Internet marketing as an important factor in business development. The Internet and its role in marketing

Hello dear readers. Each of you has met the concept of marketing in your life. It is understandable, because this phenomenon concerns not only businessmen, but also those who consume the final products or services of enterprises. Today, the World Wide Web has become one of the most popular platforms for promoting manufactured goods, therefore, marketing efforts have moved to a virtual environment, acquiring a separate name: Internet marketing. Gradually, various types of Internet marketing were formed, which every successful businessman, novice or old-timer in the business sphere needs to have an idea about.

The article below will help you to correctly introduce Internet marketing into your business, describing its main types and their application. We advise you to start reading carefully and take out the maximum amount of information useful for the development of the enterprise.

Modern business organizations today, almost all have acquired electronic resources on the web. They contain catalogs of goods, information reports about the company, sections for the press and consumers, and the like. The creation of such a resource is carried out with the following goals:

• sales promotion;
• image development.

If the development of the image is most often really activated by adding information of various kinds to the site in a specialized section, then there are no guarantees that the creation of a network platform will stimulate sales. To increase them, you need to promote it with the help of Internet marketing tools, which are skillfully used by specialists in the field.

So, let's define the very concept of Internet marketing. This is a set of methods for accumulating consumer attention around the products or services of a company in the vastness of the network. Simply put, the same promotion as in life, performed by methods different from the standard marketing process due to a change in the platform of actions, that is, the transition from reality to a virtual environment.

The phenomenon complex consists of four elements. In English, their name sounds like “the rule of four P (English)”, since the four elements are indicated by four words starting with the English letter R. Let's look at them in order and translate into Russian.

Product- a product produced by the company and promoted in the open spaces of the network. Its peculiarity is an increased level of competition, since the “enemies” in the market are similar goods sold:

• online;
• offline.

Price- it is believed that the cost of goods sold via the Internet is much lower than those that are laid out on the shelves, since specialized sales premises are not rented for the former. In addition, some modern trading technologies also imply the absence of costs for the transportation and storage of goods. One of these technologies is dropshipping, which involves the delivery of goods to the buyer directly from the hands of the manufacturer, bypassing the seller.

Point of sale (Place)- the actual place where goods and consumers will interact. In Internet marketing, this is not a real, but a virtual place:

• landing;
• public in a social network;
• Web site;
• announcement, etc.

The more carefully the place of interaction is selected, the more willing consumers are to buy the product. Yes, a lot depends not on the interestingness of the product, but on the convenience of acquiring it and communicating with the seller in the process.

This point often becomes a stumbling block for many campaigns that do a great job with the rest of the elements. Either they cannot make the usability of the site digestible, or they can set up sales consultants in the right professional way. In this case, relying on the competitiveness of the proposed product makes no sense, it will not give anything.

Promotion- another translation option sounds like "promotion". Today, the word promotion in its original form is often used by marketers, as it most fully describes the meaning of the element, which is sales promotion through the development of a product image.

The task of Internet marketing is to maximize sales of products

The main task of Internet marketing is traditional, the same as for classical marketing - to maximize sales, increase the effect of customer visits to points of sale, only in this case, points of sale are not ground points. This goal implemented through various kinds internet marketing tools. In the next paragraph, we consider them in more detail.

Video - Introduction to Internet Marketing

Types of promotion on the Internet

Let's start with the consideration of promotion tools based on the Internet.

SEO promotion

Search engine promotion of web pages is one of the types of Internet marketing. All modern network specialists know how this technology works. There are search engines, the most popular of which are:

• Internet giant Google;
• Runet leader "Yandex".

They provide users with search results for their queries. For example, “buy wooden furniture Moscow” is one of the most typical questions. The results that appear on the search results page will be links to online stores in Moscow that sell furniture made of different types of wood. Think about it, but some of them got to the top places for a reason, because others remain behind everyone, on page 4, 5 and beyond. When searching, users are unlikely to ever reach these figures, which means a complete financial collapse of the business.

If until recently the World Wide Web simply brought people the necessary information, today it has turned into a convenient marketplace. The number of Internet users is growing every day, it became possible to pay online without leaving your computer, communication technologies also do not stand still. In general, only the lazy will not take advantage of the favorable conditions of the network to set up their own business. Fortunately, internet marketing works equally well for all market niches. Your site needs to appear in the top places of search engines, for several reasons.

1. The first links are perceived by buyers as the most prestigious, therefore, their credibility is at the highest level, in comparison with the links that have taken positions on the fifth or sixth page of the search.
2. The location of links to sites in the forefront affects users in an unconscious way. They are noticed first, therefore, according to statistics, they attract more than 95% of attention.

These two reasons are weighty enough to start choosing the right queries and inserting them into the text content of the resource. Remember, specialists in the field should work with SEO optimization, thus, it will be possible to maximize the result in the shortest possible time. They will immediately make a list of requests and develop a strategy for further promotion.

Another reason that encourages you to start your resource and optimize it with SEO technologies is to maintain the company's image. Imagine you are selling a product that is in demand and loved by consumers. One of them wants to make a call to the company and get advice on some of the properties of the product, makes a request to a search engine and .. does not find the company's website. Believe me, a bad resource is better than none, because the reaction to its absence will be as follows: a person will refuse to buy a product and go to competitors, whose site, by the way, he will find by entering a search query. This type of Internet marketing is in demand more than ever. Don't underestimate its importance.

Distribution by e-mail

The stereotypical thinking of today's entrepreneurs makes them associate e-mail with unpleasant spam, annoyingly attracting the attention of consumers. This view is fundamentally wrong. Yes, many companies that have hired non-professional workers are sending out spam: they offer to buy a product, aggressively promoting it, and only pushing them away.

This method differs from email marketing in its obtrusiveness and assertiveness.

Table 1. Comparison of email marketing and spam

As you can see, spam is like a kind of virtual shelling that does not give the user any peace. It is especially annoying when letters of incomprehensible content arrive at work mail, distracting attention and causing anger and rejection. You can deal with spam by enabling special settings in the mail. With their help, all incoming spam will go to the recycling folder of the same name, where it will remain without catching the user's eyes. It turns out that not only consumers lose from the presence of spam, but also companies that paid some money for the mail database, which ended up being wasted.

Email newsletters work great as a lead generator – potential buyers. The fact is that it does not contain a call to purchase, on the contrary, it is about getting acquainted with the goods, due to which negative reactions are rarely caused.

Mailing by e-mail is the most effective channel for attracting consumers. In addition, it requires a modest budget, since mailing services charge a relatively small fee for their work. The process takes place in three stages.

1. Developing a mailing strategy. It involves the development of an existing mailing list, by determining the correct target audience, its characteristics, competitive strategies, compiling a list of goals and objectives, as well as setting a deadline, mailing output frequency and selecting a service.
2. Prescribing a content placement plan. This stage is carried out by determining the company's communication style, developing a monthly topic plan, scenario, etc.
3. Installation interactive form to fill in on the site that receives data about consumers.

SMM

This acronym stands for Social Media Marketing. With the help of this type of Internet marketing, traffic is actively accumulated and consumers' attention is drawn to a brand or a particular product.

SMM is not a specific action, but their complex, working to solve entrepreneurial problems and achieve business goals

The main work is being done on the creation of selected content, which will be so interesting that it will be distributed over the network by the hands of registered users. A feature of consumer psychology is that advertising messages distributed on social networks are perceived with a greater degree of trust, as they actually turn into recommendations and are not questioned, because the organizer obviously does not participate in the distribution. Working with the space of social networks makes it possible to reproduce the impact on consumers of a point nature, by choosing sites with a specific theme, where this audience is concentrated. In addition, the social network allows you to interact with it in a suitable way.

It must be said that it is possible to promote using social networks not only products or services, but also information content. This explains the obligatory presence of publics from news portals in all major social networks. This is done to generate traffic.

Strategically, SMM is divided into two groups:

• open;
• hidden.

Of course, SMM alone as an Internet marketing tool will not be enough to successfully promote a company on the Internet, but not using it means missing out on a significant part of the progress movement.

A good SMM should have the following set of skills:

• knowledge of social media targeting;
• understanding of advertising mechanisms;
• budget forecasting for contextual advertising;
• holding various events such as competitions;
• interaction with geoservices;
• viral marketing management;
• designing special projects, etc.

Contextual advertising

This type of Internet marketing is one of the leading tools and main components of online promotion. It represents ads that are displayed to the user based on the requests made by him in the search engine. Advertising contextual messages look like links on top of the main list of resources in the issue, posters on the right side of the search page and posters on the right side at the bottom of the screen.

• flash movies;
• gif images;
• Pictures;
• links, etc.

This type of advertising has a high degree effectiveness over a short period of time. With its help, you can quickly attract the attention of a significant segment of the target audience, however, it works well only on products known to the market. It is unlikely that it will be possible to bring a new product to a serious market with its help due to the short duration of the resulting effect.

The following features made this type of Internet marketing a popular tool.

