CHAPTER 3

INTERNET MARKETING STRATEGIES

What is E-Marketing Strategy?

A strategy is a plan of action designed to achieve a long-term or overall aim of an organization. Marketing Strategy is a
plan of action designed to promote and sell a product or service. E-Marketing Strategy should be a sub-set of marketing
strategy. E-marketing strategy is important as with any strategy to identify goals, and in addition target groups,
formulate messages, identify parameter for measuring, chose media tools and services.

What is the significance of Marketing Strategy?

Marketing strategy sometimes claims to provide an answer to one of the most difficult questions in our understanding
of competitive markets: how to recognize and achieve an economic advantage? An Internet marketing strategy is needed
to provide consistent direction for an organization's e-marketing activities so that they integrate with its other marketing
activities and supports its objectives.

It can be suggested that the Internet marketing strategy has many similarities to the typical aims of traditional marketing
strategies, in that it will:

provide a future direction to Internet marketing activities;

Involve analysis of the organization's external environment and internal resources to inform strategy;
Articulate (communicate) Internet marketing objectives that support marketing objectives;
Involve selection of strategic options to achieve Internet marketing objectives and create sustainable differential
competitive advantage;
Include strategy formulation to include typical marketing strategy options such as target markets, positioning
and specification /requirements of the marketing mix;
Show resources will be deployed/organized and the organization will be structured to achieve the strategy.

Porter who understood the significance of internet to modern business strategy has forwarded the following
statement. The key question is not whether to deploy Internet technology – companies have no choice if they want
to stay competitive – but how to deploy/install it.

Process of Developing Internet Marketing Strategy

An appropriate process for developing an Internet marketing strategy includes:

1 situation review
2 goal setting;
3 strategy formulation
4 resource allocation and monitoring.

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 We need to remember that an Internet marketing strategy is a channel marketing strategy which defines how a
company should set channel-specific objectives and develop a differential channel-proposition/plan and channel-
specific communications consistent with the characteristics of the channel and consumer usage of it

A channel: is a way of selling a company’s product either directly or via distributors.

Internal and external influences on Internet marketing strategy

There are different factors that influences on the internet marketing strategy. The most important influences include;
influences on:
o Corporate objectives and strategy
o Marketing strategy
o Market structure and demand
o Competitor strategies
o Emerging opportunities and threats
Withstanding such influences the focus of Internet marketing strategy should focus on decisions about how to use the
channel to support existing marketing strategies, how to exploit its strengths and manage its weaknesses and to use it in
conjunction with other channels as part of a multi-channel marketing strategy. This multi-channel marketing strategy
defines how different marketing channels should integrate and support each other.

3.1 An overview of marketing strategies

No matter how tremendous a firm’s qualities are high, its marketing strategy and execution are often just as important.
The best business concept, or idea, will fail if it is not properly marketed to potential customers. Market strategy is the
plan you put together that details exactly how you intend to enter a new market and attract new customers or Market
strategy is how the firm plan to promote about firms’ products or services to attract its target audience. For instance,
Twitter, YouTube, and Pinterest have a social network marketing strategy that encourages users to post their content on
the sites for free, build personal profile pages, contact their friends, and build a community. In these cases, the customer
becomes part of the marketing staff.

The Internet and the Marketing Mix

The marketing mix refers to usage of the four Ps of marketing which are Product, Price, Place and Promotion.
All the marketing strategies are developed around the framework of the four Ps.
With the advent and progress of service industry elements like People, Process and Physical evidence were added to the
traditional marketing mix.
E-commerce is a great avenue/opportunity for organizations to use the above marketing mix to their advantage.
 product
In the marketing mix product refers to services, brand or merchandise features around which strategy has to be
developed.
Strategies around products are primarily based on market research undertaken by organizations to asses’ customer needs
and requirements.
Online marketing strategy can be segmented into two parts,

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 i. Decision around the fundamental features meeting customer needs and
ii. Additional features which are benefits above the core benefit.

3.2. Product strategies over the internet

A product is a bundle of benefit that satisfies the needs of organizations or consumers and for which they are willing to
exchange money or other items of values. The term product includes; tangible goods, services, ideas, people and places.
The success of Google demonstrates how a new and purely online product can use the internet’s properties to build a
successful brand. All these can be marketed on the internet, as the [Link] example shows. Products may also be
classified by the purpose for which they are purchased. Consumer products are those purchased by an individual for
personal consumption. Businesses sell products to consumers in the business-to-consumer (B2C) market, and
Consumers sell products to another consumer in the consumer-to-consumer (C2C) market. Industrial products are used
in the operation of an organization, as components for manufacture into final product, or for sale (B2B market), that is
businesses sell products to businesses.

