Name: Bakayoko Leila Sarah Maryse

Id number : 10220537
MANAGEMENT INFORMATION SYSTEMS
CONSIDERING THE CONTEXT OF A DEVELOPING COUNTRY LIKE GHANA, IS
THE INTERNET A STRATEGIC CHOICE FOR EVERY FIRM OR OTHERWISE,
SHOULD EVERY FIRM DO BUSINESS ONLINE?

Internet, once a preserve of the military, scientists and engineers is now being embraced by a lot
of users and other professionals. It is gradually being widely accepted that the information
technology revolution is impacting and will continue to impact on the conduct of business (both
local and international) in this millennium. The Internet can no longer be regarded as a fad. The
commercial uses of the internet have become the fastest growing part in the world of the World
Wide Web. By the close of last year, 20 percent of all trade volume was handled via the net and
by 2005; one billion people would be connected to the net. By the close of last year, Business
Consulting Group predicted Business to Business (B2B) online commerce to be $ 3.3 trillion
while Forrester Research estimated it to be $ 2.7 trillion. These estimates were even conservative
compared to others made. Online customer acquisition and retention rates are improving and
online marketing spending is becoming more efficient.
The Internet has been described as "a vast computer network interconnected globally". To
marketers, IT offers organizations inexpensive and sophisticated tools for advertising, taking
their philosophies and communicating with their customers all over the world. With the number
of users growing monthly at an estimated rate of 10 percent and an average of one million
people, the Internet is the fastest growing global telecommunication network in the world. The
number of connections to the Internet is expected to double in size every year. If the current
expected growth rate persists, there will be more than 200 million networks connected to the
Internet by the close of this year. The Internet for instance is providing a lot of countries with the
broad and vast communication network that is driving the formulation of a huge global electronic
marketplace. This marketplace created by the Internet is shared, real-time, global and open. A
wide range of services are being embraced by marketers including e-mail, list servers,
newsgroup, file transfer protocol and the World Wide Web which are providing results. The
Internet is now regarded as an important and perhaps a transformational marketing medium for
business to business (B2B), business to consumer (B2C) and consumer to consumer markets
(C2C). Consumers use the Internet for many different reasons ranging from only gathering
information to purchasing products online. Online purchase is still a small percentage of Internet
usage; however, most analysts expect it to increase dramatically once consumers feel safe about
their purchases and protection of their privacy. Research has revealed that, users spend 10 hours
per week surfing the web whilst 4.5 hours are spent reading newspapers. Considering this
background, the purpose of this piece is therefore to reveal the startling set of merits the Internet
has over the traditional marketing vehicles and how Ghanaian marketers can take advantage of
this. Reach In any way that we see marketing, whether as "the conception, creation and
sustenance of customers" or "a purposeful attempt of activities intended to promote the market
exchange of goods and services", the marketer's first task is to communicate key messages to the
full set of target prospects, customers and influencers. The web as medium has quickly achieved
very broad reach and will soon pass broadcast and cable television as the medium with the
broadest consistent reach. Ability to Target Every potent marketing medium should make room
for the targeted prospects and customers to talk back easily- by identifying themselves, to declare
their interest and readiness to purchase and to the extent of criticizing or complaining about a
product or service. Internet and e-mail offer a superb and outstanding terrain in this form of
interactivity and feedback collection. AIDA Completeness The traditional medium of marketing
has been criticized to be only one or two steps of the Awareness-Interest-Desire-Action cycle
(A.I.D.A). For instance, research has indicated that, advertising can just lead a consumer to be
aware but cannot help him to consume. This then leads generally to a wasted marketing effort.
The internet is offering a unique power to move consumers easily from initial awareness through
purchase. A better learning platform the traditional marketing medium has relied on subjective
assessment and sampling techniques to measure traditional advertising and public relations
though very expensive and time consuming. On the other hand, the Internet has enabled us to
capture site navigation information, information retrieval and purchase behavior and others
easily. This is making market research more reliable and easier. Promptness and relevancy It
have been established in business realm that "time is money". The internet is held to be superior
to all other media in the capacity to deliver messages that are not only timely, but immediately
relevant to the recently displayed interests or actions of the customer. Multi-level platform The
Internet has a unique ability to function as a platform for a variety of marketing medium at a
particular point in time. Using the Web and e-mail, we can run awareness advertising, send
targeted mail, full collateral requests, conduct seminar, drive a public relations campaign and
offer a premium for an immediate action. It can also provide unlimited information to seriously
interested user. The end user can navigate through a web page of a company to more detailed
information. This information will occupy many pages of a manual brochure and even it
becomes difficult and expensive if one wants to update it to suit current circumstances. Hoteliers
can therefore use this platform to market services internationally, manufacturing companies can
use it to publish its corporate profiles and promote its individual divisions and products. The
page can also have a hot-line for users to dial in queries and requests for updated company news
releases. Internet users can send in applications for job vacancies and send their suggestions and
comments through a feedback page. Similarly, the travel industry homepages can offer
information on tour packages for potential visitors. The other side of the coin However, the
Internet has some weak points that need to be considered. Customer service is possibly one of
the major challenges faced by consumers and online companies marketing their products. There
is no one to ask a question, no one to chat with and no one to bargain down prices. Many
industry analysts and e-commerce firms indicate that from 50 to 75% of customers abandon their
shopping carts without any purchase. They attribute the reason to poor customer service. To this,
some companies have customer service and keyword or product search areas. Though most
frequently asked questions (FAQ) sections work fine, the automated responses including
automated e-mails often result in providing inaccurate information or general information that
are not so useful to customers. A solution to this issue is provided to some extent by Aptex
Software Inc. This company supplies artificial intelligence tools to understand questions without
human interventions, and even get the tone of the e-mail whether angry, sarcastic or humorous.