1. The ability to screen out inappropriate demonstrations by adjusting the time and geography of the display. For example, you open a sports equipment store for residents of the snowy Siberian regions. Therefore, it makes no sense to demonstrate goods to Muscovites, and even in the morning hours. Luckily, search engine advertising systems allow for specific customization of the above parameters, thereby maximizing the positive effect.
2. Short time to get first response. The fact is that as soon as you pay for the work of contextual advertising, it begins to be shown to network users who drive in thematic queries related to the advertisement. The influx of visitors starts almost immediately, which is a very pleasant feature of contextual advertising.
3. Parameter adjustment. While running a campaign, you may feel like you need to change a few things to make it work more effectively. Don't worry, at any time you can adjust the demo parameters for free, continuing to pay for clicks, not clicks on characteristics.
4. No need for a solid budget. Since the advertiser pays for the system in one click, you can limit the budget yourself. CPC is set initially. Even a small number of clicks brings solid money, so contextual advertising most often justifies the cost. Choose the appropriate amount and deposit it into your account. As soon as the funds run out, the work will stop and you can bring in the next batch of money to resume the process.

Display advertising

In another way, media advertising is called banner advertising, as it is represented by dynamic or statistical images that advertise goods in a capacious and attractive way, briefly talking about the essence of the promoted product and causing particular interest in it.

The advantages of this type of Internet marketing include the following points.

1. The search results are solid text, while the banner is a media unit that attracts attention. This increases the chance of attracting the attention of a network user to it. This function of placing banners is used mainly by the popular search engine in Russia - Yandex.
2. One of the most used platforms for placing banners is thematic sites, due to which the target audience is effectively “lassoed”. For example, a recipe site is more attractive to women who are hospitable housewives, therefore, advertising a multicooker using a banner on this resource is a great idea.
3. Graphic elements bring tangible benefits to the process of developing a brand image. Simply put, it increases the memorability of the logo, company name, and the like.

To solve the tasks of promotion with the help of banner advertising, you need to take care of the following points:

• develop an idea;
• write a script
• implement ideas in a non-trivial way;
• develop a landing page () to which the link will lead after clicking the banner;
• organize the placement of a banner on thematic sites.

The budget for the company is not limited, it is formed based on the capabilities of the advertiser and the characteristics of his request. Of course, in order to achieve high level efficiency is desirable not to skimp.

Traffic arbitration

This term refers to the process of redirecting a network user from one electronic resource to another. Actually, these users are traffic. It is measured in people who visited the resource during the reporting time period, usually a day. It is produced by services at the request of the advertiser for a fee. In fact, one resource resells its user flow to another. This is beneficial when the seller has an abundance of visitors, and the buyer has the opposite.

Traffic is resold by buying it from search engine advertising systems. The most famous among them are Google and Yandex, which have stable functioning advertising services. Very well, with the help of traffic arbitration, information is disseminated and sales of products from the sphere are stimulated:

• credit banking;
• educational activities.

There are also entire traffic exchanges where you can sell visitors or buy them, but you won’t be able to earn a lot of money on them, the prices are wrong.

As you already understood, traffic is eventually converted into sales and will bring the entrepreneur the achievement of the desired goal. Any link leading to the customer's site can become its source.

Affiliates

Placing affiliate links or affiliate marketing is another considered tool for promoting a resource on the network. This technology involves payment to network partners who place recommendation links on the Internet leading to a customer's page demonstrating the product being promoted. Payment for the work of partners is made for the commission of a targeted action by the consumer. It could be:

• click (go to the page);
• subscribing;
• purchase, etc.

With or without the profit received, the customer is forced to pay the partner, since the target action does not always, but potentially brings him a sum of money that exceeds the cost of the webmaster's work by several times.

• on the pages personal accounts social networks;
• in groups of social networks;
• thematic forums;
• own websites;
• blogs, etc.

Benefits of affiliate programs

1. Rapid increase in the effectiveness of marketing companies.
2. The budget goes to pay for targeted actions.
3. The growth of the audience is solid due to the clear coverage of the potential audience.

Videos

Work with videos is carried out through channels hosted on the popular hosting of the Internet giant of the Google network - YouTube. The number of views of some of the works exhibited on it rolls over several million. Since video focuses a lot of attention on itself, it is a cost-effective source of generating potential buyers.

Videos are an effective means of attracting the attention of Runet users

Thanks to the development of technology, today it is possible to make a suitable video for a small cost. Taking into account the fact that the requirements for online advertising are less than those for television, you will not have to spend fabulous sums.

The placement of a video containing an advertising message is made immediately before or during the display of the main video on the channel of a partner of the Google advertising network. Each partner and their channel has special requirements, so you can be sure that you will get the appropriate quality for the money invested.

Internet-Based Marketing Processes: Advantages

Internet marketing has a number of undeniable advantages that make any practical entrepreneur say yes to online promotion. Let's consider them.

1. Completeness of information received by consumers. A big plus, since in fact the consumer immediately inquires about all the properties of the product or service, receiving comprehensive information.
2. Traditional advertising has a significantly lower success rate than online advertising. Its value for money simply cannot be compared with the same criteria for online promotion. The fact is that television, radio, the press, billboards are expensive for advertisers, the costs are rarely paid off. Yes, the audience is wide, but what percentage of it is the target? Extremely small. Today, expensive advertising plays the role of an image tool that builds up the reputation of the brand. Internet advertising, on the other hand, accompanies the visitor's search queries, almost always corresponds to the context of the messages given by him. In addition, there is a certain involvement of a potential client in the process of interaction with the company, which further leads to the conclusion of many profitable deals. The Internet involves displaying advertising messages pointwise to representatives of the target audience. Money no longer goes to waste, but works for you.
3. Availability of studying information from anywhere in the world. While on vacation, you can receive information about the work of any domestic cosmetic company that produces products with a 100% natural composition. And it is absolutely not necessary to rest in their native land.
4. Ease of use. Internet marketing tools are available for use by any entrepreneur. Of course, it is best to turn to specialists in the field, fortunately, today each of the areas has been widely developed and there are more than enough professionals in the labor market. By the way, many of them earn extra money in addition to official work and will be happy to take on an order to promote a small enterprise. You can find the right person on, for example:
   1. fl.ru;
   2. Etxt.ru;
   3. freelance.ru;
   4. Freelansim.ru, etc.

If the owner of the company has an idea about the work of search engines and the preparation of competent advertising texts, then in general he can try his luck on his own and delete this column from the budget expenses.

Summing up

In the age of maximum development of innovative technologies, people began to move from standard ways of obtaining information and entertainment to interacting with the World Wide Web. Refusing to watch television programs and read newspapers is not new. And why waste time on the listed media when the Internet offers a high degree of efficiency, truthfulness and efficiency.

Online shopping is common today.

Soon the market and promotion will increasingly move to the network. Already now you can not find a company that does not have at least a simple electronic resource with information about itself and a product catalog. The absence of this is considered bad manners and makes the company uncompetitive. The monthly increase in the number of sales made on the Internet beats known previous indicators.

Communication on the Internet takes a minimum amount of time, is fast and efficient. In a few seconds, you can become the owner of both an e-book and a very real sofa. Let's hope that after reading the article, you will understand the true essence and importance of the work of promoting the company's products on the Internet and take this opportunity to achieve incredible success.

Chapter 1. Fundamentals of Internet Marketing

· Definition of marketing. The evolution of marketing concepts.
· Directions of development of information technologies that have had the greatest impact on the emergence and growth of e-business.
· E-business and e-commerce. Their scope and development prospects.
· Internet Marketing. Features and differences from traditional marketing.

The purpose of the first chapter is to introduce the reader to the subject of Internet marketing, the emergence of which is closely related to the development of many related areas. First of all, the basis of this discipline is marketing itself, which has gone through a long path of evolution over the years of its existence and has gone through a number of concepts from production to interaction marketing. Another, no less significant contribution to the emergence of Internet marketing was made by information technology. The main driving forces in this were the emergence and ubiquity of the global computer network Internet, the improvement of methodologies and enterprise management systems, the development of standards for the interaction of information systems.

Introduction to Marketing

The concept of marketing is often associated with any activity in the field of the market, while referring to the origin and translation of the word marketing (from English, market - market, ing - indicates vigorous activity). However, existing definitions have long outgrown this literal designation.

In 1965, the English Institute of Marketing proposed the following definition: marketing is a practical activity, a system managerial functions, with the help of which they organize and manage a set of actions related to the assessment of the purchasing power of consumers, with its transformation into real demand for products and services and the approximation of these products and services to buyers for profit or some other purpose.

The American Marketing Association in 1960 approved the concept of marketing, according to which it was considered as an entrepreneurial activity related to the direction of the flow of goods and services from the producer to the consumer. But already in 1985, the same association recognized its broader interpretation: “Marketing is the process of planning and implementing an idea, pricing, promoting and implementing ideas, goods and services through exchange that satisfies the goals of individuals and organizations.”

From the 60s to the present, many other definitions of this discipline have appeared. There are now more than 2,000 of them, according to the American Marketing Association.

The philosophy of marketing requires that entrepreneurial activity, business is concentrated around the consumer. This means that goods must be produced and supplied to the market, which will be unconditionally bought, for which there will certainly be a demand. Only the recognition of these products by the market is an indicator of the effectiveness of the company and the most successful reward for each member of its workforce.

