some of this readiness, and hence, India is ready to
boom in ebusiness. While the air of optimism persists, the fact remains that in India
Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) has not really taken off. Therefore, doubts persist
whether corporate and government in specific will adopt and accept this as quickly as is
made out. One of the main reasons is the high entry cost of EDI because of which
companies fight shy of trying out.

17
The ratification of financial transactions reconciled without paper via the internet by the
Reserve Bank of India. A critical issue, it is expected to be resolved once the government
passes the Electronic Support Act and the Information Technology Bill. Institutions such
as RBI and SEBI are considering various ways to make usage of electronic systems
mandatory for areas such as interbank settlements, payment of dividends etc. These bills
also contain a comprehensive range of provisions that are expected to usher in e-business
in India.
To add to this government incentive has been minimal in the past. However, the fact that
EDI-related issues are being addressed by the government, is again indicative of the
change in the offing. For instance, government agencies like ports are moving to
exchanging documents through EDI and are planning a complete move to accept
documents in only EDI. Similarly, a major pilot project in the auto industry was
successfully completed last year by ACMA (Auto Component Manufacturers
Association), paving the way for its wider acceptance.
Welcome to the new invasion of technology in the Indian banking system.
In developing countries like India with a vast majority of the population living in poor
conditions, technology plays an important role. Technology to the extent that it helps to
reduce costs is a welcome I India. This could be explained by the fact that to process a
banking transaction manually it costs around Rs30-40 where as the same transaction on
the Internet would cost Rs.7-8.
In countries like India technology acts as a leveler that removes inequality between
people of different income groups. For example poorer people who visit banks for their
regular banking activities feel that an unequal treatment is meted out towards them as
against their richer counterparts, especially with the insignificant sums of tier
transactions; while the same people feel more at ease with an ATM that shows no
emotion and all clients are treated alike.
Internet hits the Indian banking sector
Today you send an email or pick up a telephone and your banker lands at your doorstep.
Welcome to the new invasion of technology in the Indian banking system! The
liberalization and the technology-invasion have worked wonders for the banking sector,
say bankers. If ICICI has shown what technology can do for banks, others have quickly
realized the potential and are fast trying to catch up with it. Is technology then the new
driver in the Indian financial system? When all the banks and financial institutions are
offering the vanilla product, the differentiation had to come from service. This
automatically put pressure on the institutions to adopt technology as their USP.
According to industry estimates, some of these new banks on an average send out 500
emails on a daily basis regarding new products, services, or other routine matters.
Internet banking is fast catching up. Banking will never be the same again in India.
Welcome to the new invasion of technology in the Indian banking system.
ICICI announced a tie-up with a Compaq-led consortium for setting up the country’s first
payments gateway to facilitate secured on-line B2B and B2C e-commerce transactions.
This will be the first payment gateway tailored to meet Indian requirements and will not
be subject to all the regulatory concerns that cloud other non-India based payment
gateways. The gateway offers the flexibility of multiple payment modes including credit,

18
debit and smart cards, direct bank debits and e-cheques. The ICICI e-commerce payment
gateway will launch a state-of-the-art internet payment system and is set to open the
world of e-commerce to many more merchants, consumers and businesses in India by
significantly lowering the cost and complexity of enabling secure transactions over the
Net .The customers credit card number will be protected through hardware cryptographic
devises so that the only information available to merchants is a code. This will
substantially reduce the capital costs of merchants.

MOVING “TOWARDS E-BUSINESS…..”

The statistics show that 90% of all new businesses fail. We believe that is a direct result
of the failure to plan. Take the opportunity to plan and increase your chances of success.
While preparing for this topic there were several examples as well as case studies that we
reviewed. These like most others left us starry eyed. They seem o have this effect on most
people our age. But E-Business is not only success stories. There are several stumbling
blocks that young entrepreneurs have to face. There are several startups that do not meet
the “eyeball”.
Here we have tried to explain the tribulations that go into creating a “.com” and “moving
towards the e-business”. We have made a comprehensive but necessarily an exhaustive e-
business model.
There are 4 types of businesses that can be carried out over the Internet. They are:
1. B2B : that is Business to Business transactions that take place on line. For
example “dell.com”. This company sells computers to several other enterprises
via the internet thus eliminating the middleman and reducing costs by a great deal.
2. B2C : that is Business to Consumer transactions that enable companies to get in
touch with, service and make sales to their customers via the world wide web. For
example “rediff.com” which sells everything right from music to books on the
net.
3. C2B : that is Consumer to Business transactions where in the consumers specify
their requirements and the business tries to meet them. Thus the consumer gets the
best bargain and businesses face fair competition. Eg “priceline.com”
4. C2C : that is customer to Customer transactions where in customers trade within
themselves through auctions. Eg.” Ebay.com”
With the changing times in the age of net ,e-business cannot be just restricted towards
being merely a B2b and B2C but with time it has also grown and is clearly even
developing as C2C and C2B.e.g. ebay.com and price line used by various airlines like
delta.com . The prices of tickets are no longer fixed but depend upon the place, time of
booking, destination etc. and not necessary that the price paid by the passenger boarding
the flight will be the same as the rest of the passengers. In fact, now it is the customer
who makes the offer and the organization has to make the counter offer.
The basic question to ask is whether to go online or offline?
You could judge your business on these criteria-
1. Whether the decision is an information intensive purchase decision?

19
This will help in a way e.g. say a commodity like matchbox there is hardly any need for
any information before hand while purchasing one. hence, e-business would not be
advisable.
2. Price , selection and frequency of change in the product ?
A product like a personal computer. which keeps on innovating very fast due to
technological advancements , it is extremely important to have latest information and
hence e-business is important.

3. Will customization aid the user ?

In products where customization is important then business on the net is very useful.
Take the example of Levis jeans, they offer you the option of designing your own jeans
and have them custom made to your choice.
4. For sale of the product, is the touch and feel necessary?
5. Is there a need for new channels of distribution?
6. Is the product of the nature of a slow moving commodity?
For products like antiques, paintings etc. it is preferable to go on net since there are larger
prospective customers that can be tapped at reduced costs.
7. What category of customer is the target?
In India nearly 70% of the users are in the age group of 25-40 years. Hence if it is a
product that appeals to this segment e-business is the right option.
The First move towards e-business-“the idea”
1. You need a clear “Value Proposition”. Unambiguous and clear picture of your idea
helps reduce cost and cycle time, increase productivity and increase bottom lines. You
have to analyze what you are offering your customer in terms of value!!!!! An idea which
has no impact on society is not a good idea.
A good idea is one which is
a. Scalable: this kind of an idea has a lot of scope and can expand across markets.
b. Malleable: it can adapt to new markets and can forgo what it had initially started with.
It allows you to move across related businesses with ease.
c. It should not be averse to the constant addition of new features to attract eyeballs.
”Profit is an opinion. The only real happiness is cash flow.”
Narayan Murthy
d. Unique and probably offers you “the first mover advantage”.
e. “Be distinct in the market place” you have to prove you are better than the others and
in what way?
f. Your idea should have a wide application. CLEAR FOCUS IN A WIDE MARKET IS
THE NAME OF THE GAME

20
2. Create a clear revenue model You should show source of revenue. Whether it is from
sales, advertising, franchise or whatever may be the case. The source must itself have
growth powers at least for the next 10-15 years.
3. “Keep the HR ratio low ”. i.e. Hype to reality. If you are unable to live up to the
standards created your credibility is lost.
4. Patent the idea: “The world is your oyster and entrepreneurs are global people”. If not
in India patent your idea with an international authority, it may cost a bit more but it is
worth it as against the risk of losing your brainchild.
5. Try and get a digital certification . It helps you to certify the real identity of the
merchant. There are only 2 companies that provide digital certification ie. Verisign and
Thawte. The former does not give certification to Indian companies and the later is soon
going to be taken over by the former. So, in this case one could
A .Set a subsidiary in the USA.
B. Take up secure space with another company
C. Tie up with a US agent, which charge a high price per transaction.
"Anyone who thinks the customer isn't right, should try doing without them for
ninety days."
6 .Know your client. On the Internet it is very easy to lose customers. Your client would
most probably be from a higher income group and therefore usually a well read and
opinionated bunch. These are the kind of people who get you other customers by their
word of mouth publicity. A single dissatisfied client can spell disaster as seen in the case
of Walmart: the superstore. One dissatisfied customer started a site called
“Walmartsucks.com” as a sign of protest against the company and to date this site has
attracted the several aggrieved customers of the store and has a million hits a day!
7. Know your competition. E-business faces competition from the real as well as the
virtual world. Your competitor is just a click away. You have to be constantly alert and
aware of the features being offered by him in order to keep your “critical mass” and
retain your “first mover advantage”.
8. “Build a good team”. Your team should have mutually exclusive and collectively
exhaustive skills. Team members should be experienced, energetic and enthusiastic. Get
members from every field to make up for each other’s deficiency.
9. The team should have a shared vision. “Aspirations that can be achieved
asymptotically” Microsoft has a shared vision of one P.c. for every task. This is a vision,
which also serves as a continuous ongoing ambition.
10. Identify a clear leader. There should be no diffused authority. There should be only
one leader, some one who brings more value to the table than the others.
11. Have a clearly defined value system. A value system is like the rudder in the ship to
show you path in times of tribulation.
"Even if you're on the right track, you'll get run over if you just sit there."
-Will Rogers
12. The most important decision. SHOULD YOU GO IN FOR VENTURE CAPITAL?

