Competitive advantage through online promotion

Marketing

Competitive Advantage through Online promotion

The online environment provides a rich environment for marketing. Marketing is likely to be seen whenever someone goes online; search engines operate with sponsored results at the top, and/or advertisements at the side of the page and many web cites will have advertisements embedded in their pages. Online marketing can also be seen in some less obvious formats such as marketing though maintaining a presence on the social networking mediums and use advergaming. With the high presence of online marketing it may be unsurprising to discover that in 2013 the global spend on internet advertising was estimated to be U.S. $503 billion (Linden, 2013). In the U.S. alone the online advertising spending amounts to U.S. $109.7 billion, accounting for 21.8% of advertising budgets (Linden, 2013). If this amount of money is being spent on internet advertising, it may be assumed the marketers believe that it is a potentially effective medium. There is evidence that appears to support this assertion; with many cases demonstrating not only the online marketing can be highly effective, but that it can also be a source of competitive advantage.

The first advantage of the internet is its ability to provide a cost effective medium, which helps to level the playing field between the large and the smaller firms. The use of creative thinking by marketers has been seen to develop some very compelling marketing campaigns. A good example was the West Jet 'Christmas Miracle' public relations stunt, which was filmed and released as a video on You Tube

. In December 2013 passengers on two flights were asked what they wanted for Christmas by Santa, while they were in the air West Jet purchased and wrapped the presents asked for, delivering them to the passengers when they landed by placing them on the luggage collection carousel, labeled with the passengers names. The exercise must have been costly, arranging all of the recourses needed, as well as purchasing the gifts. The video went viral, to date more than 35 million people have seen the video, and the attention received by the firm went beyond the internet, attracting the attention of the mass media, even getting airline on new programs. The airline has received a high level of attention, which is likely to have made the exercise extremely cost effective; the firm has also marketed itself as a caring and giving airline, helping to differentiate itself from other airlines. As the message did not come through the usual advertising channels where consumers may display resistance, it is also possible that this also increased the credibility of the marketing message and that it reached parts of the target market that may otherwise have been inaccessible. This aspect of image promotion is a potential source of competitive advantage.