The basis of the existence of marketing is the constant interaction of supply and demand, which is a continuous process of satisfying and reproducing the needs and desires of individuals or their groups. Thus, the basis of marketing is a two-pronged and complementary approach. On the one hand, a thorough and comprehensive study of the market, demand, tastes and needs, the orientation of production to these requirements, the targeting of products; on the other hand, an active influence on the market and existing demand, on the formation of needs and consumer preferences.

Marketing is used regardless of the degree of development of market relations, as it acts as a real system that links the internal and external activities of the company, and also coordinates the interaction of all entities included in the production and marketing of goods and services.

The evolution of marketing concepts

Over the years of its existence, marketing as a science has gone through a number of stages of development. One of the parties, reflecting the main stages of the development of marketing, is the evolution of its concepts. In a general sense, the concept is understood as a system of views, a way of presenting certain phenomena in the process of organizing and carrying out any activity.

Depending on the level of development of production and demand for the offered goods, marketing concepts have undergone evolutionary development. Their changes were mainly determined and continue to be determined by the state and interaction in the market space of such subjects as the manufacturer (seller), consumer (buyer) and the state (authority). Another important factor, the influence of which has especially increased in recent times, has become a factor in the development of technical means, the improvement of which occurs in close relationship with the development of the whole society.

World science and practice in the field of marketing recommend highlighting the following concepts that have developed as a result of evolution: production, product, sales, traditional marketing, social and ethical marketing and interaction marketing (Table 1.1).

Table 1.1. The evolution of the concept of marketing

The above classification of marketing concepts is not a rule, norm or standard for all countries. As a rule, depending on the level of development of market relations, the evolution of marketing in each individual country has certain specifics and features. Nevertheless, the world experience of its formation and development of market relations shows a general trend in the development of marketing - the transfer of attention from the production of goods to the consumer, his needs and requirements, and can be used as a guideline in the formation of market relations and the organization of entrepreneurial activity in a particular country.

Let's take a closer look at the concepts of traditional marketing and interaction marketing.

Marketing concept

Traditional marketing concept took shape around the mid-50s, while marketing itself arose much earlier. The marketing concept is focused on buyers, and supported by a set of measures aimed at meeting the needs of the market. In this case, marketing activities begin with identifying real and potential buyers and their needs. According to this concept, the goals of the enterprise, especially long-term ones, can only be achieved by studying the needs and desires of the consumer groups to which the enterprise directs and offers products and services that satisfy them in terms of quality and efficiency.

The marketing concept obliges:
· to produce what can be sold, instead of trying to sell what can be produced;
love the consumer, not your product;
not to sell goods, but to satisfy needs;
study not production capacity, but the needs of the market and develop plans to meet them;
linking the goals, requirements of consumers and the resource capabilities of the company;
adapt to changes in the structure and characteristics of consumers;
· evaluate the impact of competition, government regulation and other external influences in relation to the firm;
· focus on the long term and consider the needs of consumers in a broad perspective.

According to the traditional marketing concept, selling is a means of communicating, communicating and studying consumers, and if they remain dissatisfied, it is necessary to change the general policy, not the sales process.

The firm plans and coordinates the development of marketing programs to meet identified needs. It makes a profit by satisfying the needs of customers. In such a situation, the decision about what to produce is made not by the firm, but by the consumers.

Interaction Marketing

New concept marketing management in the markets of goods and services was proposed in the 80s by Swedish scientists and called interaction marketing . The factors stimulating the development of a new system of views were the constant growth of the service sector and the pervasive development of information technology.

The first factor is reflected in the development of the service business industry. Abroad, the future society is called a service society, since it is believed that more than half of the national product in the world will be produced in the service sector. The transition to a service society means that, as in the era of the industrial revolution, new managerial and organizational solutions in marketing will be required, new methods of managing relationships between people: company employees and customers, buyers.

In the context of the development of service competition, there is a need for a new organizational logic of entrepreneurship in comparison with an industrial society. Services become a source of competitive advantage, whether in industry (maintenance and repair, staff training, consulting, supply of materials, etc.) or in the traditional service sector (banks, tourism, hotels, restaurants, etc.). d.).

In such a situation, there is a need for a new approach to management, marketing, personnel, and finance. In this regard, marketing cannot remain a separate function inherent only to specialists in this matter. Its role and importance is expanding, that is, along with research, planning, sales promotion and distribution, the function of interaction with the buyer appears. Such interaction, long-term relationships with the client are much cheaper than the marketing costs necessary to increase interest in the product or service of the company from a new client. For example, it is known that winning a new customer costs a company 6 times more than organizing repeat sales to an existing one. And if the client left unsatisfied, then winning his attention again will cost the company 25 times more.

A reflection of the growth in the importance of the second factor is the identification of the stage in the evolution of the subject, called information marketing and, in particular, Internet marketing (this term will be discussed in more detail at the end of this chapter). In the era of information marketing, the success of a company depends not only on its capabilities in the field of production and marketing, but, above all, on innovation, knowledge, the availability of an information resource and the ability to correctly use this resource to increase the company's competitive advantages.

The emergence of a new marketing function - the interaction management function, made it possible to look at marketing technology from other, communicative, positions. In the Scandinavian school, for example, it has come to be seen as a process of establishing, maintaining and improving relationships with buyers and other entities in a beneficial way to satisfy the goals of all parties involved in the transaction.

Interaction marketing considers communications in a broader aspect - as any relationship between a company and its partners that contributes to generating income. The main idea of ​​interaction marketing is that the object of management is not a cumulative solution, but relationships - communications with the buyer and other participants in the buying and selling process. The progressiveness of the concept of interaction marketing is confirmed by the fact that products are becoming more standardized and services are unified, which leads to the formation of repetitive marketing solutions. Therefore, the only way to keep the consumer is the individualization of relations with him, which is possible on the basis of the development of long-term interaction between partners. In this context, relationships become the most important resource owned by the company along with material, financial, informational, human and other resources. Relations, as a result of effective interaction, become a product in which intellectual and information resources are integrated - the main factors for the continuity of market relations.

In conclusion of the review of marketing concepts, it should be noted that interaction marketing is not the only concept that a company can follow in the modern world. The choice of one of the above concepts is determined by the dominant type of marketing activity, competitive advantage factors, buyers' sensitivity to price changes, and a number of others. To follow the concept of interaction marketing, the firm is stimulated, first of all, by increasing competition and increasing demands from buyers, which orient the manufacturer to make changes in the structure of the existing offer through superiority in relationship management.

The basis for building an effective system of customer relationships are modern information technologies that allow collecting, storing and presenting information, analyzing it and assisting company managers in making decisions.

Development of information technologies

Information technology is one of the main drivers of today's revolutionary changes in the way we do business. They have become an indispensable means of interaction between all market participants, a business tool used to carry out most of the business processes of companies.

The term information technology is understood as a set of computer software and hardware, as well as techniques, methods and methods of their application to perform the functions of collecting, storing, processing, transmitting and using information in specific subject areas.

The concept of information technology includes a large number of components: hardware platforms, operating systems, programming languages ​​and application development tools, network technologies, databases and many others. There are several components, the development and improvement of which to the greatest extent determined and continues to promote the use of information technologies for successful business:
1. The emergence and ubiquity of the global computer network Internet;
2. Creation of hardware and software systems that ensured the automation of business processes of companies;
3. Development of standards and means of interaction between information systems.

Let's consider each of the marked directions in more detail.

The emergence and development of the global Internet

First important element, which is one of the foundations of the subject matter of this book, is the Internet. The emergence and development of the Internet is closely related to the achievements of many related fields. This is the development of network technologies, and the improvement of operating systems, and the development of programming languages, and many others. In its more than thirty years of history, the Internet has experienced many events. The fundamental ones are described in the following brief history of the global Web from its inception to its commercialization.

The birth of the global network

The birthplace of the Internet is the United States. Its origin occurred in the late 60s from the ARPANET (Advanced Research Project Agency Network) packet-switched network project. Initially, the Internet was developed in order to ensure the interaction of remote computers and was conceived as a decentralized geographically distributed network with many alternative storage points and ways of distributing information. It was assumed that this would ensure reliable communication between the computers of the US Department of Defense, even if part of the network fails due to military actions, such as nuclear explosions.

The first packet-switched computer network, named after its parent organization ARPANet and linking universities in Los Angeles and Santa Barbara, California with Stanford University and the University of Utah in Salt Lake City, appeared in 1970. The network was based on the packet switching protocol created by Bolt Baranek and Newman (BBN). As a result, by 1972, more than forty computer centers could exchange e-mail among themselves, perform sessions with machines remote for several hundred kilometers, and transfer data files. On fig. Figure 1.1 shows a map of the ARPANET as of September 1971 (http://www.cybergeography.org/atlas/historical.html).

