a project report on

internet as a marketing tool

SUBMITTED BYGOURAV SHARMA

MASTER OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION [Semester II]

Submitted to

MRS.RUPAMDEEP KAUR BAINS

Academic Year

2014 - 2015

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

This is to certify that this project report entitled Internet as a Marketing Tool is

the result of research work carried out by Mr.GOURAV SHARMA, College Roll

No. 2527 and university roll no. 2014MGB1728 under the guidance and

supervision of Professor MRS.RUPAMDEEP KAUR BAINS.

Signature-

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Acknowledgement

1.Introduction

Evolution of marketing4

Advertising5

2.Internet Marketing

Growth of Internet Usage7

List of Countries by Internet Usage8

Internet Fame with the Indian Audience9

7 Ps of Marketing on the Internet12

Understanding of Internet customer16

3.Internet Advertising

What is Internet Advertising17

Traditional Marketing v/s Internet Marketing18

Objectives of Internet Marketing20

Features of Internet Marketing20

Internet Marketing Tactics22

4.Case Study

Rediff.com27

Conclusion

Biblography

INTRODUCTIONEvolution of Marketing

At the beginning of the century, social life was mostly local. It was followed by a period in which commodities were produced on a mass scale. Consumer Marketing operated on mass marketing principles and business primarily concerned itself with how to build the best sales force. At the end of the century, there is an emerging global culture. The major driver of these changes is technology. Technological change has moved steadily back focusing on the individual. These changes shape the possibility and conduct of business. Marketing is especially tied to communication and transportation revolution. As the tools and reach of marketing increase, the job and responsibilities of marketers have evolved with them.

In todays technology driven world, a new fast paced digital economy is emerging. In the near future, it wouldnt be surprising to see that there are companies that exist only inside computer networks. Most business transactions will be made electronically, directly from the producer to the consumer, bypassing the supply chain. In the digital marketing environment, the consumer becomes an integral player in the development of the product. In fact, a consumer might build the product himself from a wide array of parts provided by the company. It is e-commerce that is changing the way products and services are conceived, manufactured, promoted, priced, distributed and sold. The reason being that it is much cheaper; it allows vast coverage and helps in serving the customer better.

ADVERTISING

Advertising is a paid form of communication, although some forms of advertising,such as public service announcements, use donated space and time. Second, not only is the message paid for, but the sponsor is identified. Third, most advertising tries to persuade or influence the consumer to do something, although in some cases the point of the message is simply to make consumers aware of the product or company. Fourth and fifth, the message is conveyed through many different kinds of mass media reaching a large audience of potential consumers. Finally, because advertising is a form of mass communication, it also non-personalA definition of advertising, then, includes all six featuresAdvertising is paid non-personal communication from an identified sponsor using mass media to persuade or influence an audience.

SOME DIFFERENT TYPES OF ADVERTISING ARE:

Print Advertising: Newspapers, Magazines, Brochures, Fliers

Broadcast advertising: Television, Radio and the Internet Covert Advertising: Advertising in Movies Celebrity Advertising Internet Advertising

INTERNET MARKETING

Internet marketing, also referred to as web marketing, online marketing, or eMarketing, is the marketing of products or services over the Internet. Internet marketing ties together creative and technical aspects of the Internet, including design, development, advertising, and sale. The Internet has brought many unique benefits to marketing, one of which being lower costs for the distribution of information and media to a global audience. The interactive nature of Internet marketing, both in terms of providing instant response and eliciting responses, is a unique quality of the medium. Internet marketing is sometimes considered to have a broader scope because it not only refers to digital media such as the Internet, e-mail, and wireless media; however, Internet marketing also includes management of digital customer data and electronic customer relationship management (ECRM) systems.

Growth of Internet usage and E-commerce:

In 2014, nearly 75% (2.1 billion) of all internet users in the world (2.8 billion) live in the top 20 countries.The remaining 25% (0.7 billion) is distributed among the other 178 countries, each representing less than 1% of total users.China, the country with most users (642 million in 2014), represents nearly 22% of total, and has more users than the next three countries combined (United States, India, and Japan). Among the top 20 countries, India is the one with the lowest penetration: 19% and the highest yearly growth rate. At the opposite end of the range, United States, Germany, France, U.K., and Canada have the highest penetration: over 80% of population in these countries has an internet connection.

