Application of Internet Marketing as a Customer-Oriented Marketing Approach in New Economy

Application of Internet Marketing as a Customer-Oriented Marketing Approach in New Economy
Rashad Yazdanifard1
Faculty of Management, Multimedia University, Cyberjaya, Malaysia [e-mail]

Azade Dehghan Pour 3
Center of Post Graduate Studies, Limkokwing University of Creative Technology, Cyberjaya, Malaysia [e-mail]

Wan Fadzilah Wan Yusoff 2
Faculty of Management, Multimedia University, Cyberjaya, Malaysia [e-mail]

Ludovic Froget4
Center of Post Graduate Studies, Limkokwing University of Creative Technology, Cyberjaya, Malaysia [e-mail] believed that since consumers with more knowledge will feel more powerful the enterprises‟ competitive focus will therefore be rearranged towards consumers ' subjective valuations. Enterprises today are confronted by a shift from mass production to a customer-driven economy [7]. This article elaborates on the internet as a means of customer empowerment. We will then highlight the new ways for approaching the empowered customer by discussing customer advocacy, customization and personalization. This will be followed by an approach on the impact of customer empowerment on the 4P‟s classification and finally we will elaborate on consumer empowerment as an enduring structural change. II. INTERNET AS A MEANS OF CUSTOMER EMPOWERMENT The internet in many ways has become a daily reality for over a billion users worldwide[1]. The youth and welleducated individuals world-wide, regard internet as the natural source for finding information [8]. According to Schibrowsky, Peltier and Nill[9] the number of websites increased from 23,000 in 1995 to over 55 million in 2005. Statistics of internet driven sales over this period are also meaningful: in the US it has grown from an insignificant amount in 1995 to $50 billion in 2004 and it is expected to rise at an annual rate of over 20%. In 2008, a Global Nielsen survey brought to attention, the fact that 85% of the global

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