In this era of growing consumer power, marketing communication is facing new challenges. In the past, companies would keep airing advertisements and look at reach frequency. But today consumers are taking control of the way they learn and hear about products. So ensuring that consumers absorb the message is more challenging than ever before.
Advertising faces new challenges in the Internet era. The Internet has empowered customers significantly by enabling them to get information about whatever they want and whenever they want. In markets with highly transparent prices, customers have become powerful. There are both opportunities and threats for marketers in the Internet world. For instance, the huge increase in choice makes certain brands more valuable, not less. A strong brand in one segment can enable a company to make a smooth entry into another. At the same time, in some industries, commoditization is a big threat.
The Internet is slowly but surely making an impact on purchasing behavior. Customer surveys indicate that many automobile customers in America have already decided what they want to buy on the internet before they arrive at a showroom. Some of them even come with precise specifications of the car they want from the dealer's stock, together with the price they are prepared to pay. |
