The evolution of the theory and practice of Marketing in the light of Information Technology

Marketing is a discipline that concentrates on the process of exchange between two market groups, and for this reason, it has been immediately involved with developments in the Internet—understood as a suitable phenomenon for discovering new opportunities and possible threats to modern business management (Burke, 1996) and as a commercial business tool (Alba et al., 1997; Quelch & Klein, 1996). The aim of this chapter is to highlight the marketing elements that, according to an accurate review of international literature, have been involved in the development of new information technology and, in particular, the Internet. The investigation concerns in particular • customers: the buying behavior of Internet users compared to traditional behavior; • relations and communication: in this section we try to understand what are the barriers to the development of these relations: trust, safety, and manipulation are some of the obstacles examined;