Business-to-Business Internet Marketing, Fourth Edition - Lifecycle ...

190 BUSINESS-TO-BUSINESS INTERNET MARKETING
Anything that can be committed to an electronic format can be distributed
live over the Internet. Any product with information at its core
can be delivered over the Web. Information products—research reports,
survey results, white papers, subscription e-mail newsletters, and the
like—are all being sold electronically.
One of the b-to-b success stories on the Internet is The Wall Street
Journal Interactive Edition (www.wsj.com). The venerable business daily
has aggressively marketed its Internet version with a two-week free trial,
offering print subscribers the special price of $29 annually, versus $59
for new, non–print subscribers. Dow Jones, the publisher, wisely made
sample content from the Interactive Edition available free on the Web
site so that nonsubscribers could see its value. The Interactive Edition
already has a paid subscriber base of several hundred thousand. Media
reports in May 2001 indicated that The New York Times would follow
suit with paid services.
The line between electronic inquiry fulfillment and order fulfillment
continues to blur. B-to-b marketers are anxious to find new ways to
qualify prospects, shorten the sales cycle, and, if possible, get prospects
and customers to purchase over the Internet. Even if the product itself is
not Web deliverable, product update and service information can easily
be electronically delivered via e-mail or over the Web.
Internet-enabled delivery of products obviously goes beyond the
scope of electronic lead fulfillment. It is an area the b-to-b marketer
should carefully watch. As information and services become products,
the Internet becomes a powerful delivery channel for them.
Ultimately, the potential for order e-fulfillment is virtually unlimited
for IT marketers. The cost reduction associated with order e-fulfillment
is tantalizing. According to the Organisation for Economic
Co-operation and Development (www.oecd.org), it costs just $0.50 to
distribute a software product electronically versus $15.00 traditionally.
And it doesn’t just have to be software.
Airlines and e-travel services are seeing enormous benefits from order
e-fulfillment. Airlines encourage online customers, particularly business
travelers who order last-minute tickets, to use electronic ticketing
instead of paper tickets. E-tickets have substantially reduced the cost of
doing business for airlines, and the growth of e-ticketing by airlines and
travel services such as Biztravel (www.biztravel.com), Expedia
(www.expedia.com), and Travelocity (www.travelocity.com) is expected
to skyrocket. In mid-2001, Orbitz (www.orbitz.com) was launched by
several airlines to further take advantage of this market.