E-Marketing in Terms of Visual Communication Given

¶ … E-Marketing in Terms of Visual Communication

Given the increased use of the Internet in past few years, e-marketing has had an indisputable progress within the past decade. Generally, daily activities and the variety of internet have created interest of consumers as many websites are creating virtual designs in order to strengthen their relations with customers. These developments have not only contributed to the creation of visual communications but have also increased e-marketing and contributed to the need for effective strategies. Therefore, an analysis of effective strategies in terms of visual communications is an important topic of study, which is the focus of the article. The main goal of study in this thesis is to analyze e-marketing websites by evaluating interaction and adverts in relation to the customer perceptions they create. Moreover, the thesis evaluates the definition of e-marketing, the development of this form of marketing, new trends in e-marketing, and the most appropriate strategies to conduct it.

Table of Contents:

Introduction 5

Problem Statement 6

Purpose 7

Significance of the Study 7

Research Questions and Hypothesis 8

Literature Review 8

Methodology 13

Analysis Plan 15

Validity and Reliability ..16

Assumptions 17

Scope and Limitations 17

Results 18

Analyses 18

Conclusions 22

Discussion 23

Recommendation 26

References 27

The increased use of the Internet in the past several decades has contributed to the indisputable use of e-marketing. The Internet has provided a way in which e-marketing strategies create interest of customers across daily activities and varieties. As a result of the increased use of the Internet in daily activities, many companies are building their virtual designs in attempts to foster interactions with their customers. The significance of e-marketing strategies in the modern business world is evident in the fact that business-to-business and business-to-consumer companies use this service. Furthermore, this service is used because it has the ability to reach many customers within a short time period unlike traditional marketing techniques.

Since visual communication incorporates the illustration exhibition of information, it's an important part of marketing, especially e-marketing strategies. The significance of visual communication is attributed to its increased use by marketers to backup their messages in efforts to generate increased sales. In most cases, marketing strategies and techniques consist of combination of visual elements with text messages. As the use of Internet has increased in the past decade, visual communication is incorporated into e-marketing strategies because it's one of the most powerful to attract customers into buying behaviors. Actually, e-marketing strategies have continued to rely on visual communications because of several reasons including attracting people's attention, provision of essential support to key messages of products or services, and enhancing a firm's image ("How to Improve Your Visual Communication," 2010).

Generally, the visuals used in the business world to support text messages are usually developed by photographers and graphic designers. In light of using visual communications in e-marketing strategies, many companies are increasingly developing virtual designs that foster customer interactions. The process of creating virtual designs by these companies has mainly been based on creation of e-marketing websites and adverts that influence customer perceptions regarding the company's image as well as products and/or services. Since e-marketing has become an integral part of today's business world, companies use various techniques such as segmentation, branding, and differentiation to e-market in order to enhance their abilities. Notably, the increased use of e-marketing strategies implies that there is need to analyze the most effective e-marketing strategies in terms of visual communications.

Problem Statement:

The main challenge associated with the increased use of e-marketing strategies is identifying the most effective e-marketing techniques in terms of visual communication. The identification of the most effective strategy for e-marketing is a vital in determining the success and profitability of the company. When carrying out this process, the company should examine the model or strategy that fits its business objective and trends. Without an understanding of these important elements, an inappropriate e-marketing strategy would be very costly and ineffective for the company. Nonetheless, a company may use more than one e-marketing strategy depending on some major factors in its e-business model.

It's important to examine the most effective e-marketing strategies because not every strategy will be effective for all companies. The success and effectiveness of an e-marketing strategy depends on the type of company using the technique. The most common e-business models that require different strategies include business to business, consumer to consumer, peer-to-peer, and business to consumer. The need to identify an effective strategy is also attributed to the fact that a company can incur unnecessary costs by adopting any technique that would prove to be inefficient and disadvantageous to its business objectives. Therefore, the identification of an effective strategy will help the organization to avoid unnecessary expenses and potential losses in its e-market plan.

Purpose:

The goal of this study is to provide a new understanding of effective e-marketing strategies in terms of visual communications. This study seeks to achieve this through examining the most common e-marketing strategies used in the business world based on their strengths and weaknesses. This will be followed by analyzing the efficiency of these strategies in terms of visual communications based on their impact on consumer perceptions.

