In Response to "From Print to Phone to Web. And a Sale?" and "Firms Hold Fast to Snail Mail Marketing"

Within the next ten years, it is my belief that the internet will be an essential part of every persons life. In order to hear the latest news one will need to access the web. In order to purchase certain, it not all material items, one will use the web. Ordering a pizza on a Friday night will be done strictly through the internet. Cars will drive themselves, and homes will be run through a computer. The internet will become a way of life. In these two articles they discuss how the internet is now beginning to take over the marketing sector.

In the first article "From Print to Phone to Web. And a Sale?" they talk about how a lot of ads in magazines are now providing the readers with bar codes. The reader can scan these bar codes onto their phone, if it has access to the internet, and will be brought directly to the place one can either purchase the item in the ad or learn more. This is great for the producers because they can now advertise in a magazine and provide the reader with an easy way to access their product. Usually one sees an item and isn't exactly sure where they can find that product in the store or even online. Although this may seem beneficial a problem with the bar coding is not everyone has access to a phone that has internet on it. Although now all phones have internet, unless one has a data plan they can not access this for free. Even if they have a data plan it still isn't free they have to pay a monthly fee. If these advertisers start relying heavily on those bar codes in their magazine advertisements they not only lose the market of those who don't have phones with internet access, but they also lose the part of their market that doesn't necessarily read whatever magazine they advertise in.

In the second article "Firms Hold Fast to Snail Mail Marketing" they talk about how since e-marketing has become such a large phenomenon most companies are cutting back on mailing costs and going towards e-mail. All of the companies that the article mentioned had actually lost from switching to e-mail. When switching from the normal paper mail to e-mail it can be difficult to distinguish between what is junk and what isn't when it comes into ones e-mailbox. There are so many people out there who use different names to try and get the receiver to open a piece of mail that ends up containing a virus. It was mentioned in the article that a lot of the companies who switched to e-mail lost some of their customers because they thought they were receiving junk. Another benefit of direct mail, like talked about in the article, if a piece of mail one company sends is fun and entertaining one may keep it. For example the company that sent funny postcards. One of their postcards got them an over $200,000 deal just because of a postcard. This shows that a piece of direct mail can really have a larger effect on a person than an e-mail.

One company that would benefit from direct mailing that wasn't mentioned in the articles is grocery stores. Although they do now offer their flyers online, not everyone has access to the internet on a daily basis, granted most do, but that is just an assumption. It is easy for a grocery store to send out its fliers letting their customers know what types of sales they will be having. This benefits them because usually a household will receive more than one flyer. In that case, they can compare which store has the better deals, or which store has a deal on what one needs to purchase and can go from there. It they relied on e-marketing, the risk arises of people only looking at one stores flyer and not the others because they won't have a physical piece of paper right in front of them.

I think that eventually e-marketing will replace traditional marketing. Although the stories mentioned in the second article show a loss for the companies, at the end it still said the companies were planning on working on e-marketing. In essence it is cheaper and the potential audience is so much larger. In traditional marketing the list of people whom a company calls or mails is only so long. If one were to market on the world wide web, the market in endless. Also, with the new interest in going green, many companies are looking to save paper. A great way to save paper is to e-market. Within the next 5-10 years the main way to market a product will be through the internet.

Do you think there are any companies that would never be able to benefit in any way from e-marketing. If so which ones and why?