Articles > E-Marketing, Network Marketing or Internet Marketing
by: Otilia Otlacan
Before trying to define the term of eMarketing (or electronic
marketing, so to speak), we should first take a look at the
premises of its apparition and development.
The theories concerning eMarketing have not been unified yet,
due to a large diversity in specialists' opinions. Still, one of
the aspects that is established and has ceased being discussed
in contradictory, is the fact that electronic marketing first
appeared under the form of various techniques used by companies
distributing their products through online channels (Internet –
based). That happened back in the pioneering age before 1995.
These companies that opened the road were called "e-tailers", as
opposed to the traditional retailers (also known as
"brick-and-mortar" retailers). During their limited life, these
electronic retailers began to develop and frenetically
introduced new marketing techniques based on the support offered
by the internet.
The online technologies mentioned above developed in the context
created by the e-tailers, they are widely used these days by B2C
and B2B organizations. In other words, they evolved towards what
we call now eMarketing (you can also spell it e-Marketing if you
wish, the "e-" stands in both cases for "electronic").
You might find as extremely useful and suggestive the
perspective offered by the eMarketing Association (eMA). You
heard a lot, especially over the past 2 years, about the decline
of online businesses (or the decline of dotcoms), but this
temporary difficulty can be viewed as a similarity to the
impasse of Columbus during his expedition that made him famous
more than half millennium ago. The initial "business plan" with
which Columbus started this trip (that of bringing the Asian
resources in his country and getting fabulously rich) was a
complete disaster: catastrophic estimations, not enough
resources allocated, total lack of information upon the
environment he will develop his "business" in, but... he
discovered America instead and changed the world for ever. In a
similar manner, we can say that the dotcoms, despite their
terrible strategies (if any), "discovered" by mistake the world
of eMarketing.
As we already noticed, defining eMarketing is still highly
problematic. Still, what do we mean when we use this term? As
many other English words, the term was born by adding the prefix
"e-" to a term already known and used, in this case "marketing".
The prefix "e-" is actually the extreme contraction of the word
"electronic" and is quite omnipresent in today’s language of
many people: "e-marketing", "e-business", "e-mail",
"e-learning", "e-commerce", "e-", "e-", "e-"...
The simplest definition of eMarketing could be that suggested by
Mark Sceats: the eMarketing that uses internet as manifestation
channel.
A more comprehensive, practical definition is the one formulated
by specialists of CISCO company: eMarketing is a generic term
utilized for a wide range of activities – advertising, customer
communications, branding, fidelity programs etc. – using the
internet. More than the simple development of a website, the
eMarketing focuses on online communications, direct dialog with
consumers who thus participate to the creation of new products,
finding efficient methods to win customer's fidelity and ease
their business-making process. eMarketing is the sum of
activities a company makes with the purpose of finding,
attracting, winning and retaining customers.
At last, for those of you interested in a more scientific
approach, we could say that eMarketing allows relational
exchanges in digital, networked and interactive environments
(acronym: DNI environments). Earlier in the history of
eMarketing, it was conceptualized as being focused upon the
exchanges, but today's theoreticians suggest the exchange
paradigm is a limited modality to define eMarketing.
Whichever definition you will choose to use, will depend on
where exactly you need to use it and for what purpose. You can
probably formulate a definition yourself, according to your own
knowledge, experience and view upon what is eMarketing. However,
one conclusion needs to be drawn in connection with eMarketing:
it has developed over the past few years into a standalone
discipline, with its own conceptual apparatus, tools and laws,
but with a still-to-be systematized knowledge.
About the author:
Otilia is a certified eMarketing professional, currently working
as independent consultant. She developed and teach her own
online course in Principles of eMarketing (http://class.universalclass.com/emarketing)
and is also a volunteer Economics teacher. Contact Otilia
through
http://www.teawithedge.com
,/her Marketing and eMarketing articles portal.