An Internet User is defined as an individual who has access to the Internet at home, via computer or mobile devcie.

List of Countries by Internet Usage (2014)

Search:

Rank

Country

Internet Users

1 YearGrowth %

1 YearUser Growth

Total Country Population

1 Yr Population Change (%)

Penetration(% of Pop.with Internet)

Country's share of World Population

Country's share of World Internet Users

1

China

641,601,070

4%

24,021,070

1,393,783,836

0.59%

46.03%

19.24%

21.97%

2

United States

279,834,232

7%

17,754,869

322,583,006

0.79%

86.75%

4.45%

9.58%

3

India

243,198,922

14%

29,859,598

1,267,401,849

1.22%

19.19%

17.50%

8.33%

4

Japan

109,252,912

8%

7,668,535

126,999,808

-0.11%

86.03%

1.75%

3.74%

5

Brazil

107,822,831

7%

6,884,333

202,033,670

0.83%

53.37%

2.79%

3.69%

6

Russia

84,437,793

10%

7,494,536

142,467,651

-0.26%

59.27%

1.97%

2.89%

7

Germany

71,727,551

2%

1,525,829

82,652,256

-0.09%

86.78%

1.14%

2.46%

8

Nigeria

67,101,452

16%

9,365,590

178,516,904

2.82%

37.59%

2.46%

2.30%

9

United Kingdom

57,075,826

3%

1,574,653

63,489,234

0.56%

89.90%

0.88%

1.95%

10

France

55,429,382

3%

1,521,369

64,641,279

0.54%

85.75%

0.89%

1.90%

Internet Fame with the Indian Audiences

Let us first take a quick look at the audience that this medium is trying to reach. The top 8 metros of the country, the scope of the Internet as a medium to reach out to a large number of people is presently limited. However, some of these limitations can be addressed.

1. Internet is available in regional languages also. Even today this medium is largely confined to only those who are literate in English. Various initiatives of companies like ITC and HLL like E-choupal and i-Shakti have given a considerable boost to vernacular usage of internet

2. Internet is accessible though other media also and not only through telephone lines. In the current scenario, the usage of internet might be dominated by telephone lines, but broadband and cable net are coming in a huge way.

3. Government policies are aimed at broadening and strengthening the infrastructure required for Internet accessibility.

There could be several other modes to increase the reach of the Internet. To quickly summarize the advantages of the Internet as seen from the point of view of the user as well as the marketer:

To the user:

Internet gives more control in choosing content. It offers customization of the content, the way the user wants to view it. It offers a variety of options for information and entertainment. It offers a wide range to choose from for the user.

It offers tremendous convenience to the user not only in delivery of information, but also in allowing him to transact often in a seamless manner.

The best example of giving control of content is the My Yahoo !! service offered by the Internet giant, Yahoo Inc. It gives the user the choice of content for various topics ranging from news to stock options to entertainment to sports and just about everything.

To the marketer:

The Internet offers several options to a marketer trying to target a particular community

It serves not only as a channel of information, but also of product distribution

It offers a highly interactive medium that sometimes (e.g. chats, forums, VoIP) is almost equal to one-to-one interaction with the audience.

It offers a higher level of identification of the user to the marketer.

It allows the marketer to actually link his spends to action, and pay only on action

This action could be a click on the banner or even product purchased or just a banner impression or per 1000 impressions. In this ability Internet is, in fact, unlike any other media.

Given the payment options and high interactivity, the Internet offers a medium for high level of experimentation at a low cost.

Which products are likely beneficiaries of the Internet?

Given that the usage of the Internet is highest amongst young, male audiences belonging to the larger towns and who belong to higher SEC groups, for this medium to be cost-effective, products having similar target groups would benefit the most from this medium.

The most likely examples that come to mind include telecom, financial products and services, products related to entertainment like movies (promotions and tickets), plays, contests etc, FMCG products where the core target audience is younger (deodorants, soft drinks), consumer durables to some extent and high-end services like tour operators, airline services, hotels etc.

7 P's of Marketing on the Internet

The four P's - Product, Price, Place and Promotion have long been associated with marketing, but things have changed on the Internet. So along with a change in the nature of the four Ps there are three new Ps which are relevant to the internet marketer.

