Ecampus.com Essay, Research Paper

Ecampus.com

qProduct- Ecampus.com is an internet company that offers a wide variety of college supplies and other related items online. However, the primary product that is being marketed is college textbooks and books. In fact Ecampus.com claims to be the largest college bookstore online, and to have all books in print available to customers.

qPrice- In terms of price, Ecampus.com offers their product at an affordable, discounted price compared to the typical bookstore price. Having books available at an affordable price for college students is one of the company’s main concern and is evident in their mission statement, as it claims “to provide the easiest, fastest and cheapest way for college and university students to buy textbooks and stuff”. On the web site the company also displays the actual price of the book being bought and the price they offer it at, in order let the students be aware of how much they are saving.

qPromotion- Ecampus.com have gone through great lengths to promote their company, especially during the summer of 1999, which around the time when they officially launched their company to the public. Their promotion efforts during the period were extremely vital to the company’s growth since they had just recently entered the market and also because the school period was soon the start shortly. On July 2, 1999, Ecampus.com officially went live with their web site, during a press conference, which was held in order to introduce their company to the public. Their promotion efforts continued to reach the public through, the internet and mass media. Various commercials for instance, began to surface nationwide, directed primarily for their target market, which were college students. Ecampus.com also chose other channels of promoting their service, which includes flyers on college campuses and magazine ads.

qPlace- The great thing about Ecampus.com is an internet company and is accessible via the computer, which makes it all the more convenient for the customers to shop. This aspect of the company gives them the advantage over other retail bookstores that are not online and are limited to only a small portion of the market. By making Ecampus.com strictly and internet company, they are able grab a large part of the market share since they are open to the public at a global scale, rather than on a local scale.

Target Market-College students

qDemographically/Psychographically- Ecampus.com target their market on the demographic basis of sex, age, occupation and income. Ecampus.com chose their target market to be male and female college students who are in the lower brackets of income. On a psychographical basis, the company focuses on college students who are always looking for cheap and affordable college supplies.

Trends

qThe one major trend in retail bookstores is that the many bookstores are expanding their businesses into the internet. Some like Ecampus.com for instance, are entirely setup for the sole purpose to sell their product online. This growing trend have gotten big competitors in the market to enter the “eCommerce” market, largely due to the advantages in selling books online to customers around the world and not only around their local regions. Another reason the popularity of online bookstores is growing is that companies can cut down on large amounts of expenses that they would have incurred if they had set up physical locations. This cost-effective approach have had businesses rapidly restructuring their marketing strategies.

Competition

The growing trend of online bookstores have had many new and already existing bookstores to enter into the online market. Right now Ecampus.com is facing many competitors who basically selling the same service and product as Ecampus.com. Some big competitors are, efollet.com, textbooks.com, barnesandnoble.com, bigword.com, and amazon.com.