The Role Of Digital Technologies In Contemporary Marketing Essay Sample

The Role of Digital Technologies in Contemporary Marketing

Since the technological developments of the late 20th and 21st century, marketing has changed and continues to evolve, adjusting to new communication means. Technological breakthroughs such as computers, tablets, smartphones, game consoles or websites, platforms, social media, forums, blogs, etc. advanced marketing into the digital world, with the purpose of engaging the consumers or targeted consumers (Price and Ferrell, 2014).
Anand (2010) summarizes that the role of digital technology in marketing activities is to attain four major objectives: increase sales, increase awareness, increase efficiency, while decreasing costs. In addition to these outcomes, digital technology’s role in marketing is also to shape behaviors, which can be later optimized in desired actions.
Companies optimize their marketing strategies by exploiting the permanently evolving features of the digital technologies for addressing more prospect consumers, with the potential of attaining a global reach, hence increasing the size of their audience and implicitly their customers (Anand, 2010). Taking the lingerie company Victoria’s Secret as an example, its business mostly serves United States and other areas, such as Canada, United Kingdom, Mexico, China and Israel (Victoria’s Secret official website, n.d.). However, because of the incorporation of the digital technologies into its marketing activities (the existence of a website, social media presence, e-commerce activities), the company’s products can be purchased everywhere in the world. Victoria’s Secret is only one example that the digital technology increases the sells, because the marketing communications can be transmitted to a wider audience than through solely employing the classical marketing approaches.
The online communication channels, such as Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn, Twitter, Pinterest, etc. are products of the digital marketing, which allow companies to attract audiences when people click like on their social media pages. Later on, the ongoing content created on their dedicated social media pages, is only directed at generating stakeholder engagement. By liking, commenting or sharing an article posted on a company’s Facebook page, for instance, the individual following that company is engaged in the communication with the commercial agent. The digital behavior of individuals is speculated through marketing strategies, with the purpose of transforming social media or digital technology users into buyers. Organizations can further exploit the social media behavior of liking, commenting, twitting, sharing, etc., by encouraging their audiences to do the work for them, promoting their services through online word of mouth, generating brand engagement through the use of the digital technology.
Together with this envisioned end, through the optimization of the features of the digital technologies, marketers also enhance their brands’ visibility, also by speculating the users’ behaviors of sharing, commenting or liking, which naturally generate word of mouth. Increasing awareness is, therefore, another role of the digital technology in contemporary marketing, but for generating increased awareness through the digital means the organizations need to adjust their messages to their audience and to the online environment, while generating interesting and engaging content (Anand, 2010). A memorable example in this sense is the “Unsung Hero” global commercial for Thai Life Insurance, an emotional add that tells the story of a young man who helps everybody with money, food, effort, all for free (Unsung Hero, 2014). Since its launching, the commercial attracted waves of shares, reaching immense masses of audiences, who, affected by the commercial’s story, have become aware of the Thai Life Insurance’s services.
The digital technology’s role in contemporary marketing is also to generate increased efficiency, as the technological development allows the facilitation of the information sharing around the globe (Anand, 2010). Organizations can engage in business meetings across oceans due to the technological advancements, allowing more time for planning and implementing the marketing strategies.
Moreover, the role of the digital technology in nowadays marketing to decrease costs. Audiences become informed faster (more effectively) and the information reaches a much wider spread, for less money (Anand, 2010; Pride and Ferrell, 2014), because the costs for online marketing is lower than for the classical marketing, which includes TV and radio broadcast.
Unlike the traditional marketing, wherein the communication is directed in a single direction, from the commercial actor towards the targeted consumers, the nowadays digital technology, which has become a component of the contemporary marketing strategy, allows for two-way communication between company and audience. The role of the digital technologies in marketing is to attract the audience, to engage it by approaching it through direct, two-sided communication, as audiences can offer feedback through social media websites, blogs or other platforms (Kline and Dyer – Witheford, 2005). The faster organizations adjust to the speed of development in digital technology, the better the chances of reaching consumers in more innovative ways (Pride and Ferrell, 2014).
Marketing is rapidly changing nowadays and the shifts in the way companies interact with their audiences are guided by the digital technologies. The roles of digital technologies in the contemporary marketing is to increase sells, awareness, efficiency and decrease costs, while technological innovations also contribute on long – term outcomes, such as shaping consumers’ behaviors through digitization strategies.

References

Anand, R. 2010. Recruiting with social media: Social media’s impact on recruitment and HR. Boston: Pearson Education, Inc.
Kline, S. and Dyer – Witheford, N. 2005. Digital play: The interaction of technology, culture, and marketing. Quebec: McGill-Queen’s University Press.
Pride, Willian and Ferrel, O.C. 2014. Marketing 2014. Mason: South-Western Cengage Learning.
Unsuing Hero (Official HD): TVC Thai Life Insurance 2014. 2014. [online] Available at < https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uaWA2GbcnJU>. [Accessed 4 March 2015].
Victoria’s Secret official website. N.d. [online] Available at < https://www.victoriassecret.com/swimwear/bikinis>. [Accessed 4 March 2015].