1. The Product on the Internet usually changes form online, and the user experiences it electronically, in the form of text, images and multimedia. Physical goods are usually presented in the form of a detailed online catalogue that the customer can browse through. Technology allows the user to virtually touch and feel the product on the Internet - rotate it, zoom in or zoom out and even visualize the product in different configurations and combination. The example of the above can be seen at dell.com where the company offers the user to virtually feel every aspect of their product before they go into a buy decision. Content and software are two avatars of digitized products that can be even distributed over the Internet. On the Internet, E-marketing will be based more on the product qualities rather than on the price. Every company will be able to bring down the cost of its products and hence competition will not be on price. It will rather be on the uniqueness of the product. To be able to attract the customers and retain them, the company will have to provide nouvelle and distinct products that forces the net users to purchase and come back for more.

2. The Price has been drastically changed over the Internet. It lets the buyer decides the price. Also it gives the buyers information about multiple sellers selling the same product. It leads to best possible deal for the buyers in terms of price. A website named Priceline.com is extremely popular as its compares the price of many airlines and offers the least price to the buyer. The very famous bazee.com now known as ebay.in follows the same principles. Pricing is dynamic over the Internet.

3. The Place revolves around setting up of a marketing channel to reach the customer. Internet serves as a direct marketing channel that allows the producer to reach the customer directly. The elimination of the intermediate channel allows the producer to pass the reduced distribution cost to the customer in the form of discounts. Dell Computers have used this strategy very effectively and hence they have been able to reduce their prices of their laptops drastically and reaped huge profits.

4. Promotion is extremely necessary to entice the customer to its website, as there are currently more than one billion web pages. Promoting a website includes both online and offline strategies. Online strategies include search engine optimization, banner ads, multiple points of entry, viral marketing, strategic partnership and affiliate marketing. Presently, the cyberspace is already cluttered with thousands of sites probably selling similar products. For the customers to know of the Companys existence and to garner information on the kind of products or services that the company is offering, promotion has to be carried out. There can be traded links or banner advertisements for the same. Also the traditional mediums like print, outdoor advertising and television can be used to spread awareness. Email campaigns and spamming the Chat rooms on almost every server has been exploited to the maximum for the cause of promoting their website.

5. Presentation The presentation of the online business needs to have an easy to use navigation. The look and the feel of the web site should be based on corporate logos and standards. About 80% of the people read only 20% of the web page. Therefore, the web page should not be cluttered with a lot of information. Also, simple but powerful navigational aids on all web pages like search engines make it easy for customer to find their way around. The principle of K.I.S.S ( Keep it simple stupid ) is the most important factor that has to be considered while presenting the online business

6. Processes Customer supports needs to be integrated into the online web site. A sales service that will be able to answer the questions of their customers fast and in a reliable manner is necessary. To further enhance after sales service, customers must be able to find out about their order status after the sale has been made. For e.g. FedEx (www.fedex.com), the overnight Courier Company allows its customers to keep track of the parcel and they are well informed about the present whereabouts of their package. Similar variants have been used by the Govt of India for its Speed post and Registered Ad services where you can keep a track of your post by entering the code that has been issued to you.

7. Personalization Using the latest software from Broad-Vision and others, it is possible to customize the entire web site for every single user, without any additional costs. The mass customization allows the company to create web pages products and services that suit the requirement of the user. A customized web page does not only include the preferred layout of the customer but also a pre selection of goods the customer may be interested in. For e.g. Yahoo! (www.yahoo.co.in) entered the Indian cyberspace and started its personalized services. A registered user of Yahoo can now personalize the front page with all the information he needs. He can read the news of the world, add a tax calculator, see the weather forecasts of his city and listen to his favorite songs and all this simultaneously.

Understanding the Internet CustomersNow to be able to use the seven Ps effectively in order to achieve the predefined goals of any organization it is imperative to understand the customers. Customization will only be truly effective if we understand our customers and their true needs.Before adapting marketing practices to the Internet, the marketer needs to understand the characteristics of the online customers. The Net users can be classified into five categories depending upon their intention of using the Internet.

The five categories of users are:

Directed Information Seekers: They require specific, timely and relevant information about the products and services being offered.

Undirected Information Seekers: These users require something interesting and useful. Something that can give them an edge, advantage, insight or even a pleasant surprise.

Bargain Hunters: They are of two kind. One who look for free items on the internet and other who are seeking better deals, higher discounts etc.

