E-marketing: The utilization of e-marketing in small business enterprises
2010
E-marketing: The Utilization of E-Marketing in Small Business
Enterprises
By
Owen Ebenezer Rajarathnam
Supervisor: Dr. Jing Gao
A Thesis submitted for the Degree of
Master of Science (Computer and information science)
School of Computer and Information Science
University of South Australia
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Declaration
I declare that this thesis does not incorporate without acknowledgment of any material
previously submitted for a degree or diploma in any university: and that to the best of my
knowledge it does not contain any material previously published or written by another person
except where due reference is made in the text.
Owen Ebenezer Rajarathnam
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25/10/2010
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Acknowledgement
I wish to express my sincere gratitude to my research thesis supervisor Dr. Jing Gao, Senior
Lecturer in the School of Computer and information Science for his valuable suggestions,
constructive criticism and encouragement throughout the research and writing of this thesis. I
would also like to express my heartfelt thanks to my family for giving me encouragement to
pursue this course and their support during my stay in Adelaide.
Owen Ebenezer Rajarathnam
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A. Table of Contents
A. Table of content.....................................................................................................................4
B. Abstract.................................................................................................................................5
1. Introduction...........................................................................................................................6
1.1 Motivation.......................................................................................................................8
1.2 Importance of E-Marketing ............................................................................................8
2. Research Question ................................................................................................................9
3. Literature Review..................................................................................................................11
3.1. Significants of the papers reviewed................................................................................11
3.1.1
Internet for Marketing...............................................................................................13
3.1.2
Small business in Marketing.....................................................................................15
4. Methodology.................................................................................................................16
4.1. Interpreted CASE STUDY.............................................................................................16
4.1.1 Qualitative Data Method............................................................................................17
4.1.2 Questionaries..............................................................................................................18
4.1.2.1 Methods used in E-marketing.................................................................................18
4.1.2.2 Issues faced in E-marketing....................................................................................20
4.1.2.3 Factors influencing the Adoption of E-marketing..................................................21
4.1.2.4 Advantages of E-marketing.....................................................................................22
5. Criteria for selection of Small business...........................................................................22
6. Findings of four Case studies..........................................................................................24
6.1 Pentamine CASE STUDY.............................................................................................24
6.2 Eviska CASE STUDY...................................................................................................25
6.3 Fusion Clothing CASE STUDY....................................................................................26
6.4 Pixel Avatar CASE STUDY..........................................................................................27
7. Discussion........................................................................................................................28
8. Conclusion.......................................................................................................................29
9. References.......................................................................................................................32
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B. Abstract:
E-marketing is one of the fastest growing fields in e-business which has the potential to
become a platform for small business firm to compete with big business even though they
don’t have the infrastructure and resource. But as we say that small business firms has a
chance to compete with big players there are several issues and factors which lead a small
business to adopt and ignore e-marketing (Carson et al., 1995). A small business firm can
survive in e-market only if they use their resource carefully and allocate them properly and
monitor the resource (McCole and Ramsey 2004).
This is the method which is adopted to find the methodologies used by the small business
enterprises. The interpretive case study is the method with which we can collect qualitative
data in order to find how a small business enterprise uses e-marketing to attract more
customers and compete with big players (Gilmore, A., D. Gallagher, et al. 2007). These data
is interpreted from individuals who are in the real time situations and get an idea about the
way which they have understood the concept of e-marketing and how effectively
implemented helped the firms to gain customers.
Through this case study we will analyse the interpreted data to find the methods used by
small business firms in e-marketing and what are the factors influence them to adopt emarketing. This research will show a clear picture of small business enterprises on how they
are utilizing e-marketing to enhance the performance of their business.
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1. Introduction:
E-marketing is becoming a household name among all industries whether it is a
multinational company or small and medium industries. Everyone wants to utilize emarketing technique to enhance their performance. When the e-marketing concept comes into
discussion many have confusion how this entire process works and from where this emarketing comes from and what are its features. E-marketing is a process which does not
work on its own it resides inside another process and in other words it is a sub set of the
process called Electronic commerce (McCole and Ramsey 2004).. Electronic commerce is
technique for online transaction and monitoring online payments.
Electronic commerce is also a sub set of electronic business in which both electronic
commerce and electronic marketing resides. Electronic business is the complete process
where the entire online business is controlled. It has two subsets which monitors and controls
certain different process within electronic business (Gohary, H., M. Trueman, et al. 2008).
There seems to be a bit of confusion while representing electronic commerce many seems to
believe that the concept of electronic marketing the internet marketing and email marketing
are all same or similar but in reality electronic marketing is a combination of all kinds of
marketing whether it is internet marketing or email marketing everything comes within
electronic marketing. Internet marketing and email marketing are one of those channels
through which marketing can be done by companies.
Many companies using electronic marketing doesn’t really understand what is actually mean
by E-business, e-commerce and E-marketing and how it can be defines. E-business is an
interactive digital technology which is used to administrate and control the online business of
a firm (Gilmore, A., D. Gallagher, et al. 2007). The term electronic business is generally
referred with electronic commerce and electronic marketing. Electronic commerce can
possibly define as a method in which a firm does its complete business transaction through
secure online network.
Electronic commerce is an improved version of the traditional business practices which was
been taking place for years but provides online marketing and business transactions through
communicating with customers and provide value to customers (Gilmore, A., D. Gallagher, et
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al. 2007). There are many different ways in which we can define electronic marketing but in
simple ways electronic marketing is a combination of both internet and communication which
provides customer with secure online transaction. Electronic marketing a channel which you
can communicate with customers and do marketing in digital technology (McCole and
Ramsey 2004). Comparing to traditional marketing technique electronic marketing provides a
real time communication between customers and companies through an interactive online
website. This gives a cutting edge for a firm in creating a customer relationship management
and a long term supply chain management (Gilmore, A., D. Gallagher, et al. 2007).
