The Age of the “e”

This is the Age of the “e”; e-marketing is the new term for marketing; eCRM is the latest positioning for Customer Relationship Management; e-commerce is an integral part of selling for most b-to-b companies. Today, organizations are either e-enabled or moving toward becoming
e-businesses. Although some of us have had enough, we must acknowledge that the “e” is representative of the influence of the Internet on business, our lives, and our world. Even as we assimilate the Dot-Com Crash of 2000–2001, we can be sure that the Internet’s impact is long term and sustainable. Before we delve into specific strategies, we need to examine the marketplace, so Chapter 1 sets the stage for the rest of this book. Here we look at some important statistics, consider the Internet’s role in the b-to-b world, and explore the growing importance of the Internet as a gateway to global marketing.