E-Marketing, 3rd edition Judy Strauss, Adel I. El-Ansary, and Raymond Frost

E-Marketing, 3rd editionJudy Strauss, Adel I. El-Ansary,and Raymond Frost Chapter 15: E-Marketing in Emerging Economies © Prentice Hall 2003

Overview Overview of Global E-Marketing Issues Emerging Economies Importance of Information Technology Country and Market Opportunity Analysis Market Similarity Credit Card Conundrum E-Commerce Payment in the Czech Republic Technological Readiness Influences Marketing Computers and telephones Internet Connection Costs Slow Connection Speeds And Web Site Design Electricity Problems Wireless Internet Access The Digital Divide

Overview of Global E-Marketing Issues • One of the big changes online: users from other countries, speaking languages other than English, will increasingly dominate the Internet. • Worldwide Internet use is projected to increase by 60% from 2002 to 2004: • In 2002, 1/3 of all Internet users in the world lived in North America, • By 2004, North American users = 1/4 of the world’s active Internet users, • By 2004, more Internet users will be living in Asia Pacific countries than in North America, • Between 2002-2004, the number of Latin American Internet users will increase by a substantial 84%, • By 2004, Europe is projected to be home to the largest number of Internet users in the world. • 2 important effects of the increasing number of non-US Internet users on the Internet: • Diversification of Web’s content & language, • Acceleration of the convergence of styles, tastes, and products to create a more homogenous, global marketplace.

Active Adult Internet Users Aged 14+ Worldwide (in millions) Source:Adapted from eMarketer, (2000)

Overview of Global E-Marketing Issues • Internet use varies greatly from country to country. • Country size and population have little bearing on Internet use: • Russia = only 7.5 million Internet users (5% of the population). • Singapore = 1.3 million Internet users (30% of all Singaporeans). • As Internet access and use accelerates around the world, so, too, will e-marketing opportunities. • Where will the greatest challenges lie? • In countries with emerging economies—countries such as Russia, India, Nepal, the Czech Republic, and China, which present different & difficult decisions for e-marketers.

Emerging Economies Countries vary in their level of economic development: • Developed countries = all of Western Europe, North America, Japan, Australia and New Zealand. • Highly industrialized countries + use technology to increase their production efficiency, result = a high gross domestic product (GDP) per capita, • high GDP = citizens have enough discretionary income to buy items that will make their lives easier, richer, and fuller, • Ideally suited for e-marketing activities. • Emerging economies = those with low levels of gross domestic product (GDP) per capita that are experiencing rapid growth: • In North America, Mexico + Central and South American countries, • In Europe, former Baltic States + Eastern Europe, • Russia, Belarus, and the Ukraine, • Africa, Central Asia, South Asia and Southeast Asia, • China.

Importance of Information Technology • To improve its level of economic development, a country can: • Increase efficiencies in the production, distribution, and sale of goods and services. • For emerging economies, technology plays an especially important role. • The application of information technology can open up new, exciting, global markets. • The Internet allows businesses in emerging economies to instantaneously tap a global marketplace. • Successful marketing on the Internet can leapfrog a company from nowhere to somewhere overnight.

Importance of Information Technology • E-marketers from countries with emerging economies face a double challenge: • All the marketing issues and decisions, • Unique challenges related to the conditions of operating within a still developing nation. • Businesses operating in emerging economies must deal with: • Fewer computer users, • Limited credit card use, • Lack of secure online payment methods, • Unexpected power failures.

Importance of Information Technology • Internet marketing differences between developed and developing countries for the greatest obstacles to e-commerce: • U.S. and European list: • Privacy concerns (31%), • Censorship (24%), • Navigation difficulties (17%), • Taxes (9%). • Emerging economies list: • Slow connection speeds (29%), • Costs of domestic phone calls (29%), • Internet Service Provider costs (19%), • Lack of content in one’s own language (10%), • Lack of local content (10%).

Country and Market Opportunity Analysis • An e-marketing plan guides the marketer through the process of identifying and analyzing potential markets. • Global e-marketers must balance 2 different analytical approaches: • Market similarity = If they are operating from a country with an emerging economy and want to target markets in developed countries, • Market differences = If they are based in an emerging economy and want to market to their home target market, = If they are from a developed economy and want to target groups in an emerging economy.

