Scope of E-marketing.www

A RESEARCH REPORT ON

Submitted in partial fulfillment for the requirement of  the award of degree of  Master of Business Administration (2009-20011)

Under the guidance of 

Supervisor(s) Mr. Subhash Kumar  (Faculty) Submitted by Arish Sarfaraz Roll No. 0915070008 M.B.A.(4th Sem.)

CET-IILM-AHL GREATER NOIDA (U.P) (Affiliated to U.P. Technical University, Lucknow)

CERTIFICATE This is to certify that Mr. ARISH SARFARAZ has successfully completed his research project on “” with CET-IILM GREATER NOIDA and submitted the project report on the same in a satisfactory manner under the guidance of MR. SUBHASH KUMAR. This project is an authentic work done by the student in the fulfillment for the award of the degree of  Master of Business Administration of CET-IILM Greater Noida.

 Date :

MR. SUBHASH KUMAR 

Assistant Professor CET-IILM Greater Noida

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DECLARATION

I hereby declare that the enclosed research project entitled “SCOPE OF EMARKETING”is an authentic work done by me and is based upon my own

efforts. The project was undertaken as a part of  Master of Business Administration Program of CET-IILM Greater Noida

(ARISH SARFARAZ)

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I, “ Arish Sarfaraz ”, owe enormous intellectual debt towards my faculty guide Mr. Subhash Kumar , who has augmented my knowledge in the field of  “E-Marketing” , helping me learn about the process and giving me valuable insight into the subject.

I am obliged to him for being extremely patient, giving me sufficient time for discussions and guidance at all stages through the course of this research. My increased spectrum of knowledge in this field is the result of his constant supervision and direction that has helped me to absorb relevant and high quality information.

I would like to thank him for his guidance and enriching my thoughts in this field from different perspectives.

Last but not the least, I feel indebted to all those persons and organizations which have provided information and helped me directly or indirectly in successful completion of this study.

ARISH SARFARAZ

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TABLE OF CONTENTS 

Acknowledgement

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Objective

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Introduction •

Definition 

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Indian Overview of e-marketing

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Environmental Analysis of e-marketing

33

Literature Review

34

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Prior Research on Marketing with Internet

38

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The Arena of Marketing Research

40

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The Art of Database Building

42

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The essence of Customer Service

43

An Insight

44

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Role of Internet in Marketing

45

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Fundamentals of effective marketing on the internet

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Research Methodology

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Date Analysis

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Data Results & Findings

71

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Discussion

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Recent Trends in Indian Market

76

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Indian dot com Scenario

85

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Summary & Conclusion

88

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Annexure

91

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Questionnaire

92 5

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Internet Glossary

References

95 101

Objective: •

TO STUDY THE FEASIBILITY OF E-MARKETING FOR A WIDE RANGE OF ACTIVITIES SUCH AS ADVERTISING, CUSTOMER  SERVICES ETC.

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EXPLORING THE COST ASPECTS OF E-MARKETING ON THE  NET

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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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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 Marketin Traditional g Activity Marketing

Cyber Marketing

Advertising Prepare print, video, or  voice copy and use standard media vehicles such as television, radio, newspapers, and magazines. Usually only very limited information can be presented.

Design extensive information and put it on the company’s Web page; CD brochures linked to your site; distribution of public relations information over the Internet.

Customer  Service

Provide service five days a week, eight hours a day in the store or over  the phone in response to customer calls:; provide on-site visits.

Provide seven-day, twentyfour-hours service response; send phone, fax, or e-mail solutions; allow customers to co produce their customer  service; access to frequent guest diner and flyer   information over the Internet.

Selling

Phoning

or

visiting Videoconferencing

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Marketing research

 prospects and customers and demonstrating  product physically or by  projective equipment.

 prospect; showing the product on the computer screen; enabling customers to purchase their own hospitality and travel  products.

Use of individual interviews, focus groups, and mailed or phones surveys.