Some new products such as search engines are unique to the internet while other products such as books simply use the
internet as a new distribution channel, often adding unique technology –enabled services. With the internet’s unique
properties, customer control, and other e-marketing trends, product developers face many challenges and enjoy a
plethora of new opportunities while trying to create customers value using electronic marketing tools.

3.2.1. Creating customer value online

To succeed, firms must employ strategies that result in customer value.

Value = Benefit - costs. But what is exactly is value?

First, it is the entire product experience. It starts with a customer’s awareness of a product, continues at all customer
touch point (including the web site experience and e-mail from a firm) and ends with actual product usage and post
purchase customer service.

Second, value is defined by the customer (by the mental beliefs and attitude held by customers). Regardless of how
favorably the firm views its own products, it is the customers’ perceptions that count.

Third, value involves customer expectation; if the actual product experience falls short of their expectation, customers
will be disappointed.

Fourth, value is applied at all price levels. The internet can increase benefits and lowers costs, but it can also work in
reverse.

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Product Benefits

The benefits customers seek online are:

• Effective online navigation • Quick download speed

• Clear site organization • Attractive and useful site design

• Secure transaction • Privacy

• Free information or service & • User-friendly web browsing and e-mail reading

To capitalize on these opportunities, marketers must make five general product decisions that comprise its bundle of
benefits to meet customer needs: These are

1. Attributes

Product attributes include overall quality and specific features. With quality, most customers know “you get what you
pay for”. Higher and consistent quality means higher prices, thus, maintaining the value proposition. Product features
include; color, taste, style, size and speed of service. For example, Yahoo! provides list of website categories (attribute),
which helps users to find things quickly online (benefit). Product benefits are key components in the value proposition.

The internet increases customer benefits in many remarkable ways that have revolutionized marketing practice. The
most basic is the move from atoms to bits, one of the internet’s key properties. This capability opened the door for media,
music, software, and other digital products to be presented on the web. Perhaps the most important benefit is mass
customization. Tangible products such as laptop computers can be sold alone at rock-bottom price online or bundled
with many additional hardware, software items or services to provide additional benefits at a higher price.

The internet offers users the unique opportunity to customize products automatically without leaving their keyboards.
User personalization is another form of customization. Through website registration and other techniques, websites can
greet users by name and suggest product offerings of interest based on previous purchases. For instance, a returning
customer to [Link] gets a tabbed menu item with his name on it: “Sam’s store.” Clicking on the tab reveals a list
of items that might be interested in examining, based on his previous purchases from Amazon.

2. Branding

A brand includes a name, a symbol, or other identifying information. When a firm registers that information it becomes
a trademark. A trade mark is a word, phrase, symbol or design, or combination of these, that identifies and distinguishes
the source of the goods or services of one party from those of others. A brand is much more than its graphic and verbal
representation in marketing materials, however. It is an individual’s perception of an integrated bundle of information
and experiences that distinguishes a company and/or its product offerings from the competition.

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Brand Decision for web products A) Using existing brand name on the web

Firms can use exiting brand names for their new products. An existing brand name can be used for any new product and
it makes sense when the brand is well known and has strong brand equity. For example, Amazon added music CDs,
videos, software, electronics, and more to its product mix. It is beneficial for Amazon to use its well established web
brand name for these additional offerings rather than launch a new electronic storefront with another name.

B) Creating new brand names for the internet marketing

If an organization wants to create a new internet brand, a good name is important. Good brand names should suggest
something about the product (e.g. [Link] and [Link]), should differentiate the product from the
competitors (e.g. [Link]), and should be capable of legal protection. On the internet, a brand name should be short,
memorable, easy to spell, and capable of translating well into other language. For example, Dell computer at
[Link] is much easier than Hammacher Schlemmer ([Link]), the gift retailer. As another
example, consider the appropriateness of these search tool names: Yahoo!, Excite, Lycos, Alta Vista, InfoSeek, HotBot,
WebCrawler, GoTo, Google, and LookSmart. Which ones fit the preceding criteria?

