INTERNET MARKETING WITH CLOUD COMPUTING AND TRAVEL AGENCY REACTION

Transcription

1 INTERNET MARKETING WITH CLOUD COMPUTING AND TRAVEL AGENCY REACTION Huang-We Su 1,, Kuo Y Chang 2 & Der-Ren Hsu 3 1 Department of Toursm and Lesure Management, TungFang Desgn Unversty, Kaohsung, Tawan, ROC. 2 Department of Toursm and Lesure Management, TungFang Desgn Unversty, Kaohsung, Tawan, ROC. 3 Department of Toursm and Lesure Management, TungFang Desgn Unversty, Kaohsung, Tawan, ROC. hwesu@gmal.com ABSTRACT The purpose of ths study s to examne what professonal reactons are approprate whle facng the rsng development of cloud computng? Also, ths study seeks to reveal the specfc personal thoughts of travel agency salespeople f they do feel threatened. At ts concluson, ths study wll provde suggestons for tranng programs or crtera of recrutment for the human resource drectors n travel agences. Also, those nterested n travel busness may use the results of ths study as gudelnes as they prepare themselves for the mpact of cloud computng n Internet marketng. Keywords: Internet Marketng, Cloud Computng, Travel agency 1. INTRODUCTION Cloud computng s a current trend that dscloses the next-generaton applcaton n all dfferent knd of busness [1]. Not only personal use of cloud servces such as webmal, facebook, YouTube for some years, but also the organzatons have started to apply cloud servces as a tool for ther IT needs. It s estmated that by 2013 the cloud market wll have reached $8.1 bllon [2]. Accordng to Rzz, technology has progressed so rapdly that Internet marketng has became more and more mportant n the marketng mx [3]. In the past ten years especally, the economy and socety have changed rgorously, and not only the ncomes of consumers but also the dollar amounts of purchases have rsen. Consumers habts of purchasng travel products are more dfferent than ever. In order to occupy ths market, most travel agences have nvested plenty of resources and manpower n cloud computng n order to provde the new busness opportuntes and ncreased convenence the Internet can provde, through whch customers can purchase ther travel products. As a result, how do tradtonal travel agency salespeople feel about ths change? Do travel agency salespeople feel threatened n ther work, snce consumers can now purchase travel products drectly over the Internet? Or do these professonals vew the Internet as a prosperous new mode of busness development? The purpose of ths research s to examne what professonal reactons are approprate whle facng the rsng applcaton of cloud computng? 2. LITERATURE REVIEW The use of the term cloud s metaphorcal and typcally ponts to a large pool of usable resources such as hardware and software that are easly accessble va the Internet [4]. Its notable features nclude ts market-orented archtecture whch s regulated by the supply and demand of cloud resources at market equlbrum [5]. Characterstcs of cloud computng are somewhat defned by the extng computng concepts such as network computng, grd computng, utlty computng, pervasve computng, and servce computng [6]. Accordng to Kotler, marketng s a socal and management process by whch a person or a group can create values and trade products to satsfy people s needs and desres, and ths process by the way of Internet s referred to as Internet marketng [7]. Enterprses dentfed the opportunty to utlze the Internet as a medum to provde and transfer nformaton n order to acheve the goals of promoton and sales. McMaster ponted out that executng Internet marketng wth promoton and sales could ncrease sales volume consderably [8]. Kumar stated that a busness s sutable for Internet marketng when t 1) provdes a servce, 2) sells fashon products, 3) offers a product for whch customers are seekng a low prce, and 4) provdes a low product delvery cost [9]. In such stuatons, busnesses can easly buld a sustanable relatonshp wth clents and acheve ncreased sales goals. 590

