Do you want to find out information about the new iPhone 4 from Apple? Did a friend tell you your favorite artist is coming to town and you don’t have tickets? Do you want to get a great deal when you purchase a new car? These are some of the questions that a person may ask themself at some point during the day. The question is, what’s the easiest way you could search for the answers to these questions? If you’re having trouble coming up with the answer, I’ll give you a hint. You can find it online! Your answer is just one click away and there you go, instant gratification.
The Internet has come a long way, especially when it comes to helping fulfill a persons needs or wants. Since businesses are finding clever ways to get their messages across through their website, it’s very rare for a person to say that they weren’t successful in finding what they were looking for. I think e-marketing does have a major influence in the way a person shops because of the exclusive perks, like promotions and specials that are offered to their customers who just visit the businesses website among other things. One case would be a person who wants to buy something but they don’t know who has the item in stock, so the cheapest way to find out who’s carrying the item is to go on Google or Yahoo and make a search to later buy the item. I believe one of the key roles of e-marketing is persuasion. If a person finds a product at the physical store but the item isn’t customized the way they want it, the store will persuade the individual to go online to the stores website to find different versions of that same product. No matter what the case is, you’ll find yourself depending on going on the web to be satisfied. I’m the type of person who doesn’t really trust purchasing merchandise online due to privacy issues but if I could get what I want for a better deal online then what I would find at the physical store, it would instantly convince me to make the purchase. I agree that no matter what the circumstance, a person will be inspired one way or another to use the internet to either find information on the items they want to buy or to actually make their purchase.
Sources:
http://www.emarketinghubs.com/2009/06/5-factors-that-influence-buying-decisions-online.html
I agree with what you said about e-marketing being all about persuasion. I also like what you said about the people finding the physical product in the store they more less won't buy it they like to be able to customize it is very true. People like this that they can control and if they are able to buy things on their terms and the way they want it they are more likely to buy it.
ReplyDeleteI find your post very interesting. I agree with you completely,each day business find better ways to interact with consumer and making their products more appealing. I've notice than even supermarkets are using the internet to facilitate the way people make the purchase of their groceries. For example, Carrefur, a very popular supermarket in Spain, offers the possibility of purchasing the groceries through the internet and getting them delivered to your home fro a little extra charge. This is very convenient for a lot of people since they use public transportation as their way of getting around the city. The internet has open a world of possibilities for business to reach the target consumers.
ReplyDeleteHi Melissa, I really enjoyed reading your blog and I have to agree with you on the aspect that people will always be influenced to buy something that they don’t need. Almost every time I watch TV, go to the store, or just surf the net I fall in to that advertising trap. I see something I like and want but don’t need. For example I’m the kind of person that constantly gets sucked in to infomercials and it takes me a good ten minutes to realize it and change the channel. Unfortunately I get the commercial suck in my head and I keep wondering if the product advertised really works or not. So I turn to the internet and search product reviews. The majority of the time the item I have seen on TV is a scam. Just having the option to go online and seek reviews makes me feel better that I didn’t make an impulse purchase or waste my money on something that doesn’t work. Best of all it gets that crazy urge of mine to buy a product that I don’t need out of my system without ever even stepping foot out of my house. Great post!
ReplyDeleteMelissa,
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed when you mentioned the search engines and the fact, we as a consumers relied so much on them.
Searching online has become so important, common and indispensable that we even have created a verb at the expense of the most used search engine in the world, Google
It's amazing how we use it not only to buy things but to do homework, read news, get directions and even jobs.
The search engines have made our life so much easier in many ways, as users as well as marketers.
If you don’t know something, just Google it!