PROJECT PROPOSAL

“STUDY OF THE EFFECTIVENSS OF ONLINE

NAME : MANU G C

ENROLMENT NO : 178087463

SUBJECT CODE : MP - (MARKETING)

COURSE CODE : MS-100

SUBMITTED TO

INDIRA GANDHI NATIONAL OPEN UNIVERSITY

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TITLE OF THE PROPOSED PROJECT

“STUDY OF THE EFFECTIVENSS OF

ONLINE MARKETING ON

INTEGRATED MARKETING COMMUNICATION”

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INTRODUCTION

Online marketing is becoming a hot topic in every business sector, and gradually

plays a truly important role in any company’s multi-channel marketing strategy.

It uses the Internet to deliver promotional marketing messages to consumers. It

includes email marketing, search engine marketing, social media marketing, many

types of display advertising (including web banner advertising), and mobile

advertising. Like other advertising media, online advertising frequently involves both

a publisher, who integrates advertisements into its online content, and an advertiser,

who provides the advertisements to be displayed on the publisher's content.

Integrated Marketing Communication, IMC is a marketing concept that ensures all

forms of communications and messages are carefully linked together. IMC integrates

all the promotional tools, so that they work together in harmony. Promotion is one of

the Ps in the marketing mix. Promotions has its own mix of communications tools.

Integrated Marketing Communication is defined by Belch and Belch as a strategic

business process used to develop, execute, and evaluate coordinated, measurable,

persuasive brand communications programs over time with consumers, customers,

prospects, employees, associates, and other targeted relevant external and internal

audiences. The goal is to generate both short-term financial returns and build

long-term brand and shareholder value. (Belch, 775)

Marketing has evolved significantly, particularly in the recent, technology-driven

social media economy. Besides that, during the whole purchasing decision making

process, customers not only use the Internet in isolation to search for products but

other media such as print, TV, direct mail and outdoor as well. These media still play

an extremely important role for the marketers to communicate with customers, for

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example, direct or face – to – face marketing more or less helps marketers build up

the trust in customers and encourage them to purchase the products. Therefore, it is

better to use the Internet as part of a multi-channel marketing strategy which “defines

how different marketing channels should integrate and support each other in terms of

their proposition development and communication based on their relative merits for

the customer and the company.” (Chaffey et al. 2006, 5).

As a marketer in the globally connected economy, Integrating Marketing

Communication and branding strategies to deliver a consistent, clear, and concise

message to prospective consumers is more important than ever.

IMC pursues this, expanding upon traditional marketing strategies to incorporate

broader story telling across a wider variety (and consistently expanding) series of

communication channels between the organization and it’s various stakeholders.

From a technical view, this is all about identifying and aligning the vast array of tools

in a marketer’s kit (i.e. advertising, blogs, social media, public relation, direct selling,

etc.).

IMC blends various promotional tools and communication / marketing / advertising

services and techniques to maximize the profit. IMC is ultimately achieved through

concise and consistent messaging that fosters familiarity and consumer affinity.

Effective IMC messages and images are meaningful and useful to consumers, and

messaging and branding consistency - a proven IMC concept - yield customer

satisfaction and loyalty.

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ONLINE MARKETING AND INTERGATED MARKETING

COMMUNICATION

Online Marketing is the art and science of selling products and/or services over digital

networks, such as the Internet and cellular phone networks.

Media has undergone an extensive phase of development in the last ten years.

Marketers were previously focusing on promoting their product/service through

traditional mediums like TV, Radio, Newspapers, however, now the future of

marketers appears to be digital as technology has become an important part of daily

lives (Pall & McGrath, 2009).

Online marketing is becoming increasingly important to small businesses of all types.