Use of newsgroups of   conversation and interviewing, e-mail questionnaires; access to focus groups over the Internet.

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 9

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 coffee "subscriptions," "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-cr custom-crafte afted d wood-han wood-handled dled steak  knives knives availa available ble.. Even Even indivi individua duall restau restauran rants ts and smalle smallerr chains chains can sell 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  hist histor oric ical al tour tourss can can clic click k on the the appr approp opri riat atee menu menu item item and and get get the the info inform rmat atio ion n need needed ed.. Info Inform rmat atio ion n is pres presen ente ted d in a way way that that will will make 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  info inform rmat atio ion n on the the dest destin inat atio ion. n. If the the DMO DMO do does es no nott do a go good od job 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

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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 Prof Profes essi sion onal als, s, and and a Meet Meetin ing g Plan Planni ning ng Inde Index. x. Each Each sect sectio ion n prov provid ides es 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 Intern Internet et is an excell excellent ent medium medium to commun communica icate te what what produc products ts are offere offered d and the benefi benefits ts of those those produ products cts.. Howev However, er, infor informat mation ion that 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 11

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 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 servic services es the site site provid provides. es. The Intern Internet et also also provid provides es the opp opport ortuni unity ty for  interacti interactive ve communica communication tion between between the customer customer and the business. business. Basic Basic  principles of electronic electronic marketing marketing are explained in 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 info inform rmat atio ion n as po poss ssib ible le abou aboutt po pote tent ntia iall lly y valu valuab able le pros prospe pect ctss and 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. concept on how the company company should take advantage advantage of the 2.  Develop a clear concept  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 informat information, ion, run discussion discussion forums, forums, provide provide training, training, carry on on-line 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 the equi equipm pmen entt my cust custom omer erss use, use, do does es the the site site load load qu quic ickl kly y or is a customer likely to leave while they are waiting for graphics to load? What 12

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 email. 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 email option. Too many sites have the goal of having 100 percent electronic communication, and they do not include telephone 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 13

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 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.

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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 information 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.

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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.

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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 15

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 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.

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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 issue of insura insurance nce agains againstt fraud. fraud. Whethe Whetherr the centra centraliz lized ed insura insurance nce agencies, which are opposed to the very idea of  privatization, of  privatization, will provide low-premium insurance 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 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 corn corner er in a base baseme ment nt.. Eq Equa uall lly y big big is the the cost cost of soft softwa ware re,, WebWeb-ho host stin ing g 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 come into into exis existe tenc nce. e. E.g. E.g. Dyna Dynami micc logi logist stic icss offe offers rs inbo inboun und d as well well as 17

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 these are applic applicabl ablee to bus busine inessss-to to-co -consu nsumer mer e-comm e-commerc erce. e. In case 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 Intern Internet et is a comput computer er networ network k that that connec connects ts millio millions ns of comput computers ers 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  serv servic ice. e. Worl World d Wide Wide Web( Web(WW WWW) W),, the the newe newest st Inte Intern rnet et serv servic ice, e, has 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. 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 18

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 

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Go dire irectl ctly to a reso esource urce if on onee kn know ow the Unifo niforrm Reso esource urce Locator(URL)

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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 criti critical cal mass mass of consum consumers ers and firms firms partic participa ipatin ting g in global global onli on line ne mark market etpl plac ace. e. Th Thee rapi rapid d adop adopti tion on of the the Inte Intern rnet et as a comm commer erci cial al medi medium um has has caus caused ed firm firmss to expe experi rime ment nt wi6t wi6th h innovate ways of marketing to consumers in computers mediated env nviiron onme ment ntss. Th Thee presen esentt pop opul ulaarit rity of the WWW WWW as comm commer erci cial al medi medium um is du duee to its its abil abilit ity y to faci facili lita tate te glob global al 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 Gopher is develo developed ped at the Univer Universit sity y of Minnes Minnesota ota.. Gopher Gopher provi provides des 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 eCommerce 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 20

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.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.