Rice. 1.1. Map of the ARPANET

UNIX operating system and DEC computers

The next stage in the development of the Internet is associated with the development of a relatively cheap minicomputer and a machine-independent UNIX operating system. The first factor was computers from Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC), which produced, as opposed to expensive universal computers IBM and Control Data are relatively cheap and compact computers for the mass consumer. First, DEC produced the PDP series, and in the early 70s, the first machines of the VAX family appeared. These relatively powerful computers were purchased in large numbers by colleges, universities, and mid-sized corporations. The second element was the multitasking operating system developed by AT&T Bell Labs and called UNIX. The new system was characterized by unlimited freedom of action for that time, provided to the average user. But it was especially important that from the very beginning of its existence, UNIX was a network-oriented system and did not require additional components for this.

In 1976, Mike Lesk of AT&T Bell Labs created the UNIX-to-UNIX Copy Program, called UUCP for short. As a result, any computer equipped with a modem with UUCP installed on it could communicate with any other computer through a regular telephone network and exchange data files.

The proliferation of DEC minicomputers and the UNIX operating system that took place at that time served as the basis for the emergence of a large and largely randomly organized computer network UUCP, using ordinary telephone channels as a physical medium and becoming the prototype of a future independent decentralized network, which became the Internet.

The widespread use of UUCP led to the idea of ​​creating an "electronic newspaper" accessible to the widest possible masses and allowing to maintain and publish thematic correspondence between the authors of articles and their readers. In the original version of this system, called Usenet, the concept of dividing news into groups (news-groups) was used, and the UUCP package was taken as the basis for functioning. The Usenet system provided a means by which an ordinary user could make his messages available to all other users of the network, and, at the same time, made it possible to choose topics of interest.

At first, there were only two hierarchies: mod, which included groups dedicated to discussing software modifications and detecting failures in trial versions of newly developed programs, and net, dedicated to networking issues. Since 1986, seven more hierarchies have been added to these two: comp - discussions on computer issues; news - news about Usenet; rec - rest; sci - science; soc- social issues; talk - rumors; misc - miscellaneous.

Today, Usenet and e-mail are part of virtually every set of basic Internet services offered and are among the most widely used services on the Internet.

Development of computer networks

In 1979, a meeting was held, which was attended by a number of universities, DARPA and the US National Science Foundation (National Science Foundation, NSF). At this meeting, it was decided to create a CSnet (Computer Science Research Network), the main source of funding for which was NSF. A little later, in 1980, it was proposed to link ARPANet and CSnet together through a gateway using TCP/IP protocols, so that all subsets of CSnet networks would have access to the gateway in ARPANet. This event can be considered the transformation of the Internet into a community of independent networks that have come to an agreement on how to communicate across networks.

Next integral part The Internet became a network called Bitnet (Because It "s Time Network). This network was an environment in which messages and news were exchanged through the Listserv mailing list mechanism, which resembled the division of news into groups used in Usenet. Bitnet users chose the ones that suited them lists and signed on them. Articles and messages were sent only to subscribers, unlike Usenet, which carried news and messages from one news server to another.

In 1984, another important network appeared in San Francisco, FidoNet. A year earlier, Tom Jennings had written a program that allowed a BBS system to be implemented on a personal computer, calling it FidoBBS. The package quickly gained popularity and soon Fido bulletin boards were everywhere. Some time later, Jennings released the FidoNet network package, with which two FidoBBS systems could communicate with each other via a modem and a telephone line. This packet used packet switching technology, improved by ARPANet, Usenet and other networks. As a result, FidoBBS subscribers were able to send each other email messages and create discussion groups, similar to Usenet or Bitnet. In 1987, the UUCP package, originally designed for use in the UNIX environment, was "tied" to the IBM PC, which made it possible to combine Usenet with Fidonet.

In the second half of the 1980s, the US National Science Foundation created its own high-speed network in order to support the requirements of communication quality standards in networks connecting large computer centers. NSFNet is currently one of the largest networks in the Internet community. Following NSF, NASA and DOE (US Department of Energy) in the form of NSINet and ESNet networks. In 1983, the part of the ARPANet serving military organizations spun off into a separate network, Milnet, which soon disappeared from view. The rest of ARPANet was gradually replaced by NSFNet, and in 1990 this process was completely completed. On fig. Figure 1.2 shows a map of the Internet as of August 1987 (http://www.cybergeography.org/atlas/historical.html).

As a result of all the transformations, the corporation received the exclusive privilege to operate the NSFNet network. ANS. A document was also released outlining the acceptable-use policy for the NSF backbone system. According to these principles, almost anyone could use the NSF backbone as long as this use was not directly related to commercial or personal interests.

In 1990, the Federal Networking Council abolished the rule that connection to the Internet required a recommendation from a government agency. This decision was the beginning of a large influx of commercial organizations of various sizes into the Internet, since now access to it could be obtained without any serious reservations or justifications.

Rice. 1.2. Structure of the Internet as of August 1987

In 1992, the NSF officially stated that it was nothing more than one of the clients of the ANS, and that all restrictions set out in the principles of acceptable-use policy apply only to NSF's own traffic. This was an additional incentive for commercial organizations: according to NSF statistics, in 1994, the share of addresses with the ending.com (commerce) in 1994 was 51.3% of the total volume of registered IP addresses. For comparison, we point out that the share of scientific and educational organizations was 32.7%, and the share of military and government organizations - 16%.

world wide web

One of the most important events in the history of the Internet, from the point of view of business development, and, in particular, e-commerce, was the creation of the so-called "World Wide Web" - the World Wide Web (WWW) environment, which was based on hypertext technology.

The history of the World Wide Web began in March 1989, when Tim Bernes Lee proposed a telecommunications environment for collaborative research in high energy physics, and then in 1991, the European Laboratory for Practical Physics (CERN), located in Switzerland, announced to the whole world the creation of a new global information environment, the World Wide Web.

Using the Hypertext Markup Language (HTML), which is a set of instructions for formatting documents, the WWW unified and linked together the vast amount of information that was on the Internet in the form of texts, images and sound.

The advent of the WWW and web browsers made it possible for users to surf the Internet using the skills they had previously acquired while working on PCs with graphical "shells" such as MS Windows. At the same time, it became completely optional for the developer to place all graphic, text and other information entirely in one document. The constituent parts of the document, as well as its subsections, can be stored on completely different web servers, and with the help of URLs placed in the document structure, all these parts can be linked and form a hypertext document.

Development of standards for building information systems

The next component of the growth and development of the business information infrastructure was the process of developing information systems, and, above all, enterprise management information systems.

There are three main directions in this area: the development of enterprise management methodology, the development of the general capabilities of computer systems, and the development of approaches to the technical and software implementation of information systems. Let's consider the first direction in more detail.

The theory of enterprise management is a rather extensive subject for study and improvement. This is due to a wide range of constant changes in the situation on the world market. The ever-increasing level of competition is forcing business leaders to look for new ways to maintain their presence in the market and maintain the profitability of their activities. Such methods can be diversification, decentralization, quality management and many others. A modern information system must meet all the innovations in the theory and practice of management. Undoubtedly, this is the most important factor, since the construction of a technically advanced system makes sense only if it meets all modern requirements for functionality.

The original standard, which appeared in the 70s, is the MRP (Material Requirements Planning) standard, which is a methodology for planning the requirements for materials.

The main task solved within the framework of the MRP methodology is to minimize costs through effective inventory management.

The logic of the functioning of the MRP standard system can be represented by the following diagram (Fig. 1.3).

Rice. 1.3. Structure of the MRP system

The diagram below shows the main information elements of the MRP standard system. Its input elements are:
1. Description of the condition of materials. It is the main input element of the MRP program. It reflects the most complete information about all the materials and components necessary for the production of the final product.
2. Production program. It represents an optimized schedule for the distribution of time for the production of the required batch of finished products for the planned period.
3. List of components of the final product (Bills of Material File, BOM). List of materials and their quantity required for the production of the final product.

The main results of using the MRP standard system are:
1. Plan of Orders. Determines how much of each material is to be ordered in each considered time period during the planning period. The order plan is a guide for further work with suppliers and, in particular, determines the production program for the internal production of components, if any.
2. Changes to the order plan are modifications to previously planned orders. A number of orders may be canceled, changed or delayed, as well as rescheduled for another period.

Thus, the use of the MRP standard system for planning production needs makes it possible to provide production with the components required in accordance with the plan for the release of final products exactly in the quantity and at the time indicated for its manufacture, thereby significantly reducing storage costs and facilitating production accounting. .

The next step after the creation of systems based on the MRP standard was to solve the problem of loading production capacities and taking into account the resource constraints of production. This methodology is called Capacity Requirements Planning (CRP).

Figure 1.4 illustrates the functioning logic of the CRP standard system.

Rice. 1.4. Structure of the CRP standard system

The diagram below shows the main information elements of the CRP system. Its input elements are:
1. Production program. It is also the starting point for MRP.
2. Data on work centers. The work center is the equipment located at the local production site.
3. Data on technological routes for the manufacture of nomenclature items. They contain all the information about the procedure for the implementation of technological operations and their characteristics.

The result of the system is calendar plan capacity needs.

CRP is designed to inform about any discrepancies between the planned production load and available capacity, allowing you to take the necessary regulatory actions. At the same time, each manufactured product is assigned an appropriate technological route with a description of the resources required for each operation and at each work center.

