SUMMER INTERNSHIP PROJECT REPORT ON

BRANDING OF CORPORATE BRIDGE THROUGH INTERNET MARKETING

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

UNDER THE GUIDANCE OF

Dr. Jyotinder Chaddah

SUBMITTED BY Sapna Sharma ROLL NO: 53 Masters in Management Studies 2010-12

_______________________________________________________

TO THE UNIVERSITY OF MUMBAI

IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF TWO YEAR FULL TIME DEGREE / DIPLOMA

OF

MASTERS IN MANAGEMENT STUDIES

GURU NANAK INSTITUTE OF MANAGEMENT STUDIES MATUNGA, MUMBAI 400 019.

CERTIFICATE

This is to certify that the study presented by Sapna Sharma to the University of Mumbai in part completion of the two year full time degree/diploma of Masters in Management Studies under the title of Branding of corporate bridge through internet marketing has been done under my guidance.

To the best of my knowledge this project is in the nature of original work that has not been submitted for any degree of this University or any other University.

Signature of the Candidate

________________________ Sapna Sharma

Forwarded through the Research Guide

Signature of the Guide

Dr. Jyotinder Chaddah

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
It has always been a sincere desire of every management student to get an opportunity to express his views, skills, attitude and talent in which he/she is proficient. A Project is one such avenue through which a student who aspires to be a future manager does something creative. This Project has given me a chance to get in touch with the practical aspects of management

I am extremely grateful to The University of Mumbai for having prescribed this project work to us as a part of the academic requirement in the Masters in Management Studies (MMS) course. The completion of this Project work has enabled me to gain invaluable knowledge of the dynamics of the coffee chain trend in India along with the general management of Barista coffee outlets. I am also thankful to the management division of Barista coffee company as well as their different outlet managers for all their inputs and specifically for sharing their valuable experience and knowledge.

At this juncture, the author wishes to appreciate the management and staff of GURU NANAK INSTITUE OF MANAGEMENT STUDIES, MMS for providing our batch the entire state of the art infrastructure and resources to enable us to complete and enrich our projects.

Last but not the least, the author wishes to thank Dr. Jyotinder Chaddah, the Project Guide of this Report, for her timely help, guidance and support. The insights provided by her have helped make this Project Report a truly professional effort.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

S.No. 1. Introduction

Chapters

Page No.

1.1 Backdrop of the study ............................................................................... 2 1.1.1 1.1.2 Company Profile Job profile

1.2 Objectives of the study.............................................................................. 6 1.3 Literature Review ..................................................................................... 7 1.3.1 Introduction of Internet Marketing 1.3.2 Types of Internet Marketing 1.3.3 Internet Marketing Strategies 1.3.4 Internet Marketing Mix 1.3.5 Social Networking Sites 1.3.6 Marketing on social networking sites 1.3.7Advantages and Disadvantages of social networking sites 1.4 Scope and limitations. .............................................................................. 28 2. Research methodology 2.1 Research design ....................................................................................... 31 2.1.1 Strategies applied during the project 2.2 Sample Design ......................................................................................... 34 2.3 Data Collection tools/methods used ....................................................... 34 2.4 Data Analysis Techniques used.............................................................. 34 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. Findings................................................................................................................. 36 Recommendations ............................................................................................... 46 Conclusion ............................................................................................................ 50 Bibliography ........................................................................................................ 51 Appendices ........................................................................................................... 52

1.INTRODUCTION

1.1 Back drop of the Study

1.1.1 Company profile:
With its registered office in the city of Bhopal, the capital of Madhya Pradesh and the first city to get ISO 9000:2001 certified railway station in India, and headquartered in the city of Mumbai, Indias largest city and financial capital. The company is formed by the graduates from the leading institutes such as IIT (Indian Institute of Technology), IIM (Indian Institute of Management), and AIM (Asian Institute of Management). Corporate Bridge provides a comprehensive range of professional services spanning the Integrated Research Analytics & Consulting, Training Solutions and Staffing practices. With unparalleled experience (CLSA India, KPMG, JPMorgan, SBI Capital Markets, and CRISIL etc) and comprehensive capabilities (CFA, FRM, CAs) across all industries and business functions, combined with entrepreneurial spirit, we commit to deliver a world class professional services that endure. The company was founded by Mr. Dheeraj Vaidya, who is the present CEO and Cofounder of the company. Mr. Vaidya completed his mechanical engineering from IIT Delhi and an MBA from IIM Lucknow majoring Finance and Marketing. Before Starting Corporate Bridge in Mumbai, Mr. Vaidya has worked for reputed corporate Houses such as CRISIL, JP Morgan and others. The companys result speaks for itself. The company has trained and mentored 3000+ candidates from all over India (Hyderabad, Bhilai, Vishakhapatnam, Kolkata, Lucknow, Kota (Rajasthan) to name the few.) The company is a leading provider of instructor led training programs to worlds top corporate and academic institutions in diverse areas of Finance, Marketing, IT/ITES, Retail, Business Communication, Strategy and Self-Development. With unparalleled experience and comprehensive capabilities across all industries and business functions, combined with entrepreneurial spirit, Corporate Bridge Academy

commits to deliver a world class professional training services that endure and improve efficiency. Corporate Bridge Academy deals with various financial courses viz. Equity Research, Financial Risk Management, Campus Recruitment Training, Stock Market Analysis Investment banking, Private Equity, Fundamental Analysis, Investment Research, Credit Research etc. Corporate Bridge Academy also prepares students for CFA Level I & II and FRM Level I & II. Company recently also started all courses online, as it is a untapped market in this field in India. Corporate Bridge Academy came in to existence 3 and half years ago. Formed by graduates from leading institutes (IITs, IIMs & AIM), Corporate Bridge Academy (CBA) is a global full-service training firm, providing instructor-led training and E-learning services to professionals from top investment banks and financial institutions, colleges and students. Some of the Training programs are:

1. Finance Learning Solutions a. Investment Banking Essentials. b. Equity Research Essentials c. Private Equity d. Risk Management e. Derivatives & Many more

2. Business Training a. Soft Skills ( Personality Development , Communication Skills, Presentation Skills) b. Etiquettes ( E-Mail, Business Etc) c. Leadership Training. d. Value Added Training (Selling Skills, Emotional Intelligence, and Stress Management Skills).