Entertainment Seekers: they see the Web as an entertainment medium of vast breath and potential and want to explore the medium before the mass gets there.

Directed Buyers: They want to buy something - now. They are sure what they require and just log on to the Web to purchase the item.

INTERNET ADVERTISINGMarketing over the years more so recently has started being used interchangeably with advertising. Now since the explosion of the internet; advertising paradigms have been constantly changing.The first Web advertisement was placed on the Hot Wired web site in October 1994. AT&T,MCI, Sprint, Volvo, Club Med, ZIMA were the first to try it out and the Internet advertising has come a long way since then.

WHAT IS INTERNET ADVERTISING?

Online advertising is a form of promotion that uses the Internet and World Wide Web for the expressed purpose of delivering marketing messages to attract customers. Examples of online advertising include contextual ads on search engine results pages, banner ads, Rich Media Ads, Social network advertising, online classified advertising, advertising networks and e-mail marketing, including e-mail spam.Online video directories for brands are a good example of interactive advertising. These directories complement television advertising and allow the viewer to view the commercials of a number of brands. If the advertiser has opted for a response feature, the viewer may then choose to visit the brands website, or interact with the advertiser through other touch points such as email, chat or phone. Response to brand communication is instantaneous, and conversion to business is very high. This is because in contrast to conventional forms of interruptive advertising, the viewer has actually chosen to see the commercial.

Traditional Marketing V/s Internet Marketing

Marketing over the years more so recently has started being used interchangeably with advertising. Now since the explosion of the internet; advertising paradigms have been constantly changing.

The first Web advertisement was placed on the Hot Wired web site in October 1994. AT&T, MCI, Sprint, Volvo, Club Med, ZIMA were the first to try it out and the Internet advertising has come a long way since then. Here, I would attempt to compare Internet Advertising with Traditional Advertising:

Lets have a look:

Traditional Advertising:

Traditional advertising is static.

Space is not a restricting factor

The proportion of advertising to editorial is high sometimes 50:50.

Does not evoke immediate action.

Response to the action is not immediate.

Advertisements are passively received.

Advertising does not always target a much focused audience.

Advertisements are ubiquitous.

Whereas Internet Advertising :

It is dynamic with multimedia- supporting text and graphics video sound all together.

Space is a problem, as regards size of the banners etc.

A web page would be 91% editorial and 9% advertising.

Invokes immediate action as you at-least need to click on the ad.

First response is immediate as when the user clicks, the person is directed to other web page with more details.

The user has high attention level and concentration while using the net, and hence they notice the ad. (please refer the chapter)

This can be much focused.

Advertisements catch users when they are on the lookout for some thing. For example the search is for travel on a search engine there are ads of travel agents on the net.

Objectives of Internet AdvertisingAdvertising: As far as advertising on the Internet goes, all advertisements will serve to attract the user's attention and draw him to the company, which is advertising. Build brand awareness: Direct or indirect methods can be used on the websites to build brand awareness of the different brands of a company. This is where the Internet scores traditional media and methods as explained below.Stimulate direct action: Visitors to a company's web site should get involved with the offerings on the site. Valuable customer information can also be captured and tracked for future marketing initiatives.Promote its brands: Promotional give - away or contests generate excitement while simultaneously promoting your brands online, aiding off - line sale. Building a culture around its brands: This goes along with that company's traditional advertising.Surrogate advertising: This is another means of surrogate advertising of the company, where all forms of traditional advertising fail. Surrogate advertising can be proved to be positive in case of advertising on the Internet.Features of Internet Advertising:Advertising on the Internet has certain unique features that differentiate it from other forms of advertising. They are as follows:Member registration: Member registration is an efficient tool that is used by firms to create their database. Such a database may be used to design promotional campaigns. Allowing registered users to participate in various events can follow systems of free registration. Online opinion polls: Opinion polls are conducted to obtain the responses from users regarding the firms' products and services besides including topics of general interest.Newsletters: Regular newsletters are sent especially to registered users. These contain information about current updations on the site and activities being performed by the company.Contests and sweepstakes: Contests are useful in attracting new users to websites. They may be for simple things depending on the product or service being advertised. The prizes offered are in a wide range and usually have the logo of the company and the homepage address displayed prominently.Content: The content of the advertisement can be regularly updated with news regarding the activities of the firm. A fact-based section showing the manufacturing processes of a company may also be included. The use of multimedia tools can make this more interactive.E-cards: Users send free cards via e-mail from the site of the company advertising the product. The card prominently displays the logo or the baseline of the brand. The cards may be for different occasions such as birthdays, festivals, birthdays, etc. These cards are used to reinforce brand identity. Star endorsers of the brand may also be included in the picture postcard themes.Downloads: Downloads may include various utilities for the computer such as icons, desktop patterns, screensavers, themes, etc. Registered users get the opportunity of downloading software. Charts and other informative articles may also be included.