21
Clearly identify what stage of funding you are at. Is your business a start-up, initial
growth, positioning for going public, seeking a strategic partner, looking for near future
acquisition or sale?
The options before you are
Incubators
Incubators are those individuals who fund you from the very nascent stage right from the
conception of the idea.
Angels
Angels are individual private investors who make up a large portion of "informal"
venture capital. These investors usually keep their money close to home . They tend to
invest small amounts, and they can be difficult to locate because they usually don't
belong to networks or trade associations.
Angels are found among friends, family, customers, third party professionals, suppliers,
brokers and competitors. For the most part, once they invest in two or three deals they are
out of money.
Venture Capital
These investors are out looking for huge returns not just good ones. Venture capital is
extremely hard to get and the competition is fierce. Venture capitalist funds are only
about 0.7% people, who come to them for funding.
If you can afford it to, if your business model doesn’t warrant it, as far as possible avoid
Venture capital for the following reasons.
a. If venture capital is resorted to the CEO does not get more than a 10% share in profits.
b. If the venture capitalist decides that you are not CEO material though you are a
technological genius and though the idea belonged to you they will appoint an alternative
CEO who will put an additional strain of 8-10% on the profits.
c. You may want to reserve 30% post IPO equity for your employees, which would not
be possible should you go in for venture capital.
However venture capitals are not all negative and no positive
a. Venture capitalists provide you with the necessary finance without which your idea is
of no consequence.
b. They build your confidence by showing their faith in you and investing in you.
c. They connect you with a prospective customer network and key employee network.
Exit Strategy Funding Sources want to know how you plan to pay them back. Will the
business generate a cash flow large enough to support the debt? Is the product or service
so in demand that the company will go public? These questions and more will not only
help determine your success, but they will also narrow your search for the lender most
likely to fund your request.
13. Prepare an inspirational model of what kind of wealth you want at each stage; right
from the angel investor stage to the IPO stage. Having this model ready you are in a
better bargaining position.

22
14. Make sure your interests are protected. Should the venture capitalists appoint
another CEO over you Keep a 50% option vested the day after the CEO joins.
15. Do not shop around after you have finalized your venture capital. The venture capital
community, especially in India is a small, close knit one and should this word spread no
one will be willing to fund you.
16. Plan your supply chain. Online businesses also require huge external infrastructure
support systems. The good part is that there are software companies like Euclid,SEEC etc
which provide outward as well as inward bound logistics.
17. Hire a lawyer or a consultant to help you negotiate carefully.
Today it is possible to offer a host of “anytime, anywhere facilities “ due to the Internet,
wireless and mobile paradigm. Facilities that were previously on desktop can be provided
at the touch of a button. The aim of entrepreneurship is to make the computer as
ubiquitous as electricity. This is possible with the assistance of multimedia and interrupt
based alert mechanisms. For example if a person wishes to bid at an auction for a certain
price he could have his interrupt based alert mechanism give him an alert signal on his
palmtop irrespective of where he might be as the bid draws closer to his offer price. In a
similar manner tickets , books and a host of other items can be bought using the interrupt
base alert mechanisms.
"Doing business without advertising is like winking at a girl in the dark,
you know what your doing, but nobody else does."

23
 ENVIRONMENTAL ANALYSIS

Indian Government has liberalized the telecom sector and due to lack of infrastructure
facilities in India, there is a tremendous scope of growth in this sector. The Indian IT
industry is growing at the rate of 40% per annum. There has been sharp rise in the IT
industry if India and is growing at a rate of 40% per annum which shows that there is a
great scope for the companies who want to enter this field.
Intense competition can be foreseen once the private players are allowed to be ISP’s.
About 200 Indian and MNCs are trying to become ISP’s in India so then going to be
large competition in this market.

OPPORTUNITIES
– Liberalization of telecom sector
– Rapidly growing industry.

THREATS
– Instability of government and the erratic government policies
– Fast technological obsolescence
– Lack of telecom infrastructure
– Slow down of Indian economy

24
LITERATURE
REVIEW

25
 ELECTRONIC COMMERCE
Time is money. And probably the quickest way to save time and create business, thereby
generating income, is through e-commerce. The success of e-commerce has led to its
implementation in many important business sectors. The ability to conduct critical back
office transactions in a fast, secure and reliable way has become as major part of the
manufacturing, retail and transportation industries. It is rapidly being adopted in other
vertical market sectors.
Electronic commerce is a big picture phenomenon destined to change business habits in
more than one way. Driven by the Internet (also called Internet Commerce'), electronics
commerce is rapidly emerging as an entirely new method to conduct business and interact
with suppliers, partners, and clients. Applying all elements of this new model brings new
dimensions of speed efficiency, spontaneity, interactivity, pervasiveness, and cost
reduction. Jay M. Tenenbaurn, chairman and founder of Commerce Net defines
electronic commerce as "the opportunity for companies to electronically exchange
information and services that are important to business. E-commerce includes the
creation of an open marketplace. " Randall Whiting, president and CEO of CommerceNet
states that "E-Commerce is about a global electronic marketplace that enables all
members of a value chain to interact spontaneously for mutual benefits. It provides an
environment where customers are empowered to control the buying process more
effectively, receiving and accessing personalized information. It provides a platform for
complete relationship management not just a one time transaction."

26
TYPES OF ECOMMERCE
The two main forms of e-commerce are EDI and Internet-based e-commerce. Internet
commerce largely consists of web-based e-commerce. Today, EDI features and
technologies differ from those offered by Internet commerce, but these differences win
become less pronounced as Internet commerce matures and as traditional EDI utilizes
new Internet-based technology.
Electronic Data Interchange (EDI)
Historically, the main form of e-commerce has been EDI. EDI is a form of program-to--
program communication that lets business applications in different organizations
exchange information automatically to process a business transaction.
EDI typically has the following characteristics:
 Direct application-to-application exchange of information
 Well-defined, tightly specified message formats and industry standards
 Store-and-forward massaging to transport messages through an
intermediary over a VAN
 Batch oriented rather than messages operation
Internet Commerce
Internet commerce revolves managing and conducts a business transaction using the
Internet. Web commerce, a subset of Internet commerce, goes beyond using the Internet
as a transport mechanism and presupposes that participants have web access. Typically,
the web browser is used as a software client for interactive access to a web server
implementing e-commerce. Currently, web-based e-commerce is the most widely used
form of Internet commerce.
Components of the transaction may include catalog display, ordering, order fulfillment
payment processing and back-end integration. Internet commerce embraces all stages in
the trading cycle, from information exchange and relationship building negotiation and
contract agreements to transactions and fulfillment logistics.

ELECTRONIC DATA INTERCHANGE AND THE WEB

EDI and the WEB

27
 Sender and Receiver Computer-to-Computer Person-to-Computer

Business relationship Established business partner Established or brand new

relationship relationship

Transaction volume High Low to moderate

Regularity Regular replenishment Irregular or adhoc

Primary hub use Purchase orders to suppliers Open selling to distributors

EDI and Web work together Transmit shipping data View inventory and
shipping

Advantages of Internet-Driven Electronic Commerce over EDI

Internet-Driven Electrode Commerce is running at a rapid growth. What Internet
commerce offers which EDI commerce does not? There are four important
characteristics, which makes Internet commerce so popular than EDI. These are as
follows:
 Interactivity - One can interact with a remote person in a variety of ways, such as
by e-mail, voice, or video, while doing a transaction.
 Spontaneity - There is no need for establishing lengthy predetermined procedures
in order to engage in a relationship or transaction.
 Pervasiveness - Because of the spread of Internet access, it already has many
potential ready users, both as consumers and as businesses.
The creation of a marketplace- The Internet is both a marketplace and a delivery
vehicle. By reaching the markets, you make them available.

28
 MARKETING WITH INTERNET
The Internet provides an endless array of both useful and useless type of information.
You can discover how many cans of Coke are left in a Coke machine the on side of the
world; watch live coffee being brewed in a coffee pot; or make contact with old friends
and new friends, tour a museum, explore libraries and encyclopedias all on -line.
There is no doubt about it; the Internet has its good and bad aspects in ethical, moral and
social perspective. Equally in marketing, the Internet has its positive and negative
features. Internet can help marketers in more ways than one.
Both the organization’s own web site and other organization’s web sites and associated
technologies can help marketers in many ways, from gathering research, to database
building, relationship management customer service, new product development internal
communications, cost reduction and last but not the least promotion, selling and
distribution.
PROSPECTS OF INTERNET IN MARKETING
1.Marketing research
 Market information
 Competitor information
 Customer information
 Miscellaneous information
 Collect cost saving ideas
2.Database Building
 World-wide club
 Dynamic relationship marketing
3.Customer service
 Self servicing customers
 Self service customer abuse
 Self-service cost saving
4. New product development
 Collecting new ideas
 Tailor-made, products
5. Internal communications
 Intranets
 Extraneous
6. Cost reduction
 Print and distribution
 Phone calls
 Customer service
 Collecting cost saving tips
 Revenue generation
7. Distribution
 Products
 services
 Purchases

29
8. Selling
 Few fairy tale sales stories
 New markets
 Small value, big turnover
 Sales management tool
9. Promotion
 Have a presence
 Interactive advertising
 Creative sponsorship
 Sales promotions
 Public relations
 Database marketing