C) Co-Branding

It occurs when two different companies put their brand names on the same product. This practice is quite common on
the internet and is a good way for firms to build synergy through expertise and brand recognition, as long as their target
markets are similar. For example, sports illustrated now co-brands with CNN as CNNSI. Even the website address
displays the co-brand: [Link]. Yahoo! is a good place to look for co-branded services.

D) Internet Domain Names

Organizations spend a lot of time and money developing powerful, unique brand names for strong brand equity. Using
the company trademark or one of its brand names in the web address helps consumers quickly find the site. For example,
[Link] adds power to Coca-cola brands. This parallel usage is not always possible, however. Many factors must
be considered when it comes to domain names.

Organizations can do this market research through online focus groups, web survey, feedback forms, blog etc.
Brand and product growth are almost comparable. So to develop successful online branding, organization should look
to provide the following:
▪ Easy, safe and convenient purchase experience.
▪ Online customer assistant.
▪ Personalization
▪ Online support groups for technical and other requirements.
3. Support Service

Customer support during and after purchase-is a critical component in the value proposition. Customer service
representatives should be knowledgeable and concerned about customer experiences. Site that care about developing
relationships with their customers, such as [Link]; place some of their best people in customer support. Some

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products need extra customer support, for example when user purchases software such as Survey Solutions to design
online questionnaires, technical support becomes important.

Customer service representatives help customers with installation, maintenance problems, product guarantees, and
service warranties, and in general work to increase customer satisfaction with the firm’s product. Customer service as a
product benefit is an important part of customer relationship management; however, it has now become more of a
necessity than competitive edge.

4. Packaging

Packaging decisions are the fourth set of decisions that must be made about individual products. Packaging is the activity
of designing and producing the container or wrapper for a product. Protection of the product and promotion are the two
major purposes of packaging. The package may include:

 The primary package (what the product is in it – a tube full of toothpaste);

 The secondary package (the box the tube came in);
 the shipping package (a card box case)

5. Labeling

Product labels identify brand name, sponsoring firms, product ingredients, and often provides instructions for use and
promotional materials. Labels on tangible products create product recognition and influence decision behavior at the
point to purchase. Labeling has digital equivalents in the online world. For online services, terms of product usage,
product features, and other information comprise online labeling at web sites. For example, when user downloads
RealAudio software for listening to online broadcasts, they can first read the ‘label’ to discover how to install and use
the software.

 price
The internet can influence the price mix of marketing strategy through the following:
Improved price transparency and impact on differential pricing.
Commoditization and price pressure.
Dynamic pricing and auction
Different pricing methodology
The internet has improved price transparency; therefore, it is important for organizations to understand the price elasticity
of demand, before pricing decision.

Commoditization is the process of making a good or service into a commodity and competing on price.

3.3. Pricing Strategy as Part of Internet Marketing Plan

In the narrowest sense, price is the amount of money charged for a product or service. More broadly, price is the sum of
all the values (such as money, time, energy and psychic cost) that buyers exchange for the benefits of having or using a

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good or service. Throughout most of history, prices were set by negotiation between buyers and sellers, and that remains
the dominant model in many emerging economies.

One of the first questions you need to answer is what your site visitors like? Are they bargain hunters? Or do they look
for excellence in customer service? Or shop for products based on their prestige value? Another important question is
what does it cost you to purchase (or produce) and market this product or service? Your price will have to be above your
costs-most of the time.

Fixed price policies Refers to setting one price for all buyers- is a relatively modern idea that arose with the development
of large-scale retailing and mass production at the end of the 19th century. Now, one hundred years later, the internet is
taking us back to an era of dynamic pricing-varying prices for individual customer or different price for different
customers.

Buyer and seller perspectives of price

The meaning of price depends on the viewpoint of the buyer and the seller. Each party brings different needs and
objectives that help to describe a fair price.

I. Buyer view

Buyers define value as benefits minus costs. Internet creates many benefits important to consumers and business buyers
alike. Here we explore the cost side of the formula: money, time, energy, and psychic costs.

II. Seller view

Sellers view price as the amount of money they receive from buyers. Both internal and external factors affect pricing
levels. Internal factors are the firm’s strength and weaknesses from its SWOT analysis, its overall pricing objectives,
its marketing mix strategy, and the cost involved in producing and marketing the product. External factors that affect
online pricing in a particular include the market structure and the buyer’s perspective, as discussed earlier.

Here are the various pricing objectives you’ll want to consider.

