Chapter I

INTRODUCTIONAs we already noticed, defining E- Marketing is still highly problematic. Still, what do we mean when we use this term? As many other English words, the term was born by adding the prefix e- to a term already known and used, in this case marketing. The prefix e- is actually the extreme contraction of the word electronic and is quite omnipresent in todays language of many people: E- Marketing, e-business, e-mail, e-learning, e-commerce,

The simpliest definition of E- Marketing could be that suggested by Mark Sceats: the marketing that uses E- as manifestation channel.

A more comprehensive, practical definition is the one formulated by specialists of CISCO company: E- Marketing is a generic term utilized for a wide range of activities advertising, customer communications, branding, fidelity programs etc. using the E-. More than the simple development of a website, the E- Marketing focuses on E- communications, direct dialog with consumers who thus participate to the creation of new products, finding efficient methods to win customers fidelity and ease their business-making process. E- Marketing is the sum of activities a company makes with the purpose of finding, attracting, winning and retaining customers.

At last, for those of you interested in a more scientific approach, we could say that E- Marketing allows relational exchanges in digital, networked and interactive environments (acronym: DNI environments). Earlier in the history of E- Marketing, it was conceptualized as being focused upon the exchanges, but todays theoreticians suggest the exchange paradigm is a limited modality to define E- Marketing.

In early 90s, the marketing theory re-oriented towards the relational exchanges paradigm, mainly because marketing used to give more importance to gaining new customers rather than retaining the existing ones. Studies performed have indicated that the major economic benefits come from raising fidelity among customers as a result of customer retention. This is the perspective that led to the apparition of the relational marketing, which is based on the necessity of developing interactions with individual customers. The marketing management advanced by Philip Kotler promotes the idea of the transactional marketing being included into a larger concept, that of relational marketing. Such an enlarged perspective would see marketing as a relation made of continuous series of interactive collaborations with each individual customer.

A second impact upon the marketing philosophy would be the reality of the E--based interactions. In the E- world, consumers are able to initiate interactions at any time, from anywhere, before or after the act of exchange itself, which means, in other words, that the exchange paradigm is highly restrictive as far as E- Marketing is concerned. Additionally, most interactions generated from websites tend to be personalized, at least at a minimal level such as recognizing a visitor by using cookies (cookie = specialized file resident in the computers memory, containing information about the websites accessed). The relational marketing became efficient on a large scale due to the relatively low cost of the new database technologies and the multitude of applications designed to work over the E-.

In conclusion, the tendencies concerning the relational character of the E- Marketing show that, from now on, marketing should be defined from a relational perspective rather than transactional.

The E- and the World Wide Web provide marketers with new tools and added convenience that can increase the success of their marketing efforts. The Web offers several technologies and applications that could enhance customer service, marketing and advertising efforts with a reasonable cost. The Web could improve customer service by sending e-mail for order confirmation, product announcements, and order tracking. The Web provides customer service through corporate web sites, integrated call centers, E- help desks, and E- customer service.

In recent years, customers have used business web sites for many different applications: downloading forms, software patches, printer drivers, minor upgrades to an existing software, and receiving on time answers to frequently asked questions. All of these features have improved customer service and lowered costs for both the business and its customers.

E- marketing should be used with traditional marketing to create the most effective corporate marketing strategy. This strategy includes a focus on attracting new customers to the Web site of your work and bringing them back repeatedly.

By discovering the group of people toward whom it is most profitable to aim your marketing campaign target market you can focus your campaign and increase the number of visits, responses and purchases. Keeping user profiles, recording visits and analyzing promotional and advertising results are keys to measuring the effectiveness of marketing campaigns.

Generating Web-site traffic is also important to the success of an e-business. Most web surfers use search engines to find what they are looking for on the Web. Therefore, registering an ecommerce site with popular search engines and using the right keyword in the page (body and title) is vital. If the web masters and web designers do not use the right keyword, the site may not show up among the top listings; therefore, the page may not be seen by a potential visitor.

If you use well, actually Web is an effective marketing instrument. Different advertising and marketing tools on the Web include banner advertisements, discussion lists, e-mail and registering e-mail, links on other web sites, newsgroups, E- classified advertisements, message boards and special interest shopping centers, display screens, spot leasing, intelligent agents.

The Web helps in E- customer research. Customers by using E- catalogs are able to conduct product searches and compare and contrast different features of different products.

Legal data about customers can also be collected directly or indirectly through cookies, intelligent agents and E- questionnaires. E- customer data can be collected very fast and with minimum cost. Intelligent agents are rule based software that can be used effectively in the e-commerce environment. Intelligent agents and shopping bots are increasingly used in the ecommerce world to assist customers in finding the cheapest possible prices for customer. They are also a marketing tool for collecting relevant information regarding customers purchasing habits and the sites they usually visit.

To better understand Web marketing and advertising some commonly used terminology can found in Appendix II at the end of this chapter.The Web as a Marketing Tool

The Web puts large and small organizations on the same foothold. Regardless of size or financial strengths, any business can sell goods and services through the Web. Users have already divided themselves into interest or newsgroups entire with e-mail addresses. Because of the democratic atmosphere consumers are on the plus side of the power balance. They can respond individually to a marketing attempt or they can spread the word to their associates. If they support, everything is fine; however, if they dislike, consumers have the power in this medium to cause chaos with an ill-fated marketing attempt.

Users unhappy at receiving material from catalog companies have busy them with messages not to do it again. Marketers, therefore, should only post brief messages to related newsgroups that are relevant to a companys campaign. Suitable newsgroups should be identified before attempting contact. Martin Nisenholtz has suggested the following six guidelines for E- advertising

Advertise only in selected newsgroups.

Never send disturbing messages.

Use full agreement to conduct direct selling or promotions.

Obtain the consumers permission when carrying out research.

Take permission of the user prior to selling consumer data.

Never use E- communications to hide real activities of the business.

Businesses successfully use passive advertising by setting up bulletin boards. This requires minimal investment to cover the hardware and software costs. An alternative would be to publish advertisements through an E- service provider (ISP) such as SuperE- or EKolay, a directory such as Yahoo!, or a search engine such as Google. However, if you plan to deal with E- Marketing, a home page is the medium perhaps best suited for advertising on the World Wide Web.

Many companies have established home pages for business advertising. Here, the advantage is that marketing messages can be individually customized for each customer. Companies are generally making product information, press releases, e-mail index, and financial information available via the Web. Some manufacturers now start to include a URL address on their cans or bottles or packets that a customer can access for additional information on the product, such as information related to the ingredients, nutritional facts, and so forth. Newsgroups are other advertising areas on the Web. For example, if a business wanted to advertise a cat food, (hey could post their advertisement in newsgroups that are interested in cats.Business use of the Web is still very much in the introductory stage, thus, small advertisers are producing the majority of E- advertising. The present situation can be compared to the early days of cable TV. On the other hand, the introduction of cable modems and Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line (ADSL) - form of DSL- will result in increased popularity and business usage of the Web.

Any organization using the Web can advertise all over the world and sell 7-days a week, 24- hours a day. The Web serves is a strong marketing tool for all types of organizations regardless of their size and the types of products and services that they sell.

The Web as a marketing tool

Collecting marketing data through the Web could improve the marketing efforts of any organization. An organization using these data will be able to customize a particular product or service to the specific needs and requirements of a potential buyer. Marketing data can be collected through various tools available on the Web with reasonable cost. E-mail, E- forms, E- questionnaires, discussion lists, newsgroups, cookies, and intelligent agents are among the popular tools that can be used for this purpose. The businesses can utilize these data and do different types of analyses including determining the status of the subscriber (if the taken data is E-), the accuracy of the data and so forth.

Advertising traditional products through the Web to sell has become popular in recent years.E- stores are able to offer a variety of choices and in many cases lower prices. With the introduction of e-wallets, e-cash, and other electronic payment systems (EPSs), customers are able to pay for these products and services with improved security and convenience. This is basically transferring the old trade model to the Web and taking advantage of all the technologies and applications that the Web offers.

