Background of the Study
The Internet has its origins in cold war and technological rivalry between USSR and US. In fact "while the World Wide Web was created in 1991, its origin dates back to 1957 when the Soviet Union launched the Sputnik I satellite" (Dickey and Lewis, 2011: 2). US reacted with establishment a department of Defense Advanced Research Project Agency (DARPA) which launched in 1960s ARPANET, an experimental project of computer networks from which what we now know as internet developed. Since then internet contributed to science incredibly and "by the late 1980s the internet was being used by many government and business institutions" (Ferguson, 2008: 69).
So internet was considered an inclusive communicative tool of scientific and research centers for several years and its academic function was its dominant prior to discovering its commercial capabilities which led to its commercialization. As Oksana (2007) puts it: "until the mid-nineties, the research and academic communities accounted for most of the internet population but the commercialization of internet soon gained enormous momentum and the business community quickly became aware of the potential it has to offer". With increasing the number of internet users during the 1990s, entrepreneurs started to appreciate commercial prospects of this new medium. Although there is no complete consensus on when did internet marketing exactly start, but the majority of commentators refer to 1994. So it is widely held that "significant commercial use of the Internet began with the first ‗banner ads‘ on web pages in 1994, and the appearance of Internet-based ‗malls‘ (the electronic equivalent of a storefront) such as Amazon.com in 1995".
Statistics make it clear that this young marketplace, online marketing, has had an astonishing rate of growth. So amazing is the growth rate of this new paradigm of marketing that it is hard to believe how young it is. In fact "in 1994, spending for internet marketing totaled nearly nothing, but increased to over $300 million in 1995. After a decade later, marketing spending and internet marketing business has exploded to nearly $500 billion (according to Forrester Research). Today, it‘s hard to believe in having an organization which doesn‘t have some kind of online presence." (Shirvastav and Alam, 2014: 25) This brief historic background is concluded by pointing to the fact that step by step online marketing has become a much more sophisticated practice. So early methods of internet marketing such as online advertising and email marketing has been followed by more younger, developed methods such as search engine optimization or social media marketing.
What is online marketing?
Chaffey et al. (2000) simply define internet marketing as "the application of the internet and related digital technologies to achieve marketing objectives"(12). This definition is a simple definition which, unlike the following ones, does not touch the important aspect of customer relationship. According to (Kotler & Armstrong, 2012: 508; Kotler et al., 2010: 493) Online marketing consists of measures and activities to promote products and services and build relationships with customers over the Internet. Burrett (2008) understands online marketing as ―carefully targeting users and getting them to interact with you while they‘re engaged with the most personal, intimate medium ever invented. The most comprehensive definition has been articulated by Chaffey (2007), he defines online marketing as ―Applying Digital technologies which form online channels (Web, e-mail, databases, plus mobile/wireless & digital TV) to contribute to marketing activities aimed at achieving profitable acquisition and retention of customers (within a multi-channel buying process and customer lifecycle) through improving our customer knowledge (of their profiles, behavior, value and loyalty drivers), then delivering integrated targeted communications and online services that match their individual needs". As this relationship concept definitions show online marketing revolve around interaction and building relationship with customers, a point which discriminates it from traditional, offline marketing.
1.2 Statement of the Problem
One of the major problems Business Marketing face in their campaigns is still the use of primitive promotions channels such as press, brochure, catalogue, TV, cell phone, etc, and several offline channels which lacks a comprehensive, harmonizing marketing framework. In this project work, we present a new solution for businesses to promote their business online to reach a wider audience.
1.3 AIM AND OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY
The principle aim of this project is to develop and implement an online marketing system that will be useful to business owners, with the following objectives:
ABSTRACT
This study entitled Monitoring and Evaluation of the Provision and Management of Education Resources on the Student‟s Performanc...
ABSTRACT
This study focused on Evaluation of the Procedure for Recruitment, Selection, Placement and Promotion of Staff in the Ministry o...
ABSTRACT
This project work was undertaken to survey the influence of socio-economic background in the a...
Background to the Study
Like most other pre-modern human societies, the traditional societies in the territories later to be amalgamated...
. Background to the Study
The landmark event of January 1, 1914, wherein Lord Frederick Lugard amalgamated what was then the Northern and...
BACKGROUND OF STUDY
The Internet is a system architecture that has revolutionized communications and me...
ABSTRACT
Bean cakes are ready-to-eat deep-fried cowpea paste. It is commonly known as àkàrà (in Yoruba language) or...
ABSTRACT
The indispensability of safe drinking water to man cannot be over-emphasized. This research has traversed the allowable length a...
ABSTRACT
This study is a stylistic analysis of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie‟s novel Half Of A Yellow Su...
This study is concerned with evaluation of the role of the Nigeria stock Exchange in capital formation and ec...