3. E-Learning Portal a. Online trainings for excel and advanced excel

Services Provided By the Company

Corporate Bridge Research and Consulting
CB Research & Consulting offers integrated research & consulting solutions to clients across domains to help them make informed business decisions. We have a robust team that includes professionals from IITs, IIMs, CFAs and CAs with exceptional skill-sets and valuable industry acumen. We believe every client is unique, and every problem that we solve for our clients requires a one of a kind, tailored solution.

1. Investment Research: Corporate Bridge Investment Research services offer high

quality, cost effective research and information services support to start-ups, small and mid-sized companies, as well as large corporate and financial institutions around the world. We support our clients on a number of areas including Investment Banking, Sell-side Research, Buy-side Research and Credit Research products. Corporate Bridge is an independent research provider and is not affiliated to any investment bank / brokerage firm. We thus offer you an unbiased high-quality research support.

2. Customized Business Research: Corporate Bridge Customized Business Research

(CBR) conducts customized research that delivers strategic research solutions such as sector monitoring, data collection and validation, market segment & expansion studies, Business Partner Identification, across the value chain. All of these business research solutions are customized to address the unique business requirements of our clients and help them add value to their internal research teams.

3. Strategic Consulting Services: We understand clients specific needs on various

business & allied functions & hence provide quality consulting services in different areas including financial advisory to start-ups, small sized as well as mid-sized companies. Drawing on our unique history, people, and approach, we have developed specific qualities that work to deliver maximum value to our clients.

1.1.2 Job Profile:

Job Title: Report to: Trainee Director and co-founder of the company

Purpose: To market various financial courses on the internet. Duties & Responsibilities: To create awareness about the company online through posting financial training programs on the various social networking sites like facebook, orkut, twitter, linkedIn, myspace, pagalguy, etc. To use SMS marketing in-order to reach maximum clients for the financial courses To blog on the companys own blog and spread the existence of the company in this competitive world. To do e-mail marketing of the courses on the databases provided by the training team to the clients. To explain the queries received online. To advertise on various affinity sites like facebook, orkut, twitter etc. To give the strategies of internet marketing like pay-per-click, banner ads on various websites, etc. To conduct online survey to know about the popularity of the courses. To get the feedback from students and ex-students of the academy.

1.2 Objectives of the Study

Some of the objectives of the project were: To explore the usefulness of the Social Networking Sites for Internet Marketing. To understand the success of Social Networking Sites in creating awareness about the financial courses targeting the youth. To identify the demand for the training product that the company has launched.

1.3 Literature Review

1.3.1 BRIEF INTRODUCTION OF INTERNET MARKETING
How significant is Internet marketing to businesses? Today, the answer to this question varies dramatically for different products and markets. For companies such as electronics equipment manufacturer Cisco (www.cisco.com) , the answer is very significant Cisco now gains over90% of its multi-billion dollar global revenue online. It also conducts many of its other business processes such as new product development and customer service online. Similarly, easyJet (www.easyjet.com), the low-cost European airline gains 90% of its tickets sales online and aims to fulfill the majority of its customer service requests via the Internet. However, the picture is quite different for the manufacturers of high-involvement purchases such as cars or fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) brands. Here the impact is less significant Cisco now gains over90% of its multi-billion dollar global revenue online. It also conducts many of its other business processes such as new product development and customer service online. Similarly, easyJet (www.easyjet.com), the low-cost European airline gains 90% of its tickets sales online and aims to fulfill the majority of its customer service requests via the Internet. However, the picture is quite different for the manufacturers of high-involvement purchases such as cars or fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) brands. Here the impact is less significant the majority of their consumer sales still occur through traditional retail channels. However, the influence cannot be described as insignificant any longer since the Internet is becoming increasingly important in influencing purchase decisions - many new car purchasers will research their purchase online, so manufacturers need to invest in Internet marketing to persuade customers of the features and benefits of their brands. The FMCG manufacturer finds that consumers are spending an increasing proportion of their time on the Internet and less time using other media so the Internet has become an effective way of reaching its target markets. The Internet can be used to increase the frequency and depth of interactions with the brand, particularly for brand loyalists who are the advocates of these brands. For example, drinks brand Tango (www.tango.com) uses competitions and games on its web site to encourage interactions of the consumer with the brand.

The media portrayal of the Internet often suggests that it is merely an alternative for traditional advertising or only of relevance for online purchases of books or CDs. In fact, aspects of marketing communications and can and

the Internet can be readily applied to all will need to support the entire

marketing process. The e-marketing imperative is also

indicated by recent research in financial services, media and entertainment, consumer goods and retail organizations with a turnover of 25 million conducted for E-marketing (www.e-

marketing.com). This showed that online marketing has become a significant part of the marketing mix in many organizations. The organizations in the study were increasing their online marketing spending to an average of around 8% of total marketing budget. Eighty percent of respondents had increased the amount they spend on online marketing during the last year and 75% expect to increase their spend again over the next year.