There was a general feeling that small and medium business enterprises can never compete
with big business in their marketing strategy and resource as they are capable of spending
more money on marketing which is very tough for small and medium enterprise as they are
not in a position to spend even half of the money which big business has spent. This created a
gap between big business and small and medium enterprises and it gave an impression that
big business can only reach to global customers and small and medium business can attract
only local and regional customers (Carson et al., 1995). There were certain factors which
validated this claim and many big industries felt that only another big industry can be their
competitor and not the small and medium industries.
This concept has entirely changed after the arrival of internet industries were slowly using
internet for their day to day business and it became an integral part of an industry. Internet
made the big business and the small and medium business see through a single window and
was able to reach almost every person on this planet. The arrival of internet in the end of 80s
gave way to the creation of many technology with was embraced by industries. One of the
techniques which internet has provided to the industry is electronic business. It is a process in
which an industry conducts business online. The arrival of this technology changed entirely
the geographic position of both big industries and small and medium industries. Electronic
business provides two different platforms which is electronic commerce and electronic
marketing.
These two platforms kept both big industries and the small and medium industries in the
same category while marketing their product online. The concept e-marketing has given
small and medium business cutting edge than that for big business. As far as big businesses
are concern it is another marketing technique which will be used to market their product all
across the world. But for small and medium industries it created a rare opportunity that it
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never thought about it. Electronic marketing gave SMEs to compete with big industries in
marketing their product across the world. Electronic marketing is a surprise gift for small
business enterprises to engage with big business and to compete with them equally on all
fronts. What electronic marketing has done is that it made every business competitive and
gave chance to everyone in the global market (Carson et al., 1995). This technology has
transformed almost every local and regional business into a global business. It is becoming
obvious that every new business is built with an electronic business concept.
1.1 Motivation:
Electronic marketing has changed the way in which the entire business is conducted in an
industry. The internet has provided industries with innovative ideas which will be new,
attractive and interactive. The critical success factor of electronic marketing has given
interesting insights into both small business enterprises and big industries and the way in
which they conduct their business and reach to their customers. The important aspect of this
research is how electronic marketing has changed and improved the performance of small
and medium enterprises. It’s one of the aspects which is been looked in this research.
To begin with electronic marketing is platform where small and medium business can
compete with big business even though they don’t have the infrastructure or the resource
which big business posses (Dholakia, R. and N. Kshetri 2004). This makes the platform even
more interesting as big business doesn’t want to be left out as it has the potential to enhance
performance and attract new customers towards the companies. Electronic marketing is
becoming a part of almost all the small and medium enterprises. There some enterprises that
start a business with just online website have logistic facility and e-procurement facility. This
shows many enterprises are depending on electronic marketing more than anything
(Dholakia, R. and N. Kshetri 2004). The rise of e-marketing concept is not because it is easy
for small and medium enterprises to adapt this concept it’s because internet is running deep in
to every higher and middle class household and people’s mind set to buy product online and
the trust they keep on online product these are some of the reasons which has influenced
every business in the world to adapt electronic marketing.
1.2 Importance of E-marketing:
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The main motivation behind the research on e-marketing and the way it enhances the
performances of the small and medium enterprises. E-marketing is becoming the critical
point in the success of a company no matter what is the size of a company. But e-marketing
has been very successful among small and medium enterprises than the big enterprises. The
most important about electronic marketing is the rate at which it an improved in a short
period of time (Hamill, J. 1997). Even though internet has been in use for some time the
concept of electronic marketing started to get into shape in 2000s and it has risen to newer
heights every year. Many people started to trust the internet for online purchases and believe
that it is safe and secure to do business over the internet and the product are delivered to their
homes instead people going to shops and buying the products. The important thing is
electronic marketing has made life easy for both customers and the service providers.
E-marketing has not only provided small business opportunities it has also given customers
more choice and different type of products all over the world. In traditional marketing
customers were limited to number of different brands they can choose from but after the
emergence of e-marketing customers were able choose from a wide range of brands and
products all over the world (Hamill, J. 1997). It gave customers more power and made
business more competitive. In order to attract customers and retain the existing customers the
small and medium business were forced to reduce the price to be competitive and got the
suggestions from customers while selling a product online and it created customer
relationship management and made a value for each customer.
The main importance of E-Marketing:
1. The competitiveness of e-marketing to make small and medium business compete
with big players
2. E-marketing gives more option to customers while choosing a product
3. The ability to create brand identity to small and medium business enterprises.
4. The performance of e-marketing in small and medium business within a short span of
time
5. E-marketing has become a key success factor to small and medium enterprises which
do not have infrastructure and resource that of big players
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2. Research Question:
The main objective of this research is to find out how a small and medium enterprise is trying
to implement e-marketing into their organisation and enhancing their performance. As emarketing is slowly becoming a global phenomenon there is a lot of questions which has to
be answered regarding electronic marketing as it becomes the source of small and medium
enterprises through which they can compete and have a global business. Even electronic
marketing has the ability to take small business to greater heights with a limited infrastructure
and limited resource there is a real question on how small business is going to use their
limited resource in e-marketing as their options will be limited (McCole and Ramsey 2004).
Even electronic marketing doesn’t require big infrastructure but it needs some infrastructure
to run the entire electronic marketing channel.
Whether small business is outsourcing the electronic marketing to technical consultancies or
they are having their own infrastructure to implement electronic marketing into their
business. There other question is the implementation of electronic marketing as it requires
some previous knowledge regarding electronic marketing. Whether small business has
employees who have enough professional skills to adapt this new technology and implement
this technology and maintain this technology (McCole and Ramsey 2004).