Online marketing uses internet to deliver promotional marketing messages to

consumers. It includes email marketing, search engine marketing, social media

marketing, many types of display advertising (including web banner advertising), and

mobile advertising. Like other advertising media, online advertising frequently

involves both a publisher, who integrates advertisements into its online content, and

an advertiser, who provides the advertisements to be displayed on the publisher's

content. Other potential participants include advertising agencies that help generate

and place the ad copy, an ad server who technologically delivers the ad and tracks

statistics, and advertising affiliates who do independent promotional work for the

advertiser. Growth of internet users must be credited for the growth of online

marketing. With the advent of internet technology number of internet user is

increasing at the greater extent across the world. India stands at forth place with 81

million internet users in 2010.

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Philip Kotler & Kevin Lane Keller, Marketing Management, New Delhi, Pearson

Education, 2006, pg. no. 52

Integrated Marketing Communication - IMC, can produce stronger message

consistency and greater sales impact. It forces management to think about every way

the customer comes in contact with the company, how the company communicates its

positioning the relative importance of each vehicle and timing issues. It gives some

responsibility to unify the company’s brand image and messages as they come

through thousands of company activities. IMC should improve the company’s ability

to reach right customers, with the right message, at right time in the right place. Thus

personal and non-personal communication channels should be combined to achieve

maximum impact.

The idea of IMC is to create consistency and synergy by combining marketing

communication elements so that they support and enhance each other, to promote

potential communication understandings (Duncan and Everett, 1993).

IMC supports the AIDA (Attention, Interest, Desire, Action) model where in it helps

to gain attention of consumers, generate interest, create desire, and result in purchase

action. There are many companies currently using the Internet as their main business

transaction such as DELL, Amazon, Uber, OLA, Flipkart etc However, companies

such as UPM, the world’s leading forest products producer only uses the Internet as a

media to introduce the company and its products to customers via its website.

As per Don Schultz (2008), ―IMC is a strategic business process used to plan,

develop, execute and evaluate coordinated, measurable, persuasive brand

communication programmes over time with consumers, customers, prospects, and

other targeted, relevant external and internal audiences. The key difference in this

definition of IMC from that of simple Marketing Communication is highlighted by

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use of three words: i) strategic, ii) evaluate and iii) measurable. In essence, IMC

enforces use of marketing communication mix in such a way that it is strategically

designed to achieve certain objectives, measured to enforce accountability over

marketers and are evaluated over time. These elements are also stressed on by various

IMC authors (Schultz, 1996; Duncan & Caywood, 1996), who believe that although

the concept of IMC is not new, but the fact that previously marketing communication

was not coordinated strategically and strategy is now believed critical, gives this

concept a new look.

RATIONALE OF THE STUDY

“Online Marketing is the art and science of selling products and/or services over

digital networks, such as the Internet and cellular phone networks”.

The art of online marketing involves finding the right online marketing mix of

strategies that appeals to your target market and will actually translate into sales. The

science of online marketing is the research and analysis that goes into both choosing

the online marketing strategies to use and measuring the success of those online

marketing strategies.

This study aimed at identifying the importance of Integrated Marketing

Communication followed by the effectiveness of Online marketing as a part of IMC

strategy. Therefore the objective of the study is to understand the massive

contribution of Online marketing as a part of Integrated Marketing Communication

and to know its splendid efforts towards promotion in practice and also to find out

some challenges in using online advertising as a tool of Integrated Marketing

Communication.

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STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

Marketing has evolved significantly, particularly in the recent, technology-driven

social media economy. As a marketer in the globally connected economy, integrating

marketing communications and branding strategies to deliver a consistent, clear and

concise message to prospective consumers is more important than ever.

The statement of the problem is, What is the effectiveness of Online marketing on

Integrated Marketing Communication and What are the limitations of Integrated

Marketing Communication.

OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY

The following objectives are formulated for the proposed study:

1) To study and understand the reasons for growing popularity of Online marketing.

2) To study and understand the importance of Online advertising in changing market

scenario.

3) To analyze the effectiveness of Online marketing as compared to Traditional

marketing tools.

4) To study and understand the importance of Integrated Marketing Communication

in Online marketing.

