Interactive Marketing

The paper describes a research project commissioned by the Institute of Direct Marketing and undertaken by the University of Strathclyde School of Marketing that investigated the value that organisations place on their customer databases. While the research clearly identified the importance of the customer database as a revenue generator, the results also demonstrate that in many organisations the full potential is not being realised, particularly in developing and supporting corporate strategy. From the detailed findings the research team have developed two frameworks or models which organisations can use firstly to assist them in maximising the value to the overall business of their databases and secondly to assess methods for establishing directly or indirectly the value of the database as a corporate asset. The findings also establish the factors which organisations in the survey felt were inhibiting them from developing the full potential of their databases.

There is no better way to spend your marketing money than with keyword advertising. The latter is an online text based form of advertising triggered when a user types in a keyword to a search engine. This form of advertising is highly relevant, which increases the likelihood of customers finding you. Users searching on terms specific to your products or services are qualified leads. And you pay only for customers who click to your site. Keyword advertising therefore produces a significantly higher return on investment than other forms of marketing. This paper offers practical tips on getting the most out of keyword advertising.

Online surveys have already made a significant impact on research in the USA. However, in Europe and elsewhere in the world they have not. This paper discusses the reasons for this divide and the many issues surrounding online panels and website interviewing. It also covers online qualitative methods, and suggests that these may never become as mainstream as the quantitative methods (in Europe at least). It reviews areas where online research is likely to make a major impact and discusses potential future developments.

Practical International Data Management: A guide to working with global names and addresses by Graham Rhind reviewed by ROBIN FAIRLIE. Carving Jelly by Nick Siragher reviewed by PETER MOUNCEY. Pocket Internet by Sean Geer reviewed by ROBIN FAIRLIE. Pocket Marketing by The Economist reviewed by ROBIN FAIRLIE.

The advent of interactive digital television (iTV) in the UK has the potential to revolutionise the use of the television set. But, as past technological innovations reveal, there may well be a great difference between the potential uses of a technology and the actual uses. The key issue is how people in the UK will use iTV in their everyday lives, and whether they will use the interactive capacities made available through iTV or whether they will use iTV as ‘more television’. Available data suggest that the impact of iTV will be less dramatic than often predicted, and will be more of an evolutionary process than a revolutionary change. Interactivity per se may not be as powerful an influence on people's patterns of television use as has been predicted, compared with its core role in internet use.

Disinter — to unearth, to displace; and mediate — to act as middleman. Combined, they mean to displace the middleman. Disintermediation signifies major shifts in how we market, sell and deliver products. In many industries, distributors are disappearing and being replaced by electronic media. As a result, direct sales forces are shrinking and their role is changing. On the other hand, marketing is being forced to become a revenue-producing part of the organisation. This paper discusses how field sales is waning in power, marketing is gaining ground, and the biggest beneficiary is the customer. As a result, there is a new class of middlemen called infomediaries, By comparing old and new business-to-business sales and marketing models, we discover both the beneficiaries and the potential casualties of disintermediation. This paper discusses these major trends and recommends what companies must do to thrive in the emerging marketing landscape.

Internal marketing is increasingly important to organisations, but it has proven to be a difficult implementational challenge for managers. The author reviews the current primary internal marketing conceptual models. The paper identifies the five major difficulties managers find in developing and implementing an internal marketing programme. From that, it provides a model for a financially based integrated internal marketing management development and allocation calculus approach. This process starts with customers and works back through employee behaviours. It places a financial value on changed employee behaviours so that internal marketing can be treated as an investment and return process.