If a small business firm has adopted electronic marketing what are the ways in which they are
utilizing it. Whether electronic marketing is effective in the organisation and what are the
methods which are used to enhance the performance the small business while using electronic
marketing.
E-marketing can be implemented in any small business but the small business has to identify
the techniques which can be used in the specific business as every business is different from
the other for example the marketing technique used by the retail business cannot be the same
for the hardware business as both business are entirely different from the other. This research
will identify how different techniques used in different business. This research will also give
some interesting insight on how far it has reached its customers and how they are engaging
their customers in an interactive technique (McCole and Ramsey 2004). It will also provide
information about how small business enterprises are educating their employees regarding
electronic marketing techniques.
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1. How small business enterprises uses E-marketing to enhance their performance
Sub Questions:
1. A. The methods used by small business enterprises in e-marketing
1. B. What are the factors influencing the adoption of e-marketing in Small business
enterprises
1. C. The ways in which e-marketing has been utilized by a small business enterprise to
expand their business
1. D. How effective the e-marketing for a small business enterprises
1. E. The awareness of e-marketing among employees in small business enterprises
In this research question the main concept is how small business uses electronic marketing to
increase their performance. But to answer this question there many different questions we
need to answer in order to get an idea about this research question. These 5 sub questions
will give an idea about the ways small business enterprises uses electronic marketing.
3. Literature Review:
3.1 Significants of the papers reviewed:
E-marketing is becoming one of the most influential aspects for a business to run efficiently.
It is slowly becoming a platform for small business enterprises to compete with large
enterprises in terms of business with limited infrastructure and resource. But this is not the
case in all the small business enterprises, some of the small business enterprise is reluctant to
enter e-marketing sector as they don’t have proper knowledge in this field. According to
(McCole and Ramsey 2004) small business enterprise uses internet as a mode of
communication rather than using for business transaction and interaction with customers. The
utilization of e-marketing by small business enterprises is increasing rapidly and the
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performance achieved by small business enterprises influences the adoption of e-marketing
by other small enterprises. The small enterprises are classified into three levels according to
the use of e-marketing in their enterprises. The small business enterprise which provides
basic information regarding its products and information related to enterprises comes under
the information level and the enterprises which has a business transaction such as a secure ecommerce feature comes under transaction level and the enterprise which has a interaction
with customers with its website making customers to identify their own needs and to interact
with experts for what they want comes under the Relational level (Sparkes, A. and B. Thomas
2001).
According to Harridge-March, S. (2004) e-marketing is been portrayed as an evolving
technology and the impact of e-marketing among small business. According to them emarketing is still considered as an alien technology as the small business enterprises still
understands the concept of e-marketing and gradually inducting into their enterprises. The
paper concludes that small business enterprises are taking advantage of this new platform as
this provides small business to interact with customers directly which was not possible with
the traditional marketing. E-marketing which provides small business an opportunity to
revive itself and provide a way to compete with large industries.
Gilmore, A., D. Gallagher, et al. (2007) speaks about the involvement of small business
enterprises in e-marketing platform. Majority of the small business enterprises uses emarketing but they are implementing certain features of e-marketing rather than completely
adopting e-marketing into their enterprises. This shows that there is a trust deficit among
small business in adopting e-marketing. They also suggest that there is a need to increase
research in this field as there is a bit of confusion prevailing among the small business
enterprises.
These confusions can be erased only by continuous research in this field. The concept of emarketing is slowly getting popular among small business even though they are reluctant to
implement they are trying to understand the concept of e-marketing and its impact on the
company. Many small business enterprises are adopting e-marketing following the success
story of many small businesses which used e-marketing to enhance their performance.
According to (Sparkes, A. and B. Thomas 2001) the survey taken among the welsh agro food
SMEs shows how effectively they have internet as a mode of marketing for their success.
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3.1.1 Internet for Marketing:
Internet has become one of the most powerful tools for marketing in this modern age.
Every business feels that internet marketing takes them closer to customers and gain more
customers through online. Every small business is facing a dilemma to whether join this
internet bandwagon but if they didn’t join they are afraid whether they will be left out
(Herbig, P. and Hale, B. 1997). Every industry feels that this platform which hasn’t been
conquered by any industry in their specific field.
According to (Paul, P. 1996) there are approximately 30 million people across 135 countries
send and receive information through internet. There is an upward increase in the usage of
internet by people. It is estimated that at least 100 million people will be using internet by the
beginning of 21st century. It is identified that almost all the small and medium enterprises are
using internet as a mode of communication and they are trying to expand their business into
the virtual world.
There are some primary advantages while using internet marketing. The internet provides
global opportunities for small businesses which don’t have enough resource and
infrastructure to position itself globally. The internet marketing has little restrictions on
companies than while doing business physically. The small companies don’t need to change
its approach culturally and geographically while doing business in other countries.
The next important advantage is that customer gets 24 hour access to the services provided by
the companies and it’s very important while doing business in different countries which has
different time zones. Increasing the trading hours will always attract new potential customers.
Allowing customers to decide what they want and when they want and where will always
increase potential customers and give a tactical business edge over their competitors (Paul, P.
1996).
For a product to reach customers it needs middleman and other people to make the product
reach safely to the customers. But in the case of e-marketing the customers can directly get to
know about the products and its features thus reducing the cost which is spent on middlemen
and other things. This gives companies relatively cheap way of communicating with the
customers. Every business has a specific specialization of products which should be given
special priority. In electronic marketing the company can specify their specialization and
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customer will be able to understand and identify the specific product this will lead to
customers getting idea about both the products and the company. The way of approach may
be simple but the future impacts will be huge through electronic marketing. When it comes to
money transaction people will know how this transaction is taking place as these transactions
are occurring in a transparent environment. The customer gets an idea about how the
transaction is taking place and feels secure about the transaction (Dholakia, R. and N. Kshetri
2004).