Market Approaches Between Emerging and Developed Economies

Market Similarity • Concept of market similarity = marketers choose foreign markets that have characteristics similar to their home market for initial market entry. • A United States-based company would target Canada, the United Kingdom, and Australia before France, Japan, or Germany. • Amazon.com has used this strategy as it expanded globally. It has international Web sites in the UK, France, Germany, Austria, and Japan: • Some similarities based on language, • High literacy rates, high Internet usage rates, and clearly defined market segments willing to shop for books (and other products) on-line, • Credit cards are widely used for purchases, • Secure, trusted online payment mechanisms, • Efficient package delivery services. • Market similarity not only reduces (without eliminating) the risk of entry into foreign markets but also helps explain why it targeted these countries in the first place.

Market Similarity • E-businesses in countries with emerging markets make parallel target market decisions. • www.munchahouse.com: • Offers a wide range of products that Nepalis living overseas can send to individuals back home. • Customers pay on the sites by providing their credit card numbers using a secure server. • These are all crucial marketing decisions. • If the Muncha House marketer had targeted a domestic home market, his marketing situation would be completely different. • One of the biggest differences between developed countries and emerging economies = the limited use and acceptance of credit cards in underdeveloped countries.

Credit Card Conundrum • Convenience & ease of transactions = 2 of the Internet’s greatest benefits. • In developed countries: credit cards + secure online payment systems make Web-based transactions easy. • But in countries with emerging economies, things aren’t so easy. • In Bolivia: = Fewer than 200,000 credit cards are in circulation within a country with a population of 8.3 million people. • Limited credit card use can severely restrict a target market’s purchasing ability.

Credit Card Conundrum Rita’s Pizza site in Vilnius, Lithuania: • Web site for ordering pizza, sandwiches, snacks, and beverages online. • The final screen for ordering indicates that Rita’s is strictly a cash business: • Customers pay at the time of delivery (C.O.D.), or • When they pick up the food at Rita’s. • Limited use/availability of credit cards limits what an e-marketer can do. • Marketers must also analyze relevant buyer behavior within a market: • In Lithuania, local consumers are very reluctant to purchase products online. • 37% said it was easier and more fun to buy goods and services in a store than online. • 21% said it was more secure to buy goods and services in a store. • BUT, the business understood one important thing: its target market: • 24% of all current Lithuanian Internet users are under 20 years old, • 11% are between the ages of 20-25.

E-Commerce Payment in the Czech Republic • The Czech Republic face the same challenges of limited credit card use and consumer skepticism of online purchasing. • The Czech Republic is a relatively small country in central Europe = 22% of the population are Internet users. • Online purchasing has increased dramatically there in recent years. • In 2000, most online purchases = airline tickets (28%), appliances (17%), books (12%), consumer electronics (10%), videos (8%), music (6%), and computer hardware (6%). = A mirror shopping interests in developed countries. • The Czech Republic has many online retailing Web sites:www.obchodnidum.cz (appliances, consumer electronics and mobile phones) and www.vltava.cz (music, books, videos and software). • The country also has specialized Web sites: airline ticket agents , wine, etc.

Total Online Sales in the Czech Republic Source: Adapted from American Chamber of Commerce… (2000)

E-Commerce Payment in the Czech Republic • In the Czech Republic: People fear online shopping. • 75% said that it was more secure buying goods/services in a store, • 65% said it was easier & more fun to buy goods and/or services in a store, • 61% said “you don’t know what you get when you shop online”, • 42% said they didn’t trust online brands. • Online marketers adapt their Web sites to the target market’s preferences: • www.musicabona.cz posts the following in its About Security section: • “Your personal data is transmitted via the secure SSL encoded transfer system. • If you decide to become one of our registered customers, you needn’t fill in your personal data and send it over the Internet at all upon subsequent purchases. • If you do not think it is safe to send your personal data through the Internet, you can send your order in writing, by fax or mail. • If you don’t want to disclose to us the number of your payment card, you can pay by cheque.”

E-Commerce Payment in the Czech Republic • How do Czech consumers pay for their online purchases? • 31% make bank transfers, • 28% pay cash on delivery, • 21% pay with a credit card, • 9% make bank transfer through either a PC or mobile phone, • 8% pay with postal orders. • Czech citizens are reluctant to use online payment methods + only 35% of all Czech adults have credit cards. • Innovative solution = eBanka: • The oldest purely Internet Bank in Central and Eastern Europe. • The bank issues credit cards + handles secure and efficient online money transfer accounts for purchases at many Czech Web sites. • A customer opens an eBanka account, deposits money, uses it to make online purchases. • This is the Czech version of digital cash.