30
 ARENA OF MARKETING RESEARCH
There is a lot of marketing research which can be collected on the net ranging from
market analysis, to customer interviews, through to creative ideas. The net provides a
bountiful channel for customer research.
As with any marketing intelligence and information system, the defining of what
information is needed is the crucial first stage. The next stage, is finding or souring the
information and logging these sources for future use. Next is filling it - a skill not taught
in universities. Finally, the information is used to reduce risk and take better decisions.
The problem is that there is more information available today than ever before. The
Internet adds a huge resource, so huge that some feel that the Internet alongside other
new sources provides too much information for the average manager to cope with.
Having said that the net still provides a fast and sometimes free resource. It is worth
getting to know what is available. Keeping a log of useful sources is essential.
Market information
The Internet provides a rich resource for research. From government reports and
statistics to tourist’s boards, newspapers to journals, a vast amount of background market
information is freely available. Commercial sources also offer a wide array of
information, which must be purchased. It is possible to tap into news groups and
discussion groups asking if anyone knows where specific types of information might be
found. Members are usually happy to help their net colleagues by pointing them in the
right direction. Many newspapers, journals and press clipping services offer search
facilities so those articles about specifically named companies, brands, products,
industries and individuals can be tracked. Some services are free and others charge for
certain sections.
Competitor information
Whether your own company or a competitor's, the net reveals all. Well, as much as an
organization wants to reveal when it puts up its own site on the Web. An organization’s
Web site provides useful information. The first port of call for competitor information is
often the competitor’s Web site as it reveals some thing about the organization, its
employees, and its culture, internal newsletters, new products, new visions and
sometimes- hard information such as financial results. Carrying out word searches for
brands, competitors or even your own organization can reveal what others are saying
about your organisation. Some organisations constantly monitor relevant news groups
and discussion groups for any comments about their brands/organisation. There are also
several information organisations on-line that charge per inquiry for delivering an
origination’s financial results and analysis of results on-line. Monitoring an
organization’s own web sites visitors can also reveal which competitors visit which pages
of your site. Incidentally, monitoring the most popular pages may reveal product
preferences among customers and therefore give clues about which products might be
worth supporting with heavier promotional spends.
Customer Information

31
On-line feedback from customers visiting a web site provides the opportunity of carrying
out a continual focus group. The net can provide a continual dialogue between customer
and company. This does not replace regular face to face focus groups but it does add a
rich layer of information. The web visitors become collaborators in the creative process
e.g. a McDonalds on-line visitor's question: 'Why didn’t I get a shamrock on St. Patrick's
Day?’ prompted a possible new promotional idea for next year. The power of good
branding on the net is apparent particularly when more McDonalds customer feedback
revealed 'seeing your logo on the Net made me hungry'.
Miscellaneous Information
On-line research can collect information and ideas about new products, new promotions
and even cost saving ideas.

ART OF DATABASE BUILDING

With thousands, hundred of thousands and sometimes millions of interested visitors
entering a particular web site, several opportunities arise: Trapping their data onto a
database and developing a dialogue, which supports a relationship marketing strategy.
The full details of the visitor are usually captured either through registration (when
entering the site) or other form filling activities required for competitions, free gifts and
further information.
World-wide club
Today's database and relationship marketing technique help to build sophisticated
membership clubs. 'In today's global village there is something intensely satisfying about
forming a part of a world-wide club and discovering shared interests with someone on the
other side of the planet… tribal instincts are still strong ... we still all want to share a
sense of society and community'. The Internet provides this opportunity.
Dynamic relationship marketing
Marketing now has the opportunity for Dynamic Relationship Marketing to move away
from mass images and move towards tailored messages (mass customization) and direct
feedback delivering a dreamlike dialogue between the brand and the customer. It has
been suggested that brands should be seen as places, opens ended, and multimedia and
based on a sense of community. Discussion groups, member involvement and speedy
response all help to create a sense of involvement and a type of 'active ownership' of the
brand itself

Dynamic relationship marketing encourages mass customization, which not only reduces
operating expenses; it offers a permanent advantage. The first competitor to implement
1:1 marketing will steal an advantage. And if the relationship is invested in and nurtured
carefully it will literally be extremely difficult, if not possible, for the losers in this
competition to catch the winners.

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 ESSENCE OF CUSTOMER SERVICES

Self service customer service

Won-designed Web sites can offer round the clock service for customers who have
access to the Internet. In fact customers can service themselves. FAQ's (Frequently
Asked Questions) can be answered on line instantaneously, clearly and in a polite,
friendly and personal manner. It is possible to build in personalized messages to the
customer to check to see that everything is now alt right.
Self service customer abuse
Any customer service can damage customer relations if the responses are slow,
ineffective or non-existent. The problems are aggravated, however, when already agitated
customers with problem cannot get through or cannot get a clear or friendly answer. This
is particularly true of the Internet. On the Internet, expectations of speedy responses are
high. Only one third of the companies bother to respond within 24 hours, and some,
including Mobil, Nike and US Airways, didn't bother to respond at all. Their Web site
has generated dissatisfied customers because their problems had apparently been ignored.
You don't have to be abusive, to customers to insult them; a lack of response will suffice.
However it isn't hard to improve as most organisations are starting from a relatively low
level of customer service on the web.
Self-service cost savings
Self-servicing customers save the organization time and money; for example, Sun's round
the clock technical document facility, which allows customers to help themselves, has
decreased customer calls by 20 percent. Paul McFarland reinforces this idea by adding a
‘zero cost way to promote a Web site to an absolutely key target audience' - use the
record message on the switchboard's automated operator system. When calls are
intercepted before reaching the operator, the system tells callers which numbers to press
for various departments. The Web address should also be given out and call us advised
that they can also send an email, order brochures and annual reports, request press
information, find answers to FAQ's (frequently answered questions) on the Web site if
preferred,

33
AN INSIGHT

34
 INTERNET IN MARKETING

Information technology and technology in general creates advantages and disadvantages.

Technology can be used, abused, misused, misunderstood, mistaken and maltreated. As
there are a lot of advantages of Internet technology, at the same time it can obviously
hinder marketers from their tasks.
The Internet can also hinder marketers in many other ways. Some of them are as follows:
 Failed expectations - slow downloading and slow access, useless
material; slow customer service response
 Global complications
 No PR gatekeeper
 Security - credit card fraud; infiltrators and vandals; database abuse;
rogue sites; viruses
 E-nasties - fakemail; hatemail; mailbombs; unwanted enrolment
 Dumb search engines
 Unaudited audiences
 Exhausted audiences - addicted; depressed; overloaded
 Cyberskivers
 Trademark hijacking
 Tax complications

35
Failed expectations
Slow access (getting on-fine), slow downloading, incomplete sites, slow customer service
responses, combined with a plethora of useless information, all create a certain sense of
disillusionment and an overriding feeling of failed expectations. The Internet does not
live up to its promise currently.
The lack of cable infrastructure combined with the lack of high-speed modems and super
fast PCs means that many users cannot download information quickly. It can take up to
ninety minutes to download three minutes of music. Digitized photographs can take three
minutes to download onto a PC. On top of this, the explosion in users and the subsequent
growth of traffic is threatening to clog the system making it difficult to access popular
pages at peak times or even get onto the Internet in the first place.
Certainly the incomplete web sites with pages 'under construction' and slow access
combined with slow downloading means many users are switching off and not returning
again. There is a real lack of 'net savvy' with lots of poorly designed web sites built
without any underbid instructional ~ blueprints. Poor quality materials and difficulties of
downloading images, video clips; incorrect information, malicious information and
useless information are also some of the reasons for disappointment.
Global complications
The global nature of the Internet presents two problems in marketing: branding and
compliance. Moving into new media requires more than placing an existing brand on a
web site.
No PR gatekeeper
Customers and competition are watching you! Different audiences can access the same
message,. Different audiences or 'publics' have access to the same information on most
web sites. This means that a pressure group has access to the same information which the
shareholders might see, unless the site has exclusive areas or 'members only' areas which
are only accessed by member passwords. This demands new thinking on the part of the
public relations team who previously could act as an information gatekeeper and tailor
messages specifically for the local community, employees, customers, shareholders,
pressure groups, regulatory body's etc.
Security - credit card fraud
Nothing is 100 percent secure. Internet is also not an exception. Credit card fraud,
infiltrators and vandals, database abuse and rogue sites all present serious problems to
marketers. Because of the security risk involved in giving credit card details over the
Internet, many customers are hesitating and not following their electronic enquiries fight
through to purchase. The Internet gives rise to new unfounded fears since many
customers are happy to release their credit card details over the phone.
Hackers can break into a site and change the content put up a rogue site or satirize your
web site. With a click, hackers can copy a web site into their directory and alter words,
logos or images. Users might mistakenly access the satirical site when looking for the
real site.