Advertising digital products to sell is a new way that businesses can generate revenue with reasonable expenses. Downloading a piece of software, a song, a magazine article, or a movie are some examples. These applications are expected to increase dramatically, with the increased popularity of cable modems, ADSL that can allow higher bandwidth, and tightersecurity measures.

E- marketing is becoming popular applications of Web marketing. Marketers are able le reach a wide geographic base and collect marketing data with no or reasonable cost. These marketing data can be used for testing various experiments, such as the attractiveness of an advertising campaign or the strengths and weaknesses of a marketing medium, with moderate costs.

Supporting marketing 4P can be done by the help of the Web. Marketing is related with product, price, promotion, and place (4P). The data related to the four factors of marketing can be collected very rapidly with moderate cost. The Web provides unparalleled support for these 4P.

The product factor is concerned with the type of products and services that an ebusiness plans to sell. These products and services could be new brand or a

development over existing products and services. The improvements might be price, features and/or usability.

The price factor is concerned with the most suitable price for the product or service. Overpricing and under pricing are both undesirable. Collecting E- data and analyzing a competitors offerings could help the e-business to establish a reasonable price for its products or services.

The promotion factor aims to inform, convince, and remind customers regarding new products and services and encourage repeat sales. Web technology could be able to do this with reasonable costs.

The place factor is concerned with the mechanisms that the e-business uses to get products and services to customer. In many cases, the Web provides virtual storefronts for some customers that otherwise could not have been able to do any transaction with a particular e-business. Customers in remote or rural areas or customers who are immobile and unable to shop in traditional stores are some examples.

Appendix I gives some Web resources for conducting successful Web marketing and advertising.

Customization can be provided by the Web with moderate cost. For example, Amazon.com displays specific recommendations based on the customers previous purchases. These kinds of services are very expensive in traditional marketing. The e-business can move from providing general products or services to providing products or services customized to a customers needs, tastes and preferences by the help of the Web. The following two technologies are commonly used to provide customization/personalization:

Push technology: The customer is automatically offered with information by being sent to the right place. The Web can send relevant information to the customer workstation.

Pull technology: The customer must express a need in order to receive information.

The Web is able to implement this strategy very effectively with moderate cost. Virtual storefronts -the Web servers- help the businesses to attract the customers. This virtual site of a business can effectively express the unique offerings of an e-commerce site to potential visitors and can be easily modified to reflect the new offerings. Customers can browse through the site at their own speed to find special products and services. Figure 2.2,

Figure 2.3 and Figure 2.4 demonstrate the opening page of biletix.com, hepsiburada.com and ebay.com, respectively. Each storefront has diverse goals and purposes, and each one express a different message to its customers. Browse through these sites to see how effectively they are using the Web for diverse business purposes.

Matching products and services to customers needs is a powerful feature of Web marketing. The internal search engines available on many of e-commerce sites allow the customer to search for a particular product and service. For Example, sites such as Amazon.com display recommendations onto the site based on your earlier purchases.

Contact with customers is allowed by the Web to the e-businesses. Using e-mail and the company web site, customers can freely state their opinions regarding the products and services sold by a potential e-commerce site, as the e-business and its customers are in close contact. In other words, the Web offers an open forum for customers.

E- Marketing must be defined to include the management of the consumers E- experience of the product, from first encounter through purchase to delivery and beyond. Digital marketers should care about the consumers E- experiences for the simple reason that all of them -- good, bad, or indifferent -- influence consumer perceptions of a product or a brand. The web offers companies ownership and control of all interactions with customers and thus creates both the ability and the need to improve their overall experience.

There are two reasons for building the concept of E- Marketing around consumer experiences. First, this approach forces marketers to adopt the consumers point of view. Second, it forces managers to pay attention to all aspects of their digital brands interactions with the consumer, from the design of the product or service to the marketing message, the sales and fulfillment processes, and the after-sales customer service effort.

The E- allows for the entire sales cycle to be conducted on one medium, nearly instantaneously. From making the consumer aware of the product to providing additional information to transacting the final purchase, the E- can accomplish it all. The E- is like one big point-of-sales display, with easy access to products and the ability for impulse shopping. Impulse shoppers have found a true friend in the E-. Within seconds from being made aware of a product, consumers can purchase it E-. Further, with the targeting techniques available to advertisers, consumers who turn down a product because of the price can be identified and served a special offer more likely to result in a purchase. In the right hands, with the right tools, the E- really is an advertisers dream come true.

As opposed to the 4 Ps of brick-and-mortar marketing, the changing outlook in the area of E- Marketing can be explained on the basis of 7 Cs of E- Marketing.

Contract: The e-marketers first goal is to communicate a core promise for a truly distinctive value proposition appealing to the target customers.

Content: refers to whatever appears on the website itself and on hot linked websites. If chosen appropriately, it can increase both the rates at which browsers are converted into buyers and their transactions.

Construction: The promises made by e-marketers are not unique to the E-, but the mediums interactive capabilities make it easier for them to deliver on their promises quickly, reliably, and rewardingly.

In practice, this means that promises must be translated into specific interactive functions and Web design features collectively giving consumers a seamless experience. Such design features as one-click ordering and automated shopping help deliver the promise of convenience.

Community: Through site-to-user and user-to-user forms of interactivity (such as chat rooms), e-marketers can develop a core of dedicated customers who become avid marketers of the site too.

Concentration: Targeting through E- behavioral profiling. Advertisers have known for some time that behavioral targeting (a.k.a., profiling) is vastly superior to simple demographic targeting. Knowledge of a consumers past purchases interests, likes/dislikes, and behavior in general allows an advertiser to target an advertisement much more effectively. Department stores have long

kept track of consumers past purchases. They are thus able to project what other types of products a consumer might be interested in and then send an appropriate coupon or sale offer. Credit card companies are the ultimate gatherers of behavioral targeting information. They maintain vast databases of cardholders past transactions, and they sell lists of this data to advertisers. The same type of behavioral model is forming on the E-. Publishers and advertisement networks monitor the items that a consumer has expressed interest in or purchased on a site (or network of sites) in the past and target

advertisements based on this information.

Convergence: We will soon enter the next round of the E- Marketing battle as broadband reaches the masses. The E- will become more ubiquitous and wireless; televisions will become more interactive; video/data/voice appliances will converge; brand advertising and direct marketing practices will integrate; domestic brands, commerce and marketing will become even more global; and

big marketing spenders will spend more money E-. Many companies that are well positioned today will need to continue to evolve to take advantage of the opportunities. The success of E- advertising companies will largely be driven by how they maneuver among the coming developments. Rich media, brought on by broadband, will allow advertisers much greater creativity by bringing in new types of advertising to the E-, as well as enhancing some of the more traditional forms. Broadband technology will allow the convergence of television and the E-.

Dubbed interactive TV, in its simplest form, will consist of a television with some interactive capabilities. Basically, a user will see a television screen that is three-quarters traditional television, but with a frame that has E- capabilities. This frame will allow users to access up-to-the-minute sports scores or news on the Web, for example. More importantly for E- marketers, it would allow viewers to immediately leap to the website of an advertiser whose ad was being shown. The user could find out more information or order the product right there.

Commerce: The last emerging fundamental of E- Marketing is commerce, whether it includes offering goods and services directly, or marketing those of another company for a fee, thus helping to cover the fixed costs of site operations and to offset customer acquisition costs.

To be successful on the E-, e-marketers will have to do more than reproduce their off-line business models on line because these business models work only at considerable scale. Interestingly, It is possible for E- marketers to be profitable even at lower sales volume if they exploit efficiencies in e-Emarketing and synergies with the off-line business, with examples as follows.

Exploiting more than one channel to close the transaction:

Although early winners on the web might belong to an exclusive club of E- start-up companies, established players in the off-line industry can catch them and even overtake them by offering a choice of channels.

