Marketing communication: principles and practice

COMMUNICATING IN E-COMMERCE
The accelerating proliferation of Internet-based (World Wide Web)
commercial activity has two aspects: electronic transactions in which offer
and purchase data flows between computer systems (e.g. product and price
list, and credit card number and delivery address), and mediated human
interactions (such as fault reporting, or service request). They differ as
follows: electronic transactions do not have people (directly) participating,
whereas human interactions are personal between two or more people. The
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challenge for the growing number of customer relationship management
(CRM) vendors is how to move the capability of their technologies beyond
merely enabling the former to enabling and facilitating both.
Hollensen (2001) identifies three levels of commitment to e-commerce
that have significance for the communication manager (summarized in 
Table 18.1).
The ‘new’ business model requires that corporations manage relationships
(see Fulop and Linstead, 1999, for example) through dialogue as the basis
for value-based marketing that aims to make and keep negotiated promises
through invested dialogue in the economic community. Traditional notions
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Table 18.1
Level of commitment to interaction
Commitment
Interaction
Basic commitment
The Internet is used as an additional channel 
to represent the corporation and as a means 
One-to-many information broadcast
of low-cost product brochure distribution. The 
aim is low-cost presence and a ‘high-tech’ 
image, often as a reaction to competitor 
moves. The emphasis is on providing 
information and the site design does not 
encourage anything beyond product 
enquiries, but improves the corporation’s 
promotional budget efficiency. 
Intermediate commitment
At this level the degree of interactivity is 
greater, since communication is no longer