The Internet Value Chain: Customer Relations

Figure 2.2 emphasised how organisations can leverage on the effectiveness and reliability of the internet to effectively and reliably share and acquire information within the organisation. Vanharanta and Breite (2003) pointed out that, information plays a major and an important role in any organisation hence it’s important for organisations to effectively managed the acquisition and sharing of information. According to Cronin (1995) the global connectivity of the internet offers organisations with the opportunity to share and acquire information on a global scale at a lower cost well as exchange information quickly and easily thus facilitating relationships with business partners and customer. Figure 2.4 Internet Value Chain: Customer Relations

To build strong relationship with customers, companies must get hold of information about customer’s needs and attitudes. The internet provides an easy way of doing this, for instance through discussions groups, blogs, bulletin boards, web survey and polls, companies can collect customers view of a product or service (Breite, Vanharanta , 2013)

The three units of the internet value chain illustrate how the internet can be applied in all marketing functions from presales, sales and after sales activities. According to Parker (2012) the model identifies three areas of internet marketing functionality, namely marketing and product research, sales and distribution, and support and customer feedback.

Sigala (2004) argued that, the internet value chain does not consider the three internet capabilities, thus studies investigating the internet use by companies operating in the tourism and hospitality industry using the internet value chain as their frame of reference to list websites features into specific business functions failed to incorporate internets transformational impact (ibid).

2.3.1.4 The Web-Marketing Mix (WMM)

It is situated on Stratton Street, inside close closeness of Piccadilly, Bond Street, Knightsbridge, Green Park and Buckingham Palace. Its change includes highlights like Fendi furniture; Baccarat ceiling fixtures, a private theatre, ten mark suites, the May Fair Bar, Asian-motivated May Fair Spa and top of the line Palms Casino. A blue plaque revealed in 2005 on the May Fair honours move band pioneer Bert Ambrose, who consistently performed at the lodging. This hotel has gained success by focusing on its marketing adequately. As we know that a hotel, as every company needs to position itself in an increasingly competitive environment as the only alternative to maximise profitability. Behind every project, there are very high for those profitable investments need to develop a sales plan to be executed by a highly qualified department that allows reaching the largest possible number of segments. However, this hotel needs to focus on its international marketing tools specifically in digital sphere (Mohapatra, Singh,