2 Su & al. Internet Marketng wth Cloud Computng Cloud computng serves dfferent purposes and target dfferent customers however they share a common busness model that s that they rent the use of ther computng resources ncludng servces, applcatons, nfrastructures, and platform to customers. Ths model s smlar to the applcaton servce provder model n whch a servce provder provdes software, nfrastructure, people, and mantenance to run n a customzed fashon for the customer [10]. Paperless on-lne tcketng system provdes not only cost reducton but also tme savng benefts [11]. Hggns, Thompson, and McAllster concluded that travel agences can gan the followng advantages by usng Internet marketng: 1) sales can proceed n all-day, year-round marketng broadcastng, 2) updates to travel nformaton can take place any tme wthout a prntng fee, 3) costs are reduced through the ntegraton of paper and electronc meda wth multmeda materals, 4) travel agences can supply hyperlnks wth travel nformaton through whch consumers can learn and seek more servces, 5) companes enoy better sellng effects when consumers ntate ther own browsng of travel nformaton on the Internet, 6) customers can buy the travel products they want drectly, and 7) Internet marketng technques can focus on a specfc target populaton[12] [13] [14]. Travel products are seldom necesstes; therefore, t s often dffcult to push sales. The travel ndustry, as a servce busness, combnes hgh-qualty servce wth well-traned customer relatonshp sklls. Personal sellng plays an mportant role n the purchase process. Assael ndcated that most travel agency consumers understand the mportance of tour arrangements, so ther buyng behavors requre hgh nvolvement [15]. Therefore, the sellng process s consdered part of the assstance gven by travel agency salespeople, and such support s not easly replaced by Internet marketng. In the travel ndustry, marketng performance consders customer relatonshps valuable; consequently, Internet marketng s not sutable for travel product sellng. In addton, customers are cautous about provdng ther credt card nformaton on the Internet because the never-endng hackers and thus travel agency may consder gve other payng methods as alternatves [11]. As prevously dscussed, Internet marketng by cloud computng handles two tradtonal marketng values promoton and dstrbuton whch used to belong solely to travel agency salespeople. However, the Internet can not techncally replace the relatonshp between the consumer and the tour conductor. Nevertheless, n lght of the rse n Internet usage for travel needs, how do travel agency salespeople vew such a shft? What professonal aspects are approprate whle facng the rsng applcaton of cloud computng? Ths study seeks to answer such questons. 3. METHODOLOGY The partcpants (N = 10) were selected by purposve samplng of people who were managers or related experts n travel agences. Purposve samplng s manly used for opnon surveys. For ths study, partcpants were requred have been n the travel agent busness for at least 5 years. Intervews were conducted va phone wth ten partcpants, fve from travel agents n Tawan, fve from the college teachers n toursm department. The questonnare s composed of two parts. Frst the questonnare addresses demographcs, ncludng gender, age, professonal poston, marrage, number of kds, part-tme, and educaton. Second, the questonnare addresses the characterstcs of travel agency salespeople, usng 10 tems of responds to the rsng applcaton of cloud computng. The answers are constructed wth the Lkert scale. The ntervews protocol was developed n Englsh and based on the lterature revew. The ntervews explored more fully the perceptons of the people of experence about the travel agent and cloud computng. Intervews were conducted n Chnese. The codes and supportng words emergng from the transcrpts of ntervews were translated nto Englsh for analyzng. Grey Relatonal Analyss Methodology. The grey system method, as developed by Deng [16], has been extensvely appled n varous felds, ncludng decson scence. In ths study, the GRA s appled to construct an evaluaton method for selectng the optmal locaton of a regonal hosptal n Tawan to determne ts effectveness. The GRA s calculated as follows: Let X 0 be the referental seres wth k enttes (or crtera) of X 1, X 2,, X,, X N (or N measurement crtera). Then X x (1), x (2),..., x ( ),..., x ( k), X x (1), x (2),..., x ( ),..., x ( k),

3 Su & al. Internet Marketng wth Cloud Computng X x (1), x (2),..., x ( ),..., x ( k), X x (1), x (2),..., x ( ),..., x ( k) N N N N N The grey relatonal coeffcent between the compared seres defned as. mn max γ 0( ), (1) ( ) max 0 X and the referental seres of X 0 at the -th entty s where ( ) 0 denotes the absolute value of dfference between X 0 and X at the -th entty, that s 0( ) x0( ) x( ), and 0 max max max ( ), mn mn mn 0 ( ). The grey relatonal grade (GRG) for a seres of X can be expressed as K Γ w γ ( ), (2) Where w represents the weght of -th entty. If the weght does not need to be appled, take for averagng. K Before calculatng the grey relaton coeffcents, the data seres can be treated based on the followng three knds of stuaton and the lnearty of data normalzaton to avod dstortng the normalzed data. They are: 1. Upper-bound effectveness measurng (.e., larger-the-better) x( ) mn x( ) x ( ) max x ( ) mn x ( ), (3) where max x( ) s the maxmum value of entty and mn x ( ) s the mnmum value of entty. 2. Lower-bound effectveness measurng (.e., smaller-the-better) max x( ) x( ) x ( ) max x ( ) mn x ( ), (4) If mn x ( ) x ( ) max x ( ) x ( ) x ( ) x ( ) max x ( ) mn x ( ), (5) If max x ( ) x ( ) x ( ) x ( ) mn x ( ) x ( ) mn x ( ), or (6) If x ( ) mn x ( ) max x( ) x( ) x ( ) max x ( ) x ( ). (7) where x () s the ectve value of entty. 592

4 Su & al. Internet Marketng wth Cloud Computng 4. DATA ANALYSIS Table 1. Questonar data of the reactons to cloud computng Factors Expert I wll prepare necessary documents when vstng potental customers I wll use e-mal or facebook to communcate wth customers E-commerce wth cloud computng means new consumers Tradtonal travel busness s replaced by the Internet Sales achevements hgher wth cloud computng The clent doubted my nformaton when they asked for t For salespeople lke me, clents are dmnshng I wll vst prevous clents, even they do not need my servces I have had experences of losng clents to Internet marketng Because of Internet marketng, sales become more dffcult Calculaton of ( ) 0 equals the dfference between X 0 and X. The result s n table 2 Table 2. the calculaton result of ( ) 0 of the reactons to cloud computng Δ 01 = Δ 02= Δ 03= Δ 04= Δ 05= Δ 06= Δ 07= Δ 08= Δ 09= Δ 010= Employ an applcaton wth the lnearty of data normalzaton to avod dstortng the normalzed data The calculaton result s n Table 3. Table 3 The result of the lnearty of data normalzaton γ 01 = γ 02= γ 03= γ 04= γ 05= γ 06= γ 07= γ 08= γ 09= γ 010=