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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)

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Multi-player games and communications systems 9e.g. chat)

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File transfer (ftp) remote login (telnet)

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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 follows1. 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.

22

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

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INDIAN OVERVIEW OF E-MARKETING

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 fastmoving 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 24

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. 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.

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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.

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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 ecommerce 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 nonIndia based payment gateways. The gateway offers the flexibility of multiple  payment modes including credit, debit and smart cards, direct bank debits and e-cheques. The ICICI e-commerce payment gateway will launch a state-ofthe-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 EBusiness 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:

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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 criteria1. Whether the decision is an information intensive purchase decision? 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. 28

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

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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. 30

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?

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. 31

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. 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 32

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."

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ENVIRONMENTAL ANALYSIS OF E-MARKETING 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

34

35

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. Ecommerce 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."

36

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. 37

ELECTRONIC DATA INTERCHANGE AND THE WEB EDI and the WEB Sender and Receiver

Computer-to-Computer

Person-to-Computer 

Business relationship

Established

Transaction volume

High

Low to moderate

Regularity

Regular replenishment

Irregular or adhoc

Primary hub use

Purchase

business Established or brand  partner  new relationshi relationshi  p  p

orders to Open suppliers

EDI and Web work  Transmit shipping data together 

View

selling to distributors 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. 38

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

39

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

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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

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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

42

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 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. 43

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 worldwide 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  44

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.

45

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

46

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,

47

48

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

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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

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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.

E-nasties There are other nastics out there on the Internet including Fakemail, Mailbombs, Unwanted Enrolment and viruses.

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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

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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.

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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?

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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. 56

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 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 57

•

Submit your Web site to magazine reviews

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. 58

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 SubmitIt (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, hightraffic sites such as Yahoo (www.yahoo.com) charge substantially more than low-traffic sites. 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.

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However, the real measure of effectiveness is something called a " clickthrough." 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.

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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 email, 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:

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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.

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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.

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•

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

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: Focus Groups QUANTITATIVE METHODS: Surveys

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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.

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 66

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. 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.

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4. Specify method

sampling 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

SAMPLE SIZE: •

Round about 60 correspondents.

•

It is based on the convenient sampling.

•

Reasons for selecting convenient sampling. •

Time constraint

•

Resource constraint

•

Cost constraint

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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

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70

Ques: 1 How would you like to make purchase?

Options

First

Second Third

Fourth

Directly from shop

88 %

4%

2%

6%

order

2%

16%

44%

38%

Through Net

8%

50%

16%

26%

Through phone

2%

30%

38%

30%

Through

mail

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

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25       y       c       n       e       u       q       e       r         f

20 15

Series1

10 5 0 1--5

6--10 11--15 16--20 21--25 26--30 31--35 hours

yes 30% Ques3. With the falling of Internet prices from Rs 50 to Rs 5 an hour will you increase the surfing hours?

no 70%

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Ques: 4 For what purposes do you surf net?

50      Y 40      C     E 30      U      Q 20     E 10      R     F

0

e-mail 44

entertainment

21

information downloading buying things

47

29

5

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

73

yes 10%

no 90%

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

8% 8%

84%

Yes

No

Cant Say

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

50      g      a       t      n      e      c      r      e      p

46

40

32

30

28

24 18

20

14 8

10

6

0   d   /  c   e   t   e  t   s   s   c  a

   k  s   o   o    b

  s   t  s   o  d   e  n   o   g    m   a  r    i  c   g    n   r  o   c  t   e    l   e    i  f  t   g 

  s   e  t    k    i   t  c

  s   e   m   a  r   o   d   n   f  t  w   c  o   s  o

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

50 40

    e     u     q     e     r      f

30 20 10 0 Series1

0-10

10--25

>25

44

6

0

percent of the time

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

yes 44% no 56%

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

no 34%

yes 7%

yes 66% no 93%

Ques:11 How often do you respond to it?