36
E-nasties
There are other nastics out there on the Internet including Fakemail, Mailbombs,
Unwanted Enrolment and viruses.
Fake email messages seem humorous but can have a devastating effect on some of the
recipients. Fakemail messages can come from anyone. Ale recipients are informed that
they have won, been promoted, sacked, seconded etc. Nasty messages, or hatemail, are
not quite the same as the 'traditional' fakemail since hatemail is real email sent by very
angry people to very real people. Worse still are the Mailbombs. 100 megabytes of
messages and mailbombs have previously brought one organisation's computer system to
its knees and led to the organisation's Internet supplier suspending its access.
The big worry for anyone using the Internet is catching a virus that will eat into our files
and destroy everything. Downloading multimedia presentations opens up the receiver's
computer to the dangers of collecting a virus. A virus can destroy flies and sometimes
hiding until it is released later at a specific time.
Dumb search engines
When searching for a particular brand, person, item or subject a user can call up a search
engine and key in a word. Some search engines search according to the number of
references a particular site might have. So, if a competitor wanted to grab all the Internet
traffic aimed at its competitor, they could, insert thousands of tiny words almost invisible
to the eye. The tiny words could be laid out to form an overall pattern or image, which
looks innocent but in fact uses the competitor's name on their site. Another naughty
approach is to insert a word repeatedly in the background m the same colour as the
background color, thereby becoming invisible to the eye but visible to some search
engines.
Un audited audiences
As with any medium, marketers are interested to know about the audience. Measuring
audience sizes currently presents marketers with a problem: many sites report the number
of ‘Hits'. The problem is that one person can roam all over a particular web site and
register a click for each page, even registering a click if they go back to a page already
opened. Measuring user hits can be misleading, since one user counts as multiple hits
when accessing multiple files or pages on the same web site.
Exhausted audiences
Information fatigue is all around us. In fact information fatigue syndrome contributes to
stress, which increases illness and ultimately poor performance and absenteeism. There is
too much information out there. Almost 100 books are published daily around the world.
How to find the relevant information, the accurate information, the easily updateable
information, is now compounded by Information Addiction. In the vast cyber world,
users can eventually get lost confused, frustrated and increasingly anxious and might just
switch off.

37
Cyber-skivers
Surfing, browsing and wandering around the Internet can cost time and money: executive
time and phone bills as well subscription bills. Nielsen Media Research revealed that
employees from Apple Computer Inc, AT&T and IBM collectively spent 350 eight-hour
workdays visiting the soft porn web site, Penthouse, in one month.

Trademark hijacking
Internet domain names have a country of origin attached to them e.g. addresses ending in
'UK' and 'IE' is United Kingdom and Ireland respectively. So Microsoft will register their
150 domain names (one for each country). Companies that don't register their names
complete with the country of origin suffix leave themselves vulnerable to local laws of
name ownership. The Asian country Turkmenistan has become another country Keen to
sell Internet domain name. Not all countries allow this kind of trademark hijacking.
Tax complications
A problem that won't go away. Where should taxes be paid for goods and services
provided over the Internet? In which country does the transaction occur?

38
 FUNDAMENTALS OF EFFECTIVE MARKETING ON THE INTERNET
The Internet provides an excellent communication tool that lets you reach tens of millions
of professional users. The problem is that although this might seem like a marketing
dream, you have to tread very carefully and observe the Internet rules of etiquette.
Following are few rules to make marketing effective on the Internet so as to compete in
the market.
Provide a service
In order to attract new visitors and to keep regular visitors coming back, you need to
provide the visitors with a service. The best way to ensure success is to include all the
information a visitor might want, provide timely or updated information to keep them
coming back, and make sure that the site is well designed and fast to download so that
they are not put off by slow speeds.
Timely information
To make sure that your site is a regular stop for visitors, make sure that you include
updated and timely information about your products or services or information that might
be useful to your visitors.
Feedback
Keep the Web site interactive and try encourage visitors to provide feedback and the
service or to provide new information.
Global requirements
Make sure that you provide relevant information for your global audience. Think about
how the needs of a local customer might differ from a visitor on a different continent.
This can be, as simple as including information on your worldwide distributors or
providing pages that are translated into different languages.
Integrate Internet Marketing
Try and integrate Web site marketing efforts and budget within the overall marketing for
the company. If you are a huge company, make sure that everyone in the department
knows about the Web site and how it works. If you are a small company, you will find it
useful to write down your marketing tasks - for traditional and Internet marketing -
together with an agenda for actions, costs and results.
Participate on the Internet
One of the best forms of marketing is to go out and be heard. With the Internet this
means someone should participate in newsgroups, answer e-mail messages and ensure
your 'Web site is up to date.
Neat design
Keep the design of your Web pages neat and ensure that there are not too many large
image files that would take a long time to download. For example, if you have spent a lot
of effort creating a rich site you could spoil it with too many graphics that take minutes to
download.
Don't abandon other channels

39
Treat the Internet as a new opportunity rather than as a replacement for existing
marketing and advertising. It is not worth developing a Web site at the expense of print
advertising or mail shots - these traditional marketing methods can be measured and will
reach existing customers.
Increase the number of visitors
There are many ways of increasing the number of visitors that come to look at your Web
site. Some require effort on your part, others are simple and need only forward planning.
Here are the best ways you can improve the traffic to your site.
 Use newsgroups to reach-an audience
 Link to related sites
 Swap banner advertising
 Announce your Web presence
 Use signature flies
 Provide something for the visitor
 Select an effective domain name
 Register your Web site with search engines
 Submit your Web site to magazine reviews

40
Correlating Internet with Marketing and Advertising
www.toyota.com few years ago, no one would have known what this meant. Today,
companies ranging from industrial giants to emerging startups are using the Internet as a
marketing-and-advertising medium.
Entrepreneurial companies, in particular, can benefit tremendously from the use of the
Internet as a marketing, promotional, and advertising tool.
On the Internet, you can create a Web site to attract customers and clients. You can
advertise your site with so-called "banner ads" on other sites. You can increase traffic
through the smart use of promotions. You can use e-mail to round out your electronic
business-building efforts. These four steps comprise the building blocks of advertising-
and-marketing on the Internet. Taken together, they are unleashing the fastest-growing
marketing opportunity since the coming of television a half century ago. What follows is
a discussion of each.
Build a Web Site
The starting point for any company interested in using the Internet as a marketing vehicle
is your own Web site. Several years ago, building a Web site was a mysterious and
complex task. Today, an entire industry has grown up around Web-site development, and
the Web is a well-accepted new medium of communication.
For companies, a Web site is becoming as common as a printed brochure, although with
substantial benefits, such as lower distribution cost, worldwide access, and the ability to
communicate with customers (this is called "interactivity") and create a "community."
While building a great Web site can be expensive, it gives you access to many more
prospects for a price that is comparable to developing a print-marketing campaign.
In addition to creating your own Web site, it is critical that you publicize the existence of
your Web site. Many small companies overlook this and forget to include their Web-page
addresses on printed materials, business cards, and advertisements. Publicizing your site
on the Web is also important.
The most effective way to do this is to get your site listed on a variety of "search
engines," or places people go on the Web to search for specific Web sites, such as
Yahoo! (www.yahoo.com), Lycos (www.lycos.com), and Excite (www.excite.com).
There are a number of products--including Web-based ones such as Submit-It
(www.submit-it.com)--that help you get listed in these search engines.
Advertise Your Site
Once you've got a Web site up, the most common way to advertise your site (and hence,
your business), on the Web is through something called a "banner ad". A banner ad is the
image that you see at the top of a Web site that says something like "Click here to fly to
Jamaica," (which might be a banner ad for an airline or a travel service).
Putting a banner ad for your Web site on someone else's Web site accomplishes two
things. First, it gives your Web site and your products or services visibility on other sites
on the Web. Second, it drives traffic to your site through users "clicking" on your banner
ad and going to your Web site. Other Web sites charge you to put a banner ad on their
sites. Not surprisingly, high-traffic sites such as Yahoo (www.yahoo.com) charge
substantially more than low-traffic sites.

41
If you want help getting your ads placed for a reasonable cost on other people's Web
sites, there are a number of "ad networks" that help promote banner ads. These include
Link Exchange (www.linkexchange.com), DoubleClick (www.doubleclick.net), and
SOFTBANK Interactive Marketing (www.simWeb.com). In addition, a number of
advertising agencies are now helping companies--including small and medium-sized
ones--develop banner-ad campaigns to compliment their print and other media
campaigns.
The most common measure of effectiveness--and thus, the basis for pricing banner ads--
is something called a "CPM", which stands for "cost-per-thousand impressions." This
represents one thousand people actually seeing your banner ad.
However, the real measure of effectiveness is something called a "click-through." It's
one thing to have people see your banner ad; it's another to have them actually click
through to your site. This is what you really want to have happen, so you should make
sure you measure your click-through rate, as well as monitor your CPM, as part of
assessing your electronic advertising campaign.
Use E-Mail and Promotions
Another powerful, but somewhat controversial source of Internet advertising and
marketing, is the use of e-mail. I'm sure many of you have gotten unwanted e-mails
telling you about amazing new products, suggesting money-making schemes, or simply
clogging up your e-mail inbox with garbage. This Internet equivalent of junk mail is
called "spam" (named after the famous luncheon meat). Spam is often perceived as an
offensive use of the Internet.
However, there are non-spam ways to use e-mail effectively as a marketing tool. Direct-
marketing companies, such as Make It So (www.makeitsoinc.com), help you plan and
execute "friendly" direct-marketing campaigns on the Internet. If you have an audience of
people that is interested in receiving information about your company and products on a
regular basis (for example, the audience that would be interested in getting your company
newsletter), companies such as Email Publishing (www.emailpub.com) can help you
with this task. In other words, use e-mail to round out your electronic marketing efforts
by targeting specific groups of prospects.
Finally, many business owners overlook linking the Web to promotions for their
companies. When you run a promotion for your company, such as a two-for-one special,
or a give away of products or services, you can often link this to your Web site to expand
the scope of the promotion. Since the Web is fast becoming the most widely used
interactive medium, it is a great extension of the non-Internet promotion that you are
doing. Companies like Yoyodyne (www.yoyobiz.com) specialise in bringing promotions
to the Internet. So build a Web site. Advertise it with banner ads. Link promotions to
your electronic home. Use e-mail, albeit judiciously. Once you've done all this, you will
have created something you wouldn't have known could exist in the distant past of two
years ago:

