Marketing on the web : hooking the surfers

Abstract

The World Wide Web (WWW or simply the Web) has attracted a great deal of attention in recent years, perhaps significantly, in the influential business press. Stories of marketing on the Web have abounded, featuring such phenomena as: successes (e.g. CDNow [http://www.cdnow.com]), a net music retailer; the efforts of highly visible organisation (e.g., IBM [[http://www.ibm.com]); and the unusual (e.g., condoms by e-mail order [http://www.ag.com/condom/country]). While the reporting of these newsworthy ventures is inevitably fascinating to general readers, serious marketing practioners and academics are by now aware that more systematic research is required to reveal the true nature of commerce on the Web. This is true particularly from the perspective of the Web as a marketing communication medium or tool.