n recent years, many companies have experienced decreasing brand loyalty and an increasing reluctance towards traditional marketing activities. This change in consumer behavior can be attributed to the empowerment of consumers which Wind (2008) considers as the “most fundamental change in the history of marketing”. The asymmetry of information which has long dominated the realm of branding, has now shifted towards a more inclusive, participatory approach.

Back in 1999 Shawn Fanning and Sean Parker wrote a computer program called Napster, that eventually turned out to be the beginning of a new music industry (bbc.co.uk, 2009). Company records tried to fight the impact of consumers sharing their favorite music online, by protecting the company’s rights and finally having Napster closed on July 11, 2001 (wired.com, 2002; news.cnet.com, 2003). For a while the record companies might thought they had the fire under control, but shortly after, new Napster alternatives popped up online, and the sharing continued. 

Marketing is unique, as it could be described as being a new or old discipline.  While other sciences, such as economics and accounting are deeply rooted in traditional and classical theory, Marketing is an anomaly, as it has the ability to evolve and change based on current conditions.  With this being said, I have chosen to write about three areas that deal with marketing online that can either harm or benefit a brand in an online environment, depending on how they approach the current subject. 

A management student hugs a girl, girl: “what is this?” boy: “direct marketing”. The girl slaps the boy, boy: “what the hell was that?” girl “customer feedback”. For companies this seems to be a similar scenario when it comes to mobile social media marketing. 

Considering that direct selling is founded on leveraging consultants’ social networks, one might conclude that online social media would be its tipping point to take off sales. However there are rules that companies need to understand in order to harness from social media.  Therefore, this document analyzes the company Tupperware as a case study in order to identify the challenges it faces in the current social media landscape. 

Internet has dramatically changed how we live our lives and consumers have become active participators in branding (Hoffman, 2000). Fournier and Avery (2011) argue that innovations always have affected brand management. The television facilitated better segmentation and Internet are improving relationships. For that reason, it is natural to move the focus from targeting and segmentation to relationships. (Fournier & Avery,

While increasingly present in our daily lives, the Internet is a very young medium and is still in its experimental stage. Technology is continuously improving every day and companies have to quickly adapt to the new changes. One of the most challenging aspects is that the consumer is able to adapt to the new media much more quickly than the companies that should be using it in the first place. The world is just beginning to realize the potential of the Internet, which offers a perfect medium for spreading creative ideas that are already changing the world

The past couple of years have brought an increase development of the information and communication technologies. The new "Internet era" has had a serious impact on many aspects from the nowadays living, including the contemporary marketing, leading to the affirmation of a new discipline - Internet marketing. The increasing usage of the Internet and other types of digital media as a support to the existing marketing tools that have emerged, have affected the way on which companies communicate with their customers. Furthermore, customers have acknowledged more about their role, power and influence they can have over the companies within this area.

In the recent past, if companies wanted to publish themself or its products they would launch an advertising campaign in traditional media, such as television, newspapers, PR and/or point-of-sales activities. Now, thanks to social media, some people say that we are witnessing a revolution regarding how marketers are branding their products and their companies. Social media has grown rapidly the last years and is expected to continue to grow in the future both among consumers and companies, and it is often at the expense of traditional media. (Armelli & Villanueva, 2011) 

There are many factors of difference between the online and offline market. The most obvious is the lack of physical contact between buyers and sellers which can create a greater lack of trust than when dealing in a physical setting.