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Ques: 12 Mention the factors which motivate you to make purchase on net?

  e   p

60

56

52

56

50

  e    h    t 40    f   o   e 30   g   a    t 20   n   e   c 10   r   e   p 0

24

convin ie nce

s ecrecy

wide choice

s avin g of tim e

factors

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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. 78

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. 15.Around 0.02% of the total hits materialize into transaction, which is also showing a rise of 60% annuall

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RECENT TRENDS IN INDIAN E-MARKETING 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.

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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.

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.

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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 HDDVD 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 Bluray 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 83

start hawking tickets through PDAs in the next couple of months at its multiplex in Andheri, says Arshad Kazi, technology head. 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 84

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.

4. Movies on Demand With Tata Sky planning to launch Direct to Home (DTH) services in MayJune 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 .

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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 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. 86

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

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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 (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 lastmile 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.

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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). 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 Date

Users (in 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

90

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. •

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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)

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Steps Needed to Trigger a Faster Growth of Internet in the country by The Government / Licensor •

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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 Policies and plans should be formulated and implemented for eGovernance 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 93

 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

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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

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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 email 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 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

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securities to the Internet so that business can work securely on it and trust it as an efficient business tool.

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QUESTIONNARE This is a questionnaire as a part of an effort to gauge the 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

7. What kind of products would you like to buy on net? Please mention. a) _________________   b) _________________  c) _________________  d) _________________  e) _________________ 

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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: i. Security ii. Late delivery iii. Wrong delivery iv. Lack of actually feeling the product v. Any other (specify) _________________________   Name: __________________________________  Age: ___________________________________  Sex: ___________________________________  Qualification: ___________________________ 

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Occupation: _____________________________  Address: _______________________________  Email: ________________________________  Thanks for sparing your valuable time for filling of our questionnaire.

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INTERNET GLOSSARY ACCESS METHOD: The rules that manage how all the computers and other  devices on a network can send information through the same physical medium in an orderly fashion. ACCESS PROVIDER: A company providing a computer system that connects your computer to the Internet. ACCOUNT: You are said to have an account on a host computer, or with an on-fine information system, when you have registered with its administrators to use the system. There are usually restrictions on who can register, and registration may involve a fee. When you get an account you are issued a user name (user-id) and a password that you see to log into the system. Some guest or anonymous accounts, set up for public access to some Internet computers, do not require prior registration, but limit access to a few file directories and allowed commands. ADDRESS:  Network addresses are usually of two types: (i) The physical or  Hardware address of a network interface card for ETHERNET. The hardware address is used to forward PACKETS within a physical network, fortunately, network users do not have to be concerned about hardware addresses since they are automatically handled by the networking software. (2) The logical or  INTERNET address is used to facilitate moving data between physical networks. Each host computer on the INTERNET has a unique address. ADDRESSING: A scheme determined by network protocols for identifying the sending device and destination device for any given items of information travelling on a network. ANONYMOUS FTP (File Transfer Protocol): The  procedure of  connecting to a remote computer, as an anonymous or guest user, in order to transfer public files back to your local computer. ARCHIE: A network service used for locating files that are publicly accessible by anonymous FTP. ARPA (Advanced Research Projects Agency): Former name of DARP, the government agency that funded ARPANET and later the DARPA Internet. ARPANET : A pioneering long haul network funded by ARPA. It served as the basis for early networking research as well as a central backbone during the development of the Internet. The ARPANET consists of individual PACKET switching computers interconnected by leased lines.