5 Su & al. Internet Marketng wth Cloud Computng After calculaton, the man mpact factors of cloud computng were decded. The result s n Table 4. γ 0 Table 4. Grey relatonal grade (GRG) of the reactons to cloud computng FACTOR1 FACTOR2 FACTOR3 FACTOR4 FACTOR FACTOR6 FACTOR7 FACTOR8 FACTOR9 FACTOR Accordng to γ 0, the prorty of the man mpact factors of cloud computng s lsted as the follows: FACTOR3 > FACTOR2 > FACTOR5 > FACTOR8 > FACTOR1 > FACTOR6 > FACTOR7 > FACTOR10 > FACTOR9 > FACTOR4 5. CONCLUSION Wth the process of Grey relatonal grade, the top three approprate reactons selected by the ntervewers were E-commerce wth cloud computng means new consumers, I wll use e-mal or facebook to communcate wth customers, and Sales achevements hgher wth cloud computng. Snce the development of cloud computng for travel agency s nevtable, a postve atttude s even more mportant. Ths means that a travel agency salesperson wth hgher work devoton, and hgher new technology acceptance and prospect that one wll decde the values whch gude hm n the varyng workng envronment. However, the top three dsagreed reactons selected were Tradtonal travel busness s replaced by the Internet, I have had experences of losng clents to Internet marketng, Because of Internet marketng, sales become more dffcult. The ntervewers beleve that the lack of fath can manfest a salesperson as rrtaton, frustraton and exasperaton. It s a sgn that a salesperson s not lookng at the wth fath that he must be fearful to ndulge n dsappontment and falure. Therefore, f a salesperson has confdence n the Internet marketng wth cloud computng prospect, ways n whch to take the advantage of new technology wll be a soluton to overcome n the changng envronment. Hgh work devoton mproved the communcaton wth clents wth whom the salesmen created close relatonshps, and they thnk those relatonshps are not replaceable. Those wth work frustraton face the nevtable task of mprovng ther sellng sklls to overcome the drop n clentele due to the rse n Internet marketng wth cloud computng. 6. REFERENCES [1]. C. Hutchnson, J. Ward and K. Castlon, Navgatng the next-generaton applcaton archtecture. IT Professonal. 1 (2), (2009). [2]. BBC News, Cloud computng for busness goes manstream, 06 May 2010 [Onlne]. Accessed (2010). [3]. J. Rzz, In the Mx, Target Marketng, 24, 13 (2001). [4]. M.A. Vouk, Cloud computng Issues, research and mplementatons, Journal of Computng and Informaton Technology, 16, (2008). [5]. R. Buyya, C.S. Yeo, S. Venugopal, Market-orented cloud computng: Vson, hype, and realty for delverng t servces as computng utltes, Proceedng of 10th IEEE nternatonal conference on hgh performance computng and communcatons, Dalan, Chna, 5 13 September (2008). [6]. J. Voas, J. Zhang, Cloud computng: New wne or ust a new bottle? IT Professonal, 11 (2), (2009) [7]. P. Kotler, Marketng Management. Prentce-Hall: Upper Saddle Rver, N.J. (2000). [8]. M. McAllster, Onlne choce shape healthcare buyng, Health Management Technology, 22, 10 (2001). [9]. S.R. Kumar, Combnng on-lne and off-lne marketng strateges, Ivey Busness Journal, 66, (2001). [10]. L. Wang, G. von Laszewsk, A. Younge, X. He, M. Kunz, J. Tao et al., Cloud computng: A perspectve study, New Generaton Computng, 28 (2), (2010). [11]. C. N. Chao, R. J. Mockler, & Dologte, D. G., Onlne Tcketng n the Arlne Industry: The Glal Impact, Revew of Busness Research, 9(2), (2009). [12]. B. Hggns, Low mantenance Producers can pull n hgh commssons, Natonal Underwrter, 105, 50 (2001). [13]. S. Thompson, Dortos to Net teens, Advertsng Age, 73, 8 (2002). [14]. M. McAllster, Onlne choce shape healthcare buyng, Health Management Technology, 22, 10 (2001). [15]. H. Assael, Consumer Behavor and Marketng Acton. Kent Publshng Company: Boston (1987). [16]. J. L. Deng, Introducton to Grey System, Journal of Grey System, 1(1), 1-24 (1989). 594