CHAPTER 9
The Internet
PPT 9-1
KEY TERMS
Internet
opt-in email
spam
Usenet
World Wide Web
(WWW)
surfing
search engine
portal
website
mash-up
blog
blogger
click-through
cost per thousand
(CPM)
paid search
search engine
optimization (SEO)
display/banner ads
sponsorship
pop-up ad
interstitial
pop-under ad
permission marketing
viral marketing
rich media, video, and
audio
corporate home page
virtual mall
widget
Second Life
sticky site
domain name
top-level domain (TLD)
hits
page views
visits
unique visitors
Web analytic software
click fraud
WiFi
WiMax
Mobile-Fi
ultrabroadband
SUMMARY
PPT 9-2
LO1 Summarize the Internet’s role in integrated marketing communication
(IMC)
.
The Internet will be important but is unlikely to replace other forms of brand promotion
or even to become the main method of communicating with target audiences. Internet
LO2 Describe the nature of the Internet as a medium for communicating
promotional messages.
The Web offers target market selectivity—targeting that is more finely tuned than
Chapter 9: The Internet ❖ 2
regions, times of day, or computer platforms. The Internet also allows advertisers to track
how users interact with their brands and learn what interests current and potential
marketer can engage a prospective customer to a degree that just cannot be accomplished
in traditional media. Finally, Web promotion is the most easily integrated and
coordinated with other forms of promotion.
LO3 Define options for promotion on the Web.
Web advertising includes paid search (placement of ads in or near relevant search
results), display/banner ads (placed on sites containing editorial material), and pop-
LO4 Identify the issues involved in establishing a website.
Three issues are key to successfully establishing and maintaining a site on the World
LO5 List developments likely to shape the future of IMC on the Web.
The future of IMC on the Web will be guided by technological developments and
marketers’ strategic focus. Two important trends in technology are the emergence of
faster, more widespread wireless delivery systems and greater use of Web-launched video
Chapter 9: The Internet ❖ 3
CHAPTER OUTLINE
INTRODUCTORY SCENARIO: Axe Goes Where the Boys Are
Axe is a brand that should be familiar to students in that Unilever conceived the IMC
campaign described in this scenario specifically for them—especially the 18- to 25-year-
old men in the class. Highlights of this scenario include:
• Unilever wanted a fresh and global campaign for Axe body spray.
• The ad agency Bartle Bogle Hegarty (BBH) came up with a “phrase,”
BomChickaWahWah, that was not culture bound but was intended to catch
on in the same way Homer Simpson’s “d’oh” caught on.
• There was also an all-female band created around the phrase.
• The campaign combined a Web presence with a series of traditional-media
ads.
• The television ads got widespread exposure on YouTube and Flickr, taking
advantage of Web 2.0 social-networking communication.
The main point of the scenario: Firms like Unilever are using the Internet to reach target
audiences, but the Web is never the only communication medium. The Web is integrated
into an overall IMC campaign.
I. The Internet’s Role in Brand Promotion
PPT 9-3, 9-4
The Internet is truly strong as an e-commerce and online promotion resource for firms.
Both business-to-business and consumer e-commerce top $10 trillion per year.
A. What to Expect
A few key points here:
1. The Internet is not going to take over all other advertising media as some
predicted.
2. Advertisers are discovering ways to use the Internet as a key component of
integrated marketing communication.
4. Web 2.0 social networking provides a new way of communicating commercial
messages.
B. How It Started
Technology has the power to change everything, and the Internet has changed
something fundamental about human existence. This is a short “history” of the
Internet to give students some perspective.
Chapter 9: The Internet ❖ 4
• The Internet has connected consumers and empowered them to control at least
part of the commercial information flow directed to them (recall Chapters 1 and
2).
• In 1994, the first Internet providers began to offer services to consumers, but the
technology was not very advanced and not good for brand promotion.
• Today the Internet is accessed worldwide by over 1 billion users. Advertising
revenues are estimated to grow to about $36 billion by 2011.
• The Internet is a valuable medium to reach companies of all sizes and
consumers.
C. Cyberspace: An Overview
Most students think they know all about the Internet because they use it on a daily
basis. It is worth taking them through the basics to provide perspective and context.
• The Internet is a global collection of computer networks linking both public
and private computer systems.
• It was originally designed by the U.S. military to be a decentralized, highly
redundant, and thus reliable communications system in the event of a national
emergency.
