WHY SMEs SHOULD CONSIDER E-MARKETING

Recreation Shirts came into the Nigerian Market two years ago. They create ready to wear and perfect fit shirts for young women who desire to look chic and trendy amongst their peers.

In the first year of their emergence, Recreation Shirts acquired most of their clientele through word of mouth communication and recommendations given by satisfied clients. As the months progressed, the company got more word out about their services by engaging in print advertising in soft-sell publications as City people, and a stint of television advertising on Dynamix TV, both Nigerian based media.

In their second year, Recreation Shirts looked to gain a much broader and international customer base, but at a reduced cost in advertising. The company created a facebook page and a website to interact with potential and existing consumers about their notable services.

The CEO of Recreation shirts, Mrs. Tale Kevin-Agono explains that the company’s facebook account has generated greater exposure and publicity for their establishment more than the print and TV adverts had done the previous year. This has improved the company’s overall sales.

In her own words she says, “At this stage of our marketing efforts we feel closer to our consumers and believe we can give them better services through our frequent interactions.”

The case study above illustrates the challenges facing small and medium sized enterprises and how e-marketing can address these issues. Considering their size and their limited resources, online marketing couldn’t have emerged at a better time.

Compared to traditional marketing, the benefits e-marketing offers are ideal to the growth of SMEs in modern society. To start with, the increase in the use of the internet offers SMEs a very good opportunity to reach their actual and potential buyers all over the world with their products and services. In offline marketing, the location of a business determines the success or failure of that business. Online marketing on the other hand offers a new avenue to reach billions of people with their product at the same time without the inhibitions of distance and place.

In terms of equal opportunity to reach their target market at low cost, e-marketing places these small businesses and their competitors on the same pedestal. Big companies spend millions on advertising, but with little or no cost at all, small and medium sized enterprises can place their adverts on the same ‘shelf’ and position their brand better in the mind of consumers.

E- marketing gives SMEs the power to reach consumers globally in a wide range of ways and enables them to offer a wide range of products and services. Some of these services embedded in e-marketing are information management, public relations, customer services and sales. All these can be referred to as the scope of e-marketing, and with the range of new technology available this scope can only grow. Quirk E-marketing (2006:3)

Equally, the dynamic nature of e-marketing helps SMEs create and build their relationship with their customers through social networks like facebook, twitter, and the likes. The communication flow here is not one-sided, i.e. from the marketer to the consumers, but customers are given the opportunity to make comments and recommend possible product modifications to meet their needs. This is where Marketing research comes to play in E-marketing.

Marketing research plays a major role in the success of business organisations involved in online marketing. Organisations embark in marketing research when they want to formulate, know the level of consumer satisfaction or modify existing products or service and its packaging or delivery. This helps the company to develop a feasible marketing plan or measure the success of its previous plans.

In conclusion, SMEs rely on e-marketing to push them beyond their capable limits and put them on the same platform as their competitors, with guaranteed returns on investment.

References

Facebook, Recreation Shirts [online] available from http://www.facebook.com/#!/group.php?gid= 148372993168 [23 February 2010]

Recreation Shirts, [online] available from http://www.recreationshirts.com/index2.html [22 February 2010]

Quirk E-Marketing (2006), available from http://www.quirk.biz/resources/88/What-is-eMarketing-and-how-is-it-better-than-traditional-marketing [22 February 2010]

Mobile Phones: The New Age

Years of inventing never prepared man for the technology of the telephone. A hundred and forty years later, this invention by Alexander Graham Bell has taken up a new look with far greater purposes. Yes, that telephone gave birth to a ‘mobile’ phone, and as the word implies, a phone that can be moved and carried about with ease.

In the 21st century, the mobile phone holds its own place in everyday life. People can hardly imagine a life without their ‘mobiles’. They make calls with it, send messages with it, you name it. The mobile phone has grown into the minds and hearts of people and has even become closer to them than any body part. From the young to the old, the mobile phone seems to have something for everyone.

Although the primary function of this gadget is for verbal communication between two or more people separated by distance or space, the mobile phone is undoubtedly an improvement from the traditional telephone which is considered bulky and cannot be moved over great distances without its wired connection. But that’s not where the magic of the mobile phone lies. With great effort, investment and innovation over the years by its manufacturers, the mobile phone has adopted a number of features similar to the regular PC. Some of these features include operating system, e-mail access, internet access, in-built camera, contact management, scheduling software, accelerometers, some navigation software along with the occasional ability to read business documents in various formats like Microsoft Office and PDF format, (Laptop XL 2009). In addition to these features, it now has internet facilities such that it’s being referred to in some quarters as the ‘new computer’, with the advent of Smart phones and PDA phones.

With all of these features, why would one bother to carry laptops about, when these phones offer the same services computers do? Really, in quite a number of ways mobile phones have an edge over the PC. To start with, consider the mobile phone’s compact properties; it’s small, fits into the hand and can be carried in a bag or pocket. Basically it’s easy to access while commuting i.e. one can check e-mails, send emails, send files, you name it and on the go without being worried about the ‘extra luggage’ a laptop would cause.
On the area of privacy, a growing number of individuals have seen the benefits of a mobile phone in personalizing their daily activities. Users can do basic things like check dates, time, and organize their schedules efficiently as well as remember appointments when they set reminders on their phones. Also, they can access private e-mails without fear of spam and trackers, or even people accessing their mail if they fail to log out on a public, or even their private computers. Mobile phone thus serves as an empowerment for these individuals because they take ownership of their personal data.

The edge mobile phones have over the basic laptop or desktop is Flexibility. The mobile phone can represent or stand for style, portability, privacy, security, easy internet connectivity and most importantly pass direct information from people in any given location. Though the conventional computer or desktop might be able to carry out the same functions, it will not do it with the same ease and comfort that the mobile phone possesses. The mobile phone is definitely the ‘new computer’ for the new age.

References
Laptop XL, Smartphones [online] available from [18 February 2010]

Coventry Students....Our Experience

About E-execs

Hello everyone,

Welcome to E-execs blogspot!

E-execs is an E-marketing forum set up by four Masters students of Advertising and Marketing at Coventry University in the UK. This blog will be discussing and examining issues in online marketing and its future prospects in our diverse and ever changing world.

Every week, we shall be exploring e-marketing concepts and strategies as it relates to various businesses, online communities, consumer profiles and emerging trends.

But before we go any further, it’s only fair to introduce ourselves, the E-execs:

Yemisi Ladipo-Ajayi
Emily Agu
Njideka Nwaka
Kayode Ojo

We are excited to be doing this blog together and we hope to have a thrilling experience learning from you and you from us.

With that said, come on guys let’s explore E-marketing together!!!!