Significance of the Study:

The main difference between success and failure of an organization's e-marketing plan is strategy. Generally, an e-marketing strategy obtains its direction from the company's broader approach to marketing that is based on the firm's overall business strategy objective. Therefore, e-marketing strategies are effective when they integrate the benefits of the Internet as a channel of marketing with the present online and offline initiatives of the company (Dann & Dann, 2011).

This study is important to conduct because it provides a bigger picture of a company's development options through focusing on how the firm can use the Internet to achieve it broader organizational goals. In this case, the analysis focuses on examining the most effective way of aligning online activity or digital marketing in order to achieve organization-wide business objectives. As a result, this study is important to the business world because it evaluates the value and necessity of developing clear and practical objectives in e-marketing in order to accomplish organizational objectives. Since marketing a very challenging task for many organizations, this analysis will enable firms to identify the most effective strategies that would help foster customer interactions in light of the changes in the current business world. This implies that a firm would improve interactions with customers and enhance its image.

Research Questions and Hypothesis:

The main objective of this research is to develop a model for understanding and interpreting the effectiveness of e-marketing strategies in terms of visual communications based on their effect on customer perceptions. In order to realize this objective, several research questions and hypothesis have been developed to be analyzed during the research process. Some of the major research questions to be tested during the research process include; What is the relationship between e-marketing strategies and visual communication? Which e-marketing strategy enhances marketing performance based on this link? What is the impact of e-marketing strategies on customer perceptions? The main hypothesis to be tested is the significant relation between an e-marketing strategy and the company's overall marketing performance.

Literature Review:

As part of conducting the study, the researcher identified a series of literature that focused on investigating several concepts regarding e-marketing. The identified literature is mainly from journals that covered topics like theory and practice of e-marketing, conceptual study on e-marketing, overview of e-marketing, and use of organizational capability to evaluate e-marketing. These journals were selected because they focus on the main areas under examination i.e. The concept of e-marketing and effectiveness of e-marketing strategies.

In examining the overview of e-marketing as a technique used by many companies, Jamehshooran, Danesh, Teimouri & Heydari (2011) examine the past, present, and future of online marketing (p.585). These authors state that the emergence of worldwide web provided a great opportunity for manufacturers and customers to carry out their activities in real time and directly without involving a middleman or broker. These developments have contributed to the emergence of e-business models like business to business and business to customer because the technology enables people to respond very fast. Generally, there is an agreement in today's business world that digital media have significantly influenced the way a marketer reaches modern consumer, especially through the emergence of e-marketing strategies. Consequently, e-marketing is a great opportunity for firms that want to obtain a competitive over their rivals in the market.

Dehkordi et. al. (2012) states that the Internet is not only a networking media and but also a platform for consumers to carry out their transactions on the global market (p.114). These authors proceed to describe e-marketing as a new attitude and modern practical involvement with the sales of products and/or services through digital means and the Internet. However, through reviewing literatures on this concept, one of the major challenges is that the definition of e-marketing, e-business, and internet marketing is unclear for authors and researchers alike. Many researchers and authors tend to wrong use equal meaning and descriptions for these terms. This is despite of the obvious differences between the actual meaning and application of the terms. While e-business refer to a broader scope of digital transactions, e-marketing refer to marketing initiatives that incorporate internet marketing techniques and mediums. Moreover, e-marketing strategies incorporate current utilities and merge them with communication to create a relationship between companies and their customers.

Based on the conclusions of many researchers, there are free electronic tools that companies can use for varying processes and activities. The availability of these different procedures and activities is because the electronic environment is a favorable environment for companies without adequate finances for marketing promotions and advertising (Sceulovs & Gaile-Sarkane, 2010, p.775). However, companies should be ready and able to adapt with the constantly changing business environment because of the rapidly advancing technologies.

