Book Reviews
Principles of Internet Marketing
South-Western College Publishing/Nelson Thomson Learning
Ward Hanson (2000)
Of all the books written on the internet (and such texts have provided one of the few profitable areas of internet marketing over the past few years), Ward Hanson’s Principles of Internet Marketing is a beacon of authority. From the preface onwards, the reader is reassured that here is an author with unique academic and practical experience of a wide range of internet marketing situations. Since 1996, Professor Hanson has been advising the evolving Californian internet business community and has been teaching internet marketing to his MBA classes at Stanford Graduate School of Business – and it shows; readers’ questions are anticipated and common assumptions are queried and tested. Principles of Internet Marketing is divided into three sections: a framework for internet marketing; online marketing themes; and implementation and organisation - with each section having a number of chapters on discrete topics (e.g. the online community, personalisation, pricing, etc.). Each chapter is introduced with an example and a ‘roadmap’, and finishes with an extensive endnotes section which provides links to books, academic papers, trade publications or web-site material (although examples are almost exclusively US-centred). The main thrust of the text is on the marketing implications of the internet. However, there is enough technical detail provided to explain why a topic is important or how a technology works. For example, rather than simply restating terms such as Metcalfe’s law, Hanson gives a thoughtful critique of its implications and exceptions. Hanson has a broad interest in technology as well as marketing, and his breadth of knowledge shows in the examples he uses and his thoughtful discussion of the issues that online media bring to marketing. The text reassures the reader with its strong research basis and at the same time it provides information about industry standards and buzz-words. Terms are explained clearly. It is also entertaining and easy to read, with high proof-reading and production standards. The research emphasis of this book means that it was a long time in the making (the Preface was signed-off in June 1999 and some comments refer to companies’ plans for 1999) – this makes a few of the examples seem a little outdated. However, although first written over two years ago, Hanson’s focus on key issues (pricing, brand building, customer support, etc), gives the text continuing relevance.
Evidence to support the assertions that are made is well-integrated – mostly this information is from strategy texts, published surveys, Stanford MBA projects, and case examples; there is less evidence on consumer behaviour (for example, illustrations of changes and constancies in consumer behaviour in online environments could be more comprehensively covered). Examples are illustrated by tables, charts and pictures, and there is a useful glossary. Although there is a plentiful use of examples, this book is much less case driven and has a greater emphasis on generalisable empirical evidence than the standard marketing textbook. Features that could be improved include the index, which is somewhat lacking in detail; for example you cannot search by author – so if a student is introduced to the work of Blattberg and Deighton or Hoffman and Novak they won’t easily be able to locate the discussion around the research of these authors. The core of the text builds on Hanson’s experience of looking at web strategies and their outcome and integrates this with traditional marketing concerns (e.g. the cost-quality trade-off, consumer behaviour around search versus experience goods, or how to calculate customer lifetime value). There are also quite a lot of useful “how to…” tips based again on published research evidence (e.g. how to achieve higher advertising clickthrough rates), plus suggestions for developing an internet marketing plan and a discussion of the strategic legal issues of online marketing. Hanson is at his best in: (a) making findings from key academic research projects on internet marketing accessible to the reader (e.g. the work on pricing and bundling by Bakos and Brynjolfsson or the non-intuitive findings from Reeves and Nash on how users relate to, and interact with, computers); (b) helping the reader to understand how the internet fits into the traditional principles of marketing (new product development, customer segmentation, pricing decisions, channel choice, etc.). Overall, the main thrust of Principles of Internet Marketing is not so much that the internet is a disruptive technology which changes marketing for both firms and consumers, rather it is focused more on how the internet can add value to (or deduct value from) existing marketing strategies. This is not a conventional textbook: there are no uncritical and prescriptive
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Australasian Marketing Journal 9 (2), 2001
Book Reviews
lists, there are also no notes for teachers, and no CD with Powerpoint slides. But marketing academics will find a rich source of material here to stimulate discussion. The book is ideal as both an introductory text for marketing students, or as a supplementary book for an MBA audience. It will also appeal to those marketing managers who look to academics for robust frameworks, theory and insights. Compared to the
many more recent texts on internet marketing, this book still leads the field. Kathy Hammond Director, Future Media Research Programme London Business School
Australasian Marketing Journal 9 (2), 2001
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