Leveraging low customer acquisition costs: Traditional brick-andmortar companies can bring their existing customers E- at a much lesser cost than E- start-up companies who must lay out a hefty amount per head to acquire customers.

Exploiting alternative revenue streams: An E- presence offers an E-marketer a wider variety of sales opportunities. For web-based retailers, acting as an agent on behalf of the customer can become a revenue source in the future.

Purchasing scale at low volumes: E-marketers can cut down on their purchasing cost and shorten their procurement cycle by replacing EDI tools with E- based ones that facilitate product comparison, streamline logistics, and help B2B vendors aggregate their retailers back office purchases.

Reducing customer churn: Given the high cost of replacing established customers, losing them is expensive. A web presence supplies the personalized attention that could keep customers loyal.

Maximizing the pricing potential: It has been reported by consumer researchers that buyers shop E- more for convenience than for cost. In view of this relative indifference to price, e-marketers can capture some margin premium, at least in the early days of their sites.

Challenges in E- Marketing: Every E- fulfillment operation, large or small, faces four main challenges: controlling customer data, integrating on- and off-line orders, delivering the goods costeffectively, and handling returns.

Controlling customer data: As outsourcing arrangements proliferate and delivery services become more expert in using information technology, e-marketers risk losing their lock on consumer data. In an economy where knowledge is revenue as well as power, e-marketers must consider how to strike a balance between the efficiencies offered by the out-sourcing of fulfillment and the confidentiality that keeping data in-house preserves.

Integrating on and off-line orders: When the volume of orders is high, companies must decide how much integration they need. In a totally integrated system, E- orders would be automatically transmitted through a processing center and transferred to the suppliers manifest. An integrated system with full ERP (enterprise resource-planning) capabilities, for example, can ensure that surges in demand dont retard key fulfillment operations such as data entry, inventory, and packing.

Although the problems of rapid growth are complex in themselves, the lack of a fully integrated order management system compounds them. In the future evolution of the Web, however, integration will become essential for building effective customer service and package-tracking systems.

Delivering the goods cost-effectively: At present, every single transaction challenges e-marketers to deliver the goods quickly, cheaply, and conveniently. But this is largely a technical and logistical problem, and it will be possible (though perhaps expensive) to solve it by developing new sorting and scanning equipment and by deploying larger delivery vehicles. Making contact with the recipient is a trickier problem but one that must be resolved if the full potential of eimpulse orders is to be realized, for an impulse purchase loses its power to gratify if the product or service takes too long to appear. But since each missed delivery adds as much as a full day to the fulfillment process, spanning that final mile to the home can take longer than

traveling the rest of the fulfillment loop.

Handling returns: E- marketers, with their emphasis on convenience and customization, must match the high standard of service exhibited by some physical marketers regarding returns. At present, they do not. To begin with, few ecommerce retailers (or mail order companies, for that matter) design their packaging for easy returns. Customers often have to find new packing materials, call to arrange credits and refunds, and physically take packages to delivery services. Each step represents an inconvenience that, however minor, can combine with others to create negative feelings about the vendor. Even if a

convenient solution for returns were developed, e-marketers might discover that impulse sales carry hidden costs. The implication is that fulfillment costs must be driven down to preserve profitability.

Choice of Marketing Strategy

An E- companys choice of marketing strategy will depend on four main variables: the nature of the customers interaction with the product and seller; the current capabilities of the business; the capabilities that are (or will become) commodity operations, in which competitive advantage cannot be sustained; and the trade-off between time and control.

This is essentially a value chain concept (as propounded by Porter) whereby e-marketers look at each component of the value chain and the support activities to determine where and in what form can they add value to the customer. This translates into their competitive advantage. And in this entire process, it is the 7 Cs of E- Marketing that act as fundamental guiding principles.

Rethinking the business model

As e-marketers align the contract and the construction, they must also align the economic model that will sustain their businesses. For most of them, the very process of taking the brand E- will force a fundamental reconsideration of the business. Digital brands offer a richer consumer experience than their physicalworld counterparts, so they can and should make money by tapping into broader revenue and profit pools than any single physical-world business might enjoy. The economic model must be expanded because building digital brands around consumer experiences is expensive. A number of different sources of revenue ultimately make it possible for an e-business to deliver a richer experience to the consumer. Since E- consumers expect combinations of product types and functional benefits different from those expected by off-line consumers, marketers must adopt several different economic models to succeed.

There are four basic economic models. The success of an E- Marketing foray rests on the skill with which two or more of them are combined.

Channel supporter: E-marketers can use the E- more to support their existing channels than to generate additional sales. Beyond cross-channel promotions, many brick-and-mortar companies can use the web to increase their customers understanding of their products and services. Others can harness the webs interactivity to improve their product development and product mixes by inviting customer responses on their web sites.

Advisory and information service providers: An expert (such as an investment adviser or a personal shopper) can offer consumers unbiased advice for a fee. A business can also collect, process, and sell information through the E-.

Retail model: Vendors or products can be aggregated to facilitate transactions for buyers. Many companies can also achieve success as E- auctioneers. Sellers of goods and services can provide the content; community may come from matching sellers with buyers and setting bidder against bidder; and commissions on sales and advertising revenue can generate the commerce.

Vertical model: The business model that may take the greatest advantage of the E- is the vertical model, which specializes, in a particular category or a product. It might provide specialized information and advise as well as access to a community with common interests.

Creating winning E- Marketing strategies would require managers to reconsider how they view both E- and marketing. Off-line Marketers have long thrived by delivering narrow solutions to limited customer needs. E-, however, customers have learned to expect that the companies they patronize will meet a much fuller spectrum of their needs and desires. To succeed E-, those companies will have to create full-fledged E- businesses, or digital experience, that can fulfill this expectation.

RELATIONSHIP MARKETING APPROACH

Relationship marketing relies upon the communication and acquisition of consumer requirements solely from existing customers in a mutually beneficial exchange usually involving permission for contact by the customer through an "opt-in" system. With particular relevance to customer satisfaction the relative price and quality of goods and services produced or sold through a company alongside customer service generally determine the amount of sales relative to that of competing companies. Although groups targeted through relationship marketing may be large, accuracy of communication and overall relevancy to the customer remains higher than that of direct marketing, but has less potential for generating new leads than direct marketing and is limited to Viral marketing for the acquisition of further customers.

Marketing, in general, means publicizing your name, program, and service to your target audience. Relationship marketing is the process of attracting, maintaining, and enhancing relationships with key individuals over time. Current research in the field of marketing indicates that forming constructive relationships with select target customers is more important for long-term success than acquiring widespread public awareness within a community.

The success of Extension programs is due to the loyalty of committed participants, volunteers, and lay leaders, as well as support from local decision-makers and elected officials. Since its inception, Extension has been fostering those relationships with core constituencies. Unfortunately, in some cases, these core constituency groups did not include people of color or limited-resource audiences. If Extension is to truly build relationships with these diverse audiences, time and attention must be invested in establishing mutually beneficial relationships. A basic understanding of diversity is crucial when developing strategies for relationship marketing.

Relationship marketing involves the use of one-on-one communication to earn the loyalty of your target audience. While personal marketing (discussed in EDIS fact sheet FY757, Personal Marketing: A Strategy for Marketing Programs to Diverse Audiences) helps you to get your message across in a way that will be better received, relationship marketing helps you to strengthen your relationship with your target audience (DeYoung, B. & Boldt, 1998). Relationship marketing is high-touch, person-to-person communication. And it is the most powerful and time-consuming marketing technique.

Relationship marketing suggests that once your program takes off, your intentions are to be there for the long haul (not just while you have a targeted grant, as may have been the case with many other programs in the community). Diverse communities are accustomed to the short attention span of programs that come in and make a lot of promises, then leave after one or two years when their grants have run out. Consequently, many lose confidence in organizations/agencies. We must show our audiences how Extension is different, and that we are committed for the long-term.

