The interactive and multimedia capabilities of the Web, combined with other Internet facilities such as e-mail's support for personal and mass communication, present a range of tools for interacting with customers. Furthermore, the Web can provide an interface to back-end applications (e.g., databases and expert systems technology). Consequently, the Internet offers an excellent basis for a variety of marketing tactics, which permits the development of a model for Integrated Internet Marketing ( I2M ). The concepts of integrated Internet communication apply to all forms of communication, not just that between seller and buyer.
I2M (see Table 4.1) is the coordination of Internet facilities to market products and services, shape stakeholders' (customers, in particular) attitudes, and establish or maintain a corporate image. The central idea of I2M is that an organization should coordinate its use of the Internet to develop a coherent, synchronous marketing strategy.
The Web offers a unique way to shape corporate image because it provides a means of communicating with so many stakeholder groups. For example, most organizations are interested in the ambiance or atmospherics that their establishment creates for the customer, where the term atmospherics refers to an organization's retail environment. The Web provides an opportunity for customers to experience an organization's atmospherics without actually being there (as the case later in this chapter demonstrates).
In the same way, the Web provides new opportunities in terms of signs, word of mouth, personal experiences, and public relations. Traditional marketing theory and practice have discovered that it is very difficult to manage a corporate image so that the identical image is communicated to every stakeholder group. The Web provides a powerful tool to assist managers in communicating a unified image.
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