42
INTERNET- A NECESSITY TODAY!!
We live in the information age, where knowledge is the power. The Internet helps in
three ways:
To get information
 To provide information
 To compile information
 To get information: One can get information about people, products,
organizations, research data, electronic versions of printed media etc from the
Internet. One will be amazed at the amount of information available through the
Internet. To make all of it more easily available to users, programs such as the
Gopher were developed to help present material in some logical fashion. The
most recent and very successful attempt at presenting information over the
Internet is the World Wide Web (WWW).
 Providing information: Most of what you want to provide could be considered as
global advertising. The best and most inexpensive way to let people know who
you are, what are you doing/have done, and how. For an organization or
institution, setting up a home page is a good way to let the world know what its
product and services are. The Internet also helps disseminate information.
Compiling information: This is obviously a special case of getting information. It is
possible to get specialized information from the web. If, for instance, you wanted to pole
the readership for a magazine or conduct a survey to detect the pulse of a selected
community, web provides you an opportunity. Using forms, e-mail, etc., you can conduct
surveys and get opinion of people across the world. There are hundreds of discussion
groups and list servers, where one can post a question and get answered by hundreds of
people who participate in these discussions.

43
 RESEARCH
METHODOLOGY

44
 RESEARCH METHODLOGY

 Objective of the Research accomplished

 Research Design

 Data Collection

 Questionnaire

 Sampling Procedure

OBJECTIVE

The objective of research is to find out the market share of different music system player
& to find the perception.

This is in fact management problem. This management problem has to be translated into
research problem. Then the process involves collecting, analyzing and reporting the
information specified in the research problem. Identifying and researching one problem
may lead to the recognition of other problem and to additional research to help in solving
them.

In order to fulfill the objective of the research a set of questionnaire was developed. The
questionnaire was designed in such a way that it could be helpful to solve the research
problem i.e. to find out the market share and to find out the preferences of consumers in
this industry.

The objectives of our research are to:

To identify the market, product and make an in depth comparison of the same
on certain parameters, which will be defined in the due course of the proposal.

To ascertain potential market and competition.

Ascertain the consumer preferences and satisfaction factor.

To highlight the perception of the consumers for the internet.

Gather useful information and provide a critical analysis through the use of
various techniques.

45
 RESEARCH DESIGN

We carried out the research using a combination of primary and secondary data. Thus we
design our research on a combination basis of

 Exploratory Research design

 Descriptive Research design

EXPLORATORY RESEARCH

As I was unaware of the market for Internet, exploratory research helped me to gather
information from the secondary resources. I referred to various magazines, internet, and
industry association reports etc. and was able to gather information on the scope of e-
marketing.

DESCRIPTIVE DESIGN

After conducting the exploratory research, for further concrete details regarding scope of
e-marketing I resorted to the Descriptive Design of market research. Under this I have
analyzed the consumer behavior on different parameters. The Descriptive design has
given me a better insight of scope of e-marketing by bringing to the fore many minute
details regarding the consumer preferences. It has further helped I in a careful analysis of
the secondary data and also refining the desired data by making the objective clearer.
I conducted the Descriptive Design using the following methods:

QUALITATIVE METHODS:

1. Focus Groups

QUANTITATIVE METHODS:

1. Surveys

Data Collection

The whole research based on primary data as well as secondary data.

Primary Data: Primary data collected through the questionnaire from the various users &
non-users of Internet

Secondary Data: Secondary data collected through the magazines, newspapers,

shopkeepers’ catalogue and the advertisement.

46
Questionnaire:

Sampling Procedure

Sampling is a necessary and inseparable part of human affair. I sample the kind of
performance and service we can expect from internet, a wine by a few sips and a
restaurant by a first meal and a new acquaintance by an initial meeting. If all possible
information needed to solve a problem could be collected, there could be no need to
sample, I can rarely do this, however because of limitations on the amount we can afford
to spend, the time we can take or other reasons, we therefore must take sample.

Census versus Sample

It is sometime possible and practicable to take a census; that is to measure each element
in the group or population of interest.
Survey of industrial consumer or of distributor of consumer products are frequently in the
form of a census. More often than not, however one or more of number of reason make it
impractical or even impossible to take a census. These reasons involve consideration of
cost, time, accuracy and destructive nature of the measurement.

Cost and Census versus Sample

Cost is an obvious constraint on the determination of whether a census should be taken. If

information in desired on grocery purchase and use behavior (frequencies and amount of
purchase of product category, average amount kept at home, and the like) and the
population of interest all house hold in India the cost will preclude a census being taken.
A sample is the only logical way of obtaining new data from or population of this size.

Time and Census versus Sample

The time of cost we have just considered is an out lay cost. The time involved in
obtaining information of either a census or sample involves the possibility of also
incurring an opportunity cost.

Accuracy and Census versus Sample

The time of cost we have just considered is an out lay cost. The time involved in.
obtaining information from either a census or sample involves the possibility of also
incurring an opportunity cost.

47
Accuracy and Census versus Sample

A study using a sample may involve sampling error. Therefore other thing the equal, a
census will provide more accurate data than a sample but it is costly and time consuming.

STEPS IN SAMPLING PROCESS

Steps Description

1. Define population The population is define in terms of (a) element (b)

Units (c) Extents (d) Time.

2. Specify sampling frame The means of representing the element of the

population e.g.. telephone directory, Map.

3. Specify Sampling Unit for sampling which holds the sampling household
elements e.g. city block, household.

4. Specify sampling method The method by which the sampling unit to be selected
is described i.e. probability / non-probability.

5. Determine Sample Size The number of elements of the population to be

sampled is chosen.

6. Specify sampling plan The operational procedure for selection of sampling

units are selected.

7. Select the sample The office and field work necessary for the selection
of the sample are carried out.

To solve my research problem, a census of all the consumer of music system in Delhi &
NCR is taken

48
SAMPLE SIZE:

 Round about 60 correspondents.

 It is based on the convenient sampling.

 Reasons for selecting convenient sampling.

 Time constraint

 Resource constraint

 Cost constraint

49
 LIMITATIONS

 The results through the questionnaire not always correct.

 Convenient sampling some time leads to the distortion in results.

 The sample size of 60 consumers not sufficient for exact results

Regional limitations

In conducting the market survey on scope of e-marketing I found regional limitations as

our research was limited to Delhi and NCR region. Although I conducted telephonic
interviews in different states, but our statistics holds a greater percentage of Delhi and
NCR region.

Sample size

The sample size taken for this market research was 60. But this sample size is too small
to be a true representative for population size. The data collected from this sample size
cannot be generalized for the population.

Target population

The target population for this market group was 18 and above. But while conducting the
research I found that the respondents were maximum in the age category of 18-25, which
limited the boundaries of our research.

Class limitation

The targeted population was in majority from the middle and high income group, which
affected our inferences on the preference on the internet. Thus adding biasness to the
inferences

50
DATA ANALYSIS

51
Ques: 1 How would you like to make purchase?

Options First Second Third Fourth

Directly from shop 88 % 4% 2% 6%

Through mail order 2% 16% 44% 38%

Through Net 8% 50% 16% 26%

Through phone 2% 30% 38% 30%

Ques: 2 For how many hours on an average you surf the net in a week?

25
20
frequency

15
Series1
10
5
0
1--5 6--10 11--15 16--20 21--25 26--30 31--35

hours

52
Ques3. With the falling of Internet prices from Rs 50 to Rs 5 an hour will you
increase the surfing hours?

yes
30%

no
70%

Ques: 4 For what purposes do you surf net?

50
40
Y
C
30
E
U
20
Q
E
10
R
0
F
e-mail entertainment information downloading buying things
44 21 47 29 5
purpose

53
Ques: 5 Have you ever used Internet for purchasing?

yes
10%

no
90%

Ques: 6 Are you planning to make purchase on net in future?

8%
8%

84%

Yes No Cant Say

54
Ques 7 What kind of products would you like to buy on net?

50 46

40
percentage
32
28
30 24
18
20 14
8 6
10
0

Ques:8 How often do you click on advertisement on sites?

50
frequency

40

30

20

10

0
0-10 10--25 >25
Series1 44 6 0
percent of the time

55
Ques:9 Do you feel ads on the net give more insights of product/service than other
media?

yes
no
44%
no 34%
56%

yes
66%

Ques:10 Do you receive e-mail from business sites?