Internet Marketing Tactics

There are many different technologies to facilitate your Internet marketing strategy. Some of the most common and effective tools are:

Search Engines and Directories: Search engines are one of the most popular means of finding web sites, second only to following links on web pages.

Search engines help people find relevant information on the Internet. Major search engines maintain huge databases of web sites that users can search by typing in keywords or phrases.

Advertise your message. Web directories/search engines are information, gateways that have high traffic and are good for displaying advertisement banners. They are used to find Internet information and for this reason, appeal to broad target groups.

E-zines (Online magazines): These publications are focused on specific topics and may be a way to reach a target audience interested in that subject. Some companies have gathered the e-mail addresses of potential customers and used these lists to send out product information specific to client interests.

Seven good reasons to establish an E-Zine

1. Establishes Trust

2. Brings Visitors Back

3. Establishes You as an Expert

4. Keeps Current & Potential Customers Up to Date on New Products & Services

5. Builds Relationships

6. Allows You to Build an Opt-In Email Marketing List

7. Keeps Your Website Fresh in Visitors' Minds

E-mail: Ethical methods of gathering e-mail addresses are through on-line registration built into your corporate Web sites, or requests for information forms that request submission to your opt-in lists.

An alternative is to purchase lists of customer e-mail addresses indexed by special interests from a private company such as 'Postmaster Direct'.

Online customers are becoming increasingly selective about their relationships, the brands they trust, and what they consider relevant. While most marketers are aware of privacy issues and the risks of Spam, there is still need for improvement. Email marketing campaign management is still fairly unsophisticated even at the largest of organizations.

Marketers have to think about the drivers of customer response and purchase. Over time, as more is learned about your customer buying behavior, you can will isolate campaign and program characteristics that drive your customer or visitor response and action. Isolating the behavior of high value customers, business customers, or the minority of customers who prefer to buy online will be critical. For example, new online buyers get referrals when shopping online, while experienced frequent buyers prefer search engines.

Affiliate Marketing: Affiliate Marketing enables you to increase online sales by promoting your products and services through a network of Affiliate sites on a payment-by-results basis.

It also provides the opportunity to generate additional revenue by exploiting your site's own content to promote the products and services of other online Merchants.

A Merchant recruits content sites to partner with them as Affiliates in exchange for commissions. A common third party provider such as Commission Junction can be used.

The Merchant provides their advertising banners and links to their Affiliates and assigns a commission for each click-through to their site, subscription to their service, or purchase of their products that is generated from those links.

Affiliates place the tracking code for these ads and links on their Web sites. This allows clickthrough's to be tracked online and commissions to be calculated. If a product or service is purchased, the customer pays the Merchant directly and the Affiliate is paid a commission for that transaction. The dating giant adultfriendfinder.com has used this strategy to the maximum and has earned millions of dollars by proper implementation of this strategy.

Banner Advertising: Banner advertising can play an extremely important role within your website strategy. One can use banner advertising as a means of promoting its own products and services, raising awareness, or as a way of generating revenue by selling advertising space on your own website.

Purchasing Advertising: There are currently two widely recognized methods of purchasing banner advertising. The rates for these are usually quoted on a cost per thousand basis or (CPM). The rates you pay can vary tremendously as there is currently no standard price model - so be prepared to negotiate!

Pay-Per-Impression: This method of purchasing banner advertising is based on a charge for the number of times someone sees your banner. There are no guarantees as to how many visitors will come to your site as a result of seeing your banner; you are simply paying for the number of times your banner is displayed. Websites that offer such programs include paypopup.com and adclicksor.com

Pay-Per-Visitor: This method of purchasing banner advertising is based on a charge for the number of times someone visits your site as a result of clicking on your banner. This is a better method of purchasing banner advertising as you are only paying for results, although expect to pay a premium.