Electronic marketing concept is pretty different than what people think about it. When the
concept internet marketing first appeared people though that this type of marketing is just a
add on but the real marketing way is the traditional marketing techniques. This has been
proved wrong over the years. Small and medium industries started to use this type of
technique as their main source of marketing and were able to be successful in their approach.
This concept was first quickly adapted by big industries as they didn’t want to miss out on
another platform as they want to lead in all marketing platforms. But the truth was revealed
over the years is that this marketing technique is very useful for small business than the big
business. Over the years internet marketing has been used as a powerful tool to market other
than the traditional one. There some different ways in which a company can market in the
internet. When you dig deep into internet marketing the concept seems to be simple as it is
also cost effective than the other traditional way of marketing(McCole and Ramsey 2004). A
small business can actively use internet marketing by marketing in search engines over the
internet (For e.g. Google ads) affiliate marketing is another technique which is actively used.
These are some of the technique which is actively used and can expect positive results.
Even though internet marketing is the future of many developing and developed industries
across the world there are certain limitations while using internet marketing. The internet was
designed specifically for the free flow of information; hence internet security was not a big
problem and the security features were not considered at the beginning. The security is one of
the main features which a customer considers while doing online transaction (Kula, V. and E.
Tatoglu 2003). Though companies market over the internet it’s very difficult to identify who
is a potential customer and who is not a potential customer. While marketing through internet
the company has lot of techniques to identify how many customers have visited the page and
how long they have stayed in the website but it is very hard to come to a conclusion that not
all visitors will lead to business.
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The other issue faced by the company is that not all the customers will be using online to buy
their products. Internet is making remarkable strides in the world still people are reluctant to
use internet for product purchase and online money transaction. Companies are trying their
best to convince customers in using internet for their online transaction still there is a limited
set of users who use internet for online transaction. The other issue is the complexity of the
internet transaction (Kula, V. and E. Tatoglu 2003). Many companies makes their website so
complicated that customers are unable to find the information they want. This makes
customer confused and they have to dig deep in the website to get the desire information.
3.1.3 Small Business in Marketing:
When it comes to marketing small business always lagging behind as they don’t have enough
resource to accommodate marketing into their budget as their finance is not as powerful as
the finance of a big business. 21st century came as a boom for small business enterprises as
the new technology internet came into effect and through internet there were many
technologies started developing (Jones, C., R. Hecker, et al. 2003). Small businesses were
never committed to marketing at any point of their business. The small business used some of
the traditional marketing technique which was useful for small business. There was a general
division between big business and small business. This is because the resource which big
business possessed was relatively very huge than the resource of small business. This gave
them unconditional authority on worldwide business expansion. But on the other site the
usage of traditional marketing mage small business compete with only local and regional
business.
This was a major difference between small business and big business. Small business with
its traditional methods never thought it can ever compete with big business globally. This was
achieved after the emergence of internet and concepts started flourishing and the new concept
called e-business came into effect. Through e-business the technique called e-marketing came
up (Jones, C., R. Hecker, et al. 2003). The concept was very new even to big business but
after certain time some business started to adapt the technique but eventually this technique is
more suitable for small business rather than big business. A small industry without any
infrastructure can compete with the entire world and made this platform independent and the
monopoly in marketing faded away.
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4. Methodology:
The objective of this research is to find out whether electronic marketing is useful for small
business enterprises and electronic marketing is enhancing the performance of the small
business enterprises. Electronic marketing in small business and big business is very different
as both are very different in their business approach (poon and swatman 1997). This research
will identify the key areas of electronic marketing techniques which are implemented in small
business and how successful these techniques enhance the performance of the small business
enterprises. This research will be done through a case study which will be conducted on the
small business enterprises.
This will give an actual picture on how small business implement electronic marketing in
their firms and enhance their performances. This case study will give an actual picture on
where small business enterprises stand when competing with big business using electronic
marketing technique. There were some types of case study which was looked into through
which we can get valuable data which will be used for analysing the performance of small
business enterprises (poon and swatman 1997). First proposed idea was getting data from
government agency like department for small and medium business where the data regarding
small business enterprises are kept, but those data’s which are gathered will not reflect the
actual face of the enterprise as these data’s would have been gathered by people who is not
actually working inside the small business enterprises so the data will fail to reflect the actual
position of the small business enterprises where it stands on electronic marketing.
So there is a another way of studying the position of small business enterprises from within
itself as it will give a clear picture of how electronic marketing is working and what are the
key areas of electronic marketing in a small business enterprise to develop and how much it
has enhanced the performance of a small business enterprise. That is called the interpreted
case study.
4.1 Interpreted CASE STUDY:
This case study is a way in which we can analyse the current situation in respect to a specific
field through interpreting from people who are actually in the situation (poon and swatman
1997). This gives a real time data regarding the implementation and performance of
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electronic marketing in small business enterprises. This interpreted case study is the best way
to find out how the small business is moving in e-marketing. Generally e-marketing is a
concept which has many different definitions as many academicians and professionals have
given their own views so it is hard to identify the concept of e-marketing. But with
interpreted case study we can understand how small business enterprises have understood the
concept of e-marketing. This will give a general idea about what are the ways they are
implementing and in what ways e-marketing has been utilized in small business whether the
desired performance is achieved and if they haven’t achieved what are ways and techniques
every small business is using to enhance the performance of e-marketing in their business.
