HOW ICT SUBSTANTIALLY IMPROVES COMMUNICATIONS WITH ACTUAL AND POTENTIAL CUSTOMERS, SUPPLIERS AND PARTNERS ABROAD



CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
The level of societal development determines the market system that operates in that society. The society has been developing from simple to complex and marketing has also developed from barter to global. Before the introduction of money, people were exchanging goods for goods. Barter system of marketing was associated with numerous problems including valuation and double coincidence of wants. The introduction of money as a medium of exchange and a measure of value solved the problem of barter and paved way for specialization and international trade: provision of services including transportation, communications, insurance, agency, retailing, wholesaling, advertising, warehousing and financing emerged to facilitate marketing. During the industrial revolution, domestic and international (import and export) trade became very popular but were associated with problems including trade restrictions, import and export licensing, pricing, producers and product information, price discrimination and so on. While domestic trade concerns exchange of goods and services within the confines of a country, International trade is about exchange of goods and services between countries. For example, a trade between Ghana and Nigeria is an international trade while that between Lagos and Abuja is a domestic trade.


Global marketing is marketing on a worldwide scale reconciling or taking commercial advantage of global operational differences, similarities and opportunities in order to meet global objectives. The emergence of computers and the internet have reduced the world to a global village where producers and customers can just log onto the internet to interact and exchange goods and services.

ICT stands for information and communication technologies and is defined, for the purposes of this primer, as a “diverse set of technological tools and resources used to communicate, and to create, disseminate, store, and manage information”. These technologies include computers, the internet, broadcasting technologies (radio and television), telephone, interactive multimedia systems, and digital telecommunications. The emergence of the new information and communication technologies (ICTs) has dramatically altered theoretical and practical assumptions about the role of communication technologies in development. The new information and communication technologies (ICTs) are widely perceived as major tools for kick-starting ailing economies and consequently assist developing societies `catch up' with the developed world, including those groups that have been lost out of the mainstream of development.

To what extent do the new ICTs facilitate marketing activities?.

ICT have become the fastest growing part of the World Wide Web (WWW). Used properly, the Internet can be a powerful source of competitive advantage in global markets and an increasing number of companies are developing Internet-based strategies to support overall business development.

This led to a proliferation of commercial sites which remain the fastest growing part of the Net today. Commercialization resulted in a major clash of cultures between original users (mainly researchers), who emphasized the free exchange of information, and new, corporate users emphasizing the commercial opportunities available.
STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

There is no doubt that ICT has transformed international businesses. Although the majority of users are still based in developed countries (the USA in particular), the use of ICT has become truly global in scope. Connectivity has increased rapidly in both developed and developing countries.

The use of ICT has facilitated the connection between end-users and producers directly, and this has reduced the importance of traditional intermediaries in international marketing (i.e. agents and distributors).

Secondly, ICT strives better in an environment where there are good infrastructural development like good educational system and steady power supply and so on, as witnessed in the developed nations. But for the developing nations that lack these basic infrastructures (good educational system, steady power supply and good telephone system), the development and use of ICT posses a serious challenge to the development of global marketing practices.

In Africa, ignorance is a major obstacle to the appreciation and use of ICTs while the educated and literate individuals may be faced with the poor economic situation in their countries and individual socioeconomic problems that make it difficult for them to acquire ICTs when needed. In Nigeria, for example, to acquire a computer/modem, ISP subscription and telephone line would require the total annual income of a graduate.

OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY
To determine how ICT substantially improves communications with actual and potential customers, suppliers and partners abroad.

To determine how good educational system, steady power supply and other infrastructure could impact positively on the use of ICT in global marketing.

To determine how ignorance about the importance of and need for ICT affects its use and how apathy makes the rich not to use ICTs.  

SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

1          This study will help marketing practitioners and academias understand that the culture of ICT is an efficient new medium for conducting worldwide market research. For example, gaining feedback from customers and tracking individual customer behaviour etc.

2.         The traditional intermediaries in marketing (i.e. agents and distributors) will need to begin offering a different range of services so that the value-added by them will no longer be principally in the physical distribution of goods but rather in the collection, collation, interpretation and dissemination of vast amounts of information. The critical resource possessed by this new breed of “cybermediary” will be information rather than inventory.


CHAPTER TWO
LITERATURE REVIEW
THE ROLE OF INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATIONS TECHNOLOGIES (ICTS) IN DEVELOPING SUSTAINABLE TOURISM - CLICK HERE TO SEE IT



CHAPTER THREE

RECOMMENDATIONS:

Based on the details and articulations of this seminar paper and the review of the works of other writers, the following recommendations were made:
·        There should be ICT support for use by SME’s, and consumers, including those in remote areas, by providing easy and low cost access to ICT solutions.
·        There should always be organised regular consultative meetings and sharing of knowledge with other destinations in order to define appropriate ICT strategies and implementation plans and timetables.

Conclusions
ICT is an absolute necessity for taking part in today’s global economy and as such the role of ICT in the emerging global market cannot be overemphasised. ICT has also been credited with the potential to integrate world economies thus demolishing the barriers created by time and distance. It equally makes easier the trade in goods and services and encourages investment as well as the creation of new sectors of enterprise, new revenue streams and ultimately new jobs. There is a clear gap in the research of ICT in the globalisation of firms. A rich fund of literature exists on the technical side of ICT and information systems in firms. From a management perspective, there is almost no explicit research on the influence of ICT on the globalisation of firms. There are assumptions that ICT facilitate a faster internationalisation and the emergence of “born globals”. However, an explicit observation and explanation of ICT influences on globalisation processes is still missing. Future research could provide some transparency in this field.
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