Pay-Per-Click : The revenue model of the Internet giant google.com has its very own service which offers certain share of the profit that it makes by the click-thru that a website generates from its adsense codes. The revenue model is known as google adsense and almost every successful website uses this model to make profits. The Google adsense ads can be seen on websites like Times of India, Moneycontrol.com, ManagementParadise.com and a lot many other reputed websites.

Sales Promotion: Employing methods to stimulate sales through immediate or delayed incentives to the customer. If the incentive is attractive, the price: value ratio is adjusted favourably enough to affect a sale. This strategy should integrate with the overall marketing mix to balance extra sales with long-term profit motives. Examples of sales promotion strategies are:

Sampling - offering product samples, electronically.

Bonus offers - offering additional goods or services when making single purchases (e.g. buy-one-get-one-free).

Limited time offers - attracting visitors to return to a Web site.

Games with prizes: Useful to keep people coming back to Web sites.

Cross-product sampling: When a customer makes a purchase they have an opportunity to try out another companys product/service. Also, the customer may have the opportunity to try out more than one companys product/service while testing another. Useful for complementary products/services.

Feature pricing: providing special pricing to those that order electronically.

Cross-promotions with other companies products/services - Buy a companys product/service and get a coupon for another companys product/service.

Publicity: The goal of publicity is to have others talk about the small business or its products. It can be inexpensive or even free and it may have the potential to generate far more in sales than even a well executed advertising plan.

Promotional Publications: Facilitate customer education, with the intention of building corporate image and even brand awareness, the small business may sponsor and/or publish its own electronic magazine on the Web, e-mail, etc. These are useful in fields

where the customer needs information to develop sufficient knowledge for movement through the first three stages of the sales process of awareness, interest, and desire. Although time consuming, they replace or complement the print versions of newsletters/corporate magazines/flyers.

Subscriptions: Business marketers may use their Web sites to encourage visitors to subscribe to receive regular email messages from the company. These messages are called digests or newsletters, and are a clever way for marketers to push product news to willing customers.

E-mail Links: Visitors to a site should have the opportunity to correspond with the host of that site, especially if out of the telephone area or time zone. E-mail links may be strategically placed throughout the site to elicit response from visitors for at various points. These are also useful for feedback on site maintenance problems.

On-line Surveys: Information may be collected on the visitors to a Web site through registration forms, on-line surveys, or through tracking of areas of site they visit. These websites also offer referrals wherein if you refer someone to their site and the person becomes a member then you are paid commission on that.

Case Study

Rediff.com

Rediff.com is one of the premier worldwide online providers of news, information, communication, entertainment and shopping services for Indians.

Known for being one of the first with news and providing accurate and trustworthy information, Rediff.com provides an ideal platform for Indians worldwide to connect with one another online fast. Rediff.com is committed to offering a personalized and a secure surfing and shopping environment.

Rediff.com additionally offers the Indian American community one of the oldest and largest Indian weekly newspaper, India Abroad.

Founded in 1996, Rediff.com is headquartered in Mumbai, India with offices in New Delhi and New York, USA

Rediff.com is the leading online network targeting India and Indians worldwide. They provide original and third-party branded content through interest-specific channels, extensive Web-based community features such as free e-mail, chat, personal home pages and an India adapted search engine, and the largest e-commerce platform in India. They have designed their Web-site offerings by keeping the slow access speed available to most Indian Internet users in mind. Rediff believes that it has created the online network of choice for Indian Internet users, as well as created a highly desirable advertising and e-commerce platform for advertisers and merchants respectively.

They believe that their success to date is attributable to the following key success factors:

1. Focus on India & Indians Worldwide: They serve the online needs for Indian Internet users and people of Indian origin worldwide and have developed their product offerings based on the demands and the requirements of their user base. They have been in business since 1996, and hence have a large archive of Indian focused content. Rediff provides their users with:

Broad range of community offerings such as, chat, singles channel and personal homepages that allows users to interact with other Indians with similar interests;

Search engine, with technology from Inktomi, that has been customized to provide India relevant content as top searches for queries by users;

Channels that are relevant to Indian interest, e g Horoscope, Cricket, Singles, Indian finance, Indian music and Indian movies;

Up-to-date news focused on India, constantly updated by their in-house editorial staff, featuring interviews with several leading Indian politicians, movie stars, and celebrities;

Airline and train schedule and availability, thereby eliminating the need for Indian users to queue up in airport and train stations;

An easy to understand interface that strikes the right balance between an attractive visual appearance and fast down-load times for people accessing the site with low speed modems.