Customer Retention MarketingCustomer Retention Marketing (CRM) is the foundation of relationship marketing. In Extension, the goal of CRM is to convert the target audience into loyalists and loyalists into enthusiasts, advocates, and donors. Here is a useful strategy:

Step 1You will first need to identify the diverse audience with whom you wish to build a relationship. Then you will need to find out the answers to key questions:

What does this audience know about Extension and/or your program?

How does this audience feel about Extension and/or your program (positive or negative)?

What needs does this audience have that your program can meet?

Step 2If they know about Extension and your program, and have favorable feelings towards it, then you will have to keep maintaining a good relationship with your audience by keeping in touch with them through impersonal marketing techniques like mailings, flyers, etc.

If they know about Extension and/or your program, but have negative or indifferent feelings towards it, then you will need to change this negative image before you can build trust. This can begin to happen when you apply The six Ps technique of personal marketing, with special emphasis on promotion and price. (The six P's are covered in EDIS fact sheet FY757, Personal Marketing: A Strategy for Marketing Programs to Diverse Audience).

If the audience does not know much about Extension and/or your program, then you must inform them. You can do this by applying The six P's technique of personal marketing.

Step 3Identify the assets that individuals or institutions in the diverse audience possess. Use the assets of these individuals and institutions to carry out your programs. Volunteers can have short or long-term assignments. These experiences help build program ownership and foster even more participation. (EDIS fact sheet FY760, Maximizing the Assets of A Diverse Community will deal specifically with how to identify the individual and/or institutional assets of diverse audiences.)

Step 4Actively solicit the increased participation and involvement of community members, which will foster greater loyalty to the program.

Step 5Encourage greater support from community members. Loyal individuals are more likely to advocate for the program and/or donate resources to the program.

Each of these steps takes time and attention. Relationship marketing must be nurtured.

RetentionA key principle of relationship marketing is the retention of customers through varying means and practices to ensure repeated trade from preexisting customers by satisfying requirements above those of competing companies through a mutually beneficial relationship This technique is now used as a means of counterbalancing new customers and opportunities with current and existing customers as a means of maximizing profit and counteracting the "leaky bucket theory of business" in which new customers gained in older direct marketing oriented businesses were at the expense of or coincided with the loss of older customers. This process of "churning" is less economically viable than retaining all or the majority of customers using both direct and relationship management as lead generation via new customers requires more investment.

Many companies in competing markets will redirect or allocate large amounts of resources or attention towards customer retention as in markets with increasing competition it may cost 5 times more to attract new customers than it would to retain current customers, as direct or "offensive" marketing requires much more extensive resources to cause defection from competitors However, it is suggested that because of the extensive classic marketing theories center on means of attracting customers and creating transactions rather than maintaining them, the majority usage of direct marketing used in the past is now gradually being used more alongside relationship marketing as it's importance becomes more recognizable..

It is claimed by Reichheld and Sasser that a 5% improvement in customer retention can cause an increase in profitability of between 25 and 85 percent (in terms of net present value) depending on the industry. However Carrol, P. and Reichheld, F. dispute these calculations, claiming they result from faulty cross-sectional analysis.

According to Buchanan and Gilles, the increased profitability associated with customer retention efforts occurs because of several factors that occur once a relationship has been established with a customer.

The cost of acquisition occurs only at the beginning of a relationship, so the longer the relationship, the lower the amortized cost.

Account maintenance costs decline as a percentage of total costs (or as a percentage of revenue).

Long-term customers tend to be less inclined to switch, and also tend to be less price sensitive. This can result in stable unit sales volume and increases in dollar-sales volume.

Long-term customers may initiate free word of mouth promotions and referrals.

Long-term customers are more likely to purchase ancillary products and high margin supplemental products.

Customers that stay with you tend to be satisfied with the relationship and are less likely to switch to competitors, making it difficult for competitors to enter the market or gain market share.

Regular customers tend to be less expensive to service because they are familiar with the process, require less "education", and are consistent in their order placement.

Increased customer retention and loyalty makes the employees' jobs easier and more satisfying. In turn, happy employees feed back into better customer satisfaction in a virtuous circle.

Relationship marketers speak of the "relationship ladder of customer loyalty". It groups types of customers according to their level of loyalty. The ladder's first rung consists of "prospects", that is, people that have not purchased yet but are likely to in the future. This is followed by the successive rungs of "customer", "client", "supporter", "advocate", and "partner". The relationship marketer's objective is to "help" customers get as high up the ladder as possible. This usually involves providing more personalized service and providing service quality that exceeds expectations at each step.

Customer retention efforts involve considerations such as the following:

1. Customer valuation - Gordon (1999) describes how to value customers and categorize them according to their financial and strategic value so that companies can decide where to invest for deeper relationships and which relationships need to be served differently or even terminated.

2. Customer retention measurement - Dawkins and Reichheld (1990) calculated a company's "customer retention rate". This is simply the percentage of customers at the beginning of the year that are still customers by the end of the year. In accordance with this statistic, an increase in retention rate from 80% to 90% is associated with a doubling of the average life of a customer relationship from 5 to 10 years. This ratio can be used to make comparisons between products, between market segments, and over time.

3. Determine reasons for defection - Look for the root causes, not mere symptoms. This involves probing for details when talking to former customers. Other techniques include the analysis of customers' complaints and competitive benchmarking (see competitor analysis).

4. Develop and implement a corrective plan - This could involve actions to improve employee practices, using benchmarking to determine best corrective practices, visible endorsement of top management, adjustments to the company's reward and recognition systems, and the use of "recovery teams" to eliminate the causes of defections.

A technique to calculate the value to a firm of a sustained customer relationship has been developed. This calculation is typically called customer lifetime value.

Retention strategies also build barriers to customer switching. This can be done by product bundling (combining several products or services into one "package" and offering them at a single price), cross selling (selling related products to current customers), cross promotions (giving discounts or other promotional incentives to purchasers of related products), loyalty programs (giving incentives for frequent purchases), increasing switching costs (adding termination costs, such as mortgage termination fees), and integrating computer systems of multiple organizations (primarily in industrial marketing).

Many relationship marketers use a team-based approach. The rationale is that the more points of contact between the organization and customer, the stronger will be the bond, and the more secure the relationship.

Relationship marketing, financial and banking sector, strategic marketing

The orientation towards a relationship marketing has been promoted as representing the most recent stage in the development of the marketing theory;

nevertheless the relationship strategies, although valuable in a series of circumstances are not adequate and therefore can not generate substantial benefits under any type of market situation. The logical consequence of this point of view is that some activities remain to be further better administered with the help of a transactional marketing approach, which implies that the organizations will have to resort to a portfolio of strategies which summarizes not only relationship strategic variants but also transactional ones. According to Gronroos , the basic idea does not rely on the feasibility of a relationship strategy or of a transactional strategy but rather on the evaluation that the company carries out regarding the profitability and the applicability of a relationship strategy against a transactional strategy. Hence, the choosing between the one or the other demands the existence of an economical justification, concerning the benefits that it brings to the client and to the company. Similarly, Moller and Halinen admit that one meets exclusively relationship or transactional variants extremely seldom.

A more adequate description of the discussed situation is better accomplished through the utilization of a continuous strategies spectrum which incorporates different intensities of a complex relationship marketing approach (no doubt of a transactional marketing approach as well). Within this continuous spectrum one will place the relationship marketing to one extreme point, and the basic orientation will consist in the building of relationships with the clients and other interesting partners (the main element is the collaboration); while at the other extreme point one will find the transactional marketing, with a short term focus and time isolated transactions (the main element is the competition).

