In Response to Chris French's Post...

"E-Marketing- Friend or Foe?"- Do you agree that these traditional forms of marketing should be kept in place? What other problems to you think of in the advent of e-marketing? Do you think appreciation marketing really works?

Like everything, there are benefits and risks with e-marketing. The traditional forms of marketing are greatly beneficial for a company to excel. There is much less room for error using traditional forms of marketing. I believe that the traditional forms of marketing should be kept in place. Like it was stated in the article, many people accidentally delete or never receive an important e-mail from a company. With the use of traditional marketing, there isn't any way an individual can delete a letter from a company. Granted, there mail could be lost or stolen, but the chances of that happening are very slim. Traditional marketing should be kept in place because of the problems that could come along with e-marketing. E-marketing can be a huge risk due to the fact that one is relying on electronics to market their company and distribute information. Technology always has risks due to system failures. If a company is relying on a computer, there is much room for error. This company could potentially lose valuable information such as customer information, contact information, company information and even lose items that are still in the works, but stored on the computer. If a company used purely the computer to keep track of all information for the company, a system failure would be a huge negative impact. Not only would the company not be able to contact their customers, but they could lose business as well. I don't believe traditional marketing will be completely eliminated anytime soon, but eventually in many years that may be seen. Another reason why the traditional approach should remain, is the benefits of appreciation marketing. I know for me personally, I enjoy receiving letters from company's that I use. The appreciation letters seem more personable than an e-mail in your inbox. Do you believe a simple appreciation letter could sway a first time customer, who doesn't know whether or not they want to use that company again?