The invention of less expensive real-time computing systems and attempts to increase the efficiency of planning in the late 70s led to the creation of closed-loop MRP systems. The idea was to consider a wider range of factors when planning, by introducing additional functions. It was proposed to add a number of additional functions to the basic functions of production capacity planning and materials requirements planning, such as monitoring the compliance of the quantity of manufactured products with the quantity of components used in the assembly process, drawing up regular reports on order delays, on the volume and dynamics of product sales, on suppliers, etc. d.

The term "closed cycle" reflects the main feature of the modified system, which is that the reports created during its operation can be analyzed and taken into account at further planning stages, changing the production program and, accordingly, the order plan, if necessary. In other words, additional functions provide feedback in the system, providing planning flexibility in relation to external factors, such as the level of demand, the state of affairs of suppliers, etc.

Constant improvements to the MRP standard systems led to the creation of an extended modification, which, due to the identity of the abbreviations, was called MRP-II (Manufactory Resource Planning - production resource planning).

The concept of MRP-II is a further development of MRP and is focused on the effective management of all resources of a manufacturing enterprise.

Hierarchy means the division of planning into levels corresponding to the areas of responsibility of different levels of the management ladder of the enterprise (from top management planning sales and operations to foremen in workshops and production areas planning the speed and direction of the input / output material flow at workplaces performing functions dispatching production work orders and making operational decisions on loading jobs, managing work order priorities, generating reporting data on completed orders). At different levels, the areas of responsibility are different. Enterprise plans are developed from top to bottom while providing a reliable mechanism feedback.

Integration is ensured by the unification of all the main functional areas of the enterprise at the operational level, related to material and financial flows in the enterprise. MRP II covers such enterprise functions as production planning, production supply, product marketing, production plan execution, cost accounting, inventory control, demand management, etc.

The interactivity of systems based on the MRP II standard is ensured by the modeling block embedded in it. There is a possibility of "playing" probable situations in order to study their impact on the performance of the enterprise as a whole or its structural divisions in particular.

Further development of the MRP-II concept went along the path of maximizing the functions and capabilities of information systems. The result was the concept of ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) - enterprise resource planning.

ERP systems are " upper level» in the hierarchy of enterprise management systems, affecting key aspects of its production and commercial activities, such as production, planning, finance and accounting, logistics and personnel management, sales, inventory management, maintaining orders for the manufacture (supply) of products and the provision of services .

The main differences between systems based on the concept of ERP and their predecessors, using other methodologies, have become much more attention to financial subsystems and the ability to manage a "virtual enterprise".

A virtual enterprise reflects the interaction of production, suppliers, partners and consumers. It may consist of autonomously operating institutions, corporations, be geographically distributed, or consist of a temporary association of enterprises working on a project.

ERP also adds mechanisms for managing multinational corporations, including support for multiple time zones, languages, currencies, accounting and reporting systems. These differences affect the logic and functionality of the systems to a lesser extent, and to a greater extent determine their infrastructure and scalability. They are also characterized by higher flexibility, reliability and performance.

Improving standards for the interaction of information systems

In parallel with the development of network technologies and the growth of the Internet, the improvement of corporate information systems that automate the business processes of enterprises, there was a process of creating standards that allow these systems to exchange information with each other.

First Information Systems originated in the 60s. Initially, data exchange between them took place over networks that were not part of the Internet. To unify the exchange procedures, standards for electronic data interchange between organizations (Electronic Data Interchange, EDI) were developed - sets of rules for the electronic execution of standard business documents: orders, invoices, customs declarations, insurance forms, invoices, etc. By the end of the 60s in the United States, there were already four industry standards in the control systems of aviation, rail and road transport.

Since such a multiplicity did not contribute to the development of the economy, a special Transport Data Coordination Committee (TDCC) was created to combine the formats. His work formed the basis of the new EDI standard - ANSI X.12.

Around the same time, similar events occurred in England, although in this country the main area of ​​​​application of EDI was not transport, but trade. The set of Tradacoms specifications developed here has been adopted by the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) as the data exchange standard for international trade organizations. This set of formats and protocols is called GTDI (General-purpose Trade Data Interchange).

In the 80s, work began to combine European and American specifications. On the basis of GTDI, the ISO international standardization organization has formed a new EDIFACT standard, ISO 9735 (Electronic Data Interchange for Administration, Commerce and Transport), which uses the X.400 email protocol as a transport protocol.

In the meantime, there was a rapid growth in the turnover of electronic transactions using the standards described above. Thus, in 1996, when trading via the Internet was still in its infancy, transactions worth $300 billion were made through transactions in the EDI standard, and in 1999 - already worth $1.1 trillion. By 2003, according to IDC forecasts, this figure should increase to $2.3 trillion.

The rapid development of the Internet in the 90s and the low cost of data transmission in this new environment made it relevant to modernize EDI systems for use in a new communication environment. As a result, another standard was developed in the mid-1990s, EDIFACT over Internet (EDIINT), which describes how to transfer transactions in the EDI standard using the SMTP/S-MIME secure email protocols.

However, despite all the successes in the development of e-commerce, companies are in no hurry to change the established technologies. So in 1999, EDI transactions over the Internet accounted for only 12% of the total turnover of an EDI-based business, and by 2003 this share will increase to only 41%.

A breakthrough in the integration of e-commerce information systems today is associated with a new document markup language - XML ​​(eXtensible Markup Language), on the basis of which new standards for electronic interaction between companies are formed. It is predicted that the use of this language will greatly simplify the processes of interaction between enterprise information systems and thereby attract many medium and small companies to the world of e-commerce.

One of these standards, called XML/EDI, eliminates the main drawback of EDI: the difficulty of mapping enterprise data from an internal representation to an EDI format. XML/EDI provides a generic way to map enterprise data to EDI standard structures. This is achieved through templates - formal definitions of the message structure. They separate the structure of the message from the operational data it contains, which also makes it easier for the client program to automatically interpret the data.

How a message is handled in the XML/EDI standard depends on the type of client. For example, an ERP concept system deployed in a large company that supports XML/EDI can carry out all the necessary actions without human intervention. If the message was received by a small company where there is no enterprise management system, then it can be displayed as a web form in a browser installed at the manager's workplace. The important thing is that in both cases, the system that initiates the transaction acts in the same way.

In addition to XML/EDI, many other XML-based technologies are currently being developed to allow the exchange of data and documents. For example, Microsoft is preparing to release BizTalk, an XML-based technology for communicating with enterprise management systems.

All of these developments should further reduce the cost of e-commerce systems. In addition, these technologies will allow companies to integrate enterprise resource management systems within supply chains, get access to plans and information about the current situation of their partners. This will enable them to better predict joint business and better track demand.

All of the above also makes it clear that in order to conduct e-commerce, companies must achieve a certain level of orderliness in their business processes. The use of modern information technologies leads to cost reduction only in companies where enterprise automation systems are deployed.

Interaction through a web browser

The emergence of the Internet has significantly reduced the cost of e-commerce due to the low cost of information transfer and led to the emergence of its qualitatively new forms. One of these forms has become business-to-business (B2B) and business-to-consumer (B2C) systems, in which interaction through a web browser is the key point, and EDI technologies are not used or their use is secondary.

They function as follows. The seller company places on its website (with open or limited access) an interface with which the end user or partner company can, for example, create and place an order in the seller's information system. After that, special software and the ERP system of the seller company process the order themselves, conducting secondary transactions necessary, say, for transferring money from account to account or placing orders with a company that delivers goods, etc.

E-commerce systems allow the buyer not to communicate with the seller, not to spend time shopping, and also to have more complete information about the goods. The seller, on the other hand, can respond faster to changes in demand, analyze customer behavior, save money on staff, renting premises, etc.

The main advantages for the seller are to expand the circle of buyers, which immediately includes those companies that are not able to implement EDI due to the high cost, the ability to use information technology to sell to end consumers, that is, to enter the business-to-consumer market. (B2C), as well as in the elimination of possible intermediaries in trade. One of the most striking examples is Dell, which was one of the first to rely on a virtual form of business and quickly achieved success.

Electronic commerce

The emergence and development of the Internet, the improvement of information technologies, systems, and standards for their interaction have led to the creation of a new direction of modern business - electronic business.

Definition

There are many definitions of the concept of e-business. Thus, according to the definition of the Gartner Group, e-business is defined as the continuous optimization of an organization's products and services, as well as industrial relations through the use of digital technologies and the use of the Internet as the primary means of communication.

Our definition of e-business is any activity that uses the power of global information networks to conduct business.

The most important constituent element e-business is e-commerce. E-commerce refers to any form of transactions in which the interaction of the parties is carried out electronically.

E-commerce is a means of doing business on a global scale. It allows companies to interact more fully with suppliers and respond more quickly to customer requests and expectations. Companies get the opportunity to choose suppliers regardless of geographical location, as well as the opportunity to enter the global market with their goods and services.

Once again, we emphasize the difference between the two introduced concepts. E-business is the most general concept. It includes any form of interaction between market entities using digital technologies: information exchange; conducting marketing research; establishing contacts, for example, between potential customers and suppliers; pre- and post-sales support, such as providing detailed information about products and services, documentation, answering customer questions, etc.; sale of goods and services; electronic payment, including using electronic payment systems; distribution of products, including both delivery management and tracking for physical products, and direct delivery of products that may be distributed electronically; the possibility of organizing virtual enterprises - a group of individual specialists or even independent companies for joint commercial activities; implementation of business processes jointly managed by the company and its trading partners.

E-commerce is only one of the components of e-business, which is limited to conducting transactions using electronic systems, for example, the sale of goods or the provision of services via the Internet.

IDC (www.idc.com) predicts that the total e-business market will reach $1.6 trillion by 2003, $1.4 trillion of which will be in B2B offerings.

According to eMarketer (www.emarketer.com) worldwide e-business revenues will be $336 billion in 2001, $686.3 billion in 2002 and $1.26 trillion in 2003 (Figure 1.5).

Rice. 1.5. Global E-Commerce Revenue Growth Projections ($B)

According to the type of interacting subjects, electronic business can be divided into the following main categories (Fig. 1.6):
1. business-to-business (business-to-business, B2B);
2. business consumer (business-to-consumer, B2C);
3. consumer-to-consumer (consumer-to-consumer, С2С);
4. business administration (business-to-administration, B2A);
5. consumer-administration (consumer-to-administration, C2A);

business to business

The business-to-business direction is the most popular and developed today. It includes all levels of interaction between companies, which can be based on special technologies or standards for electronic data interchange, such as EDI (Electronic Data Interchange) or systems based on XML document markup language (eXtensible Markup Language).

According to Jupiter Communications (www.jupitercommunications.com) forecasts, the total turnover of the B2B market by 2005 will be over $6 trillion (Fig. 1.7).

eMaketer predicts B2B will account for 85% of all e-commerce in 2002 and 87% in 2003.

According to eMarketer experts, in 2003 the US will continue to lead in B2B, Americans will own 59% of this market, and their income from this type of commerce will be $ 747 billion.

Rice. 1.7. Forecasts for the growth of the annual turnover of the B2B market (billion dollars)

The development of B2B in Russia also does not stand still. Already today total number trading floors has exceeded a hundred, and according to a study by Brunswick Warburg (www.bw.ru), the annual growth of the Russian B2B market is 245%.

Business consumer

The next most widespread direction is business-to-consumer. The basis of this direction is electronic retail trade. The most common element in this category are online stores, which already today offer the widest range of goods and services to end users.

On fig. 1.8 shows the growth of e-commerce in this sector according to eMarketer.

Rice. 1.8. E-commerce growth in the B2C sector ($ billion)

The B2C sector is currently, of course, inferior in volume to the B2B sector and, although this trend will continue, it occupies a very significant share of the total volume of e-commerce.

consumer-consumer

The consumer-consumer direction has become increasingly important in recent years. It includes the ability for consumers to interact to exchange commercial information. This may be an exchange of experience in the acquisition of a particular product, an exchange of experience in interaction with a particular company. This area also includes the form of trade between individuals, which is embodied in Internet auctions.

The auction form of trading on the Internet is a fairly young, but promising area of ​​e-commerce, the turnover of which is now approaching the turnover of all other retail trade via the Internet. The number of users making purchases on Internet auctions today is in the millions. On one of the most popular Internet auctions eBay (www.ebay.com) in 2001, about 3.5 million types of goods were put up for auction daily in more than 2900 different categories.

Business Administration and Consumer Administration

The interaction between business and administration is manifested in the use of electronic means to organize business interaction between commercial structures and government organizations, ranging from local authorities to international organizations. This direction is most actively embodied in the use of the Internet by governments. developed countries for the procurement of goods and services.

The direction of consumer-administration is the least developed, but over time it can develop to organize effective interaction between state structures and consumers in the social and tax sphere. For example, already today, residents of some US states have the opportunity to fill out tax returns directly via the Internet.

Internet Marketing

The development of information technologies, among which one of the key places was occupied by the Internet, the emergence and rapid growth of e-commerce became the basis for the emergence of a new direction in the modern concept of interaction marketing - Internet marketing.

Definition

The term Internet marketing refers to the theory and methodology of organizing marketing in the hypermedia environment of the Internet.

The Internet has unique characteristics that differ significantly from those of traditional marketing tools. One of the main properties of the Internet environment is its hypermedia nature, which is characterized by high efficiency in the presentation and assimilation of information, which significantly increases the possibilities of marketing in strengthening the relationship between enterprises and consumers.

Rice. 1.9. Possibilities of using the Internet in the enterprise marketing system

In addition, the role played by the Internet is not limited to communication functions, but also includes the ability to conclude transactions, make purchases and make payments, giving it the features of a global electronic marketplace.

Rice. 1.9 illustrates the possibilities of using the Internet in the marketing system of a modern enterprise.

Internet Marketing Features

The use of the Internet brings new features and benefits compared to marketing based on traditional technologies. Here is some of them:

· Transition of a key role from producers to consumers

One of the most fundamental features brought by the Internet to the world of modern commerce is the transition of a key role from producers to consumers. The Internet has made it a reality for companies to capture the attention of a new customer in just tens of seconds spent in front of a computer screen. However, at the same time, it gave the same user the opportunity to go to any of the competitors with a few clicks of the mouse. In such a situation, the attention of customers becomes the greatest value, and established relationships with customers are the main capital of companies.

· Globalization of activities and reduction of transaction costs

The Internet significantly changes the spatial and temporal scales of doing business. It is a global means of communication that does not have any territorial restrictions, while the cost of access to information does not depend on the distance from it, in contrast to traditional means, where this dependence is directly proportional. Thus, e-commerce allows even the smallest suppliers to achieve a global presence and do business on a global scale. Accordingly, customers also have a global choice of all potential suppliers offering the required goods or services, regardless of geographic location. The distance between the seller and the buyer plays a role only in terms of transport costs already at the stage of delivery of goods.

The time scale in the Internet environment is also significantly different from the usual one. The high efficiency of the communicative properties of the Internet makes it possible to reduce the time spent searching for partners, making decisions, executing transactions, developing new products, etc. Information and services on the Internet are available around the clock. In addition, its communication characteristics are highly flexible, making it easy to change the information presented, and thus keep it up to date without time delay and distribution costs.

These effects also lead to a significant reduction in transaction costs, that is, the costs associated with establishing and maintaining interaction between the company, its customers and suppliers. At the same time, the cost of communications, in comparison with traditional means, becomes minimal, and their functionality and scalability increase significantly.

· Personalization of interaction and transition to one-to-one marketing.

Using electronic communication tools, companies can obtain detailed information about the requests of each individual customer and automatically provide products and services that meet individual requirements. One simple example would be a personalized presentation of a website for each of a company's clients or partners.

As a result, the Internet allows you to move from mass marketing to one-to-one marketing. Table 1.2 compares the characteristics of mass marketing with one-to-one marketing.

Table 1.2. Comparison of mass marketing and one-to-one marketing

Reduced transformation costs

Reducing transformation costs can be achieved through the optimal choice of the structure of the product range, reducing the time for the development and implementation of new products, sound pricing policy, reducing the number of intermediaries, marketing costs, etc.

For example, one way to reduce transformation costs may be to reduce distribution channels. The reason for the reduction of distribution channels is the opportunity for firms to take over the functions traditionally performed by middlemen, since the Internet has a more effective ability to interact with consumers and at the same time allows tracking information about consumers.

A special case is products and services that can be delivered electronically. At the same time, the delivery route is shortened as much as possible. The electronic method is widely used to deliver digital entertainment products (movies, videos, music, magazines and newspapers), information, educational tools and is effectively used by software development and distribution companies.

conclusions

Marketing is a practical activity, a system of management functions, with the help of which they organize and manage a set of actions related to the assessment of the purchasing power of consumers, with its transformation into a real demand for products and services and the approximation of these products and services to buyers for profit or some or any other purpose. In its development, marketing has gone through a number of stages of its development. The following concepts are distinguished in the evolution of marketing: production, product, sales, traditional marketing, social and ethical marketing and interaction marketing. The key feature of the latest concept is the emphasis on building long-term relationships with customers based on an effective system of interaction, one of the main places in which is occupied by modern means of communication.

· There are a number of areas, the development and improvement of which to the greatest extent determined and continues to promote the use of information technologies for successful business: the emergence and ubiquity of the global computer network Internet; creation of hardware and software systems that ensured the automation of business processes of companies; development of standards and means of interaction of information systems.

· The advent and commercialization of the Internet has led to the emergence of a new category of business - e-business, which refers to any activity using the capabilities of global information networks for doing business. The most important component of electronic business is electronic commerce, which includes any form of transactions when the interaction of the parties is carried out electronically.

· According to the type of interacting subjects, electronic business is divided into the following main categories: business-to-business (B2B); business consumer (business-to-consumer, B2C); business administration (business-to-administration, B2A); consumer-administration (consumer-to-administration, C2A); consumer-to-consumer (C2C). The most developed of them today are the B2B and B2C categories, but the prospects for the development of other categories are also quite large.

