CHANGING FACE OF MARKETING- DIGITAL PERSPECTIVE..

The web attacks traditional ways of doing things and elites, and this is very uncomfortable for traditional businesses to deal with. – Sir Martin Sorrell, ceo, WPP Group

There was a time, when we used to send 100% of our communication through courier/fax/telex/ letters and phone calls. We used to spend our free time watching television or visiting a shopping complex to shop for our wares or for entertainment.

There has been an irreversible trend across all aspects of our life leading us to do most of the above activities in the four confines of our rooms whether at house or at a work place or in any other 3^rd party location.

People now communicate mostly through emails, relax by playing games on their computers, shop and bank over the net and watch movies and TV programs over the net as well. With the rapid growth of the Social media, now even we tend to make friends and maintain our relationships over the net as well!

More than 50% of the free time of a typical consumer today is spend browsing over the net for information, shopping, entertainment, socializing or any other form of communication and networking.  This has been  a rapid one way trend up and expected to grow further


As Mr Rupert Murdoch suggested in 2006, “To find something comparable, you have to go back 500 years to the printing press, the birth of mass media … Technology is shifting power away from the editors, the publishers, the establishment, the media elite. Now it’s the people who are taking control.”

The explosion of the internet over the years has brought within the reach of every consumer, unforeseen power to access & process information, network effectively across the world and leave their footprints in a variety of forums, groