Chapter 7

1.

Chapter 7

1.      Explain the difference between marketing and marketing communications.

Marketing communications has a dual purpose; branding and sales.  One purpose of marketing comm. is to develop and strengthen a firm’s brands by informing consumers about the differentiating feature of the firm’s products and services. 

2.      What are some reasons why online advertising constitutes only about 9 percent of the total advertising market?

Some reasons why online advertising constitutes only about 9 percent of the total advertising market is because consumer, financial services, computers, telecommunications and media account for 80% of all online advertising.

3.      What kinds of products are most suited to being advertised online?

Products that are most suited to being advertised online are ones that are able to be in display ads, have rich media ads, and video ads. 

4.      What is the difference between an interstitial ad and a superstitial ad?

An interstitial ad is a way of placing a full-page message between the current and destination pages of a user.  A superstitial ad is a rich media ad that is pre-loaded into a browser’s cache and does not play until fully loaded and the user clicks to another page.

5.      What are some of the reasons for the decline in click-through rates on banner ads today? How can banner ads be made more effective?

Some reasons for the decline in click-through rates on banner ads today are because banner ads display different images in relatively quick succession, creating an animated effect and uses Flash video.

6.      Why are some affiliate relationships called “tenancy” deals? How do they differ from pure affiliate relationships?

Some affiliate relationships are called tenancy deals because they allow a firm to become a long-term “tenant” on another site.  They differ from pure affiliate relationships because an affiliate relationship is only a permit to be a tenant, and a tenancy deal is long term.

7.      There is some controversy surrounding paid placements on search engines. What are some of the issues surrounding paid placement search engines? Why might consumers object to this practice?

The Achilles’ heel of search engine marketing is “click fraud”.  Just as spam has greatly reduced the utility of e-mail marketing, so has click fraud raised the costs and reduced the attractiveness of search engine marketing to merchants.  Some of the issues surrounding paid placement search engines are that anyone including competitors can click on search engine ads, driving up a merchant’s costs, without ever purchasing anything.  Consumers may object to this practice because you can increase your revenue by having friends and relatives click on the ads Google or Microsoft place on your site without even purchasing anything.

8.      What are some of the advantages of direct e-mail marketing?

Some advantages of direct e-mail marketing are by sending e-mail to an opt-in audience, advertisers were targeting interested consumers.  Response rates to legitimate, opt-in e-mail campaigns average just over 6%, depending on the targeting and freshness of the list. 

9.      What is the difference between hits and page views? Why are these not the best measurements of Web traffic? Which is the preferred metric for traffic counts?

Hits are number of http requests received by a firm’s server and page views are the number of pages requested by visitors.  These are not the best measurements of Web traffic because a hit does not equal a page.  A single page may account for several hits if the page contains multiple images or graphics.  A single Web site visitor can generate hundreds of hits.

10.  Define CTR, CPM, CPC, and CPA.

CTR is click-through rate which is the percentage of people exposed to an online advertisement who actually click on the banner.  CPM is cost per thousand which is advertiser prays for impressions in 1,000-unit lots.  CPC cost per click which is when an advertiser pays prenegotiated fee for each click an ad receives.  CPA cost per action is when advertisers pays only for those users who perform a specific action.

11.  What are the key attributes of a good domain name?

Key attributes of a good domain name are it should be short, memorable, not easily confused with others, and difficult to misspell. 

12.  What are some of the steps a firm can take to optimize its search engine rankings?

Some of the steps a firm can take to optimize its search engine rankings are is register it with as many search engines as possible, so that a user looking for similar Web sites has a change of coming across the firm’s site.  Ensure that keywords used in the Web site description match keywords likely to be used as search terms by prospective customers.  Place keywords in a Web site’s metatag and page title.  Link the Web site to as many other Web sites as possible, both in-coming links and out-going links. 

13.  List and describe some Web site design features that impact online purchasing.

Some Web site design features that impact online purchasing are one click purchase capability, product list navigation and choice features that save consumers time.