• Today the Internet is composed of a combination of computers from
governmental, educational, military, and commercial sources. Internet
connections have risen from 2 million in 1994 to 5 million in 1995 to about 10
million in 1996 to about 945 million worldwide by 2004. Estimates put
connectivity at 1.8 billion as of 2009.
• It is worth pointing out to students when viewing Exhibit 9.1 that in many parts
of the world, the majority of the population is not yet connected. Fewer than one
in five people in China and one in ten in India are Internet users.
II. Internet Media
PPT 9-5, 9-6
There are several ways for marketers to communicate with consumers using the Internet.
Three will be discussed here: email, Usenet, and the World Wide Web.
A. Email is an Internet function that allows users to communicate much as they do
using standard mail. Marketers, of course, use this function of the Internet to
communicate their messages. A variety of companies collect email addresses and
profiles that will allow marketers to direct email to a specific group.
• Opt-in email. A list of consumers who have given permission to have
email sent to them about topics that interest them. Consumers’ vigorously
negative response to spam has motivated many firms to use only opt-in
lists.
• Spam. Uninvited email commercial messages. The fraudulent spamming
practice called “phishing” should be highlighted here. Spam is now
Chapter 9: The Internet ❖ 5
estimated at 120 billion messages daily, but spam persists because
consumers respond to 5 to 7 percent of spam messages—about double the
rate for direct mail.
B. Usenet is a collection of discussion groups in cyberspace. People can read
messages pertaining to a given topic, post new messages, and answer messages.
For marketers, this is an important source of consumers who care about certain
topics. For example, the Usenet group alt.beer would be an excellent place for a
new microbrewery to promote its product.
As with email, spamming—in this case, posting messages to many unrelated
newsgroups—is a notorious practice.
C. The World Wide Web (WWW) is a universal database of information available
to most Internet users, and its graphical environment makes navigation simple and
exciting.
• Of all the options available for Internet marketers, the Web holds the
greatest potential.
• It supports detailed and full-color graphics, audio transmission, the
delivery of in-depth messages, 24-hour availability, and two-way
information exchanges between the marketer and customer.
1. Surfing the Web
By using software such as Microsoft’s Internet Explorer or Mozilla’s Firefox,
consumers can input addresses of websites they wish to visit and directly access
information. However, the Web is a library with no card catalog. There is no
central authority that lists where specific sites are located. This condition leads to
surfing—gliding from home page to home page. To use a search engine, a user
types in a few keywords, and the search engine finds sites that correlate with the
keywords.
2. Portals and Websites
• A portal is a starting point for Web access and search.
• Portals can be general, like Yahoo!; vertical (serving a specialized market or
industries, such as Jobster, http://www.jobster.com, for employment
opportunities); horizontal (providing access and links across industries, such
as MSN, with access to a wide variety of topics); or community-based such as
Latina Online.
• A website is a collection of Web pages, images, videos, and other digital
content that is hosted on a Web server.
• A variation of the standard website is the mash-up—a combination of one or
more websites into a single site. An example is EveryBlock’s Chicago crime
section, where local crime statistics are overlaid on Google Maps so you can
see what crimes have been committed in particular neighborhoods.
Chapter 9: The Internet ❖ 9
C. Promoting Websites
Building a website is only the first step; the next is promoting it.
• Several major agencies specialize in promoting websites.
D. Security and Privacy Issues
1. Corporate Security. Any Web user can download text, images, and graphics
from the World Wide Web. Although marketers place trademark and
2. Consumer Privacy. There are various issues regarding consumer privacy and
the Internet.
• Asking consumers to register for a site typically results in lost user visits.
• A cookie is a coded identifier that is downloaded to the visitor’s computer.
A cookie allows an Internet server to keep track of a visitor throughout the
Measuring Effectiveness of Online Promotion
The information a website typically gets when a user connects with a site is the IP
address of the Internet site that is requesting the page, what page is requested, and at what
time.
A. What Gets Counted
Several terms are used in Web audience measurement.
• Hits provide almost no indication of actual Web traffic. When a user
requests a page with four graphical images, it counts as five hits. Thus, by
inflating the number of images, a site can quickly pull up its hit count.
Thus, hits do not translate into the number of people visiting a site.
• Click-throughs are the most rigorous measure, because users must click
on the ad and go directly to the advertiser’s site.
• Page views are defined as the pages (technically the HTML files) sent to
Chapter 9: The Internet ❖ 10
• Visits are the number of occasions on which a user X looked up Y site
• Unique visitors are the number of different “people” visiting a site (a new
user is determined from the user’s registration with the site) during a
specified period of time.
• Web analytic software is measurement software that not only provides
information on hits, pages, visits, and users but also lets the site track
audience traffic within the site. A site could determine which pages are
popular and expand on them. It is also possible to track the behavior of
B. Measurement Help
Marketers are demanding better accountability of Web reach and consumer use.
Companies like Arbitron and Nielsen NetRatings are starting to generate the type
of data advertisers want. The methods rely on tracking the behavior of a sample of
“Internet families” and projecting their behavior to a larger universe. The
technique is designed to establish more accurate reach numbers. A list of
companies providing measurement services is provided in Exhibit 9.3.
C. Click Fraud
This is an increasingly difficult problem. Web advertisers are victimized by bogus
visits to ads or websites when they are on a pay-per-click program.
Managing the Brand in an E-Community
Aside from the shopping aspect, the Internet provides consumers with a convenient and
efficient way to communicate with each other. The growing concept of “brand
communities” talked about earlier in the book is manifest in the Web as well.
Web 2.0 has demonstrated that e-communities are powerful. MySpace and Facebook
attract up to 50 million unique visitors a month.
V. The Future of Online Promotion
PPT 9-14, 9-15
From a technological standpoint, two technologies, wireless communication and Web-
launched video, will have the biggest impact.
Chapter 9: The Internet ❖ 11
A. Wireless Technology
The central discussion here should focus on the technological progression of access to
the Internet and what it means relative to the Web as an advertising medium. Be sure
• WiFi became widely popular in 2004 because it provided wireless Internet
access connections reaching out about 300 feet.
• WiMax is similar to WiFi in that both create wireless “hot spots” around a
central antenna with one major difference—WiMax has a range of 25 to 30
• Mobile-Fi is similar to WiMax in that it has a multi-mile access but adds the
capability of accessing the Net while the user is moving in a car or a train.
• Ultrabroadband is a technology that will allow people to move extremely large
files quickly over short distances. On the road, a driver could download a large
file from an onboard PC to a handheld computer. Or at home, you could do a
wireless upload of your favorite concert from your PC to your TV.
• Advertisers and advertising agencies are preparing for new opportunities with
mobile wireless communication. The opportunity to communicate through iPods
B. Video on the Web
• As more Web users have access to broadband, more complex data, including
video files, can be streamed to them. The possibilities are attracting the big
players, including Microsoft, ABC, and CBS. They see video streaming as
another piece of the Web broadcast puzzle.
• The technology is available to provide direct links to websites for information and
purchasing through television ads.
C. Strategic Online Communication
• The AOL/Time Warner merger in 2001 signaled the future direction for the Web
and Web advertising. Time Warner brought to this merger all of its movie studio
properties as well as an emerging Internet movie business and digital delivery of
Warner Bros. movies on demand. Time Warner also includes Time Warner cable
television. More recently, InterActiveCorp put together a conglomerate of
Internet companies that can promote and sell each other’s products.
• What has been effective is driving traffic to websites through the use of
traditional media advertising.
Chapter 9: The Internet ❖ 12
SOLUTIONS TO REVIEW QUESTIONS
1. What evidence supports the expectation that the Internet will continue to be a major
part of integrated marketing communication (IMC)?
In this decade, technologies like WiMax, Mobile-Fi, and ultrabroadband will provide
high-speed wireless access to the Net that extends up to 30 miles. This will open up
2. What may have driven advertisers to embrace the Internet early on in its development
despite considerable uncertainty about audience size, audience composition, and cost-
effectiveness?
The rush to develop a Web presence during the early development of the medium has
3. What unique characteristics of Internet brand promotion offer advantages over
traditional forms?
Internet brand promotion has many advantages over traditional forms. It can target
4. Some companies establish a corporate home page that highlights product offerings,
detailing their features and benefits, while others provide an entertaining destination for
the company’s target audience. Discuss how each type of home page might contribute to
a company’s integrated marketing communication.
Chapter 9: The Internet ❖ 13
stock purchase or wish to buy or sell stock, visit www.schwab.com. This type of site
5. What is it about the World Wide Web that makes it a powerful tool for niche
marketing?