2. Comprehensive online offering: Rediff believes that it is "one-stop-shop" for Indian Internet users by satisfying all their online requirements. By providing them with locally relevant content, community functionality, and ability to shop online, it has been able to attract and retain users on its site for extended periods. They believe that their extensive offerings coupled with their aggressive branding program have made them the most recognized Internet brand in India. To help advertisers reach the Rediff audiences, they help them build their sites, design their banners and sponsorships and lead them through a comprehensive service to assist their marketing efforts on the net.

3. Leading e-commerce platform: Rediff has created the Rediff Marketplace which provides Indian merchants a guide and effective way to move from being merely advertisers/sponsors on their site to selling their goods and services online. To demonstrate the value of this proposition they created a Rediff Book Store and Music Store online and the initial positive results from them has allowed them to sign up more merchants. Till date they have put online several dozen merchants in India and are now completing development of software that will allow merchants to automatically sign-up, create their own store and transact business on the web.

On the other hand they have created the necessary facilities to allow their site visitors to easily search and provide the right goods and services in the Rediff Marketplace.

Promotional Strategies

Rediff generally believes advertising in mass media like Television, Newspaper etc.Apart from these general means of advertising it also believes in promoting the site through web promotion. The best e-commerce site in the world is worthless if no one can find it. But, too often, ecommerce start-ups use shotgun marketing, simply advertising everywhere, to everyone, in the hope that a fraction of a percent of those who see the ads will respond.

Majority of the Rediff customers come through search engines, such as Yahoo, Google, AltaVista and others. So they see to it that they are getting their site listed, making sure that their site shows up high in the list of search results and ensuring that their site is listed for specific keywords which is a science in itself.

Rediff also believes in Word of Mouth policy, an offline strategy. This can be done only if they provide innovative products and services to its customers and to see that what the made by them is being fulfilled, more the number of people visiting their site more is the awareness made by them to other people.

For E.g. Rediff offers Rediff Blogs a service that allows a user to publish their thoughts and ideas directly on the web. Rediff.com is the first Indian website to offer Blogs to Indians worldwide using the latest in the internet technologies. A Blog or a web log is a personal or conversational website updated frequently with views, links, commentary and such other information relevant to a particular topic. This could comprise of links and commentary from other websites on topics of interest such as writing diaries, poetry, uploading photos, providing project updates, news about a company, a person or an idea and even fiction. This service enables the user to express his opinions, be heard and make friends on Rediff.com.

The process of setting up and updating a blog is very simple. All a user needs is a Rediff.com account. Thereafter a blog can be set up in three simple steps, starting with entering a subject, choosing a template and making an entry into the blog.

Building Trust

Online users expect certain things from the service provider i.e. easy to use and trouble free procedures like while creating a new Rediffmail account, the information asked by Rediff to the online user is very specific and up to the point. According to them trust is an ongoing job, at no point can they afford to loose a valuable customer. On its website they have got a Rediff Marketplace option wherein a customer can buy the products online. Rediff has got this system whereby if a customer after shopping is not satisfied with the product purchased from Rediff, they can return the goods back to Rediff even if they have used the product. Rohit Varma, Chief Marketing Officer said that it is these small things that one has to take into consideration and which can create a sense of trust in the minds of the customers.

CONCLUSION

Todays corporation better serves their customer and their bottom line by functioning as a focus of resources than as a owner of resources.Outsourcing non- core functions like websites maintenance and the use of internet buisness conslutant provides many companies with enhanced levels of services at lower costant will help you in a buisness complete in todays highly competitive market place.Global competition has intensified with the introduction of new technologies. Those who can exploit the opportunities of this new technologies will win. Internet marketing enables a large company to be responsive,innovative,and fast and a small company to complete internationally with the big boys. Information technology changes on a month to month basis and sometimes week to week. The pace of change in acclerating. To remain competitive,companies must position themselves and commence marketing on the internet.

Bibliography

Books

Marketing Management Philip Kotler

Marketing.Com Vijay Mukhi

E-Business Essentials- Matt Haig

Websites

www.citemarketing.com

www.slideshare.com

www.scribed.com

www.rediff.com

www.marketingterms.com