Internet marketing:

Internet marketing, also known as digital marketing, web

marketing, online marketing, search marketing or e-marketing, is the marketing (generally promotion) of products or services over the Internet. The Internet has brought media to a global audience. The interactive nature of Internet marketing in terms of providing instant responses and eliciting responses are the unique qualities of the medium. Internet marketing is sometimes considered to be broad in scope because it not only refers to marketing on the Internet, but also includes marketing done via e-mail and wireless media. Management of digital customer data and electronic customer relationship management (ECRM) systems are also often grouped together under internet marketing. Internet marketing ties together the creative and technical aspects of the Internet, including design, development, advertising, and sales. Internet marketing also refers to the placement of media along many different stages of the customer engagement cycle through search engine marketing (SEM), search engine optimization (SEO), banner ads on specific websites, email marketing, and Web 2.0 strategies. For many the definition of internet marketing is having a high quantity of web traffic. Good search engine ranking is a priority and this requires <">search engine optimization. Others define internet marketing as generating awareness and interest in a business. It isnt the quantity of traffic that matters but the number of sales or qualified leads that is paramount in internet marketing. The objective is to find targeted website traffic. Interestingly, many companies express frustration that their web site is not providing enough sales conversion or drawing enough of the desired customers. So what content draws the required traffic to a web site? Surely this is the critical question that separates companies who understand the real potential of Internet marketing and those who do not. Internet Marketing has its own unique advantages for tracking and measuring expenditure on campaigns. Internet marketing also has the advantage of studying the behavior of visitors and making researched changes in campaigns.

The best definition of internet marketing is a combination of Internet related activities that

target the right audience directly or indirectly. These Internet Marketing activities may include permission email campaigns, search engine optimization and general marketing principles. It uses the interactive web capabilities available to further create a dialog with potential customers by connecting them with good educational content about your company and its products or service facilities. Internet marketing includes creative and technical aspects of the Internet, including web design, development, advertising, and sales. The internet marketing definition is the all-inclusive promotion of products and/or services online. Internet marketing has been around since 1996. It has become increasingly popular because of the tremendous opportunity it provides for anyone who would like to start their own online business. Internet marketing is a broad term as there are many different ways of making money online.

1.3.2 Types of Internet Marketing:

Search Engine Optimization: Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the process that
enables your site to appear higher in a list of search engine results and generate targeted traffic.

Search Engine Marketing: Search engine marketing, or SEM, is a form of Internet

Marketing. It is paid advertising within search engine results through Google, MSN, Yahoo and other search engines.

Digital Asset Optimization: Digital Asset Optimization (DAO) is the new trend in
Search Engine Optimization. Promoting your digital assets like videos, Images, documents, Presentation through digital media channels.

Viral Marketing: Viral marketing and viral advertising is marketing technique induces
Web sites or users to pass on a marketing message to other sites or users and create a word of mouth.

Email Marketing: Email marketing is process of promoting a product or service or an

idea by sending direct emails to the target customer.

Affiliate Marketing: Affiliate marketing is the marketing of products through an affiliate

system. Technique that uses affiliates in order to generate leads.

Blog Marketing: Blog marketing is process of promoting a Business via blogs. Word
press , Blogger, Type pad etc.

1.3.3 Internet marketing strategies:

Developing a successful internet marketing strategy is an essential part of your online success. In order to succeed, you must develop and implement a strategic plan that includes all of the following: A great product A web site specifically designed to sell A killer marketing strategy

Each step plays an important role in your overall strategy and must be developed to its fullest potential. If even one step fails, your chances of success will be minimal.

Developing Your Product

Your first step will be to develop a great product. You're probably thinking that's easier said than done, but it's really not. The absolute best product is one that you can develop yourself and deliver over the Internet. With today's technology, there is absolutely no reason why you can't create your own product. The knowledge you have within your own mind is extremely valuable. Everybody is good at something, has a special talent or some specialized knowledge. Use this knowledge to create a product.

The key to developing a great product is exclusiveness. Your product should be unique and not be in competition with hundreds of other similar products. You must give your potential customers exactly what they want. Develop a high-quality product that fills a void to increase your chance of success.

Another consideration of great importance is your target market. Keep in mind, the Internet is a global marketplace. Develop a product with a large geographic target and a wide appeal. A great product will fulfill a need or desire and provide instant gratification.

Here are a few of the top sellers: Software Information Private sites Internet services

Before you develop your product, do some research -- find out exactly what people want and develop your product accordingly.

The most important consideration when developing your product is quality. Your product should not only deliver what you promise, but should go above and beyond the expected and over deliver. Your customers satisfaction is of the utmost importance.

Developing Your Web Site

Once you've developed a great product, your next step will be to develop a great web site. Your web site must be specifically designed to sell your product.

Everything within your web site should have one purpose -- getting your visitor to take action. Words are the most powerful marketing tool you have. The right words will turn your visitors into customers. The wrong words will cause them to click away and never return.

Your words are the entire foundation of your business. Your product, your web site and your marketing strategies all depend upon your words. Fancy graphics don't make sales -- words do.

Every word, sentence and headline should have one specific purpose -- to lead your potential customer to your order page. Write your web site copy as if you are talking to just one person. Identify a problem and validate that one visitor's need for a solution. Continue to write and explain why your product is the solution to their problem. Tell them exactly what your product will do for them -- why it will solve their problems and how. Pack your copy with benefits and more benefits. Write to persuade -- that's the bottom line. Here is some additional information on Search Engine Marketing.

Developing Your Marketing Strategies

Your marketing strategy is the final process of your plan. Your plan must include both shortterm and long-term strategies in order to succeed.

Short term marketing strategies are those that bring you a temporary boost in traffic. Although these techniques are very important to your over-all plan, they are only a temporary traffic source and must not be solely relied upon.