Interpreted case study is being used by many researchers as it gives a precise set of data
which the researchers can rely on it as this data is collected from people who are actually in
the situation. In the case of small business enterprises using electronic marketing this
interpreted case study will give a exact view of e-marketing within the firm as this research
will interpret with the employees of the small business enterprises and find out how emarketing is utilized in their organisation and how it is used to enhance the business (poon
and swatman 1997). This interpreted case study will be conducted through collecting
qualitative data collection method. In order to achieve the desire result through qualitative
this is a process by which as set of questionnaires will be given to the employees working in
the small business enterprise and their response will be recorded and interpreted accordingly.
For this interpreted case study a set of four small business enterprises were identified from
India and the people working in those four small businesses will be interpreted.
4.1.1 Qualitative DATA Method:
This is a process to collect data from individuals who are in the real time situation related
either in the implementation or maintaining a specific process in this case the people involved
in implementation and maintenance of electronic marketing in small business enterprises.
This qualitative data method will give an actual picture on how small business enterprises
using electronic marketing as a tool to enhance their business and can compete in world
market through a single window which makes them equally competitive in the world stage as
that of the position which is enjoyed by big business players (poon and swatman 1997).
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Qualitative data method is a set of questions which is given to the people working in small
business enterprises. In this research we gave a set of 13 questions to each small business
enterprises and asked the person responsible for implementation and maintenance of emarketing to provide us with views of the firms understanding of the concept of e-marketing.
The questionaries also covers a broad set of aspects keeping in the mind that these questions
should cover the entire concept of electronic marketing and it should also speak about why
small business enterprise started to involve in e-marketing and how they have used it and
utilized it if they have utilized electronic marketing, to which extent they have utilized what
result they have got whether it’s encouraging for their business perspective and whether they
need any more techniques.
These questions will also try to answer the future prospects of electronic marketing with
those small business enterprises. There are certain questions which needs to be answered like
if the performance is not encouraging what kind of efforts are taken by the small business
enterprises to enhance their performance (poon and swatman 1997). To get a clear picture we
done this case study with four different types of business as every product cannot be
marketed in the same way. Each product has to be marketed in a different way Example:
marketing books, novels and stories is way different than marketing mobile phones over the
internet. This is the reason behind in choosing four different enterprises as they have different
marketing techniques and not all the electronic marketing technique can be used by every
enterprise as it will not be feasible so every enterprise uses certain techniques these thing will
be analysed.
4.1.2 Questionaries:
Even though there are 13 questions in this interpreted case study these 13 questions can be
classified into four set of groups. These groups will show the clear picture of electronic
marketing in small business enterprises.
4.1.2.1 Methods used in E-marketing:
The first four questions based on the methods which are used by the small business
enterprises. These questions will give a brief idea about what are the traditional marketing
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methods which were used by small business enterprises and what are the steps taken by small
business enterprises to implement electronic marketing in their enterprises and what are the
general marketing methods used.
First the case study discuss about the initial level of marketing which is having a active
website which is being updated and kept active all the time. Even though every small
business has a website just by default doesn’t make it entry into e-marketing facility. Every
small business enterprise looks at their website differently it’s because not every business
uses its website efficiently, many business uses it as information board where they will post
their product features and expects their customer to view it, but in many case the amount of
viewers is less.
On other cases the small business uses their website as a portal to interact with customers
these differences will make a huge difference in e-marketing. The second questions based on
these views of the small business enterprises. The third question deals with the types of
traditional marketing which small business used in the past as it is a driving force for a small
business enterprise to migrate to e-marketing. This question will give an idea about how
serious a small business enterprise is when coming to marketing. This will prove the
understanding of basic marketing techniques by small business enterprises.
The other question is that the implementation of e-marketing tool as this is a important
question by all means because a small business which has a successful traditional marketing
practice will be in dilemma whether to move on with modern e-marketing techniques but if
didn’t embrace the e-marketing there will be a question among the business enterprise
whether it will be left out of this modern technique. This is important step for a small
business enterprise to take because they cannot afford to spend money which will not give
any result. Even though there is a list of companies which has tasted success in e-marketing
it’s still hard for a small business to take. But on the other case where a small business which
is not very successful in traditional marketing will have to think twice whether to enter emarketing sector because as it is already lost money and whether it is brave enough to take a
decision of this kind these are the aspects which will be looked in. The next question will be
based on the understanding of the concept. If a small business can able adapt e-marketing into
its fold whether it has enough ideas to market its product in e-marketing as I said before
marketing every product is different. So it’s important for a business to identify the key area
where it can focus on marketing those areas for its benefit.
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4.1.2.2 Issues Faced in E-marketing:
Small business has an excellent platform from which they can launch their product globally.
But there are limitations on every path as it is a small business enterprises there are bound to
have limitations or issues which they will face while both implementing and maintaining an
e-marketing network. This set of questions will provide exact information regarding the
issues faced by small business. The first will be based on the challenges faced by small
business enterprises while marketing.
This will give an idea about the issues faced by small business enterprises while marketing
both in traditional marketing and e-marketing as both marketing will be very hard for a small
business to adapt with. The concept of both types of marketing is same and it would be easy
to compare and identify which is the major stumbling block for a small business enterprise to
market in a specific technique. The e-marketing sector is wide open and it has more
competitors that the traditional one but the enhancement of technique from a traditional
marketing and it is derived from it.
So it will be very easy for a small business enterprise to know its limitations and the issues
which it will face while implementing e-marketing. Online has given equal chances to both
big business and small business but there is a limitation for small business as there are places
and situation where it has limitations beyond which it cannot operate. In e-marketing there
are different techniques and tools and each tool should be handled carefully and every small
business cannot operate every tool so it has to pick the appropriate tool that will help to
enhance the performance of the small business. This is the biggest challenge for a small
business to pick an appropriate tool for marketing. If they choose a wrong tool for marketing
they will eventually fail so it is a major issue to be considered. The next question will cover
the main issue of infrastructure development. Even though e-marketing required minimal
infrastructure yet it needs some infrastructure like setting up a server to constantly maintain
the website as this is the key for marketing as this issue is also important the question will try
to address this issue.