According to Grnrooss statements (1994b, p.11) , the type of industry where the selling or purchasing actions take place has the nature of influencing the position of the organization along the strategies spectrum. Hereby, on the leftmost side one finds the final user or the consumer-market, for which a marketing-mix based approach is suitable, following the existence of discrete transactional exchanges and of a demand that is characterized through a high price-elasticity and sensitivity, in comparison to the buyers intentions to form long-lasting relations with the offerer. Customer binding strategies do not show high potential in the context of mass-marketing, as they are more adequate when there exists intense contact between the clients and the organization, more specifically on the organizational markets and within the service segment.

At this level one will use traditional measures as these: the evaluation of the technical quality of the results and the monitoring of the market share. The opinions of the buyers can be determined with the help of ad-hoc researches, and the face-to-face contact is limited. The internal marketing activities do not represent a managerial priority. On the rightmost side one finds the distribution segment, the business and service markets which are supposed to mostly benefit from the application of relationship strategies.

The continuous spectrum of transactional and relationship strategies or

the portfolio of strategic variants th the disposal of the organizations

Basic ideas are this time the long-term vision over the business and the usage of an interactive approach which will allow the development, maintenance and

intensification of the relations with the present customers. At this side of the spectrum, the demand is rather price-inelastic, since customers are looking for benefits which can be delivered by means of a relation with a certain supplier. The main evaluation criteria of marketing activities consist of the quality on the interaction with the clients and of the efficient administration of the organizations client database. The clients feed-back, as part of the interaction, is produced in real time, as it sis continuous. The interface with the

customer is essential (it is also called the moment of truth), reason for which the internal marketing acquires a higher importance.

The relevance of the criteria related to the particularities of the industry should

though not be exaggerated, with the meaning that statements of the following type should be avoided: companies in the field of consumer-goods will never benefit from the relationship strategies or that companies in the service, distribution and business to business field will always have a gain when using these strategies. The mentioned criteria is rather a starting point, and the spectrum concept or the strategies portfolio suggest the fact that although relationship strategies can be very appealing for a series of products, services and markets, there are also situation when their applicability will not be adequate. Therewith, the reaching of success within the business environment is not guaranteed by the application of the relationship strategies. Gronroos mentions that, the more the organizations draw themselves away from the transactional situations, the more the market expands beyond the basic product or service, as the need of investments in interactive marketing activities exists.

At the same time, the author highlights the existence of different implications of the marketing activities along the strategies spectrum, which concern especially :

The dominant marketing orientation

The predominant quality function

The informational system with the help with one administers the relationship with the client

The interdependence between organizational functions

The role of the internal marketing

The dominant marketing orientation. The relationship marketing literature suggests the fact that marketing should not be limited to the activities within the marketing mix and that this process should not be the responsibility of only one department. As far as the transactional marketing (TM) is concerned, the role of the personnel outside the marketing department is negligible, and the activities like advertising and sales-promotion techniques consisting of price reduction form the keypoints of this measure. These elements are present also in the case of a relationship marketing (RM) approach, but one uses them to support the interaction to the customers and the internal marketing strategies.

The predominant quality function In the TM an acceptable result regarding the quality can be enough for the company to achieve its market objectives. In the RM, although the technical quality must be adequate, this is not a sufficient requirement, as there are more dimensions that are related to the qualitative performances of the organization. More accurate, all the interactions within the organization support the clients opinion regarding the quality of the offer.

The informational system An organization that acts according to TM principles will normally have a limited direct contact with the customers, and will therefore evaluate the behavior and attitude of the clients with the help of statistics, monitoring of the market share and of ad-hoc studies concerning the customer satisfaction. An organization that applies the RM will monitor the satisfaction by means of continuous contact and direct management of the present customer data-base.

The interdependence between organizational functions In the TM the marketing department fulfills the responsibilities related to the marketing function of the company; while in the RM, the interactions that are particularly produced between marketing, operational activities and human resources become critical for success achievement.

The role of the internal marketing According to Gummesson, the training of part-time marketing people to fulfill specific marketing objectives becomes an important part of relationship strategies. The challenge for the organization is to apply a proactive approach with the purpose of obtaining the necessary engagement towards the development of a marketing orientation among all the employees. The involvement in the achievement of such a TM objective is limited.

A logical consequence of the exposed ideas refers to the fact that market factors determine, to a certain moment in time, the value and implicitly the right choice between relationship and transactional strategies. The internal decisional process regarding the choice of the optimum strategic variant will be influenced by a series of endogenous or exogenous factors, which are synthesized in TableFactors that influence the application process of relationship or

transactional strategies by the company

The financial products are the best examples of mainly services based offers, which are characterized by a high degree of intangibility and complexity and which have a high level of variability, depending on the market situation context, type of demand, delivery style, duration and significance to the client. Due to the particularities of the financial banking offer, in the specialized literature, one reached the conclusion that the RM approach is applicable especially within this activity segment. The specificity of financial services is mainly given by the high risks and by the long-tem relationship, as the involvement of the client is essential for the service delivery process.

The concept of the continuous strategies spectrum involves the existence of an

optimal position (not always can be determined), since the success of a company depends on the balance which this establishes between the relationship and transactional strategic alternatives to which it resorts to. This balance point can only be temporary, because the previously mentioned influence factors change constantly. The existence of the changing circumstances determine an instable area or a danger area for both parts of the optimal position, following the calculation difficulty or even impossibility at a certain time of the results generated by the different relationship or transactional strategies. The main risks in this case can be described as it follows:

- in the leftmost side of the spectrum (TM), one would not be able to recognize

the customers wish for a higher level of involvement on the side of the organization (the need for customer service type activities)

- on the rightmost side of the spectrum (MR) one would overestimate the qualitative level of the services that the customer expects, and as a result the client would migrate towards a competitor that offers a lower qualitative level to a lower price.

A possible solution which will preclude the changes that appear in the business

environment consists in a hybrid managerial approach. Gronroos mentions that, regardless if a company adopts mostly transactional or relational strategies, there can be situations in which both strategic variants would be necessary in addressing to different market segments. The hybrid managerial approach requires the use of multiple marketing strategies that would allow the development and maintenance of discreet changes for shoppers segments with decreased degree of profitability, as well as the maintenance and intensification of the relationships with profitable clients. In conclusion it can not be possible neither profitable for an organization to create close relationships, personal and long lasting with all the clients, which involves a differentiated approach, based on segmentation principles that will combine elements of relational marketing and transactional marketing in accordance with the clients profile and its importance for the company. Analogous, in accordance with the complexity of the products the clients can also prefer a differentiated approach. In a study conducted on the banking market in the United States. It has been shown that there are some differences between clients that are transaction oriented (62% of the interviewed persons) that in general tend to be confident in their own strengths, searching and analyzing financial information and being in the same time sensitive in what concerns the price factor; and relationship oriented clients (38% of the interviewed persons), which want mostly personal service and are less price sensitive.

A similar research conducted on the financial services market in Great Britain succeeded in developing a model that proposes a typology of shopping behavior that manifests itself in this sector, in accordance with two factors considered essential in motivating ad determining choices made by individuals: the level of involvement and the degree of uncertainty ( that generates a certain level of trust in the banker), that are presented in figure

Matrix of the consumer behavior in the financial banking sectorThe involvement of the client in relationship with a certain financial - banking

organization incorporates a series of secondary factors among which: the control of the client, participation of the client and level of contact. Concomitantly, the uncertainty or the degree of trust is directly influenced by the risks perceived by the client; risks determined mainly by the complexity of the products and services and the uncertainty of the results associated with the contracted product. The model generates four ideal types of shopping behavior.