56
Ques:11 How often do you respond to it?

yes
7%

no
93%

Ques: 12a Mention the factors which motivate you to make purchase on net?
percentage of the people

60 56 56
52
50

40

30
24
20

10

0
convinience s ecrecy wide choice s aving of tim e

factors

57
RESULTS
&
FINDINGS

58
 FINDINGS

1. The idea of buying through Net is catching up slowly. Around 88% of the people
choose Brick and Mortar shop as their first preference for shopping, while it is only
8% for making purchase on the Net. Nevertheless 50% people have purchasing
through Net as their second preference.
2. People at present on an average spend around 9 hours surfing the Net in a week. This
figure is expected to rise to around 16 hours a week with falling Internet access
prices, this is around 77% rise in the Internet access.
3. Of all the products Books and CDs emerge as favorite products to be bought on the
Net with 40% people mandate, seconded by electronic goods and garments with 255
people mandate.
4. Presently 10% of the people use Net for buying things, and among the rest 90% of
people 75% are willing to make purchase through net in the future.
5. Among various uses of net, generally around 90% of the people use Internet for e-
mail/chat and 95% for gathering information where as only 10% of the people use
Net for purchasing.
6. Around 56% of the people think that advertisements on Net don’t give more insights
of products and services than other media.
7. 66% of the people receive mail from business site, out of which 50% don’t reply at all
and the other 80% which reply, does it so only 20% of the time (i.e. reply 1 mail out
of 5 mails).
8. ‘Convenience’, ‘wide range of choices’ and ‘saving of time’ have emerged as the
main factors which motivate people for making a purchase through Net where as
‘security’ and ‘lack of actually feeling the product’ are the main factors which
denominate people from making a purchase.
9. On an average people click only 7% of the time on advertisements.
10. All organizations feel that their presence on Net give them better opportunity to
inform the customer interactively about their product/service and build strong
customer relationship.
11. Around 70% of the sites are one year old, 20% are 1 to 2 years old and 10% more
than 2 years old.
12. Around 10% of the organisations have active e-commerce sight used for transaction,
rest 90% are just for the sake of presence out of which 10% provide the service on-
line but the payment is done off-line.
13. There is almost 60% annual increase in companies coming forward to advertise on
Net.
14. Most of the organisations feel that the environment is highly uncertain but are
confident of exponential growth in terms of business through Net. There is a trend of
80% rise in number of hits every 6 months.

59
15. Around 0.02% of the total hits materialize into transaction, which is also showing a
rise of 60% annually.
As the organisations don’t have fully activated sites from the perspective of e-commerce
due to technological bottlenecks they measure the efficiency of their sites through
number of hits. Cost per thousand impressions (CPM) is used for this purpose. The
pricing of banner ads are also on the same basis, it is not dependent upon the timing but is
priced according to ‘per thousand page views” which is a flat rate of around 500Rs (i.e.
the host site will receive Rs 500 for every 1000 hits from the organization who is
advertising).

60
DISCUSSIONS

61
 RECENT TRENDS IN INDIAN MARKET

Information Technology is the fastest growing segment of Indian industry both in terms
of production and exports. In recent times, ‘software development and IT enabled
services’ have emerged as a niche opportunity for India in the global context. The
Government of India is taking all necessary steps to make India, a Global Information
Technology Superpower and a front-runner in the age of Information Revolution. The
Government of India has announced promotion of Information Technology as one of the
five top priorities of the country and constituted a National Task Force on Information
Technology and Software Development.

Information Technology Industry in India has the potential of tremendous growth as a

global IT solutions provider. Increasingly, India is being regarded as the hub and the base
for world-wide IT solutions development. In addition to the global market that the Indian
IT industry is well placed to tap, there is also a huge market within India to transform
conventional brick and mortar industry through IT solutions. Likely economic and
industrial growth and a large consumer base are the additional and significant growth
drivers for Indian IT industry.

Convergence of Information Technology, Communication, Entertainment, Content and

Consumer Electronics and the increasing penetration of internet, PC, desktop sets, mobile
phones, cable TV etc. should result in a massive surge in world-wide demand for IT
solutions for internet based activities and e-commerce. India today is well placed to offer
quality and competitive IT products and services.

India's IT industry ranks among the fastest growing sectors within the country's economy.
Driven primarily by software exports, the industry has been logging in extremely
impressive year on year growth. The software industry in fact has been growing well with
a CAGR exceeding 50% over the last five years, and only in the last year, impacted by
the worldwide economic downturn, has the momentum reduced marginally. The
Government of India projects an export of US $ 50 billion by the year 2008 for the Indian
software industry.

India's international-class manpower that creates high quality software and services
solutions is finding favor among overseas customers. The success story being played out
by the IT industry at the global level is also being reflected on Indian soil, with more and
more organizations embracing IT. The Government too is getting IT enabled and using
state-of-the-art technology solutions to bring greater benefits to Indian citizens and
improve its internal efficiencies.

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Top 10 tech trends for India

1. Blu-Ray of hope

Remember the 1.44 MB humble floppy? Now we only talk about CDs (can store around
650 MB) and DVDs (anywhere from 4.7 GB to 17 GB). However, with the
announcement of Pioneer's Blu-ray or Blu-disc format, the game is changing.

Blu-ray is the next generation large capacity optical disc video recording format --
enables recording, rewriting and play back of up to 27 gigabytes (GB) of data on a single
side and can transfer date at 36 Mbps (the CD transfers data at around 150 Kbps while
DVDs do the same at around 11 Mbps).

The High Density Digital Versatile Disc (HD-DVD) is also in the news. However, HD-
DVDs can store up to 15 GB on a single layer. While HD-DVD is promoted by Toshiba,
NEC, Sanyo and Microsoft and backed by four major film studios, Blu-ray is backed by
Japanese consumer electronics giant Sony.

At CES 2006, Sony already announced plans for its first high-definition Blu-ray DVD
players and recorders. High-definition technology from Toshiba called HD DVD will
also be available to consumers in March 2006.

HD-DVD is similar to DVD, hence analysts consider it cheaper for manufacturers to

switch production lines. On the other hand, Blu-ray will need whole new equipment
setups. Both formats are yet to agree on a standard, which is a problem.

Market monitor SMD sees Blu-Ray and HD DVD discs (Moser Baer is already working
on them) really kicking in only from 2007 onwards in India. For now, CDs and DVDs are
here to stay -- at least till 2010.

And as these two formats battle each other, the first holographic storage systems, capable
of storing up to 300 GB on a single disc (over six times more content than Blu-ray and
HD-DVD), will reportedly go on sale towards the end of 2006.

2. Digital ticket

After the convenience of booking cinema tickets online, comes the ease of buying tickets
on your cellphone. And also paying for it through the phone. Bangalore-based Jigharak is
believed to be working on the software application. Not only this, you will be able to
book tickets using your personal digital assistant (PDA) or any hand held.

Vijay Basrur of Inox Leisure says it is kicking-off one such initiative this February, either
in Bangalore or Pune. Shringar Cinemas also has plans to start hawking tickets through
PDAs in the next couple of months at its multiplex in Andheri, says Arshad Kazi,
technology head.

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Moreover, with the setting up of self-collection kiosks, buying tickets will become as
simple as withdrawing cash from an ATM. Costing around Rs 1 lakh each, they will be
installed in metros soon. PVR Cinemas has already installed one in Bangalore.

As for the theatre screens, D-Cinema (the high-end of digital cinema is still about five
years away thanks to high costs) 2006 could see some upgrades of E-Cinema.

Currently, around 150 theatres in India are digitised which means that unlike a celluloid
print, there are servers hooked on to projectors that beam the pixels (read picture) onto a
screen. But only two screens of Satyam Cinema in Chennai have real D-Cinema.

Kazi opines that it is a volume game -- at least 800-1,000 screens are needed for cinema
operators to be able to afford the D-Cinema projectors and servers. The price of a D-
Cinema projector is four times that of an E-Cinema projector, which currently costs about
Rs 15-20 lakh (Rs 1.5-2 million).

3. Games people play

The global mobile games' business is pegged at $ 2.2 billion, with India accounting for
around $100 million of the overall pie. Nasscom states this market could well touch $500
million in exports alone by 2010.

And thanks to the next generation of cell phones with enhanced graphical, sound and data
capabilities, mobile gaming is poised as the next big thing for the Indian gaming scenario.

However, a console/PC genre, awaiting its day, in India is the massively multimedia
online role playing game (MMORPG). Indeed, even the introduction of MMORPGs in
the mobile market should bring in a whole new audience.

Due to the stratified nature of online gamers, there is little crossover between those who
play first-person shooter (FPS) games and those who play MMORPGs, states a recent
Juniper report.

While versions of these games are currently available on mobiles -- EverQuest, for
example, which was introduced on the BREW platform in 2003 -- they do not permit
multiplayer play. Juniper expects subscriptions to be the key source of revenues for such
games.

In the console/PC market, MMORPGs such as Dark Age of Camelot, EverQuest and Star
Wars Galaxies typically retail at around $40 with monthly subscription costs of nearly
$15 per month. So, as the MMORPG community increases, gaming revenue should
increase.

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4. Movies on Demand

With Tata Sky planning to launch Direct to Home (DTH) services in May-June this year,
consumers will have much more choice. Not to mention better picture and sound quality,
thanks to set-top boxes.

Vikram Kaushik, CEO, Tata Sky, says his company will leverage the expertise of BSkyB
and Foxtel and customise the programmes to suit local needs.

Gaming channels too are likely to become a reality. We should also see the launch of
digital video recorders this year which can record 100 hours of programing, says Sunil
Khanna, CEO, Dish TV. So you can always record your favourite programmes -- six
channels at a time -- and watch them at your leisure.

Last month, DishTV kicked-off with a Movie-on-Demand Service for Hindi films and
this will be followed up with a service for English films in March. India might also see
High Definition TV (HDTV) before 2006 is over. Khanna notes that HD-compatible
television sets are already here but broadcasters need to get their act together.

Are customers biting? Yes, the momentum's been building up in the last six months or so
say broadcasters. Khanna believes that by March 7, Dish TV would have 2.5 milion
subscribers. A set top box which earlier cost Rs 6,000 now comes for Rs 4,000. And
subscriptions are affordable, starting from Rs 60 and going upto Rs 300.