Short term marketing strategies include: Purchasing Advertising Participating in Forums Search Engines Etc.

Long term marketing strategies are those that bring you a steady stream of targeted traffic over time. These strategies will continue to produce results even years down the road.

Long term marketing strategies include: Opt-in Lists Blogging Social Networking Sites Social Bookmarking Sites Giving Away Freebies Article Marketing

By creating and implementing a balanced marketing strategy, using both short-term and longterm strategies, you will drive a steady stream of targeted traffic to your web site. If you use this simple formula when creating your Internet marketing strategy and excel at all three, you can literally guarantee your success.

1.3.4 Internet Marketing Mix:

Main IM functions can be described by the analogy with the classical marketing functions, w h i c h & price, place (market, a r e o f t e n c a l l e d marketing mix or 4Ps product competitors), promotion (advertising,

c a m p a i g n s , e t c . ) , a n d p e o p l e ( c u s t o m e r r e l a t i o n s , partner relations). IM marketing mix will, then, include four IM functions: 1. Product/service online promotion & advertising; 2. Product/ service online distribution; 3. Web-based market research; and 4. Web-based techniques for maintaining customer and partner relationships (ECRM). Each IM function encompasses specific value creation activities and techniques, over view of which is given below. IM function Corresponding Internet-Based Value Creation Activities: (1) e-Promotion: Refers to core marketing function of Product and includes strategies for product/service promotion & advertising online. The Internet offers improvements in the area of fittings o r e - p r o d u c t t o t h e needs of target customers, includes compan y-, product-

a n d / o r service-promoting techniques, such as e.g., passive (via the Internet representation, website) and active Web-based advertising strategies (direct marketing, one-to-one marketing, etc.), Web-based

promotional campaigns. Place-function

(2) e-Distribution:

Heavily

relates

to

of

traditional

marketing mix and encompasses selling a n d m a r k e t c o m m u n i c a t i o n strategies (e.g., online marketing techniques aimed at

facilitating business transactions and market communications in an e-commerce

environment, online reservation/booking), as well as niche -marketing, segmentation, related market research, customer communication, etc. (3) e-Market research: Refers to market situations considering all 4Ps strategies and includes online marketing techniques aimed at gathering of the market-related data (e.g., information about market conjuncture, competitors, pricing research, customers data and preferences; product innovation & quality surveys, etc.).

(4) e - C R M

Substitutes:

People-function

of

traditional

m a r k e t i n g m i x a n d e n c o m p a s s e s I n t e r n e t - based techniques aimed at facilitating and maintaining customer and partner

relations(e.g., creation and maintenance of long-term relationships with customers; implementation of electronic CRM (e-CRM) applications, high interactivity of websites, h i g h r e s p o n s i v e n e s s o f t h e c o m p a n y t o t h e customers services, etc.). needs, personalization a n d customization of product/

1.3.5 Social networking sites:

A social networking service is an online service, platform, or site that focuses on building and reflecting of social networks or social relations among people, who, for example, share interests and/or activities. A social network service essentially consists of a representation of each user (often a profile), his/her social links, and a variety of additional services. Most social network services are web based and provide means for users to interact over the Internet, such as e-mail and instant messaging. Online community services are sometimes considered as a social network service, though in a broader sense, social network service usually means an individual-centered service whereas online community services are group-centered. Social networking sites allow users to share ideas, activities, events, and interests within their individual networks. The main types of social networking services are those which contain category places (such as former school year or classmates), means to connect with friends (usually with selfdescription pages) and a recommendation system linked to trust. Popular methods now combine many of these, with Facebook and Twitter widely used worldwide, Nexopia (mostly in Canada); Bebo, VKontakte, Hi5, Hyves (mostly in The Netherlands), Draugiem.lv (mostly in Latvia), StudiVZ (mostly in Germany), iWiW (mostly in Hungary), Tuenti (mostly in Spain), Nasza-Klasa (mostly in Poland), Nyx.cz (mostly in Czech Republic), Decayenne, Tagged, XING, Badoo and Skyrock in parts of Europe; Orkut and Hi5 in South America and Central America; and Friendster, Mixi, Multiply, Orkut, Wretch, renren and Cyworld in Asia and the Pacific Islands and Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Orkut are very popular in India.

1.3.6 Marketing on social networking sites:

Social networking sites (SNSes) like MySpace.com and Facebook attract large numbers of mostly young users who are eager to engage with their favorite brands. But most marketers use traditional marketing tactics like run-of-site advertising and static micro sites to push messages into these networks. Instead, to realize the full value of marketing on SNSes, marketers should be prepared to engage in a personal relationship with users by providing something of value. Promotions are good in this context, but even better are information or brand elements that users can pass on to their friends. Social networking sites (such as Myspace, FaceBook, and Orkut) allow Internet users to form communities online quickly and easily, from groups of friends to business networking. These groups of networked individuals, often in similar demographic groups, have become a virtual gold mine for Internet marketers, who can place their message in front of members of their target market on social networking sites for little or no cost. Social networking sites have also become an easily abused Internet marketing tool, forcing social networking sites to crack down on new types of spam (such as message spam and bulletin spam on Myspace). This spam is a result of people artificially inflating friend counts (the number of other members in their social network) through mass-adding and bots. The owners of these profiles will then sometimes market their own products, or charge others to have their URLs blasted to the bulletin board of thousands of other members.

Why Social Networking Spam Doesnt Work:

1. Huge social networking accounts rarely are filled with targeted members. Therefore, those seeing the message wont likely be members of the target market (unless someones marketing something like a Myspace resource site, or a band marketing to legitimate fans, which are two exceptions to the rule) 2. Many of these paid posts (often in bulletin form) are only highly visible in limited quantities, based on post time, and only when a member is logged in. Therefore, most members blasted wont ever even see the message.