Repeated passive behavior. In this dial the clients show a decreased level of

involvement towards the financial product because they are fully conscious of the principal characteristic of the offer. Being given the low involvement and limited perception of the uncertainty, the clients can be described as having a passive behavior, meaning that they will participate in repeated interactions, without active searching for alternative offers. In the relational marketing literature this type of behavior is called also behaviorist loyalty and it is manifested mainly towards the more complex financial products and services (current accounts, transactions and in a certain degree deposits and loans). According to the results of the previous mentioned research, the clients are confident in their own abilities to open and use a current account, and choosing the bank is determined by factors concerning the accessibility, quickness of the service and comfort; for example, the location of the banking units relative to his home or workplace. Other factors that can influence this type of behavior include: family influence (relationships with a certain organization can be continued over more generations in case youngsters have their first account opened at an early age) friends, also the image and reputation of the supplier. Even tough they are not fully satisfied with the received services and dont declare their loyalty to that bank, the habit, ineptness and small differences between the offers of rival financial institution or the existence of the migration fees, determine customers to continue the existent relationships in the same manner. In conclusion, in this dial of the matrix the clients show more likely an type of behaviorist and not attitude loyalty towards the supplier of financial services. If in the first case we can talk almost exclusively about repeated passive shopping, the attitude loyalty implies the maintenance of positive or negative attitudes towards the bank. The possibility to accomplish a distinction between the true loyal clients in both attitude and behavior and the partial loyal clients in terms of behavior is created. The strategic organizational approach in the repeated passive behavior dial will be different for a company that is new on the market compared to a bank with consolidated position. In order to win a higher market share, newcomers will encourage the buyers to go over to the active relational dial, while the existent opponents will try maintaining the clients in the present dial, at least on a short term, through developments brought to the products and services delivery systems. The factors that determine clients to migrate from one dial to the other, transferring their accounts from one service supplier to a rival one can also be of personal nature, like changes in lifestyle as a sequel of marriage, change of residence or workplace.

In the financial banking system, organizations had the opportunity to retain customers for a long period of time in the repeated passive behavior dial because the benefits that the clients perceived concerning the offers of the rivals were low and the migration costs were high. The changes in the business environment generated an intensification of the competition and a growth of the clients availability to use new distribution channels, modifications that could reduce the migration costs and the ineptness based behavior of the clients; therefore keeping the clients in this dial is an harder to reach objective for companies in the financial sector.

The rational active behavior. In this dial the involvement of the clients in terms of controlling the processes, participation and contact is high; also high is their trust in what concerns the complexity of the products and safety of the results. Clients that buy in accordance with the rational factors ae those that have enough personal abilities and information that allow them to understand the nature of the products and to realize pertinent comparisons between offers of the players on the market. In accordance with the results of the market research conducted by Beckett and the other authors, this type of behavior is encountered with a higher probability at buying basic insurance products.

Although the brand and reputation were considered important for clients in the phase of realizing the existence of the products/services, the largest part of clients indicated price as the essential criteria in decision making and also maintaining the relationship with an organization (intention of the clients is to migrate to another tendered when the prices of the present one grow). For most of the respondents, the context of buying an auto or home insurance was through distant exchanges using the phone or E-, comfortable channels for the clients that dont require a face to face contact (needed for establishing a feeling of trust), the accent being placed on the price differences between offers of the suppliers of services. Essentially, they dont consider themselves as loyal or as having a certain relationship with a organization, and change their insurance company every couple of years. This behavior is influenced according to clients statements also by the lack of communication with the staff of the insurance company that limits at sending informational letters every year regarding the development of the facilities and awards.

The increasing level of consciousness, involvement and information of the consumers of this sector allows them to pass from the repeated passive behavior dial to the rational active dial, challenging the banks to increase the value that they offer to the clients.

Decision not to buy/not to contract. In this dial are placed the consumers that do not buy or contract financial services because they do not show any involvement towards the offers of financial products and services and they do not have the required abilities or trust for closing transactions. They represent an important base of potential clients for organization in the financial sector. That must adopt strategies with stimulant effects of the priory mentioned factors with the aim of encouraging the appeal on different financial instruments. Away of raising the degree of involvement shown by the consumer would be identification of the comfortable and easy to access distribution channel for the potential client. The dependent relational behavior. The clients from this dial show a high degree of involvement but have a low control and safety level because of their need for complex financial products. In order to make a specific choice, the client needs consultancy from banking specialists or a third party, that is why they are described as dependent client that forms relationships from his will to reduce uncertainties and perceived risks and in order to structure a certain model or pattern of buying. The relational-dependent behavior is mostly met in market situations marked by uncertainty; when the consumer does not dispose of enough information in order to make rational decisions and perceives, in the same time, that there are quality differences between the products offered by different companies. Being given these conditions and the client desire to knowingly make choices, the need for specialized assistance arises. The relationship with the banking consultant will efficiently substitute the process of information searching, and between the two parties the possibility of development of a trust feeling appears. Continuing to present the results from the study conducted by Beckett on the financial market in Great Britain, it appears that the dependent-relational behavior in mostly met in case of contracting complex financial products or instruments, like investment or pension plans, towards which the majority of the respondents expressed a lack of confidence and information in the context of taking the decision to buy. Therefore, these have expressed their decision to resort to the services of the banks or insurance companys personnel or to an independent financial advisor, the trust in their services is owed to the increased level of knowledge that a specialized person in supposed to have. The adequate channels of distribution for this category of clients require face to face contact and personalized services, in order to reduce the level of risk associated by the client with complex products and allow establishing a long term relationship based on trust and commitment.

This is realized by discussions from which the client finds out relevant information regarding the nature of the products and the optimum choice for the specific need that he has. In strategic terms, the relational-dependent behavior offers a potential base for obtaining competitive advantages through differentiation, being therefore the segment for which the necessity of relational strategy development appears. This is facilitated by the relationship between the financial institution and client and therefore by the clients propensity to guide his financial requirements to a business partner that won his trust.

The opportunities to create and maintain the relationships with clients in the financial and banking system are hereby influenced by the type and complexity of the contracted products/services and, implicitly by the different possibilities to differ from the competition. The differences are, most of the time, easy to imitate/copy by the other competitors and that implies continuous efforts by the organizations to find new sources of individualization by utilizing a brand image, interactive channels of distribution and communication and by promoting the benefits of a long lasting relationship with the clients.

CUSTOMER PERCEPTION ON E- MARKETING

Maximise response through this cost-effective medium with better targeting and personalised messages

Marketing through email offers a cost effective, flexible way to reach your customers yet most email marketing today is untargeted and unaligned with customer behaviour, creating low response rates and a negative perception of the sender.It doesnt have to be this way!

Agillic sees email marketing differently.We can help you design and execute a targeted, responsive, tightly-branded and behaviour-based strategy that avoids the issues associated with spamming and commerical email. Of course, emails can also be sent in bulk if that fits the objective of the campaign.Using Agillics web-based technology, emails are sent as a direct, personalised response to a customer behaviour trigger, reducing the high rejection rates associated with bulk email.

For example, two customers may click on the same web link promoting a new product on different days or months. Depending on their profile information, one customer may receive an immediate email with an incentive to trial the product, while another may receive an email highlighting additional benefits.

The power ofadaptive content enables you to execute compelling, targeted and automated email campaigns combined withpowerful reporting capabilities to analyse results, measure success and help improve future campaigns.With Agillics simple-to-use, web based email marketing technology you can:

Avoid spam and increaseresponse rates with adaptive, personalised content

Plan multiple email campaigns around automated event andbehaviour triggers

Cut rejection rates and increase deliverability through increased customer permissions and automated bouncedresponse system

Create a highly scalable solution that supports the distribution of thousands of personalised emails per hour

Respond to inbound contact with automated, personalised dialogues by email or if preferred, continue the same dialgoue in an alternativechannel

Improve response rates even further by integrating additional medias, such as SMS, to act as reminders and teasers to your campaigns

We can provide you with the abilityto build workflow-oriented campaigns, based on automated triggers includingfilters, timers and segmentation to ensure timeliness and relevance along with built-in customer actions to deal with non-delivery. Create compelling, interactive marketing campaigns to reach customers anytime, anywhere!

Mobile marketing is booming, and thats hardly a surprise: the mobile handset is constantly available, naturally permission based, and fully interactive. Correctly executed, mobile marketing is a win-win for both sides, delivering personalised offers and a high degree of customer acceptance. Its also perfect for viral campaigns and delivering sticky, pass-on marketing content.