• To maximize short-term profits

Here you try to squeeze as much money out of sales of the product as possible, even though fewer customers may make
a purchase. Your strategy may be to charge premium prices for website design services. You end up with fewer
customers, but then dealing with a lot of customers multiplies your problems. And you can make more profit off each
customer. Or you may need to maximize profits in order to satisfy an impatient boss or investor.

• To gain market share

The other main strategy is to price your service lower to gain market share. You may want to maximize the number of
subscribers to your online Internet access business, even though you don’t make as much on each customer. But you
know that later you’ll be able to sell these subscribers other services such as web hosting, e-commerce, website design,

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DSL, and a host of others once they get comfortable with you. You don’t make as much early, but you plan to make
money later with “back end” sales.

• To survive

Survival is a worthy goal. Sometimes companies lower prices so they can generate enough revenue to survive short term.
But this isn’t a very good long-term strategy. There’s an old joke about the businessman who said he was losing money
on every sale, but he expected to make it up in volume.

• To help society

You might keep the price lower than “what the market will bear” in order to make essential products available to the
consumers who would otherwise be priced out of the market. Altruism has its place. You don’t have to make as much
money as possible, unless making money is your only goal. For example, I really want to keep my consulting services
priced within reach of small businesses. I long to see small businesses thrive; that’s part of what makes me tick. But I
also want to charge better-funded companies a more appropriate fee for the more extensive services I render them. The
way I do this is to offer a standard product or service, and an economy service at a lower price, but with clear limitations.

3.3.1. Pricing Approaches

Of course, pricing isn’t just scientific. It has a lot to do with your particular niche on the Internet, and how you’ve
determined you can best succeed. Here are some demand-oriented approaches to pricing:

• Skimming pricing: When you are offering a new or innovative product you can initially charge a high price, since the
“early adopters” aren’t very price sensitive. Then you lower prices to “skim” off the next layer of buyers, etc.
Eventually, the price will drop as the product matures and competitors offer lower prices.

• Penetration pricing: You set a low initial price in order to penetrate quickly into the mass market. A low initial price
discourages competitors from entering the market, and is the best approach when many segments of the market are
price sensitive. [Link], for example, offers a discount price and may lose money on the first sale, but this way
they gain more customers who will purchase products later at a lower marketing cost (since it costs much less to attract
them back for the second or third sale if they are happy with their first purchase experience).

• Prestige pricing. Cheap products are not taken seriously by some buyers unless they are priced at a particular level.
For example, you can sometimes find clothing of the same quality brand at Nordstrom as you do at the Men’s
Warehouse. But because it is priced higher, Nordstrom’s clientele believes it to be of higher quality.

• Odd-even pricing takes advantage of human psychology that feels like $499.95 is less than $500. Studies of price
points by direct marketers have found that products sell best at certain price points, such as $197, $297, $397, compared
to other prices slightly higher or lower. Strange, we humans!

• Demand-backward pricing is sometimes used by manufacturers. First, they determine the price consumers are willing
to pay for a product. Then they work backward through the standard markups taken by retailers and wholesalers to
come up with the price they can charge wholesalers for the product.

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• Bundle pricing is offering two or more products together in a single package price. This can offer savings to both the
buyer and to the seller, who saves the cost of marketing both products separately. And the customer is willing to pay
more because he perceives that he is getting a lot more, even though the cost to the seller may not really be that much
more.

Here are some cost-oriented approaches to pricing that I’m sure you are familiar with:

• Standard mark-up pricing: Typically a manufacturer marks his price up 15% over his costs, a wholesaler 20% over
his costs, and a retailer 40% over his costs. The retailer gets a larger markup based on the idea that, since he is closest
to the end user, he is required to spend more services and individual attention meeting the buyer’s needs.

Then there are competition-oriented approaches to pricing that you’ll recognize:

Customary pricing is where the product “traditionally” sells for a certain price. Candy bars of a certain weight all cost
a predictable amount—unless you purchase them in an airport shop.

• Loss-leader pricing works on the basis of losing money on certain very low priced advertised products to get
customers in the door who will buy other products at the same time.

• Flexible-price policies offer the same product to customers at different negotiated prices. Cars, for example, are
typically sold at negotiated prices. Many B2B sales depend on negotiated contracts.

Once you have determined list or quoted price you can make some special adjustments still.

• Quantity discounts encourage customers to buy larger quantities, and thus cut marketing costs.