3. Even if targeted members of a market do see the message, actually open the message, and actually read it, theres still the traditionally very low response rate common in most direct marketing methods.

Ways to Use Social Networking Effectively for Internet Marketing:

1. Build a highly targeted friend list, rather than using bots. 2. Personally welcome any new members of your network, or at least as many as possible. 3. Time bulletins and messages to when members of the target market will likely be online. 4. Offer something of value (like news or exclusive information) in the posts, rather than simply sending links. 5. Contact members regularly to keep the message in front of them, but dont overdo it, to the point of looking like a spammer. 6. Join groups on social networking sites related to the niche, and promote in them where it doesnt violate group rules.

Marketing Campaigns on Social Networks share the following attributes:

Meets a business objective: First and foremost, any marketing campaign or activity should match with a business objective, regardless of the tools being used. Supports Community Goals: Every community is different, and each has unique goals (from supporting products, to each other, or to just be entertained) the campaign focus should therefore meet the needs of the community, before the needs of the marketer. Effective campaigns will first understand the core drivers, interests, and rituals of the community and learn how to meet those desires. Encourage Member Interaction: The most successful social networking campaigns and efforts involve the audience.

Quickly scale: Social networks are designed for information to quickly move from member to member, so campaigns that lean on these capabilities perform the best. These attributes known as Velocity, Viralness, and Spread are key. Utilize Media: In some campaigns, the best way to get members to return is to offer them media. Depending on demographics and community needs, this could be audio, videos, or demos Foster self-expression or communication: Members in social networks like to communicate with each other, or self-express. As a result, campaigns should satisfy these needs with the appropriate tools Offer a satisfying User Experience: This encompasses the overall experience of the campaign, the content and navigation items should be where expected, the language familiar to the audience, and overall look and feel of the site appeasing. Provide longer term utility: Successful campaigns have a longer term value, rather than a short term disposable campaign. These campaigns add value by being a useful application to the members, rather than just quick dose of entertainment. Enhance Value as Community participants: As more people contribute or interact with the campaign, the value is increased. This can be in the form of content that is created by the community, contests, voting, or games. Integration with other marketing activities: Successful marketing campaigns arent single channel, in fact they utilize multiple channels and mediums to enhance the overall activity. The same thing applies to marketing campaigns on social networks, those that are promoted from other locations such as (corporate websites, email newsletter, blogs, podcasts) outside fo the social network have a great chance for success. Maintain agility during the campaign: Social networks are living, breathing organisms made up of real people connecting with each other. Marketing campaigns also should share these attributes and show be flexible to change in-flight, yield to legitimate requests or complaints of the community. Those campaigns that reflect the same dynamic behavior as human interaction have a higher chance to be interacted and accepted by the community.

Company Participation: In some cases, companies that participate in the discussions or conversations will yield to a more successful marketing campaign. Activities can range from recognition, company interaction, or attention to members perhaps from a community manager. You add your attribute: Please leave a comment below, I welcome and respect your opinion. If youre from a vendor in this space, feel free to leave your company name or email so I can properly credit you.

3 Best Social Networking Sites for Online Marketing:

It has become very important to get involved in the social networking or social media sites, if you have something to promote online like a website, or a blog, or a product or business. The social networking sites are used by millions of people nowadays and so there is massive traffic through them. The three best social networking websites for the purpose of Internet Marketing are Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. Facebook is a new site compared to Twitter and YouTube but it has grown popularity tremendously in such a short time. It has more than 500 million users which is growing everyday which makes it more popular and powerful. So Facebook is the best platform if you have something that a world should know. It serves as the best network and best way to interact to people all around the world. The other popular social networking site is Twitter. This site allows you to create short tweets about what you are doing or what you are thinking of. So this social networking site can be used to market your business or you can use to simply have fun. Another effective social networking site is YouTube which can be used for effective online marketing. YouTube is tremendously popular as people just love to watch videos which can be done easily through YouTube. Because of this facility, advantage of video marketing can be taken which can be proved very effective and affordable for the purpose of marketing business using videos.

Along with these social networking sites, also proper strategy is required to get successful in promoting something. Knowing the perfect target market is very important before starting with any promotion to build trust and healthy relationship.

Business applications:
The use of social network services in an enterprise context presents the potential of having a major impact on the world of business and work. Social networks connect people at low cost; this can be beneficial for entrepreneurs and small businesses looking to expand their contact bases. These networks often act as a customer relationship management tool for companies selling products and services. Companies can also use social networks for advertising in the form of banners and text ads. Since businesses operate globally, social networks can make it easier to keep in touch with contacts around the world. One example of social networking being used for business purposes is LinkedIn.com, which aims to interconnect professionals. LinkedIn has over 40 million users in over 200countriesCompany now using social networking sites as marketing channel to promote its product, also called as viral marketing. Social networking platforms offer businesses a forum for reaching out to potential customers beyond the immediate community. Social networking sites, especially friend-of-a-friend (FOAF) social networking sites such as MySpace and Friendster, are especially designed to directly connect like minded individuals and groups. Members interact with each other using many innovative tools including discussion forums and private or public messages. An FOAF network typically displays directories featuring people or topics that all members can browse through. Whenever you find another member with similar interests, you can send the member a message requesting to be added to their list of contacts. This gives you the opportunity to meet other like minded users from that members network, thereby multiplying your organizations contacts faster than you could in the real world. With every extra person you add, your network has the potential to expand exponentially.