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BACKBONE: A central network connecting other networks together. The  NSF funds a backbone network for regional networks such as NEARnet, CERRFnet and JVNCnet. Today, they are alternative commercial backbone to the NSF backbone. BANDWIDTH: The capacity of the transmission medium stated in bits per  second or as a frequency. BBS (Bulletin Board System): A computer system that others can communicate with for massaging, exchange of software and files, and other  services such as games and distribution of data. Long the realm of hobbyists. BBS's are also used by government and educational institutions. Many are now indirectly connected to the Internet for mail services or directly connected for telnet and ftp. BROWSER: A program that allows a person to read hypertext. The browser  gives some means of viewing the contents of nodes, and of navigating from one node to another. CLIENT: A program, which requests services of another program. Normally the browser is a client of a data sewer. COM: The highest level Internet domain name used to identify commercial services. CYBERSPACE: The sensation of place without location or space experienced while using global computer networks. The term was  popularized by Wffiiam Gibson in his novel Neuromancer. DATAGRAM: Using the TCP/IP suite of protocols, a datagrarm is a self  contained packet of information consisting of the data and a header, which tells where it came from, where it is going, what kind of data it contains, and its relation to any other datagram being sent. DIAL-UP: Temporary connection between computers by a telephone link, usually with a modem. Unlike dedicated connections, dial-up connections are established only for duration of the session. DIRECTORY SERVICE: A service which provides network addresses or  user-id's of individuals, hosts and services.

DISCUSSION GROUIP: An ongoing exchange of messages about a topic. Listsevre provides one mechanism for organisation of discussion groups as 103

mailing lists. Usenet news groups are another example, using a different format and protocol. DOMAIN: The Internet naming scheme which consists of a hierarchical sequence of names, from the most specific to the most general (left to right), separated by dots, for example, nic.ddr.mil. Most often used to refer to the highest level domain such as, edu.com.net.gov. Technically each part of a name is a domain. DNS (Domain Name System): A protocol and a distributed system of  databases and server programs (name serves), that translates human readable names into numeric IP addresses. No single DNS name server contains information for all Internet hosts, but by accessing a hierarchy of name servers, a local DNS program can resolve a name and route -communication to an intended computer. DOWNLOAD OR DOWN LOADING: The transfer of flies to your local computer from another, often large computer, using communications software and a modem. ELECTRONIC BULLETIN BOARD: A shared file where users can enter  information for other users to read or download. Many bulletin boards are set up according to general topics and are, accessible throughout a network. E-MAIL (Electronic Mail): A network service that enables users to send and receive messages via computer. FILE SERVER: A computer that stores files and proN4des network access to those files. FILE TRANSFER: Copying of a file from one computer to another over a computer network or phone connection. FTP (FileTransfer Protocol): The Internet standard high level protocol for  transferring files from one computer to another. GIF (Graphical Interchange Format): A computer bitmap graphics format originally developed by CompuServe, but now widely used across the Internet and elsewhere. GIF provides highly compressed information in comparison to other bitmap graphics format. GOPIHER: Gopher is a protocol and programs for a menu driven document derive system that connects you to resources and sites an over the world. Gopher mend options can point to other gophers, telnet sites, text files, utilities, and other menus. They can also launch a search to do things, such as look up the definition of a word, or find where a word occurs in a document. The beauty of gopher is that it formats all information in the same menu