Other developments include online one-to one typed dialogue with customer representative, the
use of Voice over the Internet and streaming video over the Internet. Also, with the traditional
system of marketing, it has been realized that the prospect could be led through a progressive
process of information disclosure and purchase commitment. On the web, this is an illusion-the
customer is in control. He/she can decide to dig deep or jump to a competitor's site by a click of a
button. It sometimes takes a lot of efforts to convince a prospect that you are offering a superior
product or service on the net. This may need some graphics, motion and sound. The weakness in
our personal computers in Ghana as a multimedia vehicle coupled with inadequate access
bandwidth mean that what we can achieve in web marketing may be insignificant. We hope
broad band access being introduced by some Internet Service Providers in Ghana will go a long
way to mitigate this problem. Another issue is privacy of consumers. Online firms request
names, addresses, e-mail addresses and other personal information from customers. The data
collectors promise that this information is confidential, but they do not always keep to their
promises. Therefore, consumers are weary and skeptical in providing information. Security wise,
there have been advances in this direction. Currently, most sites that accept credit cards use
encrypting software in receiving the credit card and instantly verify the availability of funds to
make purchases and authenticate and authorize purchases. MasterCard's MC Online, Visa Card's
Capital One and American Express's Private payments are attempts to go round this problem of
credit card fraud. Issues worth considering It can clearly be identified that the strength of the
Internet far outweighs the negatives. Ghanaian companies especially those exploring a niche and
export-oriented ones which are grappling with the issue of whether to market via the Internet are
already lagging behind and must therefore rethink. On the other hand, companies who are
attempting to build a coherent Internet marketing strategy must begin to develop the confidence
that the Web is likely to be the center of their marketing future, not simply acting as a window
for presenting the history and activities of the company. It should be noted that the design of a
website needs to be viewed primarily as a business task, should be marketing-oriented and needs
to be edited or updated as often. To Ghanaian companies which have developed usable websites,
they should strive to register the websites on the main search engines like Google, AltaVista,
Lycos, Yahoo, MetaCrawler, Excite or Search.com in order for the global pro-active players to
find them easily. Moreover, online companies should also work towards the achievement of the
"third Internet level" i.e. the use of internet for dialogue, personalization and e-commerce. I
definitely know that Corporate Ghana is not yet there with regards to online payment and other
online transactions which are the hallmarks of e- commerce. With the seemingly seriousness we
are trying to push ICT in Ghana, companies have to prepare and be proactive so that they will
not be caught hands down. Too small companies within the same industry or commodity chain
can pull their resources together in the establishment of a common website. They can therefore
create this website with links to smaller company sub-sites and links to other most visited sites of
the country like the official homepage of Ghana, ghanaweb.com, Ghana Investment or export
councils. The e-mail culture between and among staff and the general public should also be
encouraged. Research has shown that face to face interaction is deeply rooted in the Ghanaian
business culture and practices. At least an e-mail sent will prevent for example an enquirer from
walking all the way to the company's premises. This will go a long way to reduce traffic on our
roads; saves time for both corporate staff and enquirer, save telephone cost and promote
productivity. It should also be noted that the issue is not what merchandise you sell on the
Internet but how to delight customers to purchase the merchandise online and to repeat purchase.
Jeff Bezos of Amazon.com has revealed that the success of Amazon (especially the book
division) is due to excellent management that knows how to satisfy customers. Unfortunately,
most Ghanaian companies have no idea about how to delight or satisfy their customers. Our
customer relations or support departments are nothing to write home about. I am afraid if we do
not change this negative attitude, it will definitely be carried onto to the web and the
consequences would be drastic.
To end it all, Ghanaian firms must understand that they cannot succeed without mixing the
traditional way of marketing with that of Internet. Mixing the "clicks and bricks/mortar" strategy
(blending the traditional way of marketing with Internet marketing) has been identified to be the
future of marketing especially in our part of the world where business is conducted on trust.
Internet marketing should not in any way be pursued or developed at the expense of the
traditional one. They complement each other.