My name is Sebastian Hedencrona, I'm a final year Media and Communication student majoring in Public Relations. With a deepened understanding of new media development and impact on social interaction, in particular the internet I am interested in exploring the impact of this medium on consumer interaction and its impact on the global market place.
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=Online Consumer Aggregation=
==Annotated Bibliography==
===Books===
Item 1
Urban, U,L. (2004) Digital Marketing Strategy, Text and Cases, 1st ed. Upper Saddler River, New Jersey. Pearson, Prentice Hall. ISBN 0131831771
Chapter three gives a short but comprehensive overview of the consumer decision making process in an online environment. It identifies the stages of the decision making process and how the technology of online shopping and research in terms of information processing in an overflow of information that customers are struggling with when engaging in online transactions.
Short case study inputs provide a clear picture of the application in a real world situation. In this chapter the on-line “shopping basket� is a simple example of how the technology helps the consumer in the decision making process by storing the products that the consumer has considered while browsing the website.
Furthermore the book explains the core of consumer behaviour and marketing management with related case studies to the online environment.
Item 2
Dholakia, N, Fritz, W, Dhalokia, R, Mundorf, N. (2002) Global E-Commerce and Online Marketing. Westport, Conneticut, London. Quorum Books. ISBN 1567204074
Chapter one provides a clear overview of the development of internet and the transition from the old in to the new economy and the impact on today’s marketplace. It clearly explains the rapid development of e-commerce and online marketing and in response the impact on the online consumer information assembling and dissemination. Chapter two develops the subject and provides a deeper insight to the impact of the internet on issues of globalisation and behavioural patterns of consumers and internet users stepping in to the new information economy.
The book has a clear structure and language that takes the reader through a step by step process of the historical and technical development of the internet and the impact on marketing applications in the information economy.
Item3
Cox, B.G. Koelzer, W. (2004) Internet Marketing. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey. Pearson, Prentice Hall. ISBN 0130336289
This book explores the different aspects of the impact of the extended access of information and reach of the consumer through online technology and in response, the changing environment for marketers looking to reach its target market online. The book investigates the impact of the net as a whole and its individual components on the consumer and the marketers. Chapter six disseminates how users find information on the Internet and structure of the most common search tools and gateways such as; portals, vortals, search engines, and directories which is only one out of the many inputs to the information highway that the online environment is representing.
Item4
Griffith, A. (2001) Quicksilver Companies, the battle for the online consumer. Houndmills, Hampshire, Palgrave. ISBN 0333960289
Quicksilver Companies evaluates the impact of the online boom and the development of the interconnected society that has shaped the modern consumer and market environment. The first chapter defines the development of the modern consumer and defines its characteristics of a highly aware and confident consumer group that has turned the table around and is now controlling and instructing the marketer in their jobs. This has caused confusion and restructuring for many companies within the service industry that has relied on its ability to predict what the customer wants before the customer him self knows it. Since getting online they have lost the advantage over the customers that now is controlling the market forcing restructuring and critical rethinking and repositioning of resources to keep up.
The book provides a comprehensive insight and understanding of the consumer development together with the new corporate culture that has developed from the online boom and is effectively matching theory with case studies and real life references.
Item5
Neal, Quester, Hawkins. (2002) Consumer Behaviour 3rd Edition, Implications for Marketing Strategy. New South Wales, Australia. McGrawhill/Irvin. ISBN 0074709763
Chapter four discusses the internet and how consumers search for information and defines the so called information power that consumers today is possessing, this due to the expansion of the online environment and the application of internet technology such as electronic shopping agents that helps the user to search the internet for specified products and services. The chapter recognises the importance of understanding the new consumer in their research and purchasing behaviour and explores up on the demographic differences in research and purchasing behaviour.
The 3rd edition is a comprehensive overview of today’s consumer market from all aspects and develops an objective picture of the history, implications and applicable strategies for marketers and product developers.