Agillic brings its experience of working with mobile companies such as Hi3G and the Telenor groupto help you deliver sophisticated, interactive mobile campaigns, solving the problem of integrating mobile communications into your marketing without IT involvement or costs - by using our own mobile gateways:SMS/MMS Take advantage of the low cost and speed of messaging to build high levels of engagement with your customers through personalised SMS/MMS messages. Using our technology, even SMS can be sophisticated and interactive - for example, an in-store promotionwith an SMS short code for fast entry to a competition provides an instant opportunity to sell to a customer with a known store location.WAP Push A WAP Push message linking to the E- via a handset gives customers easy access to information or offers on the move, at a time that suits them. Early adopters are seeing increases in response and conversion rates, with customers keen to try new communication methods, combined with a personalised message and a highly interactive response mechanism. Mobile portals Mobile E- Devices (MIDs) are becomes easier and faster to use. But mobile marketing means aligning existing web portals with mobile versions to maintain brand quality and user experience consistency. With Agillics proven mobile technology you can easily create and configure a mobile portal to reflect your brand and existing website, using personalised WAP push links to promote tailored offers so that messages change and adapt according to previous interactions in other words, a mobile web experience personalised for each customer.

The benefits of an integrated mobile marketing strategy in this fast-growing sector are huge:

Enables spontaneous, interactive, non-intrusive communications at any time and in any place with instant response to call to actions

Interactive, opt-in mobile marketing naturally creates two-way dialogues

Creative freedom to send rich content as well as text to raise brand awareness

Easily integrates SMS/MMS, WAP push and mobile portal usage with traditional above the line campaigns to increase customer impact and responses

Traditional website and mobile portal content can be aligned to save effort and improve customer experience

Target customers more effectively with personalised, relevant direct mail

Direct mail is a key discipline. But its familiarity can mean a lack of innovation and poor integration with newer techniques. However, DM can be significantly improved by changing the mass market, one message fits all approach to a highly personalised campaign tightly aligned with other channels.

Agillic can help you deliver DM campaigns personalised far beyond the salutation to include dynamic content based on known customer information and behaviours. With our technology each mailing piece can be personalised - automatically by choosing the most relevant message for each customer. For example, when distributing a new loyalty card, a letter can be personalised according to the previous use of the card, with offers that will be of particular interest to the member.

The benefits of updating traditional DM with Agillic technology include:

Optimises the targeting of a traditionally expensive marketing activity

Allows segmentation of mailings to most valuable/least valuable clients using higher cost/lower cost media

Personalised DM improves customer perception and response rates

Aligns easily with new technology marketing channels such as mobile and email

Template-based content allows rapid and reliable compilation of material

No restrictions on printing houses minimises disruption to relationships and activity

Build direct, interactive relationships through personalised web content

The web is the default destination for consumers looking for product information and to buy goods and services. But traditional web sites create no relationship with the customer and often add no value over existing channels. Customers have to navigate generic pages to find the information often resulting in losing the customers attention as the information is not relevant to their needs.

Agillics solution is to create a fresh, dynamic, interactive web experience with automatically updated adaptive content tailored to the visitor profile and real-time behaviours, fully aligned with other communication channels to enable customer experience consistency. Our flexible technology means you can personalise content on the web in a number of ways, including:Geo-location information - If a customer is not logged in the Agillic platform,geo-location datafrom the web address can be used to good affect. As a visitor enters the site, information is tailored to fit the geography, for example special offers or opening times at a local store.

Personalised shopping history This allows vendors to tailor on-line shops for a personal shopping experience based on previous purchases, interactions, or surveys. Such information is used to bring existing on-line users information on relevant items or offers without the need to search for them, or tempting the customer to buy additional items through recommending related products that may be of interest.

Mash up -This allows you to take advantage of our technology without converting your whole website. An area can be made available on your existing website which has a unique address that actually links into an Agillic web platform. Any customer interaction on this part of the web will activate a customer dialogue that will always show relevant information and offers each time the customer logs back in.

By creating a dynamic, personalised website experience for your customer with Agillic technology you can:

Adjust content automatically to the needs of your customer and to your campaign objectives

Deliver full, relevant website personalisation for every visitor even with little customer data

Ensure the customer experience of your site is maximised from the very first click

ADVANTAGE OF E- MARKETING

There are several advantages. By e- Marketing I'm assuming we are discussing electronic marketing or E- marketing.

the primary advantages are:

1. Speed of launching advertising campaigns. Advertising banners or textlinks can be created quickly and placed on websites within hours. Compare this to creating a magazine, radio or television ad which could cost thousands and take weeks to create. This also allows you to change messages on the fly if you need to. Try doing that on TV or Print.

2. Cost. Advertising banners or textlinks can be placed on websites for a few hundred dollars. More involved ad campaigns can run several hundred thousand dollars per month but you can get started with minimal expense. In some cases websites will accept payment only after you've sold your product.

3. Tracking. Advertising campaign performance can be tracked with such precision that one can see exactly how many people are viewing your ad, responding to it and ultimately buying your product. This information can be viewed on an hourly basis if needed. Advertising messages can also be delivered based on website visitor preferences or behavior.

Main advantages of E- Marketing over traditional marketingcampaigns are:

Increased response rates in E- Marketing over traditional directmarketing.

Fast, flexible and responsive - taking days to produce andevaluate results rather than weeks. By using E- Marketing, theresponse can be immediate.

Inexpensive to produce and personalize as opposed to printedmaterial

Easy to target, track and measure.

Easy integration with print and other "offline" campaigns.

All the feedback and marketing data can be obtained andanalyzed to improve the E- Marketing strategy and response ratefor the next campaign.

Building your E- identity.

Mailtrack: means Mailtrack Limited, company number 3894107, with registered office at King House, 5-11 Westbourne Grove, London, W2 4UA;

"Buyer" means the individual, firm, company or other party with whom Thomson enters into a contract for the supply of Services;

Campaign Delivery Date means the date for delivery of the email campaign as stated on the Order Form or in the campaign booking confirmation sent by Thomson to the Buyer. Where the delivery date on the Order Form states a month (as opposed to a specific day of that month), and there is no specific date for delivery confirmed to the Buyer subsequently, the Campaign Delivery Date will be deemed to be the last working day of that month for the purposes of Clause 3.4.

Contract means the agreement made between Thomson and the Buyer comprising these Standard Terms and Conditions, the Order Form and any specific conditions or instructions detailed thereon and may relate to one or more email campaigns ordered by the Buyer;

"Services" shall mean any data planning, data processing, data tagging, fulfilment, consultancy or other similar services comprised in the Contract.

I. 2. General

The Contract shall not be amended unless in writing signed by an authorised signatory of both parties. No waiver of any provision of the Contract by either party shall be effective unless made in writing. Any waiver made by such party of any term or condition of the Contract shall not be deemed or construed to be a waiver of such term or condition for the future, or any subsequent breach thereof.

II. 3. Invoicing, charges and payment terms

3.1 Charges will include data selection, managing the set up, delivering the email and providing full campaign response analysis. Thomson allows 2 creatives per list for creative testing purposes. An administration charge of 150 will be levied per additional creative submitted and tested. A charge of 300 will be made in respect of any amendments made to the supplied creative after test has been sent for approval.

3.2 Unless otherwise specifically agreed with Thomson, all orders must be pre-paid in full. In circumstances where the execution of a campaign extends over a period exceeding one month, Thomson will, if it considers it appropriate, invoice all the Services carried out by Thomson monthly or at such other times as may be agreed with the Buyer and all such charges will be payable forthwith, in full. Final payment is due within thirty days and Thomson may charge the Buyer any reasonable administration and legal costs for recovering the amounts owed. This may involve registering non-payment details to credit reference agencies. The payment shall be made in sterling. VAT is payable in addition to the prices and any additional charges.