• Seasonal discounts encourage buyers to stock inventory earlier than their normal demand would require. This enables
the manufacturer to smooth out manufacturing peaks and troughs for more efficient production.

• Rebates, such as $40 off Microsoft FrontPage 2000, are usually offered by the manufacturer, but sometimes a retail
store will offer its own rebate. Rebates make marketing sense, since they strongly motivate sales, but often less than
50% of the buyers will remember to collect the receipt, proof-of-purchase, and rebate form, fill it out, and mail it prior
to the expiration date. And, of course, the rebate is often subtracted from the list price of the item, which still has
considerable profit built in. Rebate marketing is less than half as expensive to the marketer as the price cut would seem
to indicate.

• Trade discounts are offered by manufacturers to distributors or resellers in their distribution chain. For example, a
manufacturer may quote list price of $1000 less 30/10/5, meaning 30% off the list price to the retailer, an additional
10% off the $1000 to the wholesaler, and an additional 5% off the $1000 to the jobber. This pricing will be expected
if you have an online B2B store.

• Cash discounts are sometimes offered for the costs saved from not having to extend credit and bill the buyer on an
open account. This mainly affects B2B sales rather than retail.

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• Allowances may be permitted for trade-ins (not too many trade-in cars shipped by modem though) or by a
manufacturer for promotional advertising that a retailer undertakes.

Place
Place in the marketing mix referrers to path through which products reach the consumer. Organizations devise\develop
channels as to reach widest customer base at minimized cost.
The internet has changed place element in the marketing mix from market place to market space.
The point of purchase can be divided into seller controlled sites, third party hosted seller oriented/directed sites, third
party hosted consumer-seller neutral sites, and purchaser controlled sites.
Organizations are also developing websites which cater/serve to the specific requirements of an organization. These
specific requirements can be around language, product mix and cultural difference. The distribution channels have also
undergone changes because of the internet. Organizations need to decide whether they will supply goods through
intermediaries, or directly deliver to the consumers. Organizations can also adapt combination of intermediary and direct
delivery.
3.4. Online Distribution Strategies

Marketing intermediaries are firms which help the company to promote, sell, and distribute its goods to final buyers.
They include: resellers, physical distribution firms, marketing service agencies, and financial intermediaries. Resellers
are distribution channel firms that help the company find customers or make sales to them. These include wholesalers
and retailers, who buy and resell merchandise.

Physical distribution firms help the company to stock and move goods from their points of origin to their destinations.
Marketing services agencies are the marketing research firms, advertising agencies, media firms, and marketing
consulting firms that help the company target and promote its products to the right markets. Financial intermediaries
include banks, credit companies, insurance companies, and other businesses that help finance transactions or insure
against the risks associated with the buying and selling of goods. Most firms and customers depend on financial
intermediaries to finance their transactions.

3.4.1. New types of intermediaries

New technologies have led thousands of enterprises to launch internet companies. The amazing success of early internet
only companies such as [Link], Expedia, Priceline, eBay and dozens of others struck terror in the hearts of many
established manufacturers and retailers. Established store-based retailers of all kinds- fear being cutout by these new
types of intermediaries. The new intermediaries and new forms of channel relationships caused existing firms to re-
examine how they served their markets.

3.4.2. Brick & mortar, click and mortar and click only marketers

a. Brick and mortar marketers

A “brick and mortar business” is a term used mainly on the Internet to differentiate between companies that are based
solely online, and those that have a real-world counterpart. Such a business has a commercial address “made of brick

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and mortar” where customers can transact face-to-face. When e-commerce was new, however, some consumers were
wary of doing business with companies that did not have a commercial address. This brings us to one of the main
advantages of a brick and mortar business: customer security.

b. Click only companies

The click-only dotcom’s operate only online without any brick and mortar market presence. They directly sell products
and services to final consumers via the internet. Familiar e-tailers include [Link], Expedia and [Link]. The
click only group also includes search engines and portals such as such as Google, Yahoo and Excite, which started as
search engines and later added services such as news, weather, stock reports, entertainment, etc.

Internet service providers such as AOL and Earth link are click only companies that provide internet and email
connections for a fee. Transaction sites such as auction site eBay, take commissions for transactions conducted on their
site.

Various content sites, such as New York Times on the web ([Link]), [Link] and Encyclopedia
Britannica Online, provide financial, research and other information. Finally enabler sites provide the hardware and the
software that enable internet communication and commerce.