====Journals====
Item 1
Athivaman, A. (2002) ‘Internet users' intention to purchase air travel online: An empirical investigation’, Marketing Intelligence & Planning, vol. 20, Iss. 4/5, p. 234. Www: Market Intelligence & Planning
Athivaman discusses the impact of internet consumption and the changes in consumer purchasing behaviour. The article analyses the traditional purchasing behaviour focusing on the instrumental acts: that is, acts necessary in obtaining the goal object and the acts involved in consuming it and the implications of this in application of online purchase. The internet has changed the factors influencing this behaviour in particular the security concern of online transactions. Athivaman explores the matter by comparing past and new influences on the traditional behavioural theoretical framework, “theory of planned behaviour�. This measures the impact of, attitudinal, social, and perceived behavioural control and finds that there are numerous additional factors influencing the perceived behavioural control in an online environment. Further research of mathematical measurements is applied with the conclusion that marketers should focus their advertising dollars on associating internet purchase with features such as ease of use, and time-saving method of purchase.
Item 2
Card News, Potomac, (2003) Security, Spam Impacts Online Shopping Decisions, MasterCard Research Finds, vol. 18, Iss. 11; pg. 1.Www: Card News/Proquest
This article is based on a US consumer study by MasterCard International on online purchasing behavior. The report examines what influences the research and purchasing decisions in the growing online market place. The findings clearly outlined that security and unwanted e-mails (SPAM) are of high concern to online users and should be considered priority number one for e-commerce.
The report also identified five groups of internet users for e-commerce with different set of behavior and concerns. The groups are categories from most to least confident or frequent and experienced users. These groups all have different search patterns in relation to experience and confidence in using the different aspects of the internet.
Item1
Media Post [Online] Available: MediaPost.com [Accessed 09 Aug. 2004]
This website provides a comprehensive advertising and media internet portal with news and directories primarily for media planners and buyers. But the site also features a news letter function with regular reports on the latest research briefs following, the user have the possibility to purchase the full report.
Mediapost.com provides links and research material with extensive insight to how consumer behavior online is constantly developing and is primarily developed to help professional media planners to buy more effectively, efficiently, and easily.
Item2
ZeroMillion [Online] Available: ZeroMillion.com[Accessed 09 Aug. 2004]
ZeroMillion.com is an online community website for professionals, entrepreneurs and marketers to interconnect with people with interest in developing their knowledge of the online world. In addition, the website provides one of the top resources for online research and is a good example of how marketers and other professionals are exploring the possibilities of the internet to share information and research to keep up with the online consumer.
Item3
Forester Research [Online] Available: Forrester.com[Accessed 08 Aug. 2004]
Forrester is an independent technology research company that offers products and services in four major areas: research, data, consulting, and community. Forester.com explores technology’s impact on business today with business, marketing, and IT professionals worldwide collaborating to align their technology investments with their business goals.
University of Florida [Onliine] Available: University of Florida [Accessed 08 Aug. 2004]
This article examines the consumer evaluation process for shopping and its application to the online shopping environment. For evaluation consumers tend to apply a two-stage process of screening the market for a range of available and most promising alternatives following an in depth evaluation comparing the attributes associated with the chosen products.
Online consumerism is a more extensive process since online consumers have a larger range of accessible products for comparison. To make it easier for the consumers to navigate through the range of products and deals decision aids software has been developed. Each consumer records a personal list of attributes that guides the software in its search for the closest match.This method allows for quick and easy access to accurately targeted information for internet users creating a tough environment for companies competing for the online market.
AOL – America Online
AOL is a website that provides news, chat groups, shopping, entertainment, links, travel tips, music links, a search engine, links to video games and much more.
AOL – [Online] Available: AOL.com [Accessed 08 Aug. 2004]
ABC – Australian Broadcasting Corporation
ABC is a non- commercial radio and television broadcaster and the leading source of information and entertainment in Australia.
ABC [Online] Available: ABC.net.au [Accessed 08 Aug. 2004]
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