Marketing serves to satisfy customer needs and wants while building strong customer relationships in an effort to gain value from customers in return. On understanding that customer satisfaction is needed for a business to survive and grow, the important role marketing plays within a business is emphasised as it contributes to overall business performance. Building relationships also emphasises the importance of communication within marketing. Traditional person-to-person word-of-mouth communication has always played a role in marketing a product or service. The evolution of technology over recent years has enabled electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM), which is frequently carried out and has proven to be another effective marketing tool. Due to the fundamental role that marketing plays within a business and the frequent use of electronic word-of-mouth as a marketing tool it is important that business owners and marketers are aware of the factors influencing the effectiveness of it. This study explores eWOM from a marketing perspective, through investigating the factors that contribute towards the effectiveness of eWOM as a marketing tool. Therefore the primary objective of the study was to investigate the factors influencing effective eWOM marketing. A quantitative research approach was followed to empirically test the hypotheses and determine whether relationships exist between the four independent variables (factors influencing eWOM) and the dependent variable (effective eWOM marketing). A self-administered, five-point Likert-scale style structured questionnaire was used to obtain the data. The sample for this study comprised of 360 consumer respondents within the Nelson Mandela Metropole. An exploratory factor analysis extracted four valid constructs namely feedback, trustworthiness, social status and networking as the factors influencing effective eWOM marketing. Cronbach’s alphas confirmed the reliability of all extracted constructs. Most correlation results indicated moderate associations between the variables. However, effective eWOM marketing proved to have a strong correlation with social status. The results of the multiple regressions for the factors influencing effective eWOM marketing identified three statistically significant relationships between feedback, social status, networking and effective eWOM marketing. MANOVAS confirmed eleven statistically significant relationships of which only three were of practical significance. Practical significant relationships exist between ethnic affiliation, current position, years working experience and social status. In addition to identifying the three specific factors influencing effective eWOM marketing, namely online feedback, the need to obtain social status and the desire to engage in online networking, this study has made several contributions, specifically to eWOM marketing. This study has recommended specific online marketing strategies to increase effective eWOM for online feedback, for individuals to obtain social status and to engage in online networking. The hypothesised model developed from the study, illustrating the three factors that influence effective eWOM marketing for South African consumers, can now be used by other researchers in other countries as a framework for further testing or for businesses/marketing organisations to obtain information on the attributes to pay attention to increase the effectiveness of their eWOM marketing. The role that demographics such as ethnic affiliation, position in the business and years working experience play in satisfying the need of individuals to obtain social status in an online setting via eWOM marketing, were also confirmed. Furthermore, this study has provided practical advice to businesses/marketing organisations on how to utilise this knowledge to their advantage when wishing to stimulate eWOM conversations about their products and services. The findings of the research will also assist businesses/marketing organisations to initiate eWOM engagement and communicate more effectively with consumers online to obtain information on how to improve on and change existing products/services or the need for new product/service offerings to retain customers, ensure continuous consumer satisfaction and increase business turnover.

University of Macau / Faculty of Social Sciences / Department of Communication

This study explored the use of location-based marketing to minimize the effect of poverty penalty often experienced by the low-income consumers. Poverty penalty is a phenomenon that explains why the low-income consumer pay relatively more than middle- an upper-income consumers. The low-income consumer is normally situated in areas that are far from retailers, thus has to incur a considerable amount on transport costs, which in effect leads to an increased cost to acquire goods and services, and means that this consumer is restricted by location. Location-based marketing is the use of location to broadcast marketing information to the consumer relevant to their location and preferences. Low-income consumers can use this location-specific information to optimize their location by taking advantage of the goods and services around them to save on further travel costs. The study was a quantitative survey that asked low-income consumers about their perceptions on what location-based marketing could offer them. The key findings of the study were that consumers value personalisation of the content, access to information would lead to access to more goods and services, and finally that access to information optimise the location of the consumer and lead to reduced transport costs. The study contributed academically by establishing that for the low-income consumer, mobile marketing needs to be focused at optimising the current location, and not transacting anywhere and anytime as the existing literature suggests. / Dissertation (MBA)--University of Pretoria, 2013. / lmgibs2014 / Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) / MBA / Unrestricted

M.B.A. / There is much contemporary writing on electronic commerce, although the amount of academic literature is limited. Most of the survey data and literature available is conducted in the USA and Europe and information on electronic commerce in South Africa is severely limited (Benjamin, 1999:1). This would indicate that data specific to e-retailing would be difficult to source. Electronic commerce has experienced very fast development in recent years following a slow start with its inception in the 1960s, when the first attempts at integration between trading partners took place. The value of electronic commerce transactions internationally was expected to reach US$300 billion by the year 2000 (Bacchetta, Low, Mattoo, Schuknecht, Wager, and Wehrens, 1998). South Africa is expected to follow a similar development trend. As at early 1998, 80% to 89% ofthe revenue from electronic commerce came from business-to-business transactions, while the reaming 11% came from business-to-consumer (Benjamin, 1999:1). Technological change is one of the many strategic issues facing retailers and organisations alike. The high costs of the technology, the scale of implementation and commitment required affects the organisation and its interactions within the Industry (Kieser, 1999:4). The use of technology for data transfer is no longer simply a competitive advantage but is becoming standard practice (Benjamin, 1999:34) The choice to study e-retail (business to consumer) as opposed to business-tobusiness is based on the premise that although business to business is deemed to currently have a significantly larger impact on organisations, organisations are ultimately going to sell to customers via the internet, the end product of electronic...

