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Part Five Developing the Integrated Marketing Communications Program
Belch: Advertising and
Promotion, Sixth Edition
Figure 15-6 U.S.
consumer online buying and
shopping grid, 2000–2004
(in millions and percent
penetration)
V. Developing the
Integrated Marketing
Communications Program
15. The Internet and
Interactive Media
© The McGraw−Hill
Companies, 2003
2000 2001 2002 2003 2004
Shoppers:
Internet users aged
14+
73.0% 77.0% 79.0% 81.0% 82.0%
Shoppers aged 14+
Buyers:
63.2 83.2 97.5 111.6 123.2
Internet users aged
14+
48.5% 53.2% 55.8% 58.3% 59.9%
Buyers aged 14+ 42.0 57.5 68.9 80.3 90.0
Average annual
purchase per online
buyer
$969.02 $880.67 $1,089.21 $1,248.48 $1,400.47
Total U.S. B2C
e-commerce
revenues (incl.
online travel)*
$40,700 $50,600 $75,000 $100,300 $126,000
*eMarketer benchmarks its B2C retail revenue figures against U.S. Department of Commerce data, for which the
last period measured was Q4 2001; the travel component was formulated based on aggregated data.
Business-to-business marketers use the Internet in a variety of ways. Hewlett-
Packard has budgeted over $100 million to target b-to-b users of its equipment. 5 Cisco
and Dell use the Web to track and distribute sales leads in real time, while others like
Scientific International train their sales representatives and host sales meetings via the
Web as well as sell. 6 Cisco estimates that it saves $1 million per month by having sales
meetings on the Web. 7 One of the main benefits for business-to-business marketers is
the ability to acquire information about products and services. In today’s Internet
world, a company can immediately pull up the product and service offerings of a
provider, without having to make a phone call or wait for a salesperson to visit. In turn,
the same company can reach thousands of potential customers that it would not have
been possible to reach without a website—at a significantly reduced cost.
Web Objectives
When major corporations first began to conduct business on the Internet, they put up
websites primarily for information purposes. Companies like United Airlines and
Maytag had sites that were really not much more than online catalogs designed for
information purposes only. The role of the website quickly changed, however; sites
have become much more creative, promoting brand images, positioning, and offering
promotions, product information, and even products and services for sale. With the
introduction of Java in 1995, it became possible to create fancier graphics, audio, and
animation online. This resulted in marketers’ utilizing the Internet in an entirely new
way, moving beyond the purely informational role. As you will see, the objective of
disseminating information still remains, but additional communications and sales
objectives are now being pursued.
Developing and Maintaining a Website
Before we discuss marketers’ Web objectives in detail, it is important that you understand
the role of the website—the place where information is made available to users
of the Internet by the provider. Developing and maintaining a successful website
requires significant time and effort. To attract visitors to the site and have them return
to it requires a combination of creativity, effective marketing, and continual updating
of the site. In addition, other media must be integrated with the website, as noted in the
introduction to this chapter.