Online Services - Assignment Example

ONLINE SERVICES Part There are many online advertising options available for White Flower Travel International (WFTI). But it should be based in line with the company’s strategy which is to reach customers globally. Advertising depends on the target audience and the type of message that the business wants to deliver to its customers. Some examples of online advertising are discussed below: Banner Ads - In this method, WFTI will have to buy advertisement runs for a period of time after which it has to renew its advertising slot. Banner ads are available or sold as number of impressions. These impressions are generally sold in chunks of 100,000 to 1000,000 over a particular period of time. These banners are generally sold by publishers on specific section of the host website’s web page. (Source: Network Advertising Blog, 2011) Advantages – In this option, both the publisher and WFTI knows how many impressions they need to buy and for how long. This will simplifies the budget of WFTI and will also give flexibility to test the advertising model. Disadvantage – This method is less effective compared to social media ads. Its biggest disadvantage is that the customer may view banner ads but not click on it. Also the user may simply ignore it or over see the ads if they do not find it interesting. Social Network Advertising - This type of advertising is targeted to the social networking site users. The advantage of using this type of advertising is that the demographic information of the users can be obtained very easily. This will help the company target its products according to demand of users and their preferences. It can be further divided in two types of advertising: Direct advertisement based on users and their friend’s network – Based on the feedback of the friend group, the next user may see the advertisement messages. Direct advertising on website – In this type of advertising, the user may see a message on the home page of social networking site. (Source: LinkedIn, 2013) Advantages – Social networking websites have maximum number of unique users and it also offers target advertising. They also offer target audience engagement creating and consuming information. Social networks are used by millions of users across the globe which will help WFTI to promote their product and services all over the world. Advertising Networks - These networks help to connect advertisers to websites which host advertisements. These ad networks aggregates ads space from advertisers and then matches it with advertising demands. These ad networks may be vertical, targeted or blind networks. The vertical networks are used by brand marketers and the economic model based on market price and sharing of revenues. The blind network is less costly and uses bulk networks to achieve low pricing model. Targeted networks is built on consumer preference model and attempts to add value by connecting to social media. (Source: Centre for Democracy & Technology, 2009) The three most common ways in which WFTI can advertisement online are CPC, CPV, and CPA. Cost Per Click (CPC) – It is a suitable method for WFTI to evaluate the impact of online advertisement. Every time a user clicks on the advertisement, the page will be redirected to WFTI’s page. There is no cost of listing under this model unless the user clicks on the ads. Thus, WFTI will pay only for the genuine customers who would be willing to buy their product. Under this cost model, WFTI will have to pay for listing a series of words which targets customer attention and then redirects them to preferred destination website. Cost Per View (CPV) – Under this model the advertisers pay for the number of actual visitors who were originally targeted by the company. This means that WFTI will have to pay for each unique visitor for viewing the advertisement or the webpage. Ads which are used with pops-ups are generally priced under this model. Pay Per Performance (PPF) or Cost Per Action (CPA) – This is the safest mode of revenue model since under this scheme, the publisher bears the risk for running ads and WFTI will have to pay for only those transactions where transaction is complete. A transaction by user is considered to be complete when the purchase or signup has been made (Shin, Hu, and Tang, 2011, pp.2-3). WFTI is recommended to promote their products and services through social media advertising since it aligns with company’s strategy of reaching customers globally. Part II A web hosting service will allow WFTI to provide their product and services through the World Wide Web. Web host companies help organizations to obtain server space by owning or leasing. The service provider also provides internet connectivity. (Source: Marketing Genius, 2009) Free Web Hosting - If WFTI uses an internet service provider that does not offer web space facility then this type of web hosting would be most appropriate. A free hosting is best suited for private and small business web pages. Since WFTI offers a wide range of products and services which are supported by online advertising, this form of hosting is not appropriate for it. Colocation web hosting service - It is the most expensive type of web hosting where the host requires very little or no support on client end. In some cases only providing only internet access and storage facilities is sufficient. Thus, even though it is expensive, it will put the web server of WFTI in the machine room of larger company that will connect the server to a high speed internet service. Thus, it is a great option for WFTI if it wants more control over web hosting. It is equivalent of having an information technology department that exclusively manages the company’s web hosting. Dedicated hosting service - In this type of web hosting the user gets full control over the web server space but does not own the server. It is cheaper than colocation and can also be in the form of self managed or unmanaged. The only disadvantage is that WFTI will not own the server meaning that the client will be responsible for maintenance and security of the dedicated server (Drowin, 2001, pp.7-19). (Source: Webhosting Review, 2012) WFTI is recommended to use dedicated web hosting services since it will give it control over server and at the same time it is also cheapest form of dedicated hosting services. Part III Facebook – It is the most popular social networking website in the world that has over half billion active users and thousands of online community. It has the potential of bringing customer closers to company. Facebook can help a company to promote their product and services by online marketing and advertisement. The strategy of Facebook is simply to give its users the chance to socialize and in the process communicating each other’s likes and dislikes (Ryan, 2011, pp.17-23). Such type of social media marketing holds huge potential to understand the actual demand for any product or service among the target audience. Some of the ways by which Facebook can help WFTI to promote their products are discussed below: Profile – By creating a profile for the business, WFTI will be able to establish its identity. Since it is a new company, this would the most appropriate way to reach out to customers across globe. Wall – The Company can post messages regarding their new products, discounts, special offers, and so on in this platform. Based on the user responses, like or dislike, it can help the company to develop its market. Tags – They are excellent medium for publicity and can be used effectively to promote new product and services. Since, the company aims to launch sports & adventure packages it can be one of the best way to promote such products. Google+ - It is latest and the fastest growing social networking website. This means that if the businesses promote products through Google+ today, they will put themselves ahead of competition tomorrow. Some of the popular techniques used to promote products are: Circles – This feature will help WFTI to sort their market by different segments. Using these messages the company will be able to control who will see which message. Thus, a discount aimed at particular region like Canada, may be different from the discount available in USA. Thus in this technique Google+ helps create a group of people who have brought a particular product of company and another group that have not. Hangout – This feature allows businesses to promote products through video conferencing and is excellent method for interactive marketing. LinkedIn – It can help WFTI to create products and services page which makes it easier for the users to find what they are looking for. It also has the feature of creating separate pages designed for specific target customers. It also offers the company to show case themselves through images and videos. WFTI is recommended to use Google+ as a medium to promote their products and services since it is at growing stage and has the potential to attract more customers for the company. References Shin, J., Hu, Y., and Tang, Z. (2011). PERFORMANCE-BASED PRICING MODELS IN ONLINE ADVERTISING: COST PER CLICK VERSUS COST PER ACTION. Retrieved from http://faculty.som.yale.edu/JiwoongShin/Downloads/workingpapers/PerformanceBasedPricingModels.pdf. Drowin, M. (2001). Web Hosting and Web Site Development A Guide to Opportunities. New York: Rosen Publishing Group, Inc. Ryan, P. K. (2011). Social Networking. New York: Rosen Publishing Group, Inc. Read More