M.B.A. / As e-commerce becomes a more accepted and important way of doing business, the strategist's stock-and-status will rise accordingly. With more of a company's communications and revenue moving through the Internet, Web work will be seen less as a separate project and more as a core business process. Web business strategy will become of such fundamental importance that it will fall under the CEO's purview (Cutler, 1996:3). The Internet is an area of high seismographic activity, increasing the danger that strategies will be built along a fault line. The technology advances so rapidly, and the numbers change so often, that time scales have to be compressed, and planners must learn to make decisions in an environment filled with ambiguity (Cutler, 1996:3). Learning, comparing and evaluating how companies devise their e-commerce strategies could explore common factors, which could be summarised into key steps aimed at assisting management in the future, who plan to embark on a project of implementing Internet technologies...

Prof. J.A. Bennett

No description available.

The graduation thesis approaches the issue of influence of social media on customer relations, the perception of the image of the internet business by the customers and the related impact on customer satisfaction. In this internet business, there are many ways to reach customers in this modern age. Therefore, this work also points to this importance of new communication possibilities and trends. Marketing communication of the internet shop with customers is essential for good relationships and the creation of a positive image of the business. The work points out that the image of the internet store is a prestigious issue. The business goes with time and does not prevent the integration of new communication media into its business marketing activities. The benefit of these media is better sales and profit than competition. The thesis is divided into a theoretical and empirical part, consisting of five chapters. The practical part of the thesis describes and analyzes the actual research among the customers of the Internet shop. The aim of the work is, on the basis of research results, from the questionnaire survey, to define proposals that would help the internet business to increase customer satisfaction by improving its image.

The research addressed the factors contributing to the success or failure of an Internet-based communication web site in assisting business-to-business companies to create, establish and/or enhance sustainable customer relationships. To achieve the outcome, a web site was designed, developed, delivered and evaluated to assist a business-to-business company to create, establish and enhance a sustainable corporate image as perceived by their primary clients. The design, development and evaluation of the web site consisted of the following sub-processes:  A review of relevant literature: firstly to reflect upon communication through the wired world, and secondly to determine how the information revolution influences the way people think, work and live.  A survey of the literature dealing specifically with new strategic marketing perspectives, in order to identify the demands placed on a company's business strategy by the new strategic marketing perspectives, and to determine what these strategies are.  A survey of the literature dealing with information design and the web usability of Internet-¬based programmes with a view to designing and developing a web site for a business-to¬ business company which complied with various design specifications that influence the effectiveness and accessibility thereof.  Finally, designing and evaluating the web site to identify potential usability problems. The three evaluation methods used were paper prototyping, machine prototyping and usability testing. The rationale being to identify major usability problems and to obtain measure from intended users and a usability expert on the effectiveness, efficiency and user-interface satisfaction of the web site. The web site was used as basis for compiling a survey questionnaire to test the degree to which respondents strongly agreed or disagreed with statements on the following features of the web site:  Communication  Relationship building  Customer service  Design  Usability The questionnaire also covered aspects on computer and Internet usage experience, access and literacy of the respondents. The survey questionnaire was sent to the target population of primary clients of the participating company, the group of intended end users. The empirical results obtained indicated that employing good information architecture that is based on customers' needs, as well as the iterative development of a web site could assist a business-to-business company to create, establish and enhance a sustainable corporate image as perceived by their primary clients. / Thesis (DPhil (Information Science))--University of Pretoria, 2006. / Information Science / unrestricted

This thesis reports on issues to consider when building a web site to serve as a marketing tool and as a channel for communication. Background regarding the Program in Interior Design is provided. The needs and characteristics of the target group are provided to substantiate the need for such a product. In order to build a web site of this nature, knowledge of the principles for design, development and production is imperative as well as a clear understanding of marketing and communication on the WNW. The different phases of the development process, these being analysis, design and development, are discussed. The evaluation process, where formative- and summative evaluation was applicable, is described. A single questionnaire completed by four sample groups was used to obtain relevant information regarding the prototype web site. The questionnaire was divided into four different sections being layout, navigation, content, and communication. The findings are presented and described in detail. Conclusions in terms of the findings are discussed. It was found that a web site of this nature can serve as an effective marketing tool and that it can provide functional communication facilities. Recommendations for the improvement of the product as well as general recommendations for similar development are made. / Dissertation (MA (Multimedia))--University of Pretoria, 2007. / Information Science / unrestricted