· The development of information technology, the emergence and rapid growth of e-commerce became the basis for the emergence of a new direction in the modern concept of interaction marketing - Internet marketing, which refers to the theory and methodology of marketing in the Internet environment. The era of Internet marketing is characterized by the following distinctive features: the globalization of areas of activity; the final transition of a key role from producers to consumers; personalization of interaction and transition to one-to-one marketing; reduction of transaction and transformation costs.

Issues for discussion

1. Do all companies need to apply the principles of marketing in their activities? What factors, in your opinion, are decisive today for the use of the concept of marketing in your enterprise?

2. The concept of interaction marketing is becoming fundamental to many businesses today. As you already know, this concept is based on the primacy of the process of establishing, maintaining and improving relationships with customers and other entities to meet the goals of all interacting parties. Are the principles of this concept applied in your enterprise? What measures to improve and improve interaction with consumers of products or services are necessary to increase the efficiency of your company?

3. Imagine such a situation. All companies present in a separate market segment use the concept of marketing in their activities, all of them have access to the global Internet, which they actively use in their activities, and all of them have implemented corporate information systems that allow them to automate business processes as much as possible , reduce production costs, etc. How do you imagine further development market situation? What steps do companies need to take to win over competitors in such an environment? Is such a situation really possible?

4. E-Business and e-commerce are often seen today as a panacea for the problems that many modern businesses face. Do you share this point of view and why? What place and role do you assign to e-business in the activities of modern enterprises?

5. The use of the Internet in marketing activities is now ubiquitous. And what, in your opinion, is the determining factor in the development of Internet marketing, the development of information technology, the evolution of marketing concepts, or something else?

Bagiev G. L. and others. Marketing: A textbook for universities. - M .: JSC "Publishing house" Economy "", 1999

APICS Dictionary, 6th ed. American Production and Inventory Control Society, 1987.

Gavrilov D.A., Production management based on the MRP II standard. - St. Petersburg: Peter, 2002.

Promotion and sale of a product or service, as well as winning a free niche in the market in its category, includes:

traditional methods of struggle for the buyer;

internet marketing - a set of measures aimed at attracting customers using online technologies;

increasing the competitiveness of a given product or service;

other methods aimed at promoting products and attracting the attention of potential buyers.

Today, every self-respecting manufacturer, regardless of the scale and direction of activity, must create its own website, online store, blog or page on social networks that provide the visitor with complete information about the company and its products. Given the fact that a potential buyer spends a lot of time on the World Wide Web, such a strategy is quite justified, and practice shows that advertising on the Internet for some product groups is much more effective than in the media, transport or on billboards. Therefore, there is nothing surprising in the fact that recently the structure of expenses of large corporations for the promotion of their products has changed significantly in favor of financing projects related to the Internet.

First of all, we need to answer a frequently asked question: Internet marketing, what is it and why is it needed? Statistics say that a modern person spends on the World Wide Web from 8 to 14 hours a day, and many people have almost completely abandoned watching TV, they do not listen to the radio and do not read the press. The only way to transmit any information to them is the Internet. In this case, the effectiveness of traditional methods of conventional marketing is zero, and in order to understand and study the consumer sentiment of people who spend online, both working and free time Online marketing comes to the rescue.

What elements does it consist of:

Product(product, service) to be sold.

Price. Formation and maintenance of the competitive cost of products sold.

Promotion. A complex of various methods and schemes aimed at promoting your product or service. The main goal is to form a positive attitude towards the product among the buyer, as well as to make it known and well recognizable against the background of analogues from competing companies.

Place. Point of sale of products. In Internet marketing, the company's website is most often used for these purposes.

The complex use of the above elements determines the effectiveness of your business. Marketing theorists also identify additional components that affect the effectiveness of any business: people involved in the process of selling products, the environment in which the product is sold or a potential buyer gets to know it, and the mechanisms that set the sales flywheel in motion.

How it works

Using Internet marketing tools, we attract potential buyers to the site to advertise products or to sell goods and services directly on the web resource.

The main online marketing tool- a website of the company and its products / services, which, if properly designed, guarantees the owner the opportunity to successfully compete with manufacturers of similar products, ensuring a high sales volume. All well-known trends necessarily have their own websites or at least pages on social networks, without which they will instantly lose their fame and popularity.

After creating the site, it is necessary to direct all efforts to ensure that it takes first place on the pages of search engines for relevant queries. For example, if a company sells inflatable boats, its resource pages should get to the first places of the main search engines for queries:

rubber boats;

sell inflatable boats;

we sell rubber boats, etc.

This tool is called promotion (search marketing), it is a very important link in the overall scheme of online marketing.

Some users sometimes confuse marketing methods (which will be discussed later) with its tools, especially when it comes to search advertising. This tool provides the launch of advertising in search engines and allows you to take high places in their issuance.

A feature of online advertising (the next online marketing tool) is the ability to control the company's budget, as well as quickly calculate its effectiveness. Allocate banner and contextual advertising. The first one is aimed at increasing the popularity of the advertised goods/services and speedy coverage of the target audience, and the second one is aimed at attracting the most interested potential buyers in this product.

The next tool - E-mail marketing allows you to individually send the necessary information of an advertising nature using e-mail. We can say that this direction is Internet marketing for beginners, since it does not require special knowledge, experience and large investments. On the other hand, using e-mail, you can accurately limit the circle of customers, as well as find out their reaction to the information received using feedback.

The basis of the next tool is the use of relationships between people to promote goods / services. It is known as social media marketing.

Large companies, posting useful information, news, etc. on their corporate blogs, also advertise their products.

Resources that publish ratings of various goods, services and firms, as well as reviews of experts in their field and the opinions of ordinary consumers, are becoming increasingly popular. These sites can make a good advertisement for your products or, conversely, blacklist them.

At online conferences and seminars that are held on the Internet, you can find out the opinion about the products you are interested in. Given the fact that more than one thousand people take part in such events, this information will correspond to reality as much as possible.

One of the tools of integrated online marketing is viral marketing on the Internet. It is based on the creation of a "virus" that has an attractive form for users of advertising information. Most often, it is distributed in the form of interesting videos, cartoons, scandalous stories, etc.

Recently, online games have become increasingly popular, in which advertising information, names of new brands, etc. are professionally placed. This trick allows you to attract new customers, while the users themselves, recommending the game to friends and acquaintances, simultaneously distribute advertising.

Considering the basics of Internet marketing, one cannot pass by such a tool as mobile marketing. It builds on the ever-evolving capabilities of mobile devices that have long served as a small computer. Website developers took this factor into account and used it to distribute advertising information.

Today, almost any user can create, albeit not a professional, but quite a decent video that advertises (directly or indirectly) some kind of product, product or service. Then, through e-mail, this information is sent to potential customers or is freely available on some service. This area is called video marketing, and judging by the ever-growing number of adherents, it can be called one of the most popular tools for promoting goods / services.

One of the most costly and time-consuming online marketing tools is public opinion building. This process includes the paid work of journalists of popular publications, the creation of news reports on the main television channels of the country, the dissemination of information on the World Wide Web on news sites, forums, social networks, etc. It can be concluded that such projects are only possible for large corporations that are able to allocate huge budgets for advertising campaigns. But, as practice shows, such investments fully justify themselves. Both business marketing (when advertising is directed at large enterprises and large wholesalers) and ordinary consumers are happy to buy products that everyone speaks only positively about.

It should be noted that the above list of tools is constantly being added with new ideas, and Internet marketing is one of the most intensively developing economic disciplines. Also, it is necessary to take into account the fact that all advice related to the promotion of the company and its products have real benefit only if you know how to use them in practice.

Online Marketing Methods

Considering this issue, it is necessary to divide all the methods of Internet marketing used into:

those related to the study of the market for this product;

and those that are aimed at promoting goods / services and increasing their sales.

The implementation of the first part is carried out with the help of a detailed analysis of registered users on your site, research of their interests, conducting electronic surveys.

Product promotion and sales growth includes all types of Internet marketing that we considered, as well as indirect advertising techniques:

placing links to your resource on friendly sites, thematic servers, as well as their registration in all available directories;

placement of paid ads;

The main problems of Internet marketing are the inability to quickly collect and process information received individually from each user, as well as the need to constantly monitor the actions of competing companies. If it were possible to constantly receive the most “fresh” information about the consumer sentiment of potential customers, the costs of promoting and advertising products would be reduced several times, and knowing the methods of work of competing companies, you can not worry about the success of your own commercial projects.

The relevance of such a business as selling products through the World Wide Web (online stores) is growing exponentially.

This is facilitated by:

the absence in the item of fixed costs of such costs as payment for rent of premises, utilities and the salary of a large staff of salesmen;

possibility of individual communication with each client;

the assortment of goods is much larger than in a regular store, which has a positive effect on the company's sales and profits;

the ability to promptly inform customers about new product arrivals, promotions, discounts, etc.

Considering the advantages and disadvantages of online stores, it is necessary to pay attention to the fact that, despite the above positive aspects of this business, it also has negative points:

the risk that fraudsters hack into the company's accounts;

dependence on the work of electronic payment systems;

imperfect tax legislation in this industry;

some customers are afraid to make an advance payment, and sending goods by mail without payment, you can be left without money.