The Internet is ideally suited for niche marketing—that is, for reaching only those
6. Visit some of the corporate home pages and websites described in this chapter, or
think about websites you have visited. Of those you have encountered, which would you
single out as being most effective in giving the visitor a reason to come back? What
conclusions would you draw regarding the best ways to motivate repeat visits to a
website?
Because most college students are experienced Web surfers, a class discussion can be
7. The Internet was not conceived or designed to be a marketing medium, so some of its
characteristics have perplexed marketers. If marketing professionals had the chance to
redesign the Internet, what single change would you expect they would want to make to
enhance its value from a marketing perspective?
If marketing professionals were given a free hand to redesign the Internet, they
probably would do many things: We suspect that audience measurement would be at
Chapter 9: The Internet ❖ 14
8. What are blogs, and what are some of their personal and commercial uses?
9. How would you expect Web users to react to the presence of brand promotion in
virtual worlds and video games? How, if at all, would you expect their reactions to vary
by age group or other market segment?
Just like consumers in the real world, Web users have come to expect that marketing
10. What opportunities do you expect for mobile brand promotion through delivery
systems like the iPod and cell phone?
Wireless and portable devices like the iPod and cell phones represent the new frontier
Chapter 9: The Internet ❖ 15
SOLUTION TO EXPERIENTIAL EXERCISES
1. Part of what makes digital media such a powerful tool for marketers is the ability to
customize content and messages for individuals or specific groups of consumers. That
allows marketers to interact with large online communities, such as devoted Saab owners
at http://www.saabnet.com or the Harley Owners Group at the motorcycle company’s
corporate site, http://www.harley-davidson.com.
Pick one of your favorite hobbies, pastimes, or areas of interest—music, sports,
literature, investing—you decide. Visit three or four prominent websites featuring your
interest area. What similarities and differences can you detect between sites with respect
to the advertising or sponsorship at the site? What site features are designed to keep
surfers coming back? Do you think they are effective? Explain.
segments.
2. Visit portal sites like Google, Yahoo!, or Ask.com that use paid search for sponsored
links and display/banner advertising. Search for items related to popular products or
personal interests. What sponsored links or display/banner ads appeared alongside of
your search results? How do those sponsored links or display/banner ads correlate to
your search topic, if at all? Next, click on some of the sponsored links or display/banner
ads that were produced along with your search results and describe what happens. Did
you get transferred to a product website? Were you taken to an online promotion such as
a sweepstakes? What purpose did the company have in prompting your click-throughs,
and what incentives were you given to oblige the advertiser with your time and effort?
Finally, describe the different experiences you had clicking through different
display/banner ads and rate their effectiveness from a consumer perspective.
3. Much of traditional advertising now incorporates some form of online promotion or
information, even if it is as simple as including a website URL on a magazine,
newspaper, or television advertisement. Each of the following Web addresses leads to the
online component of a traditional media ad campaign. Review each site, and then answer
Chapter 9: The Internet ❖ 16
these questions: What added value does the online component bring to the campaign?
What other ways could the advertiser incorporate digital media in the campaign? Why
would a consumer go the website, and why would he or she stay?
http://www.simpsonizeme.com
http://www.apple.com/switch
POWERPOINT PRESENTATIONS
Use the Instructor PowerPoint files to pace your instruction and provide class notes on
key ideas and themes. Each presentation provides a slide-by-slide coordination with the
chapter’s learning outcomes, definitions, and visuals. Encourage students to use the
accompanying Student PowerPoint presentation to align and reinforce classroom
instruction with studying outside of the classroom.
VIDEOS
To view the two videos for this chapter, go to the PROMO book companion website,
www.cengage.com/login.
(*) Indicates the correct answer in the multiple-choice video questions.
IKEA: Showroom
1. The IKEA “Showroom” video used what promotional vehicle to promote a new store
in Sweden?
2. The book suggests that one of online marketers’ most desired goals is to achieve
interactivity or engagement with customers and prospects. Describe the strategy IKEA
used in order to foster interactivity as depicted in the “Showroom” video.
The best answer will describe how IKEA used Facebook tagging features in order to
Chapter 9: The Internet ❖ 18
4. The video from Gap “1969 Stream” refers to which of the following?
5. The video from Gap “1969 Stream” features which of the following?