Dirct and e-Marketing Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Dirct and e-Marketing - Essay Example The threat for the future of direct marketing is data protections and privacy laws accepted in order to protect personal information from undesirable intrusion. Until the problems of protection of personal data have been solved, public acceptance of the Internet for widespread online purchasing of good and services will not really take off. It should be mentioned that personal data is: "Information that identifies a person e.g. address, e-mail address, name etc. and "includes any expression of opinion about the individual" which is, recorded and processed" (Data Protection, 1998). The field of marketing communications has seen dramatic changes since the 1980s, not least the unprecedented advances in marketing technologies. The ubiquitous Internet, ingenious smart cards, sophisticated customer databases, easily accessible data warehouses, and cost-effective direct mail have all contributed to a quantum leap in the quantity and quality of information exchanged between companies and the ir customers. Through information and communications technology, the pace of exchange has reached lightning speed and the costs of information processing have plummeted. The impact on the everyday lives of businesses and individuals has been profound (Chaffy, Mayer, Johnson, Ellis-Chadwick, 2000). Privacy concerns relate not only to interception and subsequent misuse of credit card or other personal data on the Internet but also extend to private use of information held on computers about individuals, such as health, tax and social security records, and to monitoring of what is downloaded from different sites and by whom. For instance, if someone goes into a e-shop the staff can record which items they are buying and their personal information such as e-mail, telephone, etc. On the Internet, the computers holding the Web pages log all comings and goings. The organisation running the site - in the case of official information, has a complete record of everything they look at, their interests and concerns. " The factors that exacerbate concerns are unsolicited communications, particularly if they presume to extend a relationship beyond what the consumer recognises, and especially if the communication is from an unknown organisation, and even more so if personal data has been ex propriated and exploited through such mechanisms as the exchange of mailing lists. For some people at least, a further cause for concern is its wastefulness" (Clarke, 2005). Without the transparency afforded by building freedom of information and data protection principles into the systems which will deliver online services, it is hard to see why people should trust not to abuse the powers it will need to tie together the data from disparate sources. If the same 'smart' electronic card will in future be used for financial transactions, to hold medical records, criminal records, driving licence details and to authenticate my dealings with departments, how can a cost6omer be sure the firm will not abuse the technology to track my movements, lifestyle, reading matter and so on This gap in public trust is going to be one of the biggest problems facing the wiring up of public service delivery, and strong FOI and data protection laws are the absolute minimum requirements to bridge the divide. On the one hand the right to be informed of the facts involved in any buyer-seller relationship is clearly a fundamental right. Some of

Sample Exam Paper Questions Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Sample Exam Paper Questions - Essay Example Worthington and Britton (2009, p.6) define the macro environment as â€Å"those ... factors ...which affect a wide variety of businesses and which can emanate not only from local and national sources but also from international and supranational developments†. There are many variants, including different factors, but the framework to be used for this analysis is the STEEPLE framework, representing the Socio-cultural, Technological, Economic, Environmental, Political, Legal and Ethical factors that affect business and over which business has no control. A macro-environmental analysis is contained within the following diagram: Figure One: Macro-Environmental Analysis for UniQlo Expansion into the UK Consumer Behaviour The British retail culture is based around a consumption model that focuses on products and the image that such products convey when seen in conjunction with the consumer. Hoyer and MacInnis (2010) identify several components that make up the consumer’s cult ure: diversity, social class and household influences, psychographics (including values, personality and lifestyles, and social influences. They link these to the psychological core which includes motivation ability and opportunity; exposure, attention and perception; knowing and understanding; attitude formation and change; and memory and retrieval. This feeds into the process of making decisions (following a logical decision making process of problem recognition and information search, judgment and decision making and post-decision processes. The final element of the consumer’s culture is evidenced through the adoption of, resistance to and diffusion of innovations, symbolic consumer behaviour and ethics and the dark side of consumer behaviour. For the UK consumer where luxury fashion is control, diversity is affected by income levels and the need for luxury goods as part of their lifestyle. With the current austerity programme being implemented within the country, only tho se with a substantial income who will not be affected by such things as an increase in taxes, or a reduction of income, or both, will be able to indulge in luxury goods. The consumer market for UniQlo is therefore limited by levels of income, rather than by other indicators of diversity, such as race or religion. Social class and household influences will again be determined to a great extent by available income, whether generated by working or as income from investments. UniQlo will need to target the upper middle classes and above, who need luxury fashion items for social occasions or for their work appearance. Values in the UK appear to be undergoing substantial changes, including a more selfish outlook that sees those without work, for example, as scroungers rather than individuals who have simply lost their jobs through no fault of their own. The same applies to those who are homeless or disabled. The focus for personalities is, as mentioned previously, the consumption of goods that convey a particular image that works for the consumer. Lifestyles will be changing for the majority of the UK population as taxes increase for those earning up to six figures per annum, and benefits reduce for those who are out of work, disabled and/or homeless. Social influences are also changing, as more people begin to object to the austerity programme and the effects of that programme begin to take effect. There is the possibility of riots as the electorate become disenchanted with a coalition