LO2: Understand the benefits of internet marketing to customers
In this task I am going to be looking at the benefits of internet marketing to customers; customers can be individuals or businesses both on a domestic and international level. I will firstly be looking at how business marketing on the internet benefits individuals. I will be looking at how the use of internet helps individuals to find the most suitable phone and monthly price plan contract. I will then be looking at the benefits of buying and managing a contract online.
The first benefit to individuals of phone businesses marketing online is that it makes it easier for individuals to look and compare different deals. By a company allowing people to do this it makes it a lot easier for customers to go online and get the best phone for them at a good price. On their websites they will promote deals that they believe are good and those customers will want to get the deal. It also allows individuals to look at different mobile networks to look at the different prices that they are offering and what you get within that offer. As you can see from this screenshot, on Carphone Warehouse’s website they are comparing different tariffs for the iPhone 6 16GB in gold and it is showing what you get in the deal, what the upfront cost is and what the monthly cost is. This means that it is easier for consumers to get the better deal and to get the most for their money.
Another benefit is that online phone websites allow consumers to compare different mobile phones and to look at all of the options available to them. As you can see from this screen shot, they offer a lot of different phones in different colours and a varied storage size usually 16MB, 32MB or 64MB. This is better for consumers as all of the phones that they have on the page will be in stock and can be delivered to them in a couple of days whereas if they went into a store, they could potentially not have the phone they want in stock and it could be a waste of time and petrol money if they had to drive to the store and then they will have to wait for them to be ordered in which would take longer than just ordering them online. When you go into a store they may not have all of the phones on show and so you could miss out on a better phone. Being able to compare different phones online allows a person to get the best phone and one that is most suited to them. For example if they want a phone with the best camera then they can compare the megapixels of each camera.
As you can see from this screenshot I am comparing the camera on these three phones; Apple iPhone 6 plus, Sony Experia Z3 and the LG G3 S. As you can see at the bottom it has given me what each of the phones mega pixels are showing me that the Song Experia has the best camera.

A third benefit to individuals is that is it much more convenient for them as they don’t have to leave the house to go and look at different phones and to be potentially told they don’t have the one that they want. It also is a lot cheaper and more convenient to just go online as there are no costs to going on the internet however you could have travel costs getting to the store and they aren’t guaranteed to have it in stock. It is much easier and quicker to do it online especially as there is less sales pressure on the individual. When you go into a store, the employees will typically persuade you as much as they can to purchase a phone there and then as they could potentially be getting commission on the phones that they sell. If you are being pressured into buying a phone it may not be the one you want or the colour you want it and therefore you could of spend all that money on a new phone wishing you had another one. Another benefit is that you could do a more refined search on the internet to find the exact phone that you want with all the features you are looking for and you could potentially get a better deal as businesses like Carphone Warehouse tend to do ‘online