In efforts to demonstrate the importance of identifying an effective e-marketing strategy, Sceulovs & Gaile-Sarkane (2010) state that the electronic environment requires digital literacy for navigation in relation to the ability to use electronic tools and instruments in marketing (p.775). The need for digital literacy is attributed to the occurrence of varying developments in computer software for solving various needs in modern business. The authors discovered that many companies don't use electronic tools and are not aware of the existence and benefits of these tools despite of the fact that these tools are free of charge. One of the major reasons for this tendency is that many companies do not have adequate knowledge on digital literacy, which makes it difficult for them to determine the effective e-marketing strategy. Therefore, these authors recognize the significance of identifying effective e-marketing strategies for companies to respond to changes in e-market.

One of the major theories that apply to e-marketing is communication theory, which the basis of interactions and cooperation between companies and customers. According to Sceulovs & Gaile-Sarkane (2010), communication theory provides companies with three main activities i.e. presence, identification, and marketing in the e-environment (p.776). However, other researchers and authors divide communication on the basis of contexts and levels that are commonly presented or represented as organizational histories. Notably, there are several communication models across scientific and practical literature. The communication models are blown up with varying parameters, especially noises generated by the channels and receivers.

The basic communication model used to describe e-marketing strategies is Schramm communication model that was based on transformation of the mathematical model by Shannon and Weaver. Schramm's communication model states that decoding and encoding are processes maintained concurrently by the sender and receiver during the communication process. This is the same model applicable to e-marketing strategies in terms of visual communication.

With regards to identifying the most effective e-marketing strategy, Smith (2010) presents several digital marketing strategies that are appealing, encouraging, or irritating to Millennials (p.489). One of the major considerations in the author's research is that previous studies have indicated that online advertising or e-marketing seems to be effective in influencing consumer behavior and perceptions. This is primarily because exposure these advertising strategies tend to enhance the possibility of a customer purchase. On the contrary, e-marketing strategies have also been found to be intrusive, ineffective, and uninformative. For instance, a research found that 69% of customers consider pop-up ads to be annoying. In addition, 23% of these consumers stated that they would visit websites with such advertisements again (Smith, 2010, p.492).

Customers are increasingly likely to develop negative perspectives of websites with online advertising because such ads obstructed them from accomplishing their objectives (McCoy et al., 2007). Pop-up advertisements are usually annoying to many consumers since it interferes with their attention and restricts the amount of information they obtain and understand. Cognitive psychology researchers argue that people tend to react negatively to the need to use mental efforts to process extra information when they are distracted from an online activity.

In essence, the effectiveness of an e-marketing strategy is partly dependent on its ability not to interrupt a customer's online activity. In addition to being contrary to the marketer's objective, such messages affect the ability of the customer to decode the message appropriately. The negative customer perceptions obtained from the intrusive advertisements are likely to extend to the brand being advertised and have a negative effect on the brand equity. Therefore, an effective e-marketing strategy in terms of visual communication is dependent on its ability not to create negative customer perceptions by intruding their online activity.

In addition the effectiveness of an e-marketing strategy is dependent on its ability to exploit the opportunities of digital marketing and other business opportunities. The strategy needs to be established in a manner that relates to the required organizational structure and strategy that reflects the company's new business opportunities and threats. This implies that the effectiveness of e-marketing strategy in terms of visual communication requires the use of organizational capability models to evaluate the maturity of digital marketing. As part of achieving this objective, an e-marketing strategy should be examined based on six different capabilities including digital channel strategy and acquisition of online customer. The other capabilities are online customer experience and transformation, development and growth of customers, digital channel governance, and inter-channel integration and brand expansion (Chaffey, 2010, p.188).

Based on this literature review, many researchers have failed to examine effective e-marketing strategies in terms of visual communication. These literatures have focused on evaluating the increased use of e-marketing due to the rapid technological advancements that have characterized today's business world. They also fall short in examining the determination of the effectiveness of these strategies in light of enhancing the overall marketing performance. Furthermore, many researchers have focused on evaluating both effective and ineffective e-marketing strategies without presenting a clear discussion on the most effective e-marketing strategy. This shows that it's very important to determine effective e-marketing strategies in terms of visual communication that companies can use to enhance their overall marketing performance and brand image. Such findings will act as a conceptual framework for future researches on e-marketing strategies.