But practice shows that entrepreneurs who have been in this business for a long time have their own secrets of how to get around the negative nuances or reduce their harm to a minimum.

How can you do internet marketing without a budget? And in general, how realistic it is. There is a fairly wide range of books on this subject on the web. But, before spending money on their purchase, it is necessary to at least in general terms consider all aspects of the problem. Given the above tools and mechanisms of online marketing, we can say that having certain knowledge in this industry, you can start the process of studying consumer sentiment, and then start promoting your product on the market on your own. At the same time, it is quite realistic initial stage achieve your goals without investing a penny in it. But, as you know, for a business, regardless of its direction, scale and other factors, the most important thing is a good start, which is possible only with at least a minimum capital.

Representatives of specialized companies who know Internet marketing from a to z work in the following areas:

promotion of Internet resources (from $150/month);

conducting paid courses

What is marketing?

There are many different definitions of marketing. For example, Philip Kotler, founder modern school marketing gives this: "Marketing is the art and science of choosing the right target market, attracting, retaining and increasing the number of customers by creating the confidence of the buyer that he represents the highest value for the company".

If you do not go into the intricacies of formulations, then we can say that in the broadest sense marketing is the introduction into the market. This introduction does not begin with the purchase of banners and not with the placement of videos, but with answers to questions: where to go, why to go and why.

Perhaps the most important thing is choosing the right direction. By analogy with the epic heroes, the chosen path determines the entire future fate of the company. About half of the success of the project is laid at this stage. It is equally important to realistically assess the volume of the market, its strengths and weaknesses.

Components of Internet Marketing

Internet marketing consists of various parts, each of which helps to solve, in fact, the same tasks (delivering information about a company or product to the consumer and stimulating him to make a purchase of goods and services), but from different angles. Aggregate usage various ways allows you to get a much larger audience reach. Let's take a closer look at the main components of Internet marketing.

I.SMM. Social media

Promotion on social Internet sites is a particularly relevant trend in the field of Internet marketing.

Let's list main types of social media:

The use of social networks is most effective for obtaining feedback from product consumers and raising audience awareness about the product, managing the company's reputation and forming the desired image, and stimulating sales. Social networks also contribute to the cultivation of "brand ambassadors". "Brand ambassadors" are people who may not be direct customers, but who consider the company reliable and trustworthy, and inform their circle of contacts about it. These tasks are solved through personal communication with interested users: various consultations, contests, discounts, promotions are held, applications are developed, discussions are organized, etc.

Let's move on to the next component of Internet marketing - contextual advertising. Contextual advertising is shown to the user in the search results in response to his request, which is an absolute advantage of this type of advertising. Context is good because it allows you to quickly get a response from the audience and quickly make changes to the advertising campaign. Blocks with ads are placed both to the right of the search results and above them.

A study of search engines using eye-tracking technology, conducted in , showed that the maximum attention of users is concentrated in the area of ​​​​the first places of issue or the block of special placement of contextual advertising (above the issue in the central part of the screen). To place contextual ads, the services offered by the search engines Yandex (Yandex.Direct), Google (Google AdWords), as well as the well-known Begun service are mainly used. You can master them yourself or use the services of specialists.

In addition to contextual advertising, one can distinguish another type of advertising, such as targeted advertising in social networks. Targeted advertising does not go in the context of the user's request, but is issued according to the specified settings of the target audience, for example, gender, age, marital status, region, up to the city, district or street - that is, in the context of individual "characteristics" of the individual.

III. SEO

We move on. Search engine promotion (SEO) is a set of activities aimed at increasing the visibility of a website in search engine results in order to attract more visitors. As a rule, TOP-3 has 100% visibility for the user, but the lower the position of the site, the lower this indicator falls. Obviously, very few users are interested in SERPs outside of the first page.

Of the advantages, the following can be noted: it inspires confidence among users, the relatively low cost of a visitor, SEO gives a long-term effect that applies to all search engines.

SEO also has disadvantages: a long time to reach the TOP, the difficulty of predicting changes in search engine algorithms, low stability of results.

Along with the classic internal and external optimization (bringing the site and its link environment in line with search engine ranking criteria), more and more attention is paid to behavioral factors.

These factors take into account the entire "history of relationships" of users with the site:

• clickability of the link in the search results,
• returns to the issue after visiting the site,
• bounce rate,
• time on site/page,
• viewing depth,
• following a link from another site,
• transitions through bookmarks,
• transitions from social networks.

Consideration of the components of Internet marketing will continue with an acquaintance with media advertising. Media advertising formats are very diverse. These are banners, and reach media (pop-up, audio banners, pop-ups), and video, and many others. Using this type of online advertising allows you to accurately target a campaign to a specific audience using targeting settings by region, age, days of the week, and other parameters.

Often, the CTR value (the ratio of the number of clicks to the number of impressions) is used to evaluate the success of an advertising campaign, but for display advertising this is a relative concept. A CTR of 0.3-0.5% is an approximate norm for a good banner, although, of course, the indicators vary significantly depending on the specifics of the industry or the purpose of the advertising campaign. For example, banners can be placed to maintain a constant interest in the brand, that is, by and large, they may not be intended directly for a click, but be an image advertisement. The response from image advertising cannot be assessed immediately after the end of the campaign, since most often the effect is calculated on a long-term period. Of the performance indicators of this type of advertising, it is worth noting the following: coverage of the target audience, the cost of this coverage, audience loyalty. For a product advertising campaign, it makes sense to analyze and evaluate the cost of going to the site, the cost of a target visitor, the cost of a targeted action, the cost of a client (average profit per client, ROI).

• a clear appeal to the audience, a clear message,
• brevity, informative (5 - 6 words),
• the site should be a continuation of the banner in style,
• the rule of the last "frame" (frame) - a clear call to action,
• technical requirements: weight no more than 30 kb, the presence of a stub,
• the use of interactive, images of people, humor, intrigue work to attract the user; repel - flashy colors, aggressiveness.

V. PR on the Internet

We move on. PR on the Internet. The goals and objectives of this component of Internet marketing are in many ways similar to SMM: it is both increasing brand awareness and increasing audience loyalty, working to create a favorable company image, promoting a product to the market, and improving its consumer characteristics. That is, in both SMM and PR, work is carried out both on direct sales and on creating ideas about the project among potential customers. By and large, communication with the audience on social networks can be considered part of Internet PR. But apart from this communication, online PR tools also includes:

1) news, press releases (it should be borne in mind that the Internet public has an extremely negative attitude towards automatic mass mailings, so any appeal should be as targeted as possible),

2) articles for industry sites,

3) expert comments,

4) monitoring of mentions of the company, etc.

Collaborations with bloggers are relevant, but the latest trends are such that, most likely, information about the company on the blog will be posted with an explanation of the advertising nature of the message. Custom posts are surely becoming a thing of the past with the increasing education of the online audience.

Website is also a direct part of PR. In order for the company's website to work effectively as a PR tool, it is necessary to responsibly approach its content:

• post information about employees, reports, presentations, links to mention in the media,
• tell us about the history of the company, achievements, news,
• give detailed information about products, recommendations and instructions, post photos,
• integrate into social networks and blogs.

Here we have considered the main components of Internet marketing. In addition to these sources, the process of Internet marketing includes audience analysis, and work on site usability (the level of site convenience for the user and potential client), visitor conversion, and, of course, analytics.

Analytics

Bringing visitors to your site using the methods listed above is only half the battle. Without analyzing their behavior on the site, any work to attract visitors turns into firing a cannon at sparrows. There are various web analytics systems. To collect data on the site, a special counter code is set. The most popular are LiveInternet, Google Analytics, "Yandex.Metrika". Key performance indicators of the site, such as: the number of visits, traffic sources, clicks from search phrases - are available in all systems. The differences are in the number of counter settings, the simplicity of the interface. And, of course, each system has its own "chip", like, for example, Yandex's Webvisor technology, which allows you to reproduce the actions of visitors in video format and find out what they are doing on each page.

In general, web analytics allows you to effectively monitor the traffic coming to the site online, evaluate user behavior from various sources, and compare visitors from various types of advertising. With the right settings of Internet statistics systems, you can get fairly accurate data about which sites are most effective for buying ads, which users are more likely to become target visitors, that is, who have completed a certain action on the site. Goals are also set in the analytics system interface.

The purpose of the work site can be:

- visiting a specific page,

– completed registration, purchase,

- subscription,

- adding a comment,

- download,

– filling out the form,

- time on site

- viewing depth.

If we are talking about a website as a component of Internet marketing, then an effective way of analytics in this case is a usability audit. The audit is carried out by a group of researchers who, in a practical way, identify the shortcomings of the site.

In this article, we tried to answer the question: "What is Internet marketing?", what it consists of and how it works. We considered some ways to promote the company on the Internet, outlined the main components of the selling site, and also found out what tools can be used to monitor both the effectiveness of the resource and the success of ongoing advertising campaigns.

The material was prepared based on the results.