Online or Offline Media? Which one shall bring you a better return?

April 9th 2010, 06:03p.m
By: Maísa Rocha

The worldwide market has obtained a real significant increase in the recent years, not only in the Brazilian scenario, the segments have been expanded and the proposals of products and services have become something completely unfathomable due to the wide diversity through the creativity and the vision of the companies for new business niche. Though, besides the huge socio-economic modification and movement, a huge dispute among companies on issues of supplies and demands has started setting a new look over this scenario which brought more studies and a careful preparation of the strategic planning of the communication.

Then, the big doubts arise: Where to advertise? Which actions should be performed? Online or Offline media? Such uncertainties are common for the companies which feel limited when it comes to the contact with their target in the conventional media (TV, newspaper, magazines among others) which, on the other hand, reach great peaks of viewers during the breaks of their most successful programs or thousands of readers.
But time has passed by and nowadays we have been living a decade of great changes and technological revolutions. The same public has become creator and a concept learner and has a high ability to interact in several communication media, mainly in the online world. What was once impossible to imagine for many people, has become reality nowadays?!
Ok, but why online media? One wonders if a page in a social network or e-mail marketing shall bring the results we want. According to IBGE (Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics) only in Brazil the number of internet users increases each day and this number reached the average of 56 millions of internet users.

Internet is one of the fantastic tools that besides having a low cost (compared to other offline media), it is possible to have the result/return measurements, data capture to feed their CRM and the proliferation of their product or service disclosure caused by viral marketing.

According to Philip Kotler, known worldwide as the “Father of the Marketing”, author of famous masterpieces such as Marketing Management and Marketing from A-Z, believes that internet is probably the most important invention in the field of the information and emphasizes: “The good news is that the consumers markets and the business among companies will make become more efficient because of Internet. The bad news is that inefficient companies and the ones which take longer to be part of the network will become endangered species.”
In this great market battle, it is worth analyzing and certifying that there are opportunities to enter the digital world in order to achieve results; we just have to count on companies and responsible professionals who have expertise in the area.