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4.1.2.3 Factors influencing the Adoption of E-marketing:
The third set of questions will address a key issue which is why small business is using emarketing. For a business to adapt a new technique or a new method into its firm will require
some driving force or certain factors which will lead the company in to the path of embracing
it. For big business adopting a new strategy is a matter of time as they have enough resource
and force to adopt it because even the strategy doesn’t properly fit into the business network
the big business can afford to remove it from its fold as it doesn’t hurt financially but for a
small business to embrace a certain strategy it requires a driving force to lead it into emarketing fold this will be discussed in the question.
The question also focuses on the aspects e-marketing which it found suitable for its business.
These include whether its competitors adapted it or whether it saw a great potential in this
field and if the enterprise embraces e-marketing it can achieve a phenomenal growth in its
financial aspect. Factor is an important tool in deciding the course of a business as this will
prove how they approach their business and whether they are learning their lesson quickly
because a business can attract more customers on first come first serve basis. Whoever is in
the market at right time and deliver the product at right time will have more customers as
customer expects quick processing and delivery of goods. This is one of the main factors
which will be crucial for a successful business.
4.1.2.4 Advantages of E-marketing:
The last set of questionaries will look into the benefits which small business enterprises have
got from the implementation of e-marketing into its business. These benefits will include a
variety of sets such as how much percentage of business it has achieved through e-marketing
than its previous traditional marketing. In what ways these prospective businesses which it
has achieved will sustain as a permanent set of customers. Whether this increase is a short
time increase or whether it is a permanent set of increase. The questions also include what
experience it has got by implementing a certain strategy in e-marketing and whether the small
business enterprise will be influenced by this to implement few more e-marketing strategies
into its business.
This also includes whether the expansion cost is bearable. It also try to answer certain
questions like how much prospective leads it has generated every month and how much of
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the prospective lead were converted into actual business and if those business were one time
business or they were satisfied and started to come again. These are some of the aspects
which the questions will be covering to get a clear picture about how this e-marketing has
influenced small business.
These are the four set of questions which will be used to interpret data from small business
enterprise to get information which will be suitable for the case study. To understand the
concept of e-marketing which is being used in small business enterprises these four set of
questionaries are very useful as these questions will give a deep understanding of the concept
of e-marketing.
5. Criteria for selection of small business:
To conduct the interpreted case study four small business enterprises were identified in order
to conduct the case study. These four small business enterprises were identified by certain
criteria. First the selection of these four small business enterprises were according to the level
of e-marketing they have which is more important for this case study. According to fulfil the
basic criteria First two of the small business will be selected in a way which these two small
business will be in information level which is the first level in e-marketing section (Sparkes,
A. and B. Thomas 2001).
The next one will have both the informational level and transactional level. That would give
an idea about how two different levels are managed by the small business enterprises. The
fourth small business will have all the three levels of e-marketing which is the information
level, transaction level and the relation level. There are two different types of small business
enterprises. The two different types are classified based on the countries which they are
located. The first would be in developed countries and the second one is located in
developing countries. I choose to conduct my case study from a developing nation because of
certain criteria (Sparkes, A. and B. Thomas 2001). The country I choose to conduct my case
study is India. As I myself coming from India the concept of e-marketing is relatively new to
this country. I just want to know how this concept is working and how it impacts a
developing economy.
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1. The country is developing so as the industries, This gives equal opportunity for all
industry
2. Developing nation focus on small and medium industries for their economy to grow
3. Industrial policy and financial burden on the small business will be less
4. Small business has an opportunity to flourish in the market as the market is
developing and can attract more customers.
5. The cost of establishing and maintaining a small business is relatively easy.
Even though the developing nation posses certain limitations like lack of infrastructure and
the concept of e-marketing is new to the customers and even for certain small business
enterprises its relatively new as small industries are developing in a developing nation. The
concept of this case study is to understand how e-marketing is utilized in a business to
enhance the performance from the grass root level. Even though developed nations have
some advantage like they have given small industries a special place in their economy and the
infrastructure is developed. But it is easy to conduct a case study in a developed nation as the
data which will be collected through case study can be predicted in this case of developed
nation. This is the difference between a developed nation and a developing nation as the
results in developing nation would be unpredictable.
The four small business enterprises
1. Pentamine Technologies
Provides R&D solution in the field of Information Technology
2. Eviska Infotech private limited
Provides security and surveillance system
3. Pixel Avatar
Graphic and design solution
4. Fusion clothing
Online Garment industry
These four small business industries are very different from each other but the criteria in
which they are selected is the same as all the four small industries have started to flourish in
the market and trying to place them internationally through e-marketing and even if all four
are in different levels of e-marketing they are learning the concept of e-marketing and they
are trying to do the basics properly in e-marketing.
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6. Findings of four CASE STUDIES:
The findings of all four interpreted case study will be written according to their levels of emarketing they are placed. These findings will be written based on the four set of aspects
which has been explained earlier.
6.1 Pentamine CASE STUDY:
The pentamine case study which comes under the information level of e-marketing. This
small business has started to give online Research and development solutions in the field of
information technology. As it is a online solution it has a website to start with but until now
they have seen their website as a first level of communication medium where it can contact
its customers. They are considering implementing e-marketing technique in their small
business enterprise but they are keeping their option open and e-marketing is still in
discussion.
