Page 37 - Marketing Management

14 PART 1 UNDERSTANDING MARKETING MANAGEMENT

found record levels of marketing resistance from consumers; a majority reported negative
opinions about marketing and advertising and said they avoid products they feel are over-
marketed. 25

New Company Capabilities
These major societal forces create complex challenges for marketers, but they have also generated a
new set of capabilities to help companies cope and respond.

• Marketers can use the Internet as a powerful information and sales channel. The
Internet augments marketers’ geographical reach to inform customers and promote prod-
ucts worldwide. A Web site can list products and services, history, business philosophy, job
opportunities, and other information of interest. In 2006, a Montgomery, Alabama, flea
market gained national popularity when owner Sammy Stephens’s rap-style advertisement
spread virally through the Internet. Created for $1,500, the advertisement was viewed more
than 100,000 times on YouTube and landed Stephens on The Ellen DeGeneres Show.
Stephens now sells T-shirts, ring tones, and other branded merchandise through his Web
site, advises retailers about advertising, and hosts hundreds of visitors from all over the
world at his store each month. 26
• Marketers can collect fuller and richer information about markets, customers, prospects,
and competitors. Marketers can conduct fresh marketing research by using the Internet to
arrange focus groups, send out questionnaires, and gather primary data in several other ways.
They can assemble information about individual customers’ purchases, preferences, demo-
graphics, and profitability. The drugstore chain CVS uses loyalty-card data to better under-
stand what consumers purchase, the frequency of store visits, and other buying preferences. Its
ExtraCare program netted an extra 30 million shoppers and $12 billion a year in revenue
across 4,000 stores. 27
• Marketers can tap into social media to amplify their brand message. Marketers can feed in-
formation and updates to consumers via blogs and other postings, support online communi-
ties, and create their own stops on the Internet superhighway. Dell Corporation’s
@DellOutlet Twitter account has more than 600,000 followers. Between 2007 and June 2009,
Dell took in more than $2 million in revenue from coupons provided through Twitter, and
another $1 million from people who started at Twitter and went on to buy a new computer
on the company’s Web site. 28
• Marketers can facilitate and speed external communication among customers. Marketers
can also create or benefit from online and offline “buzz” through brand advocates and user

Sammy Stephen’s viral video
helped his flea market receive
unprecedented attention.