Methodology:

The methodology used for this research plan is inferential research, which is the use of a sample to represent the whole population. In this case, the research method is an e-marketing survey that includes sampling units, data collection methodology, and survey objectives. The research is conducted on Millennials or Generation Y population since they account for a huge percentage of people who use digital marketing strategies. The use of Millennials as the sample population for the research is attributed to the increased use of the Internet, interactive technologies, and social networking by these people in the development and advancement of products and brands. Unlike the previous generations, Generation Y is increasingly getting involved in providing input across all aspects of a product including promotion (Smith, 2010, p.490). Therefore, the population is becoming digital-empowered in the marketing process of a product and brand.

The research used a representative sample of 220 Millennials that incorporated marketing managers of different companies and groups of users of electronic devices and environment. The groups of users of electronic devices provided different list of e-marketing strategies that they encountered in the digital world. The research also asked the representative sample of users of digital devices to name e-marketing strategies that companies should avoid using. In contrast, the marketing managers provided details regarding the procedures and factors they consider when developing e-marketing strategies. In addition, these managers provided different lists of e-marketing strategies that were effective and ineffective in light of customer perceptions and impact on overall marketing performance.

To determine the most effective strategy of e-marketing in terms of visual communication, the representative sample included 200 students from University of Atlanta who were surveyed randomly between January and March 2013. As users of various digital or electronic devices, the 200 students from University of Atlanta were between 18 and 23 years old. These respondents were 52% females and 48% males. The researcher also visited 20 different marketing managers in 20 different companies in Atlanta, Georgia.

The type of research instrument used in this representative sample is a Digital Marketing Survey. The sampling units in the Digital Marketing Survey are the marketing managers and users of electronic devices. This design also used observation as the main data collection methodology from the sampling units. In order to determine the effective e-marketing strategy, the survey objectives of this design were customer perception and impact on overall marketing performance.

Figure 1 Electronic Marketing Survey

The respondents in the representative sample were provided with a list and asked to select e-marketing techniques that influenced their purchases and helped them to develop a positive perception about a product and brand. Furthermore, these respondents were provided with a similar list to choose the e-marketing techniques that were annoying and provoked negative perceptions regarding a product and brand. These lists were only provided to the groups of users of various digital or electronic devices.

The marketing managers were given a questionnaire in which they were to describe some of the major considerations and factors that they consider when developing e-marketing strategies. These respondents were also required to list various e-marketing strategies that they have used in their companies and the effect of these strategies on the overall marketing performance. In addition, they also stated factors that contributed to their conclusions about the impact of an e-marketing strategy on the overall marketing performance.

Analysis Plan:

The analysis of the research will be based on findings obtained from the survey and questionnaires obtained from students and marketing managers respectively. The information obtained from each of these methods and sampling units would be analyzed based on the research questions in this study. One of the most important questions that the analysis focuses on is regarding the link between e-marketing strategy and visual communications. This relationship will be tested based on the questionnaires given to the 20 marketing managers. In this case, observations will be made on the factors and considerations when developing e-marketing strategies as listed by these managers. This observation will involve evaluating these factors to see if visual communication plays an important part in development of e-marketing strategies and techniques.

Secondly, observations on the survey and questionnaires will focus on answering the most effective e-marketing strategy in light of its effect on the overall marketing performance. This will be determined through analyzing the effect of e-marketing from an organizational point-of-view and customer perspective because marketing performance is based on a two-fold approach i.e. company and customer perspective. The effective of e-marketing strategy will be tested by analyzing the descriptions provided by the marketing managers and the expectations from customers regarding an appropriate technique.

Third, the analysis of this study will seek to determine the impact of e-marketing strategies on customer perceptions about a product and brand. In this case, customer perceptions will be tested on the basis how an e-marketing strategy influenced their purchases and behaviors. This research question will be answered through examining strategies that were more appealing and satisfying to customers as well those they found intrusive and unappealing.

The essence of this study is to evaluate the impact of e-marketing strategy on a company's overall marketing performance. Therefore, the research mainly focuses on establishing and sustaining a clear relationship between conceptual framework and empirical analysis (El-Gohary, 2007). The establishment and sustenance of this relationship is based on the fact that a detached and distorted perspective of research points is likely to occur unless conceptual framework and empirical study are highly integrated. This implies that conceptual framework will rely mainly on secondary data while empirical study will rely on primary data. Following the collection of data through questionnaire and surveys, statistical analysis techniques will be used to evaluate the data and assess the research hypothesis.