1.3.7 Advantages and Disadvantages of Social networking sites

Social network websites have become very popular these days, and it has become totally impossible for internet marketers to ignore them. Face book, Twitter, LinkedIn and Youtube are among the most used social sites worldwide. The following in these sites is very enormous.

Advantages:
Reduced costs: Using social networking sites has potential to reach a very high number of potential customers at low budget. This is unlike in buying adverts, where reaching clients require a relatively high investment. With these sites, you just open a free account and have someone to actively carry out maintenance- updating, responding to comments, suggestions etc. Build strong trust: Connections with potential or existing customers on a personal level easily build a strong trust. By interacting with them on one on one basis- by responding to them, discussing issues in your niche, asking them their opinions etcthey tend to be loyal to your company much faster. This deep royalty and trust in turns translate into more direct or referred sales. Online brand building: Enhancing your business brand is very important. Establishing your presence in social site is one of the most effective and efficient ways to enhance your brand on the internet. However, to successfully strengthen your brand, you need to establish an active presence in these sites. You must establish yourself as an expert in your niche, providing not only latest in your field but also indepth details on what users are looking for. Being where the customers are: It is unavoidable; the social networking sites rely on the regular presence of millions of users. Since the new generations to the elderly, many people spent hours daily on sites like Facebook and Twitter , watching videos on YouTube , sharing photos on Flickr. Have a current image of the company: Social networks are part of peoples lives, where users get recent development and news. Companies with strong presences

therefore keep their following up to dates. These are values that can convey a positive image of any company. Open Channel with customers: A presence in social networks makes it possible to receive comments and feedback, thus creating channel of interaction with clients, potential clients and society at large, which operates 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Contributes to a good ranking in search engines: We have certainly already noticed that when you search on Google that some of the suggestions are Blogs , Videos , Pages at Facebook , etc. . Having a company website may not be enough to get a good ranking for those keywords that vital for your niche.

Disadvantages:
Time consuming: Unlike running advertising campaigns - PPC, banners or othersmarketing your products/services through social sites requires investing a lot of time. Setting up an ad word PPC campaign for instance takes minutes. But since social site requires interaction with users, the results are only achieved as long as a lot of time is being devoted. There is absolutely no shortcut to winning users in these sites- you have to give them a great deal of your time. Viral damage: The viral potential of these social sites means very fast spread of news regarding your company. Be it good or bad news. This is good when for instance you have a new product launch. But what happens if the news is about defects on your products/service? You see the point? It becomes very difficult and expensive to redeem your image once its tainted. A small mistake, even a comment from employee or management can result to acute brand damage. Difficult to reach target audience: The fact that your target audience is using different social networking sites makes it very complicated to reach them. This necessitates running multiple accounts, each on a different social site. Deciding the best options for your business is not usually simple. Having multiple accounts may prove very complex to run effectively and efficiently. It may not be worth the money and time invested. The message is not fully controlled by the company: Most social networking sites allow comments to messages or items published, and these are also visible to other members. When a business receive positive feedback it is visible to everyone which

good. But what happens when a damaging comment is made? It can wreak havoc on your investment. Balance between personal and business is difficult: We have to remember that most people who visit social networks are there for personal reasons and for leisure. Most are not interested in being enticed to buy one now, but may be interested in hearing others opinions about a product or service. It is necessary for companies to know how to be contributing to the social network, without risking too much and invade the personal space of the members. Lack of Anonymity: You are putting out information about your name, location, age, gender, and many other types of information that you may not want to let others know. Most people would say be careful, but no one can be certain at any given time. As long as people can know who you exactly are, then some can find ways to do you in. Scams and Harassment: There is a potential for failure of security in both personal and business context. While many sites apply certain measures to keep any of these cases of harassment, cyber-stalking, online scams, and identity theft to an absolute minimum, you still may never know.

1.4 The Scope and Limitations of the Study

Scope:
Study regarding marketing communication encompassing advertising, promotion, selling, public relations, direct marketing and marketing. How much brand internet marketing or digital marketing is creating. Find out the position of Corporate Bridge in the competitive market. The study attempts to identify the reach of Corporate Bridge Financial courses which would help the company in formulating suitable strategies

Limitations:

Less time to advertise: The campaign was carried out, only when the new course is about to commence. Less investment: The Company needs to invest more in the digital marketing and other PR Activities. Less knowledge of internet marketing: The Company initially was not focusing on internet marketing much, due to which the marketing has not been done properly in the past.

2.RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

2.1 Research Design

The formidable problem that follows the tasks of defining the research problem is the preparation of the design of the research project, popularly known as the research design. Decisions regarding what, when, how much, by what means concerning an enquiry or a research study constitute a research design. A research design is the arrangement of conditions for collection and analysis of data in the matter that aims to combine, relevance to the research purpose with economy in procedure. The Research Design adopted in the study was descriptive in nature.

Justification: Because the study was carried out for creating awareness of the product. The
main aim for the research to obtain complete and proper information consumer preference for the product.

Data Source:
Any marketing research requires data collection to arrive at the solution of the

problem. Data collection always starts with secondary data. Hence, in a way we can say that: Any marketing research starts with secondary data. The data can be broadly classified into 2 categories. 1. Primary Data. 2. Secondary Data.

1. Primary Data:
It can be defined as the data which are collected at first hand either by the researcher or by someone else especially for the purpose of the study. For example, the demographic statistics collected every ten years are the primary data with the Registrar General of India. It is gathered by a specifically designed to accommodate the data needs of the problem at hand. It is important as it helps us in arriving at the accurate solution to the problem of marketing research.

