INTERNET: Marketers squabble over best model to use on the Internet

As the Internet's popularity continues to boom around the world,

marketers are still in a debate over which model applies to

cyber-branding and ecommerce.

The Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM) attempted to clear the air on

the subject with a recent seminar in Europe, however, the marketers

found themselves deadlocked in two camps.

On the one side there are the traditionalists; those who say that

marketing is still about understanding and anticipating the needs of

consumers and developing brands and that it doesn't matter what media

channels are used.

Facing them are a new breed of marketers. CIM's London-based chief

executive, John Stubbs, said during a recent trip to Hong Kong: "This

group argues that marketing is about creating networks and managing the

company within a network, because we are in a very interactive

world."

However, he did say that, in his opinion, it now came down to creating

alliances, coming up with new business models and working in logistics

because the Internet provides very fast and accurate logistics

management.

Mr Stubbs referred to Amazon.com, which effectively changed the

marketplace by changing the information and transaction base and

changing the way products are sourced and altering the pricing

context.

Because of the rapidly changing business landscape, he said that there

are companies which have moved from their selling their products in the

traditional bricks and mortar way to becoming logistics providers for

Internet firms.

"How do you, as a marketer, contribute in the supply chain? How do you

work more effectively to get the costs down and how do you go about

exploiting information technology?

"These are areas that marketers have traditionally not been expert in,"

said Mr Stubbs, who was deputy head of Unilever's marketing division

before heading up CIM.

But while he stressed that the jury was still out over who was right;

the traditionalists or the modernists, he did say changes in the way

marketing is conducted has taken place.

"Before, you just had a given product, a given marketplace and a given

set of retailers and when you launch you looked at brand name,

positioning, advertising and packaging. These were the walls within

which you operated.

"Today, you have the opportunity to redefine channel and media. You

stand back aand take a view as to how ideally you would develop

relationships with consumers over the 'Net.

"To do that you must find other companies and develop a group of allied

companies where you all tackle issues like Internet shopping."

* The full story appears in the April edition of MEDIA's sister

publication, Asian Brand News. This is available only by paid

subscription. For more details, please call Ms Iris Tang at MEDIA, (852)

2577 2628, or email [email protected].