Validity and Reliability:

The researcher recognizes that there is no optimal research methodology because of the limitations and shortcomings of every method. However, the researcher uses the most suitable research methodology through consideration of methods that have been used by other researchers in the same field. The determination of the most appropriate methodology was based on evaluation of the research questions and hypothesis as well as the most common research methodologies used in modern e-marketing research.

The validity and reliability of the research methodology and instrument is based on the fact that it's the most commonly used method in e-marketing research as evident in previous studies. According to observations on previous studies, 41.7% of e-marketing researchers depend on Survey strategy while 18.8% applied Case Study strategy that includes the use of questionnaires on a representative sample (El-Gohary, 2007). Therefore, the survey strategy has proven to be a valid research methodology and the most reliable research instrument used in contemporary e-marketing research.

Assumptions:

This study has several assumptions that act as the basis of testing the research questions and hypothesis in order to determine the effective strategy of e-marketing in terms of visual communications. One of the assumptions in the research is that the representative sample is an actual representation of the population. This sample has been selected through consideration of their ages, use of electronic devices, and involvement in the marketing process. Secondly, the study assumes that these respondents will answer the survey truthfully and accurately. In this case, the researcher assumes that the marketing managers will provide truthful answers regarding their marketing processes while the students will provide truthful answers about their experiences with e-marketing strategies. Third, there is assumption that the research methodology and instrument is valid and reliable because of its increased used in modern e-marketing research and previous studies.

Scope and Limitations:

Despite being the most commonly used research methodology and instrument in contemporary e-marketing research, the Survey strategy is associated with some major limitations the present practical problems in the research process. One of the major limitations of this strategy is the difficulties associated with selecting a probabilistic sample because of the evolving nature of technology, especially the Internet (Furrer & Sudharshan, 2001, p.126). Secondly, there is an apparent bias associated with the use of an incomplete sampling frame, which has significant impacts on research findings.

The scope of the research is to examine the experiences of 200 respondents with e-marketing strategies in University of Atlanta. Moreover, the research examines the e-marketing processes adopted by 20 marketing managers from 20 different countries in Atlanta. Therefore, this research is limited in scope to the degree that the respondents are considered as universal representative of the Millennials population. Since the representative sample is small and includes people from one region, the study can be regarded as limited in scope.

Results:

As previously mentioned, the representative sample in this study comprises 200 students from University of Atlanta and 20 marketing managers from 20 different companies in Atlanta, Georgia. The students are between the age of 18 and 23 years with the male accounting for 48% of the respondents while females are 52%. The researcher selected these students and marketing managers on the assumption that they represent the Generation Y population. This population was chosen as the main focus of the research because they account for a huge portion of people who use electronic devices in the modern business world.

Analyses:

The analysis plan that tests the research hypothesis is based on evaluation of each research question. The analysis in this study was based on examination of each research question as explained below:

What is the relationship between e-marketing strategies and visual communication?

This research question was tested and analyzed based on observations of answers provided in the questionnaires by 20 marketing managers. This link was mainly determined by analyzing the factors and considerations that informs the development of e-marketing strategies in these companies. These managers reported that they develop several e-marketing techniques such as Internet marketing, mobile marketing, e-mail marketing, web marketing, and social network and social media marketing. Similar to traditional marketing techniques, e-marketing techniques are mainly based on creation of visual communication elements that support text messages.

An overwhelming 70% of these marketing managers reported that the most commonly used e-marketing techniques are Internet marketing, e-mail marketing, web marketing, and social network and social media marketing as shown in Table 1. These techniques are used because of the increased use of the Internet due to rapid technological advancements in the past decade. These managers stated that they often look for creative visual advertisements that provide an interactive environment between customers and the product or brand. Therefore, there is a strong link between e-marketing strategies and visual communications.

Table 1 Commonly Used E-Marketing Strategies

E-Marketing Strategy

Percentage of Marketing Manager Respondents

Internet Marketing

70.0

Web Marketing

67.2

E-mail Marketing

51.0

Social Network and Social Media Marketing

43.0

Mobile Marketing

20.0

Note: The respondents could specify up to three options.

Which e-marketing strategy enhances marketing performance based on this link?