5) To identify the limitations of Online marketing as IMC tool.

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RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

The purpose of research is to find the answers to questions through the application of

the scientific methods. While making a study we very often look for what type of

research methodology is to be used in this type of study. For implementation of a

proper research methodology we have to first understand the meaning of research.

“Research is a scientific as well as systematic process, which includes defining and

redefining the problem to develop hypothesis, to collect and define the

information/data, to analysis the information and bring out the results”.

The first step in research after defining the research problem and objectives is data

collection. The word data means any raw information, which is either quantitative or

qualitative in nature, which is of practical or theoretical use. The task of data

collection begins after a research problem has been defined and research design

chalked out. While deciding about the method of data collection, the researcher

should keep in mind that there are two types of data primary and secondary.

1. Primary data: - This is those, which are collected afresh and for the first Time,

and thus happen to be original in character. There are many ways of data collection of

primary data like questionnaire, observation method, interview method, through

schedules, pantry Reports, distributors audit, consumer panel etc.

2. Secondary data: - These are those data, which are not collected afresh and are

used earlier also and thus they cannot be considered as original in character. There are

many ways of data collection of secondary data like publications of the state and

central Govt., website, journals, companies reports, reports prepared by researchers,

reports of various associations connected with business, Industries, banks etc.

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The present study will be an empirical research and will be based on the Survey

method. This study will be descriptive and analytical in nature based on primary and

secondary data. The secondary data used and referred in the study will be mostly from

the various published or unpublished sources, other research reports and textbooks.

Primary data will be collected through the questionnaire from the customers to

understand their profiles and preferences.

SAMPLE AND SAMPLING TECHNIQUE

1. Sample Size, Area and Technique

A total of 200 customers will have to be interviewed from Bengaluru city.

The study will be done through the Structured questionnaires for the customers and a

Simple Random Sampling methodology will be adopted while collecting the primary

data.

2. Rationale of the chosen Organization and the Sample

Companies which uses Online marketing as a platform to market their products are to

be considered for this study. They are Flipkart, Indian Premier League (IPL), Red

Bull, Cadbury, HDFC Bank, 7Up etc.

The survey for the study work has to be conducted in the city of Bengaluru keeping

in mind that Online marketing is still a metropolitan phenomenon in the developing

country like India.

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DESIGN OF THE STUDY

Any individual, male or female who is having an income on his/her own and is above

18 yrs of age and below 60 yrs of age is a potential customer for online marketing.

Survey for study work has to be conducted in the city of Bengaluru keeping in mind

that online marketing is still a metropolitan phenomenon in the developing country

like India.

Keeping this in mind a simple random sampling methodology will be adopted while

collecting the primary data, as an unbiased random selection of individuals is

important so that the sample represents the population.

There may be apprehensions about disclosing personal information like salary or

income particulars and constant persuasion will be required to get complete responses.

METHODS OF DATA HANDLING AND ANALYSIS

Data will have been analyzed by using various statistical techniques and tools.

Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS), a statistical and Data Management

package will have been used for analysis of the data. Some of the tools may be used

are:-

 Percentage analysis

 Chi-Square Test

 t-Test

 ANOVA

 Friedman’s test

 Skewness and Kurtosis test

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LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY

Following are some limitation of the study:-

 The survey will have been limited to the Bengaluru city only.

 The analysis will have been done through primary data collected using Simple

Random Sampling method. There may be a situation that this Sampling method

does not guarantee the particular sample is a perfect representation of the

population.

EXPECTED CONTRIBUTION OF THE STUDY

No doubt, the study will be carried out on a small scale but it will definitely help in

contributing towards the effectiveness of Online marketing on Integrated Marketing

Communication for wider reach to the customers and its limitations. The companies

can take advantage of the results of the study and use the same for amending the

shortcomings if any found in the study.

