Electronic advertising strategies and platforms

E-Advertising

The contemporary trends in the business environment are more and more supportive of the annulment of barriers between markets. Instead of a multitude of markets one could almost speak about a global market where all the players are free to enter. The direct consequences of this aspect are two. One refers to an increased possibility of making profit. More clients means more sales, but at the same time it means increased production and more importantly, bigger competition.

Under he circumstances in which success favours competition it is needless to say that a company must use all the resources it benefits from. It must be underlined that the technological advancements tend to make products belonging to the same category rather similar. This means that in order to acquire the desired profits an organization must take into consideration strategic moves such as diminishing the cost of production and investing in all the forms of communication that would help it increase its sales. Such a means of communication is represented by e-advertising.

If one is forced to act on a market with potentially no geographical barriers, it is safe to say that an organization needs a means through which it can communicate with all the potential customers. This particular medium should also be efficient from the financial point-of-view. The only medium which respects these two fundamental criteria is represented by the internet. A new market (the global one) and a new way of conceiving economy are the realities which companies all over the world need to deal with.

E-ecommerce is no longer a secret for anyone. On the contrary everything from information to products and services is sold online since the beginning of the nineties.

Factual data demonstrates that the online market is increasing constantly and at high rates. All the serious companies have a website. This is used either for the purpose of making the company known or for selling the products that the company produces (or both). Under these circumstances the challenge that the companies face is represented by understanding and properly using the resources of this channel.

Should they concentrate on a single channel, internet companies enjoy a number of advantages, but what they are really doing is narrowing their target market. Offline and online channels must definitely not be considered as each other's substitute.. It must be acknowledged that there are some channels which adapt better to different product categories or different segments of potential clients.

It is obvious that the goods and services which don't ask for the personal contact with the item will sell better via internet, while experience goods and services are more successful through offline channels. This happens because in this manner the clients are provide with the possibility of a firsthand experience with the products

It might be argued that the importance of what a company actually offers to the client is big but the importance of making it known to the world is even bigger. This is where marketing and of course advertising come into place. E-advertising has a similar functioning pattern to offline advertising.

Offline advertising uses all the available media such as television, the radio, prints in order to reach the target audience. E-advertising refers to purchasing an online space, whether it is a website or a single banner situated on a website.

E-marketing is a strategic resource that companies need to use in addition to the regular marketing moves in order to become competitive. It has the advantage of allowing one to reach the client in a direct manner through methods such as the e-mail. Affiliate marketing, a situation when companies which have a similar target in terms of potential clients unite their forces in order to reach them in a more effective manner can and must make use of e-advertising.

An example might be represented by a company with a website selling information which provides people with insight regarding the best methods they can employ in order to train their pets. If this site includes a link to a book which the clients can buy from another website, such as Amazon.com, the former site will receive a quota every time that the book in question is sold.

If offline advertising makes heavy use of banner ads, the situation regarding the e-advertising techniques is absolutely similar. All the people who deal with the internet, regardless of their knowledge, ability and interest regarding it have had contact with a commercial banner. The main advantage that the online banner presents (and the offline one does not) refers to its interactive and dynamic properties. A click is all one needs in order to be redirected to the site or the product which is advertised on the banner.

The main disadvantage which online banners present is the risk of making the viewers annoyed or angry. The fact is that when people are online they choose their locations. In other words they have a purpose in mind when choosing a website or another. A banner might be perceived as somehow intrusive, especially if the advertised product has little to do with the theme of the site where it is located.

The quality of the banner is of fundamental importance. The colours, the font, the visual effects and the transmitted message are highly important elements which can attract the potential customer or make him close the page. It is true that the dynamism of an online banner is its main strong point, but it can very well become its main weak point if it is too aggressive.

I am sure that everybody had at least one negative experience with a banner with an aggressive colours, probably fluorescent pink, which came out of nowhere and refused to be closed while blinking aggressively and told you that you were the lucky winner of God knows what. This kind of banners are perceived as spam and receive a very negative reaction from the clients.

The main purpose of e-advertising is to increase the sales of a company. Nevertheless, all the used means, such as links and various types of connections, banners and jump sites represent at the same time a means of increasing awareness. Increased awareness and recognisability are two factors which might contribute to the long-term efficacious functioning of a company in a strategic manner.

There are two very important advantages that e-advertising presents. On the one hand there is the financial aspect. Online advertising is definitely less expensive than the offline advertising which could reach the same amount of target clients. On the other hand, the dimension of the target audience which e-advertising can reach is far bigger than the one of offline advertising. A third advantage that can be taken into consideration is represented by the dynamic character which the online medium allows advertising to have.

A huge banner situated in the middle of a busy crossroads in the capital of a country is considered efficient if the target customers see it and remember the information which it transmits. If we are realistic we can state that nobody will remember more than the name of the brand and probably its slogan and logo.