After establishing the link between e-marketing strategies and visual communication, the researcher examined a strategy that enhances marketing performance based on the link. This research question was evaluated through a two-fold approach i.e. companies' perspective and customers' perspective. This was determined by conducting a statistical test on techniques reported by marketing managers and expectations given by customers. Marketing managers stated the most effective strategy based on its effect on the overall marketing performance and contribution to the firm's success and profitability. In contrast, customers stated the most effective e-marketing strategy in terms of visual communication based on the perception that the strategy created regarding the product and brand.

The most common e-marketing strategies that have significant impacts on marketing performance include simple, professional layout, interactive techniques, personalized strategies, and free e-marketing techniques. The student respondents were asked to choose nearly three items that have significantly influenced their purchase decisions and behaviors. Based on the results of the statistical tests, the most effective e-marketing strategy that enhances marketing performance is interactive strategy with appealing graphics and colors. Table 2 shows the preferred e-marketing strategy by customers and companies based on the findings of statistical tests to establish the link.

Table 2 Preferred E-marketing Strategy

E-Marketing Strategy

Percentage of Student Respondents

Interactive Techniques

50.6

Personalized Strategies

46.5

Simple, Professional Layout

43.1

Free Marketing Techniques

28.5

Note: The respondents could specify up to three options.

What is the impact of e-marketing strategies on customer perceptions?

This research question basically focused on determining visual communication techniques in e-marketing that were appealing and unattractive to customers. While the process of testing this question was slightly similar to that of the second question, the focus of this question was to determine preferred type of e-marketing and strategies marketers should avoid. These findings would help to inform the most effective e-marketing strategy for consumers and companies. When testing this question, the researcher mainly focused on Internet marketing, web marketing, e-mail marketing, and social network and social media marketing.

The most preferable online marketing type by customers is coupons followed by side-panel ads, advertisements on YouTube, Email updates, and advertisements in game form respectively as shown in Table 3. In contrast, marketers should avoid pop-up adverts, flashing items, mandatory downloads, sponsors' links, and un-closable windows as shown in Table 4.

Table 3 Preferable Online Marketing Technique

Online Marketing Tool

Percentage of Student Respondents

Coupons

70

Side-panel Ads

63

Ads on YouTube

52

Email Updates

50

Ads in Game Form

40

Note: The respondents could specify up to three options.

Table 4 Unattractive E-marketing Strategy

E-Marketing Strategy

Percentage of Student Respondents

Pop-up Ads

49.0

Flashing Items

33.2

Mandatory Downloads

30.0

Links to Sponsors

28.5

Un-closable Windows

26.2

Note: The respondents could specify up to three options.

Conclusions:

In order to determine the most effective e-marketing strategy in terms of visual communication, the research carried out several processes. First, the researcher examined previous studies and literature on e-marketing strategies and research. The evaluation focused on identifying the findings of the previous researches on digital or electronic marketing and the reasons for the increased use of this means of advertising. These studies and findings were used to show the need for research on an effective e-marketing strategy in terms of visual communication. The researcher found out that minimal research has been carried out on this subject since most of the studies have generally focused on providing overview of e-marketing strategies. Few of these studies have attempted to examine the impact of e-marketing strategies on a company's marketing performance and success. Furthermore, these researches have not focused on determining customers' perceptions regarding a product and brand based on their interactions with e-marketing techniques.

Secondly, the researcher examined previous studies to determine the research methodology and instruments used in contemporary e-marketing research. This was conducted to help in identifying the validity and reliability of research instruments that are used in the field. The research found out that the most valid and reliable research methodology and instrument used in this field is Survey strategy followed by Case Study strategy. As a result, the researcher used the Survey strategy because of its validity and reliability of the method in e-marketing research.

Third, through observations and statistical tests conducted on survey of students and questionnaires from marketing managers, the researcher found out that effective e-marketing strategy in terms of visual communication is an interactive personalized technique with appropriate graphics and colors. An interactive personalized advertisement with appropriate graphics and colors helps in grabbing the attention of customers. In addition, such advertisements prompts repeat visits to the advertising medium. This type of e-marketing strategy was the most appealing to many respondents because it is not intrusive and does not disrupt customers during their online activities.