2. Secondary Data:
Any data which have been gathered earlier for some other purpose are secondary data in the hands of the marketing researcher. When sufficient secondary data are available, considerable time and money may be saved. It helps us in better understanding of the problem. It can be

collected internally or externally. Internal Data is one which is collected from within the organization. For example, data collected from Accounting Records. Many organizations have a separate department for handling secondary data. External Data is one which is collected from sources outside the organization. For example, data collected from Trade Association Reports or Industry Publications. In our project we broadly concentrated on the Primary data as it was a live project and our analysis was going to result in a huge financial investment into an institute. We gathered all possible data first hand by interviewing our target respondents online on one to one basis. We did a survey on social networking sites like facebook, orkut, twitter, linkedIn, and many more mostly with the youth and got the feedback about the courses offered by corporate bridge academy. We were given a database of people from all over India and we had to mail them the details and links of the company. People who replied were guided about the courses offered and the fee structure. We created groups and communities of the company on sites like facebook, orkut and sent the links of these to our friends and relatives on facebook and orkut. All the daily updates about the courses and the website were done by us.

2.1.1 Strategies Applied During the Project

Some of the strategies applied were as follows:

SMS marketing: Sms were sent to the database that we got from various institutes and corporates. POSTERS: Various online brochures were posted on the companys website and blog. EMAIL MARKETING: Our task also included email marketing of the financial courses and on the databases provided. FORUM PARTICIPATION:

Over here, we were supposed to

participate in the forums and suggest any ideas if we have and along with the ideas also advertise the company and its courses offered.

2.2 Sampling Design

Sampling Unit: Sampling Technique: Sampling Area: Students and professionals Simple Random Technique Across India (Online)

2.3 Data collection tools/methods used

Using the Observation Method (Forums and articles) the research was carried out. The reason for choosing the Observation Method is because we wanted to gain understanding about the above mentioned objectives and motivation.

2.4 Data analysis techniques used

Using the Interview method the research was carried out. Questionnaires were also used for data collection.

3.FINDINGS

3.1 Findings and Inferences

Questions asked and feedback received data was collected and here is analysis of it.

Q1. Are you aware of corporate bridge?

awareness

20% 40.00% friends/ relatives news papers 30% 10.00% online not aware

80% of the people were aware about corporate bridge academy as we only targeted the youth who were interested in the financial courses offered by the company. 40% of them were aware via their friends/relatives who are/were undergoing the training programs or whose relatives/friends are working in the company. 30% of them were aware via the local newspaper advertisements given by the company. 20% people are not aware about the company. They have never heard about the company.

Q2. Do you entertain advertisements while surfing the net? If u do then have you ever taken
a lead for those information?

Attitude towards online advertisements

40% 35% 30% 25% 20% 15% 10% 5% 0%

Attitude towards online advertisements

In the above pie chart, we can see that 80% of the people whom we surveyed entertain the advertisements while surfing the net. Out of which 40% think these kind of advertisements are more informative and they are just curious to know about the products/services which are advertised online. 25% think these advertisements are entertaining and they have a look at these in their free time. 15% think these online advertisements creates a lot of awareness about the products/services which is actually good for the company. 20% of the people dont entertain these kind of ads online. Out of which 10% think the ads are irritating. 5% think the ads are annoying. And 5% think its a form of waste of time for them.

Q3. How much time do you spend online?

0.4 0.35 0.3 0.25 0.2 0.15 0.1 0.05 0 <1 hr 1-2 hrs 2-4 hrs 4-6 hrs >6 hrs Time spent

As we had conducted this survey online and the targeted people were young, most of the people that is around 40% of them spend around 2-4 hrs on the internet in a single day. Most of them visit the social networking websites like Facebook, Orkut, Youtube, etc. during this time. 30% said they spend around 4-6 hrs online as they surf the internet as well as work at the same time. People who are working on their laptops or computers in their offices prefer to be online for latest updates from time-to-time. 15% said they spend around 1-2 hrs online. Young people prefer to visit/surf the internet daily and they mostly visit Facebook and google during this time. 10% said they spend more than 6 hrs online because they have no other better work to do. And 5% said they spend less than an hr online because they dont get much time and prefer to go online only to check mails and updates.

Q4. Which is the social networking site you often access?

Preference of Social N/w site

Facebook Twitter Linkedin orkut

The most preferred social networking site for the youth is Facebook. 60% prefer this website more than the others, reason being it is one of the famous sites among the youth because of various reasons like it is very flexible to use, you can interact with friends through games and other applications, upload unlimited photos and many more. 20% prefer orkut as according to them orkut is much easier to use than any other social networking site. 10% prefer twitter because it is more work related website and very informative. 10% prefer linkedIn because many recruiters follow this website and people want to be associated with such social networking sites.

Q5. Do you see/check online ads/mails when you surf the internet?

0.7 0.6 0.5 0.4 0.3 0.2 0.1 0 Never Sumtimes Depend on ads Often Everytime Entertain Online Adds

As you can see in the above graph, 60% of the youth entertains the ads/mails online depending on the kind/type of ads they are. If they seem to be interested in that ad they go ahead with the details. But they at least take a glance at it. 15% never see/check/respond to the online advertisements reason being different for each one of them. 10% say they entertain these ads sometimes, according to their needs and mood. 10% say they often visit these kind of online advertisements. According to them many informative ads keep coming online in which they might be interested. And 5% say they entertain all the ads which they see.

Pie graph representation of the visitors

Explanation:
There was 77% increase from the direct search (SMS Marketing, Email marketing), 19.91% increase from search engine (Google, Yahoo bing, MSN etc), 2.13% increase from affinity sites (Facebook, Orkut, Twitter and many more).