And do you want to replay Sachin's square cut repeatedly? Thanks to interactive TV, this
too will be possible in 2006.

5. Plug into the IP Phone

While Internet Protocol telephony is known in India -- many of us having used it on the
sly for the last four years -- what is little known is that Indian enterprises have bought
over 100,000 IP phones in the last couple of years.

IP phones transmit voice using data packets (similar to the way the Internet routes data)
instead of circuit-switched (the way your vanilla telephone operates) connections over
voice-only networks. Since the calls are routed through the Net (these phones have an
ethernet phone in which your phone (copper) cable can be inserted), all the user pays for
is the IP phone software and the Internet connection.

While it took Cisco three years to sell its first million IP phone, it took just four months
to sell the sixth million (total global sales till date). In a few year's time, one out of two
phones in India could be an IP phone, opines Ranajoy Punja, VP (Marketing), Cisco.
Frost & Sullivan estimates the Indian IP telephony market in India to be around $ 54
million.

IP phone prices have, on an average, dropped from $800-$900 four years ago to around
$100 today. The voice quality too has improved. However, since the IP phone uses the
Internet route, there are concerns over security, though companies are taking care to

65
ensure that the network is adequately protected and all messages are scrambled. IP
phones (unlike the vanilla phones) can be customised. And this trend is expected to catch
on further in 2006.

6. Robots, robots everywhere

Aibo has a cult following in the United States and Japan. Of course, American AIBO
buyers tend to be computer geeks who want to hack the robotic dog's programming.
Japanese consumers, on the other hand, treat this Sony robot as a pet.

Robots in the US have already taken over domestic tasks like lawn-mowing, vacuum
cleaning (the Roomba by iRobot) and window cleaning. iRobot says it has sold hundreds
of thousands of units of the Roomba -- a self-guided, self-propelled vacuum cleaner that
sells for around $200 -- in just one year.

A United Nations report on Robotics expects the sales of such robots to reach 4.5 million
units with an estimated value of $3 billion. The market for entertainment and leisure
robots, including toy robots, is tipped to touch 2.5 million units. The sales value is
estimated at over $4.4 billion. With labour cheap in India, will domestic robots become
popular? Not likely in the coming years. However, robots have other uses in our country.
Many Indian auto, auto-ancillary majors and machine tool players are using robots to
meet global precision standards. Robots have also been used in cardiac surgeries. And
now a Pune-based urologist has taken the lead for using this technique to treat prostate
cancer and other urological disorders, like opening up narrow fallopian tubes in women.
A Kolhapur-based general surgeon, Suresh Deshpande, along with a young IT engineer,
Vikrant Yadav, has also developed a laparoscopic robotic arm fitted with a camera to
perform orthopaedic surgeries.

7. Tag on to RFID

Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology is no longer only about the US and
Wal-Mart. Pune University's Jayakar library uses RFID tags on its books as well as
library cards; the Chitale Dairy at Bhiwladi in Maharashtra's Sangli district has installed
RFID to monitor the feeding patterns of cattle and bisons; Pantaloon Retail India and
Shopper's Stop have RFID tags in their factories; more than 45 colleges in Pune have
introduced student identity RFID cards that allow students access to hostels and monitor
their classroom attendance; and ITC uses RFID to track what goes into the manufacturing
of its cigarettes.

These are but a few cases in point. Indian suppliers to retail majors such as Wal-Mart,
Metro, Target and Tesco have already been issued directives to replace barcodes with
RFID tags.

While this may lower margins of these suppliers, it will unwittingly create a demand for
RFID tags in India. The estimated market size of this industry in India is anywher
between Rs 125-150 crore (Rs 1.25-1.50 billion) and is said to be growing at 30 per cent
per annum.

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The current cost of tags is anywhere from Rs 5 to Rs 30, considered to be prohibitive
when tagging hundreds of products. The rates are bound to decrease this year. Worldwide
RFID spending is expected to surpass $3 billion in 2010, predicts Gartner. A Research
and Markets report pegs the figure at $6 billion by 2010.

RFID is not a bar code replacement, note analysts. While bar codes are better at
collecting data in structured places like warehouses (likely to continue for the next five to
seven years), RFID tags are expected to be used for data collection in largely chaotic or
unstructured business processes like retail environments to hospitals.

8. The new intelligent vehicle

Telematics, integrated use of telecommunications and informatics, is catching up in the

transportation sector. Global Positioning System (GPS) is being used in KSRTC buses
(pilot project) in Bangalore. Many Indian logistics companies too are using GPS to track
vehicle movements and errant drivers.

The recently-introduced Tata Novus range of commercial vehicles feature the 'TRAK i t'
Vehicle Locater -- a GPS system for vehicle tracking; 'TRAK i t' Vehicle Data Recorder
-- for critical vehicle and driver performance recording; and electrical systems that ensure
'vehicle start' in neutral gear, as an enhanced safety feature.

Our cars too are becoming smarter. For instance, the REVA-NXG introduced this April
as a "concept car" in Monaco, was fitted with a `wireless tablet' -- an embedded computer
based on Mobilius having a touch screen display which shows all essential information
about the car like speed and mileage. It also doubles up as a GPS navigation system.
Internet is accessible via GPRS. It also has a MP3 player.

Vehicle telematics systems are also increasingly being used to provide remote
diagnostics; a vehicle's in-built systems will identify a mechanical or electronic problem,
and the telematics package will automatically make this information known to the vehicle
manufacturer and service organisation. Other forthcoming applications include on-
demand navigation, audio and audio-visual entertainment content.

9. Where the Podcast's headed

If you have an iPod, you would know what podcasting is. For the uninitiated, imagine a
desktop aggregator where you subscribe to a set of feeds. Podcasting works similarly,
except that instead of reading, you listen to the content on an iPod. Juice was the first
major podcasting software (downloads podcast media file like oggs/MP3) and is still the
most popular podcast aggregator.

With smartphones getting cheaper by the day and 3G networks becoming commonplace
(well at least in developed nations), 2006 will see the growth in 'mobilecasting', predict
tech pundits. All we need now is empower people with video phones, 3G mobile
telephony, and a Flickr-like tool to upload audio and video to RSS-enabled websites. This
is not mobile blogging or podcasting now -- we're talking about a social revolution and
that's mobcasting. Mobilecast (a software to convert podcasts to Adaptive Multi Rate

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(AMR) converter for mobile phones) and mobilecasting have become the 'One' when it
comes to downloading and listening to podcasts on mobile phones. All you need to do is
install and configure Mobilecast on the iPod. Thereon, it will be run after each podcast
downloads, splitting the podcast into segments of 10-minute AMR audio files for the
mobile phone. Podcasters have now begun brainstorming on how to create podcasts
specifically for mobile phones.

10. Wi-Fi on steroids

Worldwide Interoperability of Microwave Access or WiMAX is the new kid on the

block. Taking over from Wi-Fi or the 802.11 b technology, WiMAX (802.16 a) promises
to bring bandwidth to the masses at higher speeds this year. It broadcasts its signal over
many more channels than WiFi, and those channels are less cluttered. Its signals face less
interference, thus helping them travel as far as 30 miles. Besides, WIMAX provides
metropolitan area network connectivity at speeds of up to 75 Mbps (compare that to Wi-
Fi's 11 Mbps).

WIMAX covers wider metropolitan or rural areas. It is meant to solve the last-mile
problem. In India, where the telecom infrastructure is poor and last-mile connections are
typically through copper cable, Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) and fibre optic, installation
costs are high as it requires ripping up streets to lay cables. The ability to provide these
connections wirelessly, without laying wire or cable in the ground, greatly lowers the cost
of providing these services.

Intel and BSNL have already introduced Hot Spots (wherein you can connect your Wi Fi-
enabled (or Centrino) laptop to wireless network and logon to the Net instantly). Satyam
Infoway is on the way to adopt WIMAX. Intel (which also plans to introduce a WiMAX
computer chip) is said to be working with Reliance on a pre-standard WIMAX pilot
project. It is also reportedly working with Bharti and Navini Networks, and is in talks
with BSNL for similar pilot projects.

Meanwhile, the Indian government is expected to introduce 3G by 2006. Intel and BSNL
have already introduced Hot Spots (wherein you can connect your Wi Fi-enabled (or
Centrino) laptop to wireless network and logon to the Net instantly). 3G will help in
enhancing India's competitiveness in the ITES / BPO segment.

All this will entail an increase in India's optical fiber network which currently stands at
670,000 km (all providers including BSNL).

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Thus, E-Commerce is not just a western version. The most talked about and now well-
endorsed feature of E-Commerce is its global flavor. Evidently, the E-Commerce has also
started to show its true potential in India. While on one hand, India’s E-Commerce
solutions are becoming a sought after commodity around the world; even the E-
Commerce based businesses are leaving their distinct marks of technology
competitiveness, viable business model and entrepreneurship.

