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getting a story on the front page. The different aspect of this type of site
from other sites such as Google and Yahoo, that also aggregate stories,

is that they rank stories and also recognise the vocal nature of their users
that some are regarded as opinion formers. There are many implications
for marketing. For example a casual remark by a senior company

executive will be pounced upon by users. When he dismissed a rival
product Wii as an impulse, a Sony senior executive attracted two hundred

and seventy comments criticising Sony as arrogant and complaining about
the high cost of Sony’s Playstation 3. These individual stories may seem
insignificant but they add up. In 2005 a blogger and media commentator

Jeff Jarvis complained about his problems with online computer seller Dell
and this triggered an avalanche of similar complaints which led to a drop

in Dell’s share price. Of course marketing companies may see the
opportunity to exploit this grass roots marketing by providing the seed
stories, but the risks if they were to do so are potentially huge because the

backlash if consumers found out. Consumers see these websites as their
own and object if they are invaded by big marketing firms. The dilemma

is how can firms can firms use social networking websites for their
advantage without alienating the users?

Source: Doole, R. and Lowe, I. (2008) International Marketing Strategy:
th
Analysis, Development and Implementation, 5 Edition, SOUTH-
WESTERN Cengage Learning

12.4 E-marketing models

Whatever the use of technology, e-marketing models include for example,

B2C (business-to-consumer) in the form of websites as a virtual platform
to purchase; C2C (customer-to-customer) auction sites such as eBay and
B2B (business-to-business) data can be exchanged with other