How much have you generated in sales so far? Mike Clark, GD Worldwide:

198 In this section we look at the social and cultural impacts of the Internet. These are impor- tant from an e-commerce perspective since they govern demand for Internet services and propensity to purchase online. For example, in Figures 1.10 and 1.14 respectively we saw how businesses and consumers have adopted different online services. Further aspects of the social influence of the Internet are described in the references to the Information Society Initiative in this chapter and in the section on the online buying process Chapter 9. Complete Activity 4.2 to start to review some of the social issues associ- ated with the Internet. Factors governing e-commerce service adoption It is useful for e-business managers to understand the different factors that affect how many people actively use the Internet. If these are understood for customers in a target market, action can be taken to overcome some of these barriers. For example, marketing communi- cations can be used to reduce fears about the value proposition, ease of use and security. Chaffey et al. 2009 suggest that the following factors are important in governing adoption of any e-commerce service: Social and legal factors Q. How can a band use the site as a marketing tool? Mike Clark, GD Worldwide: The fact is that 45 of new music is discovered through personal recommendation – word of mouth. It isn’t about watching TV ads or looking at who’s bought the front window of HMV this week. If you look at the online communities and sites like last.fm and Pandora, there is a lot to be said for recommendation as a means of discovery. What we’ve done on the site is to help you develop your fan base. There are tools to allow you to share tracks and you can give fans rewards for doing so. I think it’s a far smarter way of marketing artists and creating that buzz. Very often, marketing money is spent against things that are certain. With a new album, people will say ‘let’s do a huge advertising splurge’ across the UK but no one will get fired as they know that album will be successful. They very rarely use those tools unless the artist has already become a success and they want to sustain that success. Q. Why have you gone down the route of e-commerce rather than ad-supported content? Mike Clark, GD Worldwide: In some ways, you need to have an integrity in the rela- tionship between the artist and audience, but at a certain stage an artist may say that he or she is prepared to work with a brand or brand owner if I think they can add value to my community. For example, if a brand does want to sponsor an artist, he or she can talk to the audience and ask what they think. They have much more commercial control over those relationships. For us, we haven’t ruled out the advertising route but we would never do it exclu- sively inside the artists’ backstage areas. Where we might do it is in the Usync commu- nity itself – if a last.fm or Pandora wanted to create a Usync radio with Usync artists, we may look at a sponsor to bring that to market. Source: www.econsultancy.comnews-blognewsletter3229interview-with-mike-clark-of-gd-worldwide.html Part 1 Introduction