INDIA - GROWTH OF INTERNET

Users (in
Date Internet Connections (in million) million)

31-Aug- 97 0.002 0.01

31-Mar-98 0.05 0.25

31–Mar-99 0.09 0.45

31–Mar -00 0.14 0.7

31- Mar-01 0.28 1.4

31- Mar-02 0.9 2.8

31-Aug- 03 1.6 4.8

31-Mar-04 2.5 8

31-Mar-05 4.5 15

31-Mar-06 10 32

31-Dec-06 15 50

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 THE INDIAN DOT COM SCENERIO

Boom or Bust!
To do dot com or not to dot com, that is the question?
India is certainly in the mist of a dot com revolution. Most businesses today are entering
or at least planning to enter into internet domain, enabling themselves, and strategizing
on how they can use the internet to conduct business.
The proliferation of Internet across the country:
According to recent studies conducted by leading industry bodies, Internet penetration in
India has jumped substantially over the past two years. In fact the NASSCOM, study E-
commerce and Internet marketing in India will touch Rs. 15000 crore by 2006-07 of these
while Rs 13200 will be accounted for B2B and B2C transactions.
The sky then, certainly is the limit for Indian dot coms.
 The Capital Cities (New Delhi and Other State Capital) accounts for 79% of
Internet Connections of the Country.
 More than 86% of top Corporate Houses have endorsed that Internet and E-
Commerce is an integral part of their corporate strategic framework.
 Over 76 % of the Internet Users use E-mail Services
 Over 61% of the Users Access Internet from school, colleges, place of work and
Cyber Cafes while 27% access Internet from homes.
 Among the career conscious and education driven middle class, Internet is seen as
critical to success in professional life.
 There are approx 59 million telephone connections (including Mobile) and 8.5
million PC base in India.
 There are approx. 47 million Cable T V Connections out of 92 million TV Sets in
the Country.

(Source : DoT, NASSCOM & Telescope Survey)

.

Steps Needed to Trigger a Faster Growth of Internet in the country

by The Government / Licensor

 Encourage cost effective wireless access systems for Internet Access by de-
licensing of 2.4 GHz (ISM) band for low power, short range outdoor W-LAN
applications and last mile Internet Access.
 Reductions in Customs Duties on Access Devices, Set Top Boxes and other
important equipment used in ISP network and not manufactured in India. The
availability and pricing of PCs should be at par with TVs.
 Facilitate direct access by ISPs to the bottleneck facilities for access to
International Sub-marine cable systems.
 Proliferation of effective computer based education at the School and University
level, particularly in small towns and non-metros

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  Policies and plans should be formulated and implemented for e-Governance
applications providing citizen services through Internet by suitable
standardization and with an objective of increasing efficiency and improving
citizen care.
 Increase the tele-density particularly in remote / under-developed and rural areas.
 Encourage setting up of Cyber Café / Internet Dhabas in rural and remote areas by
offering Infrastructural facilities at subsidized cost and encouraging provision of
soft loans facilities to such entrepreneurs.
 Receive Only Satellite system by ISPs should be permitted without the
requirement of licensing and clearances from the government agencies, including
SACFA, except for the mandatory security clearance.
 Simplifications of administrative procedures and regulations particularly for
provisioning of RF Links.
 Tax incentives to businessmen / consumers for using Online Services and institute
measures to reduce E-transaction cost.

The govt helping hand first became visible when the ISP was announced. The policy
liberalized the internet service environment. The monopoly of the VSNL was finally
shattered as the other ISP policy emerged.
Further boost had been to the ISP market by the decision of the govt. to allow private ISP
(internet service provider) to set up their own internet gateways. This step is expected to
further push the dot coms cause in India. Over the past years in particular, the arrival of
significant names in the business such as mantra online, rediff.com, dish net, and satyam
online have virtually revolutionized the Internet business in India.
Yet another area where the govt has been playing Santa Claus is the “bandwidth”
segment, where we are likely to see significant improvements over the next few years,
while currently India is going through a bandwidth crunch, a number of initiative are
underway which will ease the situation subsequently.
The Prime Minister Mr. Manmohan Singh has announced a range of concessions for
improving and strengthening India’s telecom infrastructure. For the bandwidth they had
decided to go for satellite gateways. So India is going slowly on the boom world but it
will take couple of years for picking up as the infrastructure is picking up

71
 SUMMARY
&
CONCLUSION

72
 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

The Internet is growing at a rate of almost 50-100% per year; in India also this growth is
mirrored. From being a medium for exchange of information and communication
between the scientific research workers, it has opened a vast vista of entertainment and
information (edutainment) for millions of people on the Internet (netizens). The Internet
in the form of World Wide Web has opened the doors to a new technology in the
communication media, which is even now relatively untapped for business purposes (all
over the world and more so ever in India).

In the present work an effort is made to access the potential of Internet Marketing in India
in consonance with the various environmental factors. Various techniques that can help
the marketers to boost their business by harvesting the power of the Internet are explored.

At the same time the study also focus on the various players involved in providing
Internet service, their tariff structure, their infrastructure etc. the study also includes the
growth of Internet in India, the features attracting most of the companies to be on the net
and the present usage pattern in India. Besides the advantages of marketing on the
Internet, the study also focuses on how Internet can hinder marketers and what are the
rules that should be adopted for effective marketing on the net. It also covers the Indian
dot coms scenario

73
 CONCLUSION

The Internet has been developing at an exponential pace over the past 4-5 years. It’s

difficult to estimate the number of users connected to the ‘Net’, but there are figures that

suggest an audience of over 75 million users. Since the technology is so fast, it is difficult

to predict where it will go.

At the moment, you need a computer to connect to the Internet. Network computers were

hailed as the new way of accessing the Internet. These have not taken off as predicted.

Instead the next development is from television manufacturers who are providing new

TV sets that can access the Internet and allow the viewer to browse the web or send e-

mails. Internet service on Cellular (Mobile) phone will also increase its popularity.

For ultimate portability, several companies are working on ways to include e-mail

displays on public phone kiosks that will let anyone connect to their mailbox and read or

send messages across the Internet. In similar move, many communication companies

have been working on a network of satellites in orbit around the world that will allow you

to carry a personal digital assistant (PDA) in your pocket and receive e-mail messages

anywhere in the world such as PDA by Nokia

74
Beside these technological changes there is a tremendous shift in the inclination of the

public towards Internet. More and more people are willing to use it for varying purposes.

It has started taking shape conducive to business requirements. To start with, it was

unregulated and unruly. Now, slowly, the larger software companies are bringing

business features and securities to the Internet so that business can work securely on it

and trust it as an efficient business tool.

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 SUGGESTIONS

Most e-marketing giants tend to concentrate a lot on the 15 – 20 % of

their customers who constitute the highly adoptive customers who are
willing to accept technology.

To maintain satisfaction in this segment it is necessary to adopt

continuously innovative strategies that cater exclusively to the explorers
and pioneers.

However it is also necessary to focus on the low end customers as well.

Their loyalty can be earned because they were dissatisfied with the
introduction of hi technology solutions.

Their ideology being that the e-marketer had failed to understand their
requirements. For this sector it becomes important to reinstate the
personal over the counter marketing activities.

By balancing these to primary strategies they are likely to maintain their

customer base and over time be able to attract more customers.

It is important to clearly segment customers into technology savvy or

non technology savvy and accordingly cater to their specific needs.

76
ANNEXURE

77
 QUESTIONNAIRE

This is a questionnaire as a part of an effort to gauge the Scope of E-Marketing in

India. Your sincere and honest cooperation is expected.

1. How would you like to make a purchase, please give the ranking from 1(most
favorable) to 5(least favorable)

a) Directly from the shop

b) Through mail-order

c) Through net

d) Through phone

e) Any other (specify)______________

2. For how many hours on an average do you surf net in a week. _______

3. With the falling Internet prices from RS. 40 an hour to RS. 5 an hour how many hours
will you surf net in a week. ______

4. For what purposes do you surf net:

a) E-mail/chat

b) Entertainment

c) Getting information

d) Downloading

e) Buying things

f) Any other (specify)

5. Have you ever used Internet for purchasing? Yes No

If No

6. Are you planning to make purchase on net in future.? Yes No

78
7. What kind of products would you like to buy on net? Please mention.

a) _________________

b) _________________

c) _________________

d) _________________

e) _________________

8. How often do you click on advertisement on sites?

a) 0 to 10% of the time.

b) 10 to 25% of the time.

c) 25 to 50% of the time.

d) 50 to 75% of the time.

e) 75 to 100% of the time.

9. Do you feel ads on net give more insights of product/service than other media?

Yes No

10. Do you receive mail from business sites? Yes No

11. How often do you respond to it? Please mention the percentage. ______

12. Please mention what factors motivate you or stop you from making purchase on net.

a) Motivate you:

i. Convenience

ii. Secrecy

iii. Wide range of choices

iv. Saving of time

v. Any other (specify) _________________________

b) Stop you:
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 i. Security

ii. Late delivery

iii. Wrong delivery

iv. Lack of actually feeling the product

v. Any other (specify) _________________________

Name: __________________________________

Age: ___________________________________

Sex: ___________________________________

Qualification: ___________________________

Occupation: _____________________________

Address: _______________________________

Email: ________________________________

Thanks for sparing your valuable time for filling of our questionnaire.

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 REFERENCES
Websites:
 Eshoppers.biz
 A &M.com
 Webpromotions.com
 Rediff.com
 Yahoo.com
 Cnet.com
 Ebusness.com
 Lycos.com
 Microsoft.com
 I2technologies.com
 Ways.com
 Indiainfoline.com

Magazines:
 Business world
 Computers today
 A& M.
 Data Quest, March 31 2004
 PC Quest
 PC Magazine
 A&M
 Internet News
 Economic Times
 Business World
 Cyber Rules
 Business On The Internet

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