One of the traditional marketing practices which they are using is the old technique
referencing. They are generating business only through referencing until now. They also do
SMS and mail campaign occasionally but as far as they are concern some of the prospective
leads through this campaign have turned into real business. The current strategy the company
is doing is keeping their website active and making it search engine friendly. As they see a
great deal of potential in e-marketing tools which can enhance their performance in online.
Since this small business is in the technology domain they are aware of the changing
marketing aspects as they can understand the concept very quickly. But the major issue they
are facing is even though they have a website to start with they are not equipped to utilize
them. They are looking for a consultancy for initial ideas for the successful implementation
of e-marketing. The current e-marketing tool they are trying to implement is the Google ad
words.
They are totally depending on e-marketing tool s as they want go global this is the only
option they have and want to use to the best possible extent. As far as they are concern all the
technological support they need are available with them but they have no idea where to
proceed with. They haven’t seen anything yet as they haven’t don’t anything useful in emarketing. Their main challenge is the guidance is required as all the technological aspect is
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with them but marketing activities they have no idea how it can be marketed online. They are
ready to allocate their entire marketing budget to e-marketing but they don’t have proper
guidance on how to implement the budget.
6.2 Eviska CASE STUDY:
This is another small business which falls under the information level category. According to
them the major challenge they face in online marketing is the word of their brand and about
them on how can they spread is their biggest challenge. They do have an information level
website. Until now they have seen their website as a marketing tool but lately they started to
think about their expansion of their marketing structure to e-marketing. The concept of cold
calling is a traditional marketing which they are following until now as their representatives
meet their prospective clients and explain about their products. But until now they haven’t
considered e-marketing as an option but lately they started expanding their options and
started discussing about the induction of e-marketing into their fold.
The major problem for them is the way they need to promote their product online. The small
industry still doesn’t have an idea on how it should promote its product online. This is major
factor which will decide on where it stands in e-marketing and how e-marketing concept has
been understood. They just stated to look into e-marketing by optimizing their website for
search engine friendly. But as far as they are concern they definitely see e-marketing as a
potential future option. They don’t have their own infrastructure for website maintenance as
they have their website vendor for providing basic ideas and infrastructure support for
building e-marketing.
The optimization of their search engine has been effective until now as they have already
started seeing increase in traffic towards our website. They have seen a 20 increase in the
number of online enquiries. The major hurdle they face in e-marketing is the concept is new
to them and they rely completely on their consultancy to provide necessary information
regarding the website. According to them employing e-marketing in the right way can only
fetch desirable results and any implementation without proper analysis or understanding can
only result in unnecessary spending. So they are implementing the concept quickly as they
are learning step by step and implementing. They are ready to allocate 80% of their
marketing spending on e-marketing only if they understood and identify the right e-marketing
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tool. Initially they are expecting at least 10 prospective leads every month through emarketing.
6.3 Fusion Clothing CASE STUDY:
The fusion clothing is a small online garment business which falls under the second level of
e-marketing category which has both information and transaction level.
For this small
business enterprise their main challenge is that the product which they are selling online as it
is a garment industry and it is made of organic components it very hard for them to get the
word out as this is their only business cycle and as a small player they do not have enough
resource to spend on marketing.
Their challenge is that they need to make people aware of their product and make them try
once is the challenge as it will give a continuous cycle of potential customers. They have two
types of website one is a corporate website and another one is a secure e-commerce website
for selling. They have their corporate website for updating their information about their
company and management. The e-commerce website is the main area where all the business
activity takes place. According to them through this website they try to engage the customers
and influence them to buy the product.
The different marketing activity they were doing was direct emailing, participating in
exhibitions and sponsor t-shirts. As this is an online trading company they are entirely
dependent on e-marketing tools. They have the website and a e-commerce website to start
with but the main problem for them is that they don’t know which method will work and
which method will not work as the people they have consulted has given their own opinion
instead of the standard set of e-marketing. This is creating confusion on whether which emarketing tool should be used.
The current e-marketing tool which is operated in this small business enterprise is PPC
advertising, display ads, Social media, affiliate marketing, product marketing and search
engine optimization. They have the general idea about e-marketing and their performances
but they are confused which one is the right mix in e-marketing. The infrastructure is starting
to build up as they have a full fledged website and recently they have roped in a website
development company to support e-marketing activities. According to them e-marketing is
good but they felt that they haven’t utilized to the fullest. Their entire sales cycle depends on
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this e-marketing website so they are ready to allocate their entire marketing money if they
find the right mix of strategy in e-marketing.
6.4 Pixel Avatar CASE STUDY:
Pixel has all three levels of e-marketing techniques. It is an online graphic and design
solutions business enterprise. Their main challenge is that this e-marketing is an unorganized
sector as this is a design solution it is very hard to explain to a prospective customer the
difference between a professional designs with that of a freelance designer. The other
challenge is the success which depends on the value which customer associates to the pricing
that we offer and which is always on the higher side as compared to freelancers. They have a
website which has information, transaction and relation levels. They see their website as a
real marketing tool.
The website is designed interactively in such a way that it will walk through the customers
about their packages and portfolio. The website also has an online quote generation system
incorporated within so that the customer can directly generate the quote for their
requirements. They are trying to place themself as an online design agency. They are
developing their website to handle project management and the entire design process. The
different marketing techniques they have used so far are email campaigns, participation in
exhibitions, direct mailers and SMS campaigns. As they are already into e-marketing they
have a pretty good idea about the marketing tools which are available.
The internet promotion of their product is done by their parent company so they have a pretty
good knowledge about how to promote products online. The current e-marketing tools they
are using are search engine optimization, search engine marketing, display advertising, social
media optimization and micro blogging. Through these kinds of constant updating and
changing e-marketing tools and techniques they have seen amazing generation of leads
through internet marketing. The leads generated are nearly 70%.
