Critically evaluate the proposition that digital marketing has replaced traditional marketing in strategy development

Introduction

Nowadays, companies are facing tough competition at every level in a market and it creates a challenge to stay longer duration in a market. This is occurring with the frequent changes in consumer habits and behavior that’s making more difficult for companies to follow and adapt as per the changing trends. As a response to the changes such as a shift of consumer behavior and due to which companies start to innovate new tools, strategies and mix available channel with the aim to connect, engage to the current and potential consumers. Likewise, companies shift more from the tradition way of marketing to the modern one in the form of digital marketing (Wymbs, 2011). However, digital marketing is considered as current and popular strategies that use largely by the organization for different purposes such as creating awareness and conduct market research. On the basis of this statement, it is justified that Yes, digital marketing is replaced the tradition marketing. The evidence of such statement will be analyzed in this report.

In addition to this, the essay aims to discuss the mentioned changes by evaluating whether digital marketing has replaced traditional marketing in strategy development. In order to assess it, there are different concepts will study such as marketing strategy, digital marketing and tradition marketing etc (Edelman, 2010). At last, assessment of traditional and digital marketing will be addressed.

Importance’s of marketing strategy

Marketing strategy plays a crucial role when it comes to stay in the market for a longer duration. However, without setting marketing objective, companies such a large or small can’t take a further step. The reason behind of its importance is making the best use of available resources and tactics to achieve the company objectives. Moreover, in the setting of marketing strategy, the organisation aims to establish the competitive environment over its competitor through creating enough awareness about the product and service. For instance, the magazine sector is considered to be the best example of how companies tend to swift its marketing strategy from tradition to digital. “Vogue” is first fashion magazine which creates its account on Facebook past on 2008 (Hays et al., 2013). Currently, editor of Vogue shares the continual line up of fresh, useful and interruptive content. Similarly, on the platform of Instagram, Vogue partnered with LIKEtoNOW. It’s a website/app that belongs to the platform RewardStyle for showcase its content through allows the user to buy items in their Instagram account. Thus, with this example, it is clear that the craze of digital platform is the current demand in marketing strategy. However, the marketing strategy not only supports in terms to cover wider market but it also helps to save money (Slater et al., 2010). It is identified that print and broadcast media demands for large cost and expense but with the digital platform, company tends to invest less as compare to the traditional one. This is quite reliable for the company in regards to achieve a long-term goal.

Description of concepts i.e. Digital marketing and traditional marketing

There are two types of marketing strategy that is commonly used by the marketer when it comes to target the potential consumers. These are the traditional and digital marketing. Traditional marketing is considered as a broader term that covers a wide array of advertising channels. It may include print media (Newspaper, Magazine) and broadcast media (TV advertising, flyer, billboards and poster). However, the traditional marketing pulls the potential customers towards the product or service at any cost and the faith, trust of the consumer is more on print media and broadcast media. According to Armstrong et al. (2015), Tradition marketing is the strategy which is useful if a company has right segmentation, differentiate the product and achieves appropriate 4Ps, and then it proves to be beneficial for the company. But with the changes or shift in consumer behavior, the traditional marketing is failing in connecting with consumers. The other aspect where traditional marketing lacks is the engagement and association with the consumers. This is because traditional marketing tend to be one way of communication which does not address individual viewpoint. That’s creating difficulties to address the frequent changes. In oppose to this study, Pronschinske et al. (2012), depicted that traditional marketing still has its demand as there are many areas which can’t be tapped by the companies with the digital platform. Likewise, rural area of a global market still has less awareness about the concepts like the internet, digital platform. This does not allow especially retail and FMCG companies to reach towards the target market. So, it can’t deny that fact traditional marketing is completely demolishing.

On the flip side, Papasolomou and Melanthiou (2012) signified that Digital marketing has a major importance in the marketing strategy for the company regardless of sector, size or country of origin and it is a two-way communication. The sharing and exchange of view point are the USP of this concept. However, digital marketing becomes so powerful network of advertising which starts with “double click” strategy on Google. With the help of digital marketing, companies can tap the uncovered area such as a rural and backward group. This is done through creating awareness with the use of mobile vans. These vehicles have experts which make people learn regards to how to use the internet and shop online. The feature of digital technology also allows the company to collect the information about how many times and how long campaign has been showed on the internet and how many purchases have been made through online mode.

