E-commerce is already redrawing the corporate map. It has spawned business models that simply could not have existed even a few years ago. E-channels has changed industries.
Digital Marketing impacts all aspects of marketing from strategy and planning through the marketing mix, marketing communications and buyer behaviour to marketing research.
Change we must embrace
The innovation in digital technologies and the ways in which we interact with them have continued relentlessly since the first edition of our Digital Marketing Training-the Email marketing strategic in 2003.
The increased adoption of digital marketing also implies a significant programme of change that needs to be managed. New forms of objectives need to be set, new communications strategies developed and staff developed through new responsibilities and skills.
The most dramatic changes have been in user participation facilitated by the new Web 2.0 digital technologies and evolving Web 3.0 approaches. Today, and into the future, consumers don ’t only go online to save time and money while selecting and purchasing products, they go online via web or mobile to spend time, to socialize and simply for entertainment.
The rise of the now familiar social networks such as Bebo, MySpace, Facebook and in the business arena, Linked In and Ecademy are now where many of us spend time, sometimes discussing brands, but for most of the time just socializing. And of course when we are socializing, we mostly don ’t want to be interrupted by marketing messages – so customer engagement has become a key challenge.
Systems to tell others what we think about products and brands are also important and user generated content generated on rating platforms such as Delicious, Digg, YouTube and the shopping comparison sites are only going to increase in importance.
Brand and Digital Marketing
The digital networked society is a great leveller. The relationship between brands and consumers has shifted. The structure of communications has undergone this massive leap.
While the smart thinking in marketing is leaping to embrace a whole new way of doing things, much of the practice in marketing still clings to the past. That’s why it wasn’t just gutsy, but a strategically brilliant move for Microsoft to use a television style commercial to make the point for them. It’s a TV style commercial that challenges the conventional way of marketing thinking. It’s from a firm promoting internet advertising, and it’s being seen mainly as a viral.
Digital Media is fundamentally changing the way that consumers interact with brands. With tools like blogs and social networks they can tell us, and others, what they think about what we promise them. This change presents a challenge for the unprepared but a great opportunity for those who are willing to embrace it.
It is now essential for all marketers and agency staff to have the knowledge, skills and confidence to make the most of the opportunities offered by digital marketing.
Like traditional marketing methods digital marketing activity is most effective when employed as part of an overall strategy, occasionally dabbling in Facebook is not going to mean your brand reaches the top of the digital hill.
When it comes to brand building digital marketing is one of the most powerful weapons in a marketer’s armoury. The explosion in internet use has opened up a whole new range of tools and platforms, as well as new audiences, which brands can use to increase their online presence.
Digital Opportunities
The digital world represents a tremendous opportunity. For customers, it gives a much wider choice of products, services and prices from different suppliers and the means to select and purchase items more readily.
For organisations marketing products and services, it gives the opportunity to expand into new markets, offer new services and compete on a more equal footing with larger businesses.
For those working within these organisations it gives the opportunity to develop new skills and to use the Internet to improve the competitiveness of the company.
Understanding The threats
As we have huge opportunities so also the digital world gives threats to organisations. For example,start-up companies such as Amazon (books) (www.amazon.com), Expedia (travel)(www.expedia.com), AutoByTel (cars)(www.autobytel.com) and CDWOW (CDs)(www.cdwow.com) have captured a significant part of their market and struck fear intothe existing players. Indeed the phrase ‘amazoning a market sector’ has become an often-used expression among marketers.
With the success stories of companies capturing market share together with the rapidlyincreasing adoption of the Internet by consumers and business buyers has come a fastgrowing realisation that all organisations must have an effective Internet presence to prosper, or possibly even survive! Michael Porter has said: The key question is not whether to deploy Internet technology – companies have no choice if they want to stay competitive – but how to deploy it. What are these challenges of deploying digital technology?
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