Research and Describe The Concept Of Digital Marketing (Term Paper Sample)

Digital marketing
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Emerging media forms accelerated through digitization has transformed marketing as businesses increasingly seek to take advantage of readily available data based on consumer intentions and actions. The concept of digital marketing implies the increased use of digital technologies such as the internet to market products as well as services, which contrasts to the traditional marketing means in which print media and broadcast channels were the primary channel. The implication is that marketing has shifted from conventional marketing to digital marketing in which consumer actions and intentions are increasingly valued. Simply put, decision making regarding modern marketing is data driven.
The shift from traditional marketing to digital, data driven marketing can be equated to past transformation such as industrial revolution. In fact, information technologies such as the internet are at the core of modern marketing strategies and decision-making process. The internet has generated increasingly complex networks that are not only accessible globally, but also accessible to virtually everyone meaning that the connection between people and information has been redefined. More so, digital marketing means that focus is increasingly being placed on search, social networks, cloud computing, as well as server information. The outcome is what has been described as integrated marketing communications in which conventional marketing strategies and models are being supplanted with data-driven as well as contextually relevant communications that are taken directly to consumers without necessarily being paired with news and entertainment (Mulhern, 2009 p 86). Marketers are constantly looking to evolve their strategies and models to ensure they maintain competitiveness in an increasingly transforming and interconnected global market. In fact, marketers are seeking tap into powers of emerging technologies, which gives them numerous benefits over traditional marketing channels.
According to Mulhern (2009), digital marketing presents marketers with networked media that enables the generation and distribution of information via non-proprietary means, a blend of non-market and market mechanisms to make available to the public, as well as large-scale efforts that produce output from a host of providers. The outcome is that the shift from conventional marketing to digital marketing enables marketers to engage in infinite reproduction as well as sharing through complex consumer networks, and customize content. As well, digital marketing gives marketers an opportunity to gain swift consumer insight and thus engage in data-driven planning with regard to marketing efforts. This is because digital marketing has an advantage over conventional means through the fact that technologies such as social media platforms facilitate real-time information exchange, which is often an integral component of consumer behavior. In essence, new media provides the opportunity for user-generated content that can function as a vital data source for marketers to learn and understand consumer actions as well as intentions (Hennig-Thurau 2010, p 312). It follows that a study focusing on the move from traditional marketing to digital marketing is increasingly important for marketers because it explains not only the changes happening to business models and strategies, but also changes among markets or consumers. It can be said that a study in this area provides and analysis of market and consumer patterns due to technological revolution being witnessed globally. Lee (2013, p 7) claims that marketers must know that the era of conventional marketing is long gone, as technology has given consumers many options than ever and this has created consumer democracy that global users constantly engage new media to seek and share information.
The research question revolves around the shift from conventional marketing to digital marketing based on consumer intentions and actions. In essence, the question is whether a shift from conventional marketing models and strategies to digital marketing is taking effect, as emerging technologies are at the core of decision- making processes associated with marketing effort. The aim is to demonstrate that the shift from traditional marketing to digital marketing based on consumer intentions and actions is far-reaching and businesses or marketers have had to evolve to remain relevant. It can be said that the aim is to demonstrate that while traditional concepts of marketing such a brands still have a place in digital marketing, new media transforms the entire landscape through presenting marketers with multifarious ways to reach consumers, engage them, evaluate their communication or intentions and actions. It is beyond doubt that the options are increasingly valuable for marketing overall including the fact that they are of increased relevance for consumer relationship management, which requires knowledge on individual client to develop individualized marketing activities. Objectives include the need for business to adopt digital technologies in the core business and marketing strategies. Indeed, businesses seeking to create an effective marketing strategy need to realize the manner in which new media forms can transform their core business departments leading to increased benefits, which enable them to remain relevant through withstanding the competition.
Stephen (2016, p 17) notes that consumers are increasingly exposing themselves to more social and digital media as they search for information about products, buy and consume them, as well as communicate with others with regard to their experiences. Stephen (2016) notes it is predicted that a third of global advertising spending will be in digital channels by 2017, which further underlines consumer marketing will be in digital environments. Thus, it becomes important for consumer research to be undertaken in these settings to examine consumer behavior. Such a situation underlines the shift taking place as marketing moves from traditional marketing to digital marketing based on consumer intentions and actions. More so, marketers are being forced to revolutionize their strategies and principles. Lee (2013, p 30) claims that marketing experts emphasize that digital marketing increasingly involves receiving and exchanging perceptions as well as ideas. This differs from the conventional marketing ways in which a one-dimensional approach was used. Rather, digital marketing looks to find out as well as understand consumer actions and intentions, as the two-way process of brand-audience exchange of perceptions and ideas takes hold (Baker et al, 2016 p 234). This includes understanding shaping of consumer attitude in online settings. It must be noted that the different informational as well as social elements of digital environments including being exposed to other consumers’ opinion and choices increasingly influences consumer intentions and actions (Milhinhos, 2015). This is because consumers learn from others in digital environment and the outcome is that their decision- making is likely to be influenced in one way or another. Anwar and Rehman (2013, p 643) claim that consumers are increasingly seeking out other consumers’ views, comments, and recommendations on new media platforms. In fact, today consumers use a range of digital technologies to find consumer generated marketing information rather than trust marketer generated information. It can be said that user generated information is perceived to be increasingly useful in digital marketing, and marketers ought to seek to develop their strategies and models in line with user generated information (Kumar, Zhang and Luo, 2014). This is because the shift to digital marketing increasingly requires marketers to understand factors behind consumer actions as well as intentions (Merisavo, 2006). A theory that has been used to explain consumer behavior in digital settings involves the theory of planned behavior (Truong, 2009). The theory proposes that a person’s behavioral intention relies on attitude toward executing the target behavior, which relates to the individual’s perception that most persons who are important to them think they should or should not undertake the focus behavior. It follows that consumer attitude as shaped through other consumers’ online opinions and reviews should be at the core of marketers’ attempt to develop effective digital marketing content (Shaw, 2013). This is because attitude comprises a person’s favorable or unfavorable feelings as well as evaluations about something (Mathews, 2015). Favorable attitudes influence consumer’s behavioral intentions positively, and Lodorfos et al (2006, p 80) notes that trust increasingly is about a person’s reliance on another’s views and opinion about a product (Hsu, 2012 p 169). In fact, online consumers use digital platforms to evaluate other consumer’s experience to reduce risk of their overall experience.
Advertising is usually at the center of many brand relationships and marketers need to be interesting finding out the manner in which digital technologies influences the consumption on conventional media channels such as print and television. A number of recent findings have indicated a reduction of television viewing due to the consumption of new media, and it becomes evident that effective digital marketing is the way to go (Gabisch and Gwebu, 2011). More so, the shift to digital marketing means that user-generated content increasingly forms part of the data marketers use in their decision making about strategies and model for the marketing campaign. User-generated content such as social media videos come across as modifications of brand advertisements all of which means that relationshi...