Besides that, digital marketing gain popularity after the globalization. This is because, home business get the opportunity to explore the different market. This becomes more convenient with the digital platform as it is the common stage where business can tap global market. Furthermore, the digital marketing also helps the company to record the response of the customer and incorporate it before launches the product or services. But at the same time, there is an area where digital marketing strategy needs to address. It is an area of lack of trust and faith by the side of people towards the online shopping (Kumar et al., 2017). However, people still find a problem in terms to buy the product due to lack of touch and see. This problem mainly occurs with the older people as they follow more tradition way when they buy clothes and any other product. So, in that case to convince the people, it becomes a difficult task but the younger generation find it reliable as it saves their maximum time. On the basis of the study, it is analyzed that both the marketing strategy contributes efficiency in its own manner.

Critically evaluate the replacement of digital marketing with the traditional marketing

The current market scenario indicates the increasing trends of the digital marketing strategy in the global market regardless in terms of size, structure and nature of a company. The concept of the internet changes the marketing strategy from the traditional one to a digital platform. Currently, there are numerous websites, applications and social sites are running through which companies promote or take attention of consumer towards its brand. The growth of internet shifts the magazine, newspaper and television marketing towards the social sites and website marketing. As per the research of internet world stats (2013), it is identified that internet is used by the approx 2.4 billion people around the world and it is growing every year. In the case of USA, there is an approx. 273.8 million users and in Europe 518.5 million (Ryan, 2016). The internet is also not only stuck with the computers but also by phones, tablets, games consoles and portable device. It is the main reason which pushes the companies to use the digital platform.

This study indicates that Asian countries involve more on the internet platform.

Additionally, there are various digital tools that company largely use. These are the organic social media, email marketing, programmatic advertising, video hosting, website testing, search engine optimization. Likewise, Facebook and Instagram is most used social networking site that follows a large number of companies. The marketer uses the Facebook through create the company page on FB and in its page, it records the customer response and provides update information about the offering (Wymbs, 2011). Under the Instagram, company generally, share the images of product so that people get an idea. This practice influences the customer in a positive manner and allows them to take purchasing decision. At the same time, the younger generation prefers more to the digital platform for the shopping or trading purpose because this platform allows them to compare the product or price with other company offerings. So, in that case, the digital platform is the best source to compare and select the best product at right price. Moreover, it also assists the current generation where both the gender (male or female) busy in their respective job. In that case, shop online, pay bills and avail the offers etc are becoming easy for the individuals.

In the perspective of a company, digital platform provide numerous benefits in the form of expand the business easily into another market (Taken Smith, 2012). Likewise, McDonalds or subway uses the same marketing strategy for entering into global market. Both the companies conduct the particular market research through social sites and then study the people likes and responses. This way subway or McDonald’s launch its vegetarian outlet in the country India where a majority of people are considered as Vegans (Zhang et al., 2010). Other than that, the digital platform also helps the organization to record complains about the customers and accordingly allows to respond it. For instance, Tesco found maximum complains of the customer of UK in regards to delay in payment, large Queue etc. in short, poor customer service at its respective stores considers as the main issue. In concern to this complain, Tesco decides to install the IS system so that delay can be avoided. However, Self-check out system is installed at the store and this practice of company proves to be beneficial as customer satisfy and become loyal towards the brand (Smith, 2011). Thus, through this way digital platform contributes value to the company.

Here is the list of different e-commerce that is used by the companies in their marketing strategy.

Other than that, the fundamental concept of digital marketing is based on the inbound marketing approach. This is because relevant web content or designed message always proves to be useful in regards to attract the target audience. The companies use this approach with main two strategies: the first one is to communicate with the audience through channels and the second one is to pay attention to the question of people over the internet. Basically, it helps in implementing the long-term relationship between management and customer through sharing or exchanging the information. This approach allows the company to stay in the market for the longer duration. Hence, these different aspects of digital marketing strategy clearly show that it is a most valuable or appropriate strategy for the different sectors. According to Smutkupt et al. (2010), there is one more area of digital marketing which contributes worth for the company as the total expenses over the digital sites less as comparatively to a traditional approach. The below table gives an estimation about the resources and budget include in a digital platform.

In a similar manner, tradition marketing strategy also consider as an effective marketing strategy, it is a more personal oriented way to communicate the information and that’s why the trust and faith of customer still exist over this type of marketing. However, there are even various areas like rural areas which still largely rely on this strategy for achieving the awareness about the product or service (Lin and Lu, 2011). Thus, it can be stated that the scope of tradition marketing tools is not complete obsolete as marketer uses largely sales promotion, publicity and advertising and many more. But, this marketing covers only small area or field as with this it can’t tap the large global market.

