By
Sharma Gajendra, Li Baoku, Wang Lijuan
What are you doing
right now? I’m pretty sure that you are using a PC, laptop or smartphone for
working, entertaining, communicating, etc. Other word, you are on cyber world –
your “second life”, a place some people found more interesting than their real
life. Millions of people access to the Internet every day, and many marketers
have recognized the huge opportunities and great potential of e-marketing. The
article discusses about the significance of communication and internet marketing
opportunities in the virtual world generally, and China market specifically. As
people spend more time on the internet, it is obvious that firm needs to
discover and invest more money on these great opportunities.
Research findings show
that there are many important factors affect the chance of success of an
internet marketing campaign, such as financial investment, time engagement,
customer relations, and quality of products, etc. There are two vital elements for
brand recognition and promotion: advertising and communication. The author
states that some of the cheapest and most effective marketing is using word-of-mouth
and blogging. Just a simple click, potential customers can read thousands of
review, written by real consumers, about any kind of product and make their
purchase decision quickly. However, the main problems in virtual world are annoyances,
hacker, misconduct, and highly-addiction. Other challenge includes increasing
competition because it is so much easy to start a business. A website, a bank
account, some stuffs and you are ready to run your very first business. But
life is not that easy, a successful internet marketing plan requires deep
understanding, exactly mirroring all the operation activities of business in
the real world. It is stated that the person should have experience in running
a real company.
This study confirms
that “second life” is a proper place for effective and efficient communication,
and e-marketing promotion. This research has two critical implications for managerial
practice. First, second life can be a good test place for new ideas, products,
and operation process with rapid feedbacks from users, and low cost. Utilizing those feedbacks, firm can effectively
modify their offerings to meet customer requirements in a real world to
guarantee a higher rate of success. Secondly, this study argues that
communication is the most essential part of cyber marketing. Besides, “second
life” has a substantial impact on Chinese Internet users and the development of
China market. As the virtual business has significantly influenced the real
world economy, many big companies started designing and testing their new products
and services concepts in second life website. So, what are you waiting for? Let’s
open an account on “second life”, start your own business, and make a huge
profit, hopefully.
References:
Sharma, G, Li, B,
& Wang, L 2012, 'Second Life and E-Marketing in an Online Social Network:
The Implementation in China Marketing', International Journal Of China
Marketing, 2, 2, pp. 38-59, Business Source Complete, EBSCOhost, viewed 24 September 2012.
I think this article is really interesting. This type of business is not new in many countries, but China. In US, there are a lot of companies/businessman have their business online. E-marketing, thus, is essential for their survives. I agree that many potential customers come from the Internet. However, how to get new customers and maintain their loyalty in customers' mindset are the two hard questions that companies doing business online need to answer.
ReplyDeleteVan, your questions regarding this post are interesting. How does a company gain customer loyalty in the E-marketing environment? In an established market, where companies can subsist partly on the good will associated with repurtation it may be easeir to sustain loyalty. In growning economies such as China, however, I wonder how established firms capitalize on their good names if no one in the market recognizes them.
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