Internet Marketing-Literature Review

In this modern age of internet almost every progressive business have web presence, some of people think that website is just a commercial requirement but others think that it is mandatory to run their company activities. These different theories about internet have been discussed a lot in recent marketing literature. In the past decade marketers have been arguing about the role of internet in marketing. In the start marketers used internet as communication tool but as time passed they realized the true potential of internet and the idea of Internet marketing evolved. Smith and Chaffey (2005) give a short and basic definition of Internet marketing as “Achieving marketing objectives through use of electronic communication technology”. According to Hoge (1993), Internet marketing is the transfer of goods or services from seller to buyer that involves one or more electronic methods or media. Internet Marketing began with the use of telegraphs in the nineteenth century. With the advent and mass acceptance of the telephone, radio, television, and then cable, electronic media have become the dominant marketing force.
Hoge’s (1993) idea of Internet marketing is simple but it does not touch the important aspect of customer relationship. Strauss and Ansary (2006) defined Internet marketing in there latest book as the use of information technology in the process of creating, communicating, and delivering value to customers, and for managing customer relationships in ways that benefit the organization and its stake holders. This explanation tells that e-marketing is not only about selling products or providing services through IT but it is lot more than that. It is not just traditional marketing using the information technology tools but it’s a strategic model to achieve brand value and provide customer satisfaction. On marketconscious.com (2006), the author simply stress on having a website URL in marketing effort, he recognize that even a conventional marketing effort