Technological Readiness Influences Marketing • In emerging economies, e-marketers must also deal with daunting issues of basic technology: • Limited access to and use of computers and telephones, • High Internet connection costs, • Slow Internet connection speeds, • Unpredictable power supplies.

Computers and telephones • Customers must have access to a computer and an ISP to use the Internet: • In developed countries, this is not a problem. • Individuals can use computers at home, at work, at school, or at libraries and other community institutions. • In emerging economies, computer access is a big problem. • Computer access is unevenly distributed throughout the world: • Ukraine has less than 2 computers for every 100 individuals, • Colombia has 3 1/2 computers per 100 citizens, • The United Sates has about 58 computers for every 100 citizens. • E-marketers should never underestimate the profound influence of limited computer access on Internet marketing. • It directly limits market size.

Computer ownership in Selected Countries Source: ITU, (2001a)

Computers and telephones • Individuals & businesses need to be connected to the Internet though phones. • In developed countries, telephones are a common and prevalent commodity: • Most families have more than one telephone at home, • Many have multiple telephone lines, • Some even have several telephone numbers, • Many may have both fixed and mobile phones. • In countries with emerging economies, telephones are scarce and expensive. • 1999, Indonesia = 2.9 phones/100 people, India = 2.7 phones/100 people, • The Philippines = 4.0 phones/100 people, Mexico = 11.2 ph./100 people, • In 2000, in Thailand, 91.5% of all Thais own a television, but only 27.7% own a phone. • In emerging economies, telephone access has a very different pattern than in developed countries. • Online firms can’t market to someone who has no computer or no means of connecting to the Internet.

Internet Connection Costs • Countries with emerging economies often have higher Internet-related business costs: • Dial-up connection is the most common way of connecting to the Internet. • Dial-up connections use telephone lines. • Dial-up connection costs vary quite considerably in emerging economies. • The total price for Internet service is quite large in many countries. • Labor costs may be quite low, but technology and other business costs can be quite high. • Why? • Government-owned telephone monopolies: • The lack of competition among ISPs: • When both of these constraints are loosened, Internet growth accelerates, creating a rapidly expanding domestic market for e-marketers.

Total Internet Connection Costs in Selected Arab Countries Source: Adapted from Gray (2001)

Slow Connection Speeds And Web Site Design • Connection speed and Web site design = a issue in emerging economies: • A telephone line limits the speed at which data can be sent and received. • Current maximum speed for a modem connection is 56 kbps. • Emerging economies are seeking faster and better connections through broadband and ISDN. • Download speeds has significant implications for Web site design, especially the extent to which graphics are used. • The Web is a visual medium, and users expect to see pictures that move, swirl, and morph into usual shapes + Web sites have sound. • These elements slows the download rate. • In countries with emerging economies, where connections speeds are slow and a user may be paying by the minute, download speed is a major consideration: • Need to understand how connection speeds influence download rates, • Just because graphic designers cando something cutting edge on Web sites, doesn’t mean they should.

Slow Connection Speeds And Web Site Design • E-marketers must see the world from their target market’s perspective = understanding the target market’s total experience with a Web site. • In developed countries, users experience extremely slow download times only occasionally. • In developing countries, slow downloads are an everyday occurrence. • To avoid this problem, e-marketers need to : • Understand the target market, • Consider the country’s overall bandwidth, • Keep graphics simple, • Limit the number of pictures, • Optimize the site for speedy and smooth downloads.

Electricity Problems • Sporadic electricity = Another challenge for countries with emerging economies, • Nepal: • One of the poorest countries in the world, with an annual per capita income <$250, • Rich in many natural resources, including water, • Has built a series of hydro electric dams throughout the country, • 15% of all households in Nepal have electricity, • Most people living in major cities have electricity (sometimes without electricity during the summer months). • In the summer of 2001, the Nepal Electrical Authority (NEA) could not generate enough electricity for the entire country: • Electricity loss affected every business, including Internet-dependent businesses. • All locally-hosted Nepali Web sites went down when the electricity was cut.

