MARKETING OF ONLINE AND CDROM DATABASES

This paper reports the results of a survey of UK electronic information vendors regarding the importance of marketing to them, and reports the results of an examination of the readability, structure and information content of a sample of marketing materials produced by electronic information vendors. This analysis was of advertisements from professional journals and direct mail literature comprising leaflets, folders and brochures. The results demonstrated that the ‘average’ adult ought to have no problem in reading and understanding the marketing literature. Additionally, this study demonstrated that the marketing literature is feature‐oriented. Benefits are of much lesser significance. The UK‐based electronic information industry regards marketing as of crucial importance and believes that the marketplace is becoming more competitive. The favoured promotional techniques of the industry are identified.