New Avenues in Marketing
Gone are the days when internet marketing was considered a stand-alone promotion medium. The next big thing in the marketing world is Digital Marketing. This mode is contemporary, user-friendly, and very accessible. Also known as online marketing, this is a way of endorsing products and services using digital interactive distribution channels. This medium involves the usage of modern communication media like the internet, mobile, and digital outdoor mediums. The importance of digital media advertising can be ascertained by a prediction that says ‘Strategic internet marketing is likely to replace the traditional tools of marketing in the next five years.’ A large section of marketing experts believes that this digital interactive marketing medium will make traditional marketing tools appear irrelevant to the new generation of media consumers.
Digital Marketing is the practice of promoting products and services using interactive digital distribution channels to reach consumers in a timely, relevant, personal, and cost-effective manner.
The concept of ‘digital marketing’ is path-breaking and new in the Indian market. It will take a little time before the Indian Consumer market gets fully aware of and used to it. The prospect of web-based companies is expected to be very bright considering the fact that more and more Indians are going in for web-based marketing.
As the digital revolution has taken place, as the world shifts from physical to virtual, as values move from the hard steel of the industrial age to the high concepts of a knowledge economy–what could be more important to companies than their relationships with customers and other external constituencies? Knowing how to communicate with customers, meet their changing needs, and build sustainable relationships and loyalty is what digital marketing and its new rules are about. The Internet provides us with powerful outlets to strengthen our commitment to customer satisfaction. In new business environments, it is essential to focus on changing customer needs and behavior and on the establishment of strong relationships with customers and other stakeholders. Marketing competencies based on the new rules of marketing articulated here are, therefore, one of the primary sources of advantage for companies in the digital age.
For dot-com companies, the challenge is to adapt and prepare for the next Internet technology, business models, and their marketing implications. How to avoid being on the “bleeding edge” and how best to move toward the “brick-and-click” world. In addressing these issues, a key task for the firm is the implementation of the adaptive experimentation philosophy. This should encourage the development of customer-centric new business incubators to develop and launch innovative “out of the box” businesses that address emerging customer needs. This recommendation is motivated by a recognition that the new marketing paradigm defines a central philosophy, approach, and set of activities that should be adopted by all executives. If we have great technologies that are not focused on the market, what value will they provide? What advantages will it create? By understanding the new global digital reality and focusing on the new rules of marketing, marketing professionals can begin to reclaim some of their lost ground and corporate executives can increase their likelihood of success. Digital technologies have opened new channels for selling products. It provides the consumer with a previously unimaginable quantity and quality of information in an easily accessible form. Consumers can sort products based on any desired attribute: price, nutritional value, functionality, or combination of attributes such as price/value. Consumers can use it to obtain third-party endorsements and evaluations, or they can tap into the experience of other users. Digital technology has put the customer in charge, creating a fundamental shift in the dynamics of marketing. Empowered by technology, customers are unforgiving. Pity the poor company that fails to see this or refuses to play by the new rules. The enormous advancement in information technology is shattering walls between industries as well, shifting the balance of power to empowered consumers and creating what information technology expert Colin Crook has called the emergence of a “global grid.” This grid is a network of users and portals, offering free communications, scalability for even the smallest corporations, globalization, total connectivity, and universal digitalization. In this new environment, simple rules often produce complex outcomes, such as fractals or traffic patterns on the Internet. Internet performance has been improving even though the volume of traffic has increased tremendously.
