Page 243 - Electronic Commerce

Chapter 4

and collectors have created Web sites on which they share photos and other information
about model trains. Marti is interested in creating an affiliate marketing program that would
allow those hobbyists to place links on their sites to The Cannonball and be rewarded with
commissions on sales that result from visitors following those links. Examine the services
offered by Commission Junction, Rakuten LinkShare, or any other affiliate program brokers
218 you can find on the Web. Recommend at least one affiliate program broker that would be a
good fit for Marti’s business. In about 500 words, explain your recommendation. Be sure to
consider the characteristics of Marti’s business in your analysis.
6. You are the new marketing manager for the Midland Daily Courier, a weekly newspaper
that publishes local news, high school sports results, and feature stories about local busi-
nesses and political issues. The paper also publishes several regular columns written by
local experts on gardening, home repair, and crafts. Like many small weeklies, the Courier
has seen its subscriber base shrink gradually over the past 10 years. The newspaper has a
Web site on which it posts all of the display ads that run in the print edition, its free classi-
fied ads, and all of the news content from the print edition. Your job is to work with the
publisher and the editorial staff to revive interest in the paper and devise marketing plans
that will either increase subscriptions directly or generate increased interest and awareness
of the newspaper’s value to potential subscribers. In about 400 words, provide a viral mar-
keting plan that uses blogs and social media tools to generate interest in the Courier.Be
specific about how you would promote each element of the newspaper’s offerings, including
which tool you would use for which element.

Cases

C1. Oxfam
For more than 70 years, Oxfam has worked through and with its donors, staff, project partners,
and project participants to overcome poverty and injustice around the world. Early in World War
II, Greece was occupied by the German army. Allied forces created a naval blockade around
Greece to prevent further German expansion; however, the blockade caused Greek civilians to
suffer severe shortages of food and medicine. In response to this humanitarian crisis, a number
of Famine Relief Committees were formed by people in Great Britain to ship emergency sup-
plies through the Allied blockade.
Most of these committees ceased operations after the war ended and the Greek crisis
subsided; however, one of them, the Oxford Committee for Famine Relief, saw a continuing
humanitarian need throughout postwar Europe and expanded its operations to provide aid there
and, in later years, the rest of the world. The Committee eventually became known by its
abbreviated telegraph address, Oxfam, and the name was formally adopted in 1965.
Oxfam’s growth was due to many dedicated volunteers and donors who continued and
expanded their financial support of the organization. In the 1960s, Oxfam began to generate
significant revenues from its retail stores. These shops, located throughout Great Britain, accept
donations of goods and handcrafted items from overseas for resale. Today, those stores are
located around the world, number more than 1200 and are staffed by more than 35,000 volun-
teers. The British organization has joined with 15 other charitable organizations to become an

Copyright 2015 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s).
Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.