The Internet as a New Marketplace: Implications for Consumer Behavior and Marketing Management

This chapter explores how the rising tide of interactive technologies will affect traditional marketing management practice and marketing strategy development. We focus on consumer behavior and marketing management, and how the two will interact via this new media. Clear trends are emerging, driven by information technology that directly links buyers and sellers. Based on the consideration of the model of buyer behavior, we draw insights for building a business that differ from traditional marketing methods. For example, we make clear that the use of the internet as simply another advertising medium grossly underutilizes its power to aid in building a strong business foundation. We take a futuristic approach, considering technologies that are under development but not yet perfected, such as electronic agents, as well as those currently in use.