Wireless Internet Access • Mobile phones and the supporting technology have the potential to dramatically change the face of e-marketing around the world. • Many countries have more mobile telephone subscribers than fixed-line telephone subscribers. • Cambodia, Chile, Ivory Coast, Morocco, Paraguay, Philippines, Senegal, Uganda, and Venezuela are all countries with emerging economies. Cambodia: • In 1993, first country in the world to have more mobile telephone subscribers than fixed-line telephone subscribers. • Why? • Cost = Cell phones and the accompanying technology for mobile networks were less expensive than fixed-line telephones. • History = “As a result of more than two decades of war…Cambodia has 4 to 6 million landmines in the ground” = digging up the ground to lay telephone cable is simply too risky. • This case reminds international e-marketers that understanding country history is an important element in assessing foreign markets.

Selected countries that have more mobile telephones than fixed line telephone subscribers by year Source: Adapted from Minges, (2001)

Wireless Internet Access • Mobile phone technology is an effective and relatively inexpensive path to telecommunications, countries with emerging economies can leap frog industrialized countries in terms of usage. • Challenges of wireless e-marketing: • How to modify existing Web site content for the smaller screens on cell phone displays, • How to resolve potentially cumbersome text entry using tiny keypads • How to develop new content that consumers will want • How to price services, • How to develop easy, secure payment methods, • Understand that consumer behavior with the mobile Internet. • Text messaging: On PCs, E-mail length is not a problem with PCs. It is a problem with mobile phones. • New content and new marketing strategies must be developed for wireless Internet access.

Wireless Internet Access • Success story: How McDonald’s identified & capitalized on an e-marketing opportunity by merging the anytime, anywhere capability of mobile phones with China's interest in soccer and its rapidly growing consumer economy. • During the 2002 World Cup Finals, McDonald’s developed a special SMS promotion for the China market (world’s largest mobile telephone market). • McDonald’s sent an SMS alert to selected mobile phone subscribers explaining how to download coupons for free ice cream, how to get a special McSmilie icon for their mobile phones, and how to download a McDonald’s theme song as a special phone ringer. • Results: • Store sales increased • Every mobile phone with a McDonald’s phone ringer promoted McDonald’s every time the subscriber received an incoming phone call.

The Digital Divide • E-marketers have to consider the social environment in which their e-businesses operate. • Nations with emerging economies may be in different stages of economic development, which affects their social climate. • Least developed countries (LDCs) = countries with the world’s poorest economies: • Economically underdeveloped, • Share one other common characteristic: excruciating poverty, • To describe the economic situation= the percentage of a country’s population earning less than $2 per day. • In these, the world’s poorest countries, life is literally a war waged for survival.

The Digital Divide In the least developed countries: • Meager incomes provide only the basic necessities. • Most meals are the same, consisting of rice, wheat, or corn. • Shelter is primitive. • People share a small room (earthen floor and no sanitary facilities). • Most of the population lives in rural areas, work is hard and time-consuming. • Productivity is low, household plots are small and only the crudest of farm implements are available. • Farm output per person is barely sufficient to feed a farmer’s own family, with nothing left to sell to others. • School age children may receive some formal education, but illiteracy remains chronic for you and old. • Infant mortality runs 10 times higher than in the United States. • Only one physician per 5,000 people.

International Poverty Lines for Selected Countries Source: Adapted from Table 4, World Bank, (2000)

The Digital Divide • A dual economy: • LDCs contain population segments with much higher income levels. • This divides the country into haves and have nots. • Wealth is concentrated in a country’s largest city, usually the capital. • 2 completely different economies exist side-by-side, they are centuries apart in terms of economic and technological development. • Digital divide = “ between countries and between different groups of people within countries, there is a wide division between those who have real access to information and communications technology and are using it effectively, and those who don't.” • “Industrialized countries, with only 15% of the world's population, are home to 88% of all Internet users.

The Digital Divide • The digital divide raises challenging questions for global policy makers, international businesses, and local entrepreneurs. • What responsibilities do these different groups have for narrowing the gap between those that have and those that don’t have access to technology? • Global policy makers at the United Nations, the World Bank, and the G8 believe the answer is yes. • Some e-marketers are successfully helping to close the digital divide. • www.villageleap.com, the Robib village website (Cambodia): • Women market traditional Cambodian silk weavings to overseas buyers, • Money is reinvested in the local pig farm, • Also allow villagers to send and receive medical information = reduce the number of two hour road to the nearest hospital.

E-Marketing, 3rd edition Judy Strauss, Adel I. El-Ansary, and Raymond Frost