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structure. You can easily track down items of interest where they may be in the world. HOST COMPUTER: In the context of networks, a computer that directly  provides service to a user. In contrast to a network server, which provides services to a user through an intermediary host computer. HOST NAME: The portion of the fully qualified domain name that refers to a specific host computer. For example, in "fibrary.nwu.edu", "library" is the host name within the "nwu.edu" domain. HTML (Hypertext Mark-up Language): Hypertext document format used  by the World Wide Web. Built on top of SGML, 'tags' are embedded in the text so that a certain place within an document can be specified. HTML supports some national characters through special escape sequences. HTTP (Hypertext Text Transfer Protocol): A public domain application layer protocol which uses TCP to transfer text over the Internet and is used for  the design of information systems using Hypertext links, (Hyperlinks) connections are usually made via the telnet command with a specific Internet  port (socket) being identified. The World Wide Web uses an HTTP like system for creating its links. HYPERTEXT: Text that is not constrained to be linear. IP (Internet Protocol): Though the Internet is considered a "multi protocol" network., the Internet protocol remains the protocol of choice. The EP is a  packet switching protocol that provides a common layer over dissimilar  connections network. The IP defines a general set of rues for formatting and routing packets across the various networks on the Internet. INTERNET: The largest world-wide system of interconnected computer  networks, capable of the exchange of messages and offering seamless connectivity or service, such as, remote login and file transfer. Today, the Internet is mainly composed of local and wide area networked that use the TCP/IP suite of protocols for computer-to-computer communication; its technical standards are, defined by an international co-operative committee known as the Internet Activities Bureau and the IAB's Internet Engineering Task Force. (Other computer networks, which can exchange messages with computers on the Internet but which cannot connect for services, such as file transfer and remote login can be considered part of an even larger network, sometimes referred to as the Matrix. ISDN (Integrated Services Digital Network): An emerging digital telephone technology. ISDN combine voice and digital services in a single fine ISDN standards are specified by CCITT. 105

ISO (International Organisation for Standardization): The organisation responsible for creating the ISO/OSI protocol that may eventually replace the current Internet protocols. The ISO members are the national standards organisations of the 89 member countries, including ANSI for the United States. MAILING LIST: A List of email addresses for a group of people all interested in a particular topic. Mailing lists are used by a mail exploder to forward one message to all people on the list. Lists may be, moderated. The moderator maintains the list and decides which messages to explode. In many cases, you can subscribe to or leave a mailing fist by sending a message to the lists "request" address. MODEM: Short for modulator/demodulator a peripheral device that links your computer to other computers and information services using the telephone lines. MOSAIC: A popular web client developed by the National Centre for  Supercomputing Applications (NCSA) at the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana for using Internet information available through the World Wide Web. PROTOCOLS: A specification that describes the rules and procedures by which computers can communicate. Most Net tools are named after the  protocols they use. ROUTER: A hardware device connected to a host on a LAN that acts as a gateway between different types of networks. For example, a router connects an Ethernet-based network to die TCP/lP based net. Data traffic routes from individual computers to the route, and then through the telecommunications line to the service provider's computer. RTF (RICH TEXT FORMAT): A text file format that includes such formatting, as bold italic, and underlines text. SERVER: A computer, also called a host that can distribute services or  resources to users at remote computers - that is, clients. A server is the combination of hardware and software that provides access to information that is requested by client computers. SERVICE PROVIDER: An organisation that provides connections to the  Net. SGML (Standard Generalized Mark-up Language): A set of formatting codes for creating documents. These codes define the components of  Documents such as headers, tables, and so on. HTML is a subset of SGML.

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SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol): system that allows servers to exchange electronic mail messages in transit from the sender to the recipient. TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol / Internet Protocol): A set of  communications protocols developed by the US Department of Defence (DOD), originally for use in military applications. TCP/IP bundles and unbundles, sent and received data into packets, manages packet transmission and checks for errors across networks. TELNET : System that lets you connect to any computer on the Internet (that allows Telnet) and type in commands as if you were sitting in front of the computer. In practice. Telnet is normally used when you are setting up your  web site to create directories, set up security and move files. URL ( Uniform Resource Locator) : The full address that defines where a Web page is stored on a server connected to the Internet. USENET : The most popular collection of newsgroups. WEB BROWSER : Software that lets you view Web pages stored on the Internet or on your computer. WEB PAGE : Single file stored on a Web server that contains formatted text, graphics and hyper-text links to other pages on the Internet. A Web page is created using HTML codes. WEB SITE : Collection of Web pages from one person or company that link  together with hypertext links to form a home that user can visit on the Internet.

WWW (World Wide Web): The collection of the millions of Web sites and Web pages that together form the Web of information that allows a user to see a graphical view of the Internet and the information it contains.

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