Traffic Source After Marketing

Reffering sites 2%

Search Engines 20%

Direct traffic 78%

Explanation:
The major traffic was diverted to the index page of the website i.e. www.corporatebridge.net, because the as you can see the percentage of direct traffic is much more in comparison to search engine and referring sites. We can conclude from this that SMS marketing and email marketing did miracles in order to get the students and professionals visit the website and know about the new financial course.

Statistics of Visitors Web-page

Explanation:
We can observe that, there were 67.92% new visits during the month of June and July. And also, the average time spent on the site to view the course was 4.5 minutes. The clients page views were 30,318 times for the financial course. This was web-page created of the company Corporate Bridge and awareness was created and we got good respond as people look interested in the various courses.

Comparison Chart

Explanation:
According to the comparison done by the Googles analytics, we can observe that, there is high level of increase in the visitors in the month of June and July (Blue line) in comparison to past records (Green line).

Visitors Overview

Explanation:
We can observe over here, that the number of visitors increase 39.3% in the month of June and July. The visitors count is 3,607 on average compared to 2,590.

Overall report for the website

4.RECOMMENDATIONS

Some of the recommendations for the company are:

Established Office: The Company requires setting up a well established office in the city of Pune. Invest more in digital advertising: The company requires to invest more in digital advertising such as google advertising i.e. google adwords, google adsense and many other. Appoint different marketing teams: The company can appoint different teams handling different projects to market themselves. Motivation to the employees: Motivation of the teachers and trainers as an essential element for the quality in e-learning (status recognition and career enhancement, and making them understand that it can facilitate their activity, and teacher training). Anywhere, anytime, anyone: The Internet can offer the logical solution for a companys education and training objectives. We estimate that approximately 80% of the professional workforce already uses computers on the job. The growth of the World Wide Web, high-capacity corporate networks, and high-speed desktop computers will make learning available to people 24 hours a day, seven days a week around the globe. This will enable businesses to distribute training and critical information to multiple locations easily and conveniently. Employees can then access training when it is convenient for them, at home or in the office. Just-in-time access to timely information: Web-based products allow instructors to update lessons and materials across the entire network instantly. This keeps content fresh and consistent and gives students immediate access to the most current data. Information can be retrieved just before it is required, rather than being learned once in a classroom and subsequently forgotten. Training Magazine reported that technology-based training has proven to have a 5060% better consistency of learning than traditional classroom learning (c-learning).

S.W.O.T analysis of CORPORATE BRIDGE ACADEMY

Strength: Since the company is formed by the graduates from IITs, IIMs & AIM is one of the biggest strength. Within short span of time company has created huge number of clients. Weakness: No proper marketing done by the company. Unawareness among the corporates and institutions. Opportunities: As company is also coming out with Financial Modeling Competition, here is a big opportunity to expand its business all over the nation and to create awareness about the courses. Many people now a days are being aware of the benefits of E-learning, so there is vast market to target by the company. Threats: Many small consultancies operating at a larger level which provide staffing solution like corporate bridge does. As E-learning is emerging market in India so more and more companies will tend to come in this line of business and there will be increase in competition in the future.

5.CONCLUSION

 The company lacks in digital advertising, google advertising a lot. Lately, they have
started marketing online which is providing more exposure to the company.

There are many social sites which provides various advertising options and promotion
schemes they can opt for.

After learning and implementing the techniques of internet marketing, I come to a

conclusion on internet marketing. It is not really hard to market any businesses, services and products online.

Looking at what works for big companies online and offline, studying their business
models, how their marketing process is like helps a lot for marketing online.

After the project was completed, it was found that the company has an excellent
faculty to train the students, but there are some major factors such as price, time and assurance which most of the students are worried about.

The Internet presents companies with numerous possibilities for leveraging

knowledge and education resources.

While currently a relatively small and immature industry, it is poised to grow

exponentially in the next several years.

The Internet has affected and transformed nearly all sectors of the economy, but has
been slow to penetrate the education market.

I believe the education industry will inevitably catch up and massively distribute
knowledge over the Web.

I expect corporations to be the fastest to explore this new frontier and to adopt Webbased learning on a broad scale.

Bibliography
Marketing Management: Essentials of Management: Marketing Management: Marketing Management: Mr. M. V. Kulkarni Koontz M. D. Kakade Michael Porter

WEBSITES:

www.corporatebridge.net

www.google.com

Appendix

ANNEXURE
QUESTIONNAIRE
Name: __________________________________________________________ Age Group (yrs): Gender: Male Female working Business 25 to 40 40 to 55 55 +

Occupation: Education:

Profile:________________________________________________

1.Are you aware of corporate bridge?

- from friends/relatives - online advertisements - newspapers if any other, kindly specify __________________________________________________________

2.Rate the following financial courses as per your interest (1 being highly preferred, 10 being least preferred)

Equity Research Investment Banking Financial Modeling Using Excel Credit Research Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) Financial Risk Management(FRM) Stock Market Analysis Initial Public Offering

IFRS Finance for Non-finance Managers

3. If any other course preferred, please specify __________________________________________________________

4. Do you entertain advertisements while surfing the net? if u do then have you ever taken a lead for those information? Yes - Informative - Entertaining - Creates awareness

- Irritating - Annoying - Waste of time

5. How much time do you spend online? - 2hrs 2 - 4hrs 4 - 6hrs > 6hrs

6. You use the internet for.. (Rank them in order of your preference) - Chatting and Social Networking - Email - Information - Entertainment - E-Commerce - Downloading

7. Which is the social networking site you often access? _________________________________________________________

8. Do you see/check online ads/mails when you surf the internet?

often

every time

9. Which is the last online ad you remember? Which brand was it? __________________________________________________________

10. Name any five online ads you remember lately 1. _______________________________ 2. _______________________________ 3. _______________________________ 4. _______________________________ 5. _______________________________

THANK YOU!