Internet marketing benefits Virgin as they are able to increase their customer base as the will be millions of people from every corner of the world visiting their website. This means that they are able to target potential customer that are not able to physically come to their store. With this they are able to expand their organisations due to the increase in their customers. It also exposure for the company fir their company and brand name.
The good things come with the using the internet marketing is that there are not geographical restrictions that will affect the customer from visiting their website. Customers are able to use search engines that will take them to their website, where they will be able to see everything they need to know whether it’s about phone contacts or holidays. What this does for the company is that they don’t lose any customer, because they are not able to reach the store which could cause a decrease in the productivity and a decrease in sales.
Using the internet makes a business like Virgin very efficient as they can customise their website, to how they would feel their customers will respond to. The advantage of this is those customers are attracted to a service that is well displaced, professional and does the job of selling their product or service. These are all thing that will attract customer and leading to gain their loyalty.
Face book and Twitter and twitter are another advantage of using the internet. Using the internet Virgin is able to be sponsored by multi billionaire’s social networks. This will lead to an increase in their customer database as there are billions of people that use these networks, but it will also increase their sales. Virgin sponsored by social networks such as Twitter and Facebook will give the customer the impression that it is a professional company.
The internet is such a good source to use for getting your business out there in the world, where people will see what you have to offer. Because Virgin is also an online based company many people around the world will be able to see their website, in this case they will increase their customers base as their will be many people visiting their online presence of website whether already existing customer or potential customers. This will increase their global visibility.
Using the internet Virgin can use direct selling which means that they will be cutting out the middle man this is called disintermediation. The way that Virgin does this is by allowing their customer and potential customers to create an account with their company. By the customers doing this Virgin will be able to see what they usually buy and their preference. Virgin will be able to use this as an advantage as they will be able to offer their customer deals that they have to offer by using their usual preference.
Customers will be able to find out more information about the products that they want before they buy unlike in stores where they will only get a small amount of information to tell their customers about the product. For an example Virgin flights would have more information online than in the stores because it’s not something that they can feel and observe from using their eyes and it not presented to them as a phone or a television would be.
From the pictures below Virgin also helps them to decide to where they would want to go by showing them inspiration section. As you can see from the pictures above there are web exclusive offers on now at Virgin which customer would not be able to take advantage if they were go in stores. Using the internet is a great of finding out information which will benefit both the company and the customers.
P6
The challenges that come to businesses that use the internet as a marketing tool are:
• Technology
The problem with technology is that it is always changing and becoming more advanced, whether it is too look better or to gain the attention of more people. With the internet it will always change as there are billions of people that use the internet every day. If the process of which the computer are used or changed, the people that works for the company of Virgin will have to be trained all over again to know the knowledge behind the computer. This will lead to costing the company money to put their employees on a training scheme, so technology is something that many business need to look out for.
• Managing work
When using the internet for marketing tool can be very intensive at moments. For Virgin as it online-based company, they will have to deal with heavy criticism, feedback from customers, this can included compliments and even complains. So keeping up with what the customer’s desire can be a very difficult task as everyone would have different opinions and views of the way things should be functioned. If things go wrong for the company it can such FAQ are not being answered it can cause a destruction and a decrease the in their costumer database and capital.
• Trust worthy
When using the internet as a marketing tool, people might not always trust the company to use their card details, whether it is because the layout of the page is not as professional as it should be or whether they are just reluctant to give their details as it could lead to theft. With Virgin, people might not trust whether their product are real. So nowadays having padlock on their website gives the customer that assurance that it is safe.
• Language
This could cause a problem with Virgin because it is a company that is people are able to visit all over the world and because the language is in English all the time, customer or potential customers may not be able to understand the and this will result in the company losing customer other corners of the world. Losing customer is a not a good thing when you are an online-based company, as it is the only way to expand their customer database.
M2
Opportunities
• Online customer service
online customer service is good for Virgin as it is an online-based company, the reason for this is because they are able to help their customer with any enquires that they might have using FAQ forums and blogs, which they can’t answer face-to-face. Virgin can easily answer their customers questions themselves without any agent-assistance interference. What this also does for the customer is that they don't have to worry whether or not they will be assistance when they need it. The disadvantage of online customer service is that, customers want to talk a member of staff which they can get the information that they need directly.
• Provide wide range of product
Using the internet as a marketing tool is a great way of Virgin providing a wider range of products for their customers. The benefit of this is that they are able to put up all their promotion of that is going on in the business and with this there will be an increase in the number of people that will see it. For the customers the advantage is that will be offered multiples of choice on what they want, as there will be a wider range of products to choose from, that would probably not be available in stores. The disadvantages is that providing a wider range of products doesn't mean that their sales will improve, this could be because the customers are not able to feel the products physically they unsure whether to purchase or not.
• Appeal to a wider range of people
Virgin using the internet is a great way of increasing their customer base. The reason is because having a website that, millions of people can visit from all over the world will increase the people that are actually interest in the products and service that they provide. This will let Virgin know that people around the world are interested but also that increase their profit and sale. The advantage of this for the customer is that they are able to access their website from wherever they are in world, if they have the connection. The disadvantage of this is that people all around the world might be able to speak English but also that they are trust worthy as they operate in a different country than the one that they are in.
• Google search engine
Using the internet has given Virgin the ability to make sure that their customer is able to find their website. The search engine provides their customer and potential customers with a wide variety and quantity of information resources about the company and website. Using a search engine enable their customers to type in exactly what they seek form the company, if it wasn't that easy customers would have been fed up and leading Virgin to lose a few customers. The disadvantage is that many irrelevant pages can come up when searching for their information whether it about the company or website and this can discourage their customers.
Challenges
• Technology
The problem that Virgin can have with Technology is that they would have to make sure that they are always up-to-date to how the internet is functioning but also that their employees are up to date too. This would mean that if there is a change in the way thing is run, they would have to train their employee. This would cause the company to lose money to put their employee on training scheme to make sure that they have the skills and knowledge that they need to know. If they would not want to lose money on a training program they can, instead recruit people that may have the skills that they need within the company and even this method would still be expensive. The advantage of this is that it could help the company to run more efficiently as technology are more advanced to help but the disadvantage is that the company could lose a lot of money within the process.
• Managing work
Managing work can be a heavy challenge when it comes to the customer waiting for responses to enquiries, compliments, complains and feedback from all corner of the world. With such heavy load, the company might not be able to answer all the comments. If this was a problem customer will be irritated as they are not being answered. The advantage of this is that the company will know how the customer feels about their website and the service that they provide and from the feedback they are able to changes problems that their customer feels is not right as they are their first priority. The disadvantages are that they could lose customer if they get frustrated if their question are not answered fast enough when they need it.
• Trust worthy
Trust will be a tremendous challenge for any organisation as they would have to reassure their customer that they are safe when it comes to payment process. Customer will not use their card details on their site if there is not a padlock or some kind of surety that their website is safe. Virgin can have problems with this as there people from all over the world that will not trust their safe as they don’t feel safe as it is not a service that operates in their country. The disadvantage of this that they will lose customers and potential customer and this would have an effect on their customer database; this will also lead to a decrease in their sales too, and this not too good for the anyone within the company
• Language
Having the right language on a website is a very important element when having an online based website. As virgin is an online-based organisation, they have to make sure that the language that the website is in, everyone would be able to understand it or it could leading to them losing, thousands of customers. The disadvantage of this is that the company would lose customers from all over the world if they do not have the right language. The advantage of this is that, it would be an eye-opener for the company as they would offer language to choose from.