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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 MBAclasses
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outdated.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
88 Australasian Marketing Journal 9 (2), 2001
Book Reviews
Principles of Internet Marketing
South-Western College Publishing/Nelson Thomson Learning
Ward Hanson (2000)
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
Book Reviews
Australasian Marketing Journal 9 (2), 2001 89