28-08-2012, 12:37 PM
Traditional Marketing vs. Internet Marketing A comparison
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INTRODUCTION
When companies start business, their main goal is to make profit and accomplish a successful
growth. Therefore different strategies are used to sell products or services that they offer.
Companies try to create, promote and sell products or services that could satisfy their target
customers. Marketing is a strategy that can make a business grow and thereby become more
powerful. It is crucial to know what kind of marketing to use in every area to achieve high
sales rate, market share and the wanted image.
Marketing is considered to be a process of exploring, creating, and delivering value to satisfy
the needs and wants of a target market at a profit.1 When Neil Borden introduced the concept
of the "4 P's" of the marketing mix (Product, Price, Place, and Promotion), marketers were
offered opportunities to exploit each aspect of those elements and thereby satisfy their
customers’ needs and wants.
Marketing has to some extent stayed the same in many years but as technology has developed,
it has had its affects on marketing. Entrance of Internet into our lives has brought many
possibilities and that has also affected marketing. Since the evolution of Internet, the Internet
selling or e-selling has become ever more established in every day life in the society and is
even replacing the traditional medium, to some degree. It is a new channel for communication
which brings along new opportunities for marketing.
Research problem
Different tools of traditional marketing have been used by marketers for a long time. The
marketers have been using the traditional channels such as face to face communication, TV,
radio and magazines etc. to communicate to the customers. Nowadays there is a new
communication channel, Internet, added to these traditional channels, which have brought lots
of opportunities for marketers. Internet has affected marketing process by providing
opportunities that were not available by using traditional marketing tools. All of the
communication channels have an important function of their own but Internet is a channel that
has developed and is continuously developing which has got a lot of attention from everyone.
Knowing the differences advantages and disadvantages between traditional and Internet
marketing, a marketer can be more capable to make the right decision when choosing the
marketing strategy.
Target group
This thesis will target the managers of start-up companies that need to make a decision about
the selection of their marketing methods. The studies that are done on marketing theories, the
comparisons between them, point of view of marketing managers of the companies that were
interviewed and the analysis made based on these would be useful to a business entering the
market.
Other target group for this thesis is other students and anyone who is interested in this subject
and needs the gathered information for some reason.
Delimitations
Due to the time limit and inaccessibility to all needed sources, the research for this thesis had
to be limited. Therefore this study is based on the Swedish market. The marketing managers
of the chosen companies are working in Sweden and their answers are related to the Swedish
market as well. This study is also focused mainly on the business to individual consumers
rather than business to business. Also because of the different cultures, economies and
regulations in different parts of the world, the results from this thesis will mainly be valid in
Sweden.
Selection of research problem
Today the Internet marketing is relatively a new phenomenon; the authors of this thesis are
interested in understanding its implications towards the traditional marketing. The companies
chosen for research of primary data in this thesis are operating in fashion industry. Since
fashion is present every day in people’s lives, the authors considered it as an interesting
business field that uses different marketing tools to reach its target market. The selection of
this subject as the problem for this thesis is based on the interest of authors in this problem
area and the assumption that this problem is interesting to many others. Mainly the interest is
to dig deeper into the evolution of marketing and the comparison between traditional
marketing and Internet marketing. The authors are also interested in the versatility of the
marketing in the business world.
Selection of research method
To be able to answer the research problem of this thesis, there is a need to study different
method options in searching for needed data. There are different research approaches to
choose from, some examples are quantitative research (a measurable data helping to explain a
phenomenon), qualitative research (gathered data that can help the author to explain the
phenomenon in his/her own point of view), historical research (searching for historical data)
and case study (in-dept study on a case, it can be a study on an event or a firm etc.).2
Qualitative research
Qualitative research focuses on understanding the research subject by investigating the results
based on direct observations, in-depth interviews and analysis of documents and materials.
The researcher therefore needs a more focused small group to study rather than a large
random sample base.
“Qualitative research is typically used to answer questions about the complex nature of
phenomena, often with the purpose of describing and understanding the phenomena from the
participants’ point of view”.3 The qualitative research is inclined to be explorative and
unstructured, with emphasis on understanding and gain of insights
Validity & Reliability
Validity is “establishing correct operational measures for the concepts being studied”.14 In
order to ensure the validity of this thesis, the methods and theories used to conduct this study
were chosen from literatures written by authors known to be experts in this field and scientific
articles from data bases recommended by Mälardalens University. Further more; the empirical
data used in the analysis was collected through telephone and e-mail interviews with the
marketing managers of different companies chosen by the authors. This way the primary
information was gathered from those who work specifically with marketing and can give a
useful and relevant point of view. Discussing with the interviewed individuals through
telephone gave the authors more assurance about the answers being received from the right
person.