C. click and mortar companies

Click and mortar companies are traditional brick and mortar companies that have added e-marketing to their operations.
However most resisted adding ecommerce to their sites they worried that this would produce channel conflict- that
selling their products or services online would be competing with their offline retailers and agents. For example Hewlett-
Packard feared that its retailers would drop HP’S computers if the company sold its computers directly online. Merrill
lynch hesitated to introduce online stock trading fearing that its own brokers would rebel. Even store based bookseller
Barnes & Noble delayed opening its online site to challenge [Link]. These companies struggled with the question
of how to conduct online sales without cannibalizing the sales of their own stores, resellers or agents. However, they
soon realized that the risks of losing business to online competitors were even greater than the risks of angering channel
partners. If they don’t cannibalize these sales, online competitors soon would.

 Promotion
The promotion component of the marketing mix refers to the marketing communication strategy used by the organization
for product and company advertisement. The promotion element consists of advertisement, sales promotion, customer
contact, public relation and direct marketing. The promotion element mix is chosen by the communication strategy of
the organization. The internet serves as additional and new communication channel through which organizations can
connect to consumers regarding product features.
Organizations also need to decide at which stage of the purchase cycle, they should use the internet. Also, companies
should explore as to which promotion component to use in conjunction with the internet. Organizations have limited
budget through which they have to devise a strategy to choose a promotion mix.
Stage of the purchase cycle: problem recognition, information search, alternative evaluation, purchase decision, post
purchase evaluation.

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4.5. Online Promotion strategies

Simply put, online promotion is promoting or communicating the product or service to customers digitally. Online
advertising encompasses adverts on search engine results pages, adverts placed in emails and other ways in which
advertisers use the Internet.

One of the greatest benefits of online display advertising is that the messages are not restricted by geography or time
and are more interactive than offline advertising.

Internet ads can be updated any time at minimal cost, and therefore can always be timely. They can reach a very large
number of potential buyers all over the world. Online ads are sometimes cheaper in comparison to print (newspaper and
magazine), radio, or television ads. Ads in these other media are expensive because they are determined by space
occupied by how many days (times) they are run, and by the number of local and national stations and print media that
run them. Internet ads can be interactive and targeted to specific interest groups and/or to individuals. Finally, the use
of the Internet itself is growing very rapidly, and it makes sense to move advertising to the Internet, where the number
of viewers is growing. Nevertheless, the Internet as an advertising medium does have some shortcomings, most of which
relate to measurement of effectiveness.

4.5.1. Types of display advertising

There are different ways to display messages online, some of which are mentioned below.

1. Interstitial banners

These are banners that are shown between pages on a web site. As you click from one page to another, you are shown
this advert before the next page is shown. Sometimes, you are able to close the advert.

2. Pop-ups and pop-under

As the name suggests, these are adverts that pop up or under the web page being viewed. They open in a new, smaller
window.

3. Map advert

This is advertising placed within the online mapping solutions available, such as Google Maps. Pricing is a function of
coverage area, content and design requirements, final size.

4. Floating advert

This advert appears in a layer over the content, but is not in a separate window. Usually, the user can close this advert.
It looks very much similar to pop ups ads, but definitely more infuriating. It "fly" anywhere around the page for 5-30
seconds, obscure view of the page you are trying to read, and often block mouse input. Often, the animation ends by
disappearing into a banner ad on the page.

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5. Wallpaper advert

This advert changes the background of the web page being viewed. Usually, it is not possible to click through this advert.

6. Banner advert

A graphic image or animation displayed on a web site for advertising purposes. They may be static banners rich media
such as Flash, video, JavaScript and other interactive technologies. Banners are not limited to the space that they occupy;
some banners expand on mouse over or when clicked on. There are two types of banners:

Keyword banners appear when a predetermined word is queried from the search engine. It is effective for companies
who want to narrow their target to consumers interested in particular topics. Random banners appear randomly and
might be used to introduce new products to the widest possible audience, or to keep a well-known brand, such as
[Link] or IBM, in the public eye.

A major advantage of using banners is the ability to customize them to the target audience. Keyword banners can be
customized to a market segment or even to an individual. If the computer system knows who you are, or what your
profile is, you may be sent a banner that is supposed to match your interests. However, one of the major drawbacks of
using banners is that limited information is allowed. Hence advertisers need to think of creative but short messages to
attract viewers.

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