The main challenge they face in e-marketing is that they completely rely on their parent
company for their e-marketing technique so it’s very hard for them to take a decision of their
own as they were acting according to what their parent company said. So until they are able
to keep their own foot in e-marketing they are going to study e-marketing and e-marketing
tools. The marketing budget is an area where they are ready to allocate the entire money to emarketing as they have positioned themself as an online design agency.
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7. Discussion:
The above case studies of the four small business enterprises have shown different views on
different set of aspects. According to the case study there are very contrasting answers which
were given by every small business enterprises has to be verified carefully. The first
discussion point is that the geographic position of these industries as all the industries is
situated in India which is a developing nation and the concept of e-marketing is evolving in
India and the concept is not fully understood by everyone like the developed nation have
done.
The main similarity between all the four small business enterprises is that they have a good
structured website to start with. The other thing which has to be looked at is the way of
approach they are taking while migrating into e-marketing it is a cautious approach by all
four small businesses. Even though they have sound knowledge about e-marketing and its
benefits for small business enterprises because there is no set of standards which are in place
for e-marketing unlike the traditional marketing every business knows what traditional
marketing is and how to achieve performance in traditional marketing.
The challenges faced by all four small business enterprises are similar as all the small
business enterprises are confused on what type of marketing will benefit and what does not
benefit. But in the case of pentamine technology and eviska infotech which both are in same
information level haven’t implemented e-marketing technique in their business but they are
discussing the implementation of e-marketing. This is because of the confusion prevailing
among the small business whether to embrace this new technology or wait until it gets into a
shape in the market. This is because they are unsure whether they will benefit and small
business according to their case study has said they cannot afford a trial run method as their
budget cannot cover it.
But in the case of fusion clothing and pixel avatar where both are also in the same confusion
but in a different perspective as these two have embraced e-marketing into their fold but they
don’t know which tool is best and which tool is not best this gives a idea that all are in same
point of confusion with different angles. It’s all because there is no standard for measuring
the how e-marketing works.
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The next is the infrastructure which is a significant one by all means as e-marketing needs a
secure e-commerce website to start with and need a logistic support. As all four small
businesses are looking for a website consultant where as fusion clothing as already signed a
contract with a website development company and pixel avatar has parent company for its
website maintenance.
The different e-marketing tools used by every small business is not same where as in the two
information level companies they implemented any tool but still following the old tradition
way of marketing. But the other two small businesses such as fusion clothing and pixel avatar
have used pretty much the same type of tools such as the search engine optimization, social
media or micro blogging, affiliate marketing. And display ads as these are some of the known
e-marketing tools which were been used by the two small business. They have got good
response but according to their strategy they are still reluctant to involve completely into this
technology. Still they have no idea about which is the right mix in e-marketing strategy.
When speaking about the budget allocation pixel avatar and fusion clothing as already started
to allocate money to e-marketing because of their entry into the initial level of marketing but
they will eventually allocate their entire marketing money if they found the right mix of emarketing tool that fit into their business. Even though pentamine haven’t allocated any
money for e-marketing it will also spend money on e-marketing if they find the right type of
technology as pentamine as positioned itself as a online solution company. But in the case of
eviska infortech it doesn’t need to spend on e-marketing as it has a in stores shop and it has
invested in traditional marketing.
These are some of the discussion points which show the current position of the small business
enterprises. Further case study needs to be done to compare two different small businesses in
two different countries. These discussions will eventually leads to more research on this field.
8. Conclusion:
E-marketing as a concept it is very strong and it has the capacity to bring small business
enterprise equal to big business in terms of competition even though small business lacks the
required infrastructure and resource to compete with big business. As discussed in my
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research question the core question of my research can be answered only if those five sub
questions were answered.
The methods used by small business are pretty simple for eg the affiliate marketing and
search engine optimization are some of the tools which are successfully used in a small
business. These tools are being used by many small businesses but each small business
required the right mix of tools in order to obtain maximum result. As this concept is a
relatively new concept it will take time to understand the right strategy. But initial result of
the small business shows that they seen a improvement in their performance.
The factors which are influencing the adoption of e-marketing is relatively very confusing for
a small business as these four small business are in a dilemma whether to fully embrace the
concept of e-marketing. But studies shows that the small business are adapting because they
see this has got potential in yielding rich benefit for the small business enterprise. The four
small business are slowly adopting the concept of e-marketing
The effectiveness of e-marketing has been proved in this study as the two small business
enterprise such as pixel avatar and fusion clothing has see a increase in internet traffic and
has gained more leads through prospective customers and majority of the customers have
become a permanent customers
The awareness among the employees about the e-marketing are pretty much high as they see
this has got great potential in the future and every small business in this case study wants to
adopt the concept of e-marketing fully in near future. The concept of e-marketing has well
reached in the developing nations like India and china where the economy is booming. The
concept of e-marketing once only heard in developed nations has reached even developing
nation which has a pretty big market for the small business to embrace and adapt e-marketing
into every small business enterprise in developing nation.
The conclusion of this case study regarding whether e-marketing enhance the performance of
small business enterprise. The conducted case study validates the claim that the small
business enterprise such as pixel avatar and fusion clothing which has adopted e-marketing
and implemented major part of e-marketing in his small business has seen some considerable
increase in the performance that the small business such as pentamine technologies and
eviska infotech which is planning to implement e-marketing. E-marketing is a growing field
and the small business which acquires it will be maximum gainer as that of pixel avatar and
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fusion clothing which used e-marketing to enhance its performance. The more lately you start
the more slowly you will adapt e-marketing and you will stand to lose most of the customers
permanently. Adapt e-marketing into you business and enhance the performance of the small
business enterprise.
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