The study will lay a foundation stone to create credibility and trust about the brand

among the consumers, this in turn will help the companies to market their products in

a better way. The study will help to know more about effectiveness of Online

marketing and contribute in overall development of Integrated Marketing

Communication as a marketing strategy tool in India.

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CHAPTERIZATION

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW

CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH OBJECTIVES AND METHODOLOGY

CHAPTER 4: DATA ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATIONS

CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION, RECOMMENDATIONS AND LIMITATIONS

REFERENCES / BIBLIOGRAPHY

ANNEXURES / APPENDICES

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REFERENCES

1. Philip Kotler & Kevin Lane Keller, Marketing Management, New Delhi, Pearson

Education, 2006, pg. no. 537

2. Warren J. Keeyan, Global Marketing Management, USA, Prentice-Hall of India Pvt.

Ltd., 2002, pg. no. 3

3. Philip Kotler & Kevin Lane Keller, Marketing Management, New Delhi, Pearson

Education, 2006, pg. no. 52

4. Belch, G. E. and Belch, M. A., 2004. Advertising and Promotion – An Integrated

Marketing Communications Perspective. 6th ed. New York: Tata McGraw-Hill.

5. Beard, Fred K., Conflict in the Integrated Marketing Communications Task Group,

in Proceedings of the 1993 Conference of the American Academy of Advertising, E.

Thorson, Ed., Omnipress, Madison, Wl. 1993, pg.no. 21-31.

6. Abed Abedniya, Sahar Sabbaghi Mahmouei, The Impact of Social Networking

Websites to Facilitate the Effectiveness of Viral Marketing, December 2010,

International Journal of Advanced Computer Science and Applications, Vol. 1, No.6

7. Andrea C. Wojnicki, Word-of-Mouth and Word-of-Web: Talking About Products,

Talking About Me, 2006, Advances in Consumer Research, Volume 33.

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8. Chaffey, D., Ellis-Chadwick, Johnston, K.F. and Mayer, R., 2003. Internet

Marketing: Strategy, Implementation and Practice. 2nd ed. Edinburgh: Pearson

Education.

9. Reid Mike (2005), “Performance auditing of Integrated Marketing Communication

[IMC] actions & outcomes”, Journal of Advertising, vol. 34,pg. no. 41-54.

10. Bengtsson, M., Boter, H. and Vanyushyn, V. 2007. Integrating the Internet and

Marketing Operations. Journal: International Small Business Journal, Issn02662426,

Volume 25, Issue 1, pg. no. 27.

11. Kothari, C. R.; (1973). Research Methodology methods and Techniques. 2nd

edition. Wiley Eastern Ltd. New Delhi.

12. Marketing Research,An Applied Orientation By Naresh K. Malhotra,

Satyabhushan Dash.

13. Best John, Kahn James;(1992). Research in Education Presentice-Hall of Indian

Private Limited New Delhi.

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WEBLIOGRAPHY

1. Kerr, G., Schultz, D., Patti, C. & Kim, I., 2008. An Inside-Out Approach to

Integrated Marketing Communication: An international analysis. International

Journal of Advertising.[Online], 27(4), pg. no. 511–548. Available

at:http://ristiuty.edublogs.org/files/2008/11/integrated-marketing-communication.

pdf

2. Lindberg, Nyman and Landin, 2010. How to Implement and Evaluate an Online

Channel Extension through Social Media. Available at:

http://lnu.divaportal.org/smash/record.jsf?pid=diva2:322517

3. http://www.wisdomportal.com/Books/OnlineMarketing.html

4. http://www.techopedia.com/definition/26409/integrated-marketing-communicatio

ns-imc

5. https://www.boundless.com/marketing/integrated-marketing-communication/intr

oduction-to-integrated-marketing

6. http://ezinearticles.com/?Benefits-of-Internet-Marketing&id=3068318

7. www.proquest.com

8. www.emarald.com

9. www.wikipedia.com

10. www.techopedia.com

11. www.webopedia.com

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