3.3 Time of payment of the price shall be of the essence of this Contract and Thomson may charge interest at the rate of two percent per month on any overdue payments of the price by the Buyer from the date payment became due until actual payment is made.

3.4Failure by the Buyer to provide and approve the ad creative no later than 48 hours before the Campaign Delivery Date shall result in the full contract price becoming immediately due and payable. In the event that no Campaign Delivery Date has been stated on the Order Form and the date has not been agreed by the Buyer within 60 days of the invoice date, the full amount of the invoice shall become immediately due and payable.

III. 4. Cancellation and Postponement

4.1 This Contract may be terminated only in accordance with Clause 14.

4.2 Subject to Clause 14.1, cancellation of any campaign to which this Contract relates is not permitted.

4.3 A campaign may be postponed from the delivery date originally agreed for it provided that at least 14 days written notice of postponement is provided to Thomson. Campaigns that are postponed for a period exceeding 30 days will be invoiced 30 days from the originally agreed delivery date and must be paid for in full within 30 days of the invoice date.

IV. 5. Buyers Responsibility

The Buyer is solely responsible for the content of emails sent. The Buyer agrees not to transmit any unlawful, harassing, libellous, abusive, threatening, harmful, vulgar, obscene or otherwise objectionable material of any kind or nature. Buyer further agrees not to transmit any material that encourages conduct that could constitute a criminal offence, give rise to civil liability or otherwise violate any applicable law or regulation. Thomson retains the right at its sole discretion, to refuse the delivery of any content that it considers contravenes these Terms and Conditions. Thomson shall also have the right to refuse the delivery of any content which, in Thomsons reasonable opinion, promotes products and services which compete with its own products and services.

V. 6. Copy

Finalised Copy/HTML must be with Mailtrack at least 5 working days before the Campaign Delivery Date to allow for set-up and testing. Failure to adhere to the timelines shall be considered a breach of the terms of this Contract and may, at Thomsons sole discretion, lead to delays to the delivery date or a reduction in the number of emails delivered from the number ordered or cancellation of the Contract. Buyer will be responsible for the accuracy of all text and HTML copy and will ensure that all URL links in the message are correct and working prior to email delivery. All copy is to be transmitted via email in the following preferred formats: Text format = Word (.doc) or Text (.txt); Images format = .gif or .jpg or .tif; HTML format = entire ad must be completed in HTML format.

VI. 7. Hosting

Buyer will host all HTML images unless otherwise agreed. A charge of 0.02 per mail (HTML recipients only) will be levied on the Buyer if Mailtrack is required to host HTML images.

VII. 8. Ad Creative Approval

The Buyer must approve all ad creative no later than 48 hours prior to the Campaign Delivery Date. Time is of the essence in relation to such approval. An authorized representative of the Buyer shall send such approval in the form of an email. A copy of the approved ad should either be included in the body of the approval email or added as an attachment to the approval email. Failure to provide and approve the ad creative by such time shall be considered a material breach of the terms of this Contract and may lead to delays to the delivery date or termination, at Thomsons sole discretion, of the Contract and to the full contract price becoming due and payable in accordance with Clause 3.4.

VIII. 9. Delivery and Time

Whilst Thomson will make every effort to complete the Contract within the time quoted, time shall not be of the essence of the Contract unless specifically stipulated in these Standard Terms and Conditions or on the Schedule of Services section of the Order Form.

IX. 10. Tracking and Reporting

Thomson will provide tracking and reporting services on all campaigns via Mailtrack. The parties agree that, in the event that the Buyers third party tracking system indicates a discrepancy in the number of deliverables hereunder from Mailtrack's tracking report, Mailtrack's tracking report shall prevail. Unless specifically requested in this Contract to the contrary, Mailtrack will track all URLs within emails.

X. 11. Limitation of Liability

11.1 Thomson makes no warranties, guarantees, promises or representations, either express, implied, oral, written or otherwise, except as expressly set forth in this Contract. Thomson does not make any warranty, guarantee, promise or representation, express, implied, oral, written or otherwise, as to the results of any campaign. No oral advice or written information outside this Contract given by Thomson or any of its officers, directors, employees, agents, licensers or the like will create a representation, warranty or condition, nor should you rely on such information or advice.

11.2 Whilst Thomson endeavours to ensure that the email address data to which the Buyers campaigns will be directed and the Data (as defined in Clause 12) is accurate, neither Thomson nor its agents or employees can, subject to Clause 11.3, accept liability for any loss or damage resulting from omissions or inaccuracies relating to such data regardless of how caused.

11.3 Thomsons liability to the Buyer for death or injury resulting from its own negligence or that of its employees agents or sub-contractors shall not be limited.

11.4 In no event will Thomson be liable in contract, tort or otherwise for any indirect, special, incidental or consequential loss or damage resulting from any breach of its obligations hereunder or from any representation, tortious act or omission including negligence arising under or in connection with this agreement.

11.5 The parties hereby agree that taking into account all the circumstances including inter alia, the fees payable by the Buyer hereunder and the ability of each party to insure itself, the limitations contained herein are reasonable.

XI. 12. Provision of Data

Thomson may, at the request of the Buyer and subject to appropriate payment, provide the Buyer with the business listings data (apart from email addresses) relating to the email addresses included in the Buyers email campaign (the Data). Thomson grants a non-exclusive, non-transferable, limited licence to use the Data for the Buyers own direct marketing purposes (the Permitted Purpose). The Data may not be distributed, sold or otherwise transferred to, or used for the purposes of, any third party and may not be used for any purpose other than the Permitted Purpose. In particular, the Data may not be used for the purposes of creating a database or directory, whether printed, electronic or otherwise, for publication or sale.

XII. 13. Indemnity

The Buyer agrees to indemnify Thomson, its employees and agents against all proceedings, claims, demands, expenses, losses and/or damages arising from the content provided by the Buyer for the Buyers email campaign, including the legal fees, costs of litigation or judgements arising out of mailing or emailing such content to the email addresses contained in Thomsons email address data.

XIII. 14. Termination

14.1The Buyer may terminate this Contract by giving Thomson written notice of termination within 7 days of the date of signing the Order Form. In the event of such termination, Thomson shall be entitled to charge an administration fee equal to 10% of the total Contract price.

14.2 This Contract may be terminated by either party immediately on written notice to the other party (i) if the other party commits a material breach of the Contract and (in the case of a breach capable of remedy) fails to remedy such breach within 30 days of written notice requesting the breach to be remedied; or (ii) if the other party is unable to pay its debts or enters into compulsory or voluntary liquidation, other than for the purpose of reconstruction or amalgamation of the company, or compounds with or convenes a meeting of its creditors or has a receiver or manager or an administrator appointed of its assets or ceases for any reason to carry on business.

14.3Any failure by the Buyer to pay any amount under this Contract when due shall constitute a material breach of the Contract by the Buyer.

XIV. 15. Entire Agreement and Enforceability

15.1This Contract sets out the entire agreement and understanding between Thomson and the Buyer and replaces all previous agreements, arrangements and understandings between them.

15.2If at any time any one or more of the provisions of these Standard Terms and Conditions becomes invalid, illegal or unenforceable under any law or is held by a court to be invalid, illegal or unenforceable, the validity and enforceability of the remaining provisions hereof shall not be in any way affected or impaired thereby.

XV. 16. Force Majeure

Thomson shall not be liable for any loss suffered or incurred by the Buyer as a result of any delay in performance, or non-performance of any of its obligations under the Contract to the extent that such delay or non-performance is due to any circumstances beyond its reasonable control including, without limitation, accidents, fires, explosion, failure of equipment or machinery, delays in transportation, war, civil commotions, riots, sabotage and interruptions by government.

XVI. 17. Jurisdiction

The Contract shall be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of England. The parties submit to the exclusive jurisdiction of the English courts for the resolution of any dispute which may arise in connection herewith.

XVII. 18. Miscellan