The traditional marketing strategy is used by the managers mostly for targeting the mature group of customers. The mature customer’s group are attracted through traditional marketing because those groups of people spend their time on television, radio and reading the newspaper. But at the same time, Kumar et al. (2017) also opposed that using traditional marketing strategy is old because the new generation is less spending their time in watching television or newspaper as they are more addicted towards the social media and online marketing sources. Shankar et al. (2016) also supported that in today’s modern developing competitive environment, traditional marketing is less useful for attracting the target audience to a large extent because now modern digital marketing strategy is playing a significant role effectively.

While studying, it is also determined that there are some companies which are still using traditional marketing or digital marketing and some are using both digital marketing as well as traditional marketing efficiently and effectively. In the research study of Kotler et al. (2016) critical stated that there are traditional methods which are high influencing the digital marketing in a positive manner. Using these both marketing strategies by the company provides the unique benefits in terms of using paper for convenience and accessibility through digital platform will help in performing best and in a better manner. Tuten and Solomon (2017) also mentioned that traditional marketing strategy can be used but not provide companies with many benefits as it this marketing strategy somewhere not help in understanding or analyzing the consumer behavior or trend that make them satisfy or required by them.

Moreover, using the traditional marketing as strategy development for targeting and attracting customers towards the company’s products and services for which they required to use different forms of channels that are an easy way to reach a customer. On the other hand, Batra and Keller (2016) also elaborated his point of view by stating that using digital marketing strategy is not that effective as compared to traditional marketing because traditional marketing is something which is widely used by every generation of people as compared to digital marketing sources. However, it is found that mature level of customers like old generation are less aware and updated regarding the new digital services and how digital services or technology can be used.

There are different types of a traditional market such as newspaper and radio advertisement, print media advertisement, magazine advertisement and much more. Using these traditional marketing is not easy for the company because it requires a proper time, possession and place utility in an efficient manner. In earlier times, these all traditional marketing is frequently used by the companies for targeting the mature group of an audience too. Adam and Ahmed (2017) also explained that in today’s competitive environment, traditional marketing is not effective or efficient for reaching the target audience around the world. The traditional marketing approach is limited to limited extent whereas digital marketing is an effective multi-channel approach which helps in reaching to customers to a large extent (Verhoef et al., 2015).

Additionally, Kumar et al. (2018) illustrated that in traditional marketing, it is very difficult to measure the marketing strategy successfully because this somewhere creates a limited or less interaction relationship between the customers and brand name. For developing and new start-up company, using digital market is the best source to reach to a large number of customers and also assist in promoting or marketing the products or services easily and efficiently. The use of traditional marketing is much expensive in contrast to digital marketing because in digital marketing there is the only requirement of effective its technology and resources instead of high budget or enough people.

The above-stated table clearly demonstrates the expenses which are required to be made on different resources which are required for marketing or promotional of company’s product and services. In context to it, it is also determined easily that adopting a digital marketing strategy is much cheaper and affordable rather than using a traditional marketing because it is very much expensive (Dinner et al., 2014). In addition, using digital marketing somewhere provides more chances for the companies to reach or target the customers across the world efficiently and effectively. Therefore, it can also be stated simply that digital marketing is a best suitable way in today’s modern marketing strategy where customers are targeted easily mainly new generation.

Conclusion

From the above, it can be concluded easily that digital marketing effectively replaced the traditional marketing with respect to strategy development. With the increasing rate of technological development, digital services are widely used by the people for doing online shopping easily and doing online transaction quickly and easily. This study assisted in identifying that for every company, marketing strategy is very important to sustain and develop or grow the business efficiently across the world by targeting the customers with respective products or services. The above study helped in understanding the concept of using the digital marketing as a strategy for targeting the mature as well as new generation efficiently. This critical study helped in understanding and evaluating the difference between using the digital marketing instead of traditional marketing. In addition, this also supported in identifying the main reason behind the replacement of traditional marketing into digital marketing. Moreover, there is a benefit of using digital marketing for the companies because of this help in developing relations with the customer in a different geographical region with the help of digital interactive media services. Thus, it can be summarized easily that digital marketing is best and effective marketing strategy which companies use to target the targeted audience in a proper and efficient manner.

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