If the interest of the customer is big enough he will probably remember the location of the store where the brand is sold, but from here to actually driving to the store and buying the product there still is a long way to go. On the internet, the effort that the potential client must put into the acquisition act is considerably smaller. Once the e-banner has attracted his attention all he needs to do is click on it and in a blink of an eye he will find himself in a virtual store where he is presented with the offer.

Payment is done online and all the client needs to do afterwards is wait fro the acquired item to be delivered at his home. The biggest input that is demanded from the client is the financial one. Taking all these advantages into consideration it is safe to say that the importance of e-advertising resides in that it shortens the distance from the act of contemplating the product to that of actually buying it.

A e-advertising campaign may not cost much but its importance can not be ignored. From this point-of-view it can be stated that the banner is a crucial element. The format of the e-banners is one of the elements which either attracts the client or drives him away. The visual impact of the banner must be strong enough in order to draw people's attention but at the same time it must not be intrusive. Intrusive and aggressive banners attract attention but in a negative manner and this negative perception is afterwards transmitted to the brand and associated to it.

The risks of using such a banner is rather obvious. One of the criteria that cab ne used when selecting a certain format is represented by the click through rate. The main idea that must be kept in mind when designing a banner for the online medium is the potential impact that it might have on the process of brand awareness.

A factor which might become a strategic resource is represented by the very location of the banner, that is the website. The best advantage that internet presents is its flexibility. Once a banner has been published it is pretty easy to monitor the results. Once feedback is achieved it can be analyzed and the e-advertising campaign can be improved in a constant manner unlike the offline campaign which remains the same for the entire duration which was decided before it even begun.

Since modifications and improvements can be made at short intervals, while the reaction of the target audience is supervised in continuation, the chances of achieving success can be considered bigger as well. The internet allows placement optimization as well as the improvement of the format based on elements such as scheduling and capping.

When an online advertising campaign is conceived one must also decide how many people will see the ads, but also the number of times that a single person will see the same ad on the same site. This variable can be improved and controlled thanks to the flexible character of the communication medium.

Another element that can be discussed when analyzing e-advertising is represented by the availability of the information. For example, a spot on the radio has a limited duration and a very high cost. The spot is available for thirty seconds and although it is repeated at certain intervals and for a certain period of time, its nature is temporary. Such is not the case with the information used in e-advertising.

In other words, a potential client has the possibility to access this information at whatever time and for how long he pleases. This allows the clients to acquire more information about the brand and perceive it as being open towards him. In terms if brand image and brand identity this represents a long-term advantage that all the companies should take into consideration.

Offline advertising campaigns last for a limited period and afterwards its results are analyzed in terms of increased sales. However, it is difficult to make a direct causal connection between advertising and sales. The social and cultural context is important as it might shape the preferences of the clients for certain attributes that are to be found in certain brands. In addition it must be underlined that a company does not use advertising as the only marketing and communication technique.

PR strategies, pricing policies are other elements which contribute to the reaction of the potential clients regarding the brand (and naturally the branded products and services). When the internet is being used as a medium it is far easier to understand if the advertising campaign is efficient or not. The fact that the online clients can provide direct feedback, even under the form of comments and debates represents a key element for the long-term development of a company and its public image.

An element of strategic importance for the marketing techniques is represented by personalization. The contemporary tendencies of globalization tend to erase the borders between countries and continents. While this has a positive consequence in the sense that people get to know each other better. Open geographic borders and real time communication (both supported by the existence of the internet) contribute to open cultural borders. On the one hand the individual has greater opportunities to understand people and values which are different from him. On the other hand the individual might under go an identity crisis being since he may feel as an anonymous part of a huge crowd.

This feeling might be induced by the international communication and advertising campaigns. It is true that people can be targeted according to their common preferences and characteristics (such as gender, level of education, the place where they live, etc.), but it is just as true that inside a single group of potential clients one can find more differences than similarities.

The internet allows for a deeper and more complex segmentation of the target customers and therefore for the personalization of the message. A personalized message responds to the need of the contemporary individual to be recognized for what he is. In addition, a more complex segmentation allows for a better understanding of the potential client. This understanding is a valuable insight which helps the companies create better adapted messages which have greater opportunities of convincing the potential client to become a client and afterwards a client who is loyal to the brand.

However, personalisation offers advantages for the clients as well, not just for the companies which have a product or a service to sell. By knowing the client better the companies have on the one hand the opportunity of conceiving a better, more efficient message that advertising will afterwards convey but at the same time the companies are offered with the possibility of improving their products and adapting them better to the needs of the customer, no matter if we are speaking about an improvement of the functional characteristics or the psychological ones.

Personalisation has various forms. On the one hand we can speak about the messages that a company might transmit addressing a certain target (which still includes more than a person). On the other hand we can talk about the contact with the individual through means such as the e-mail (direct marketing). The latter one is more complex but it presents various complications as well. At this level personalisation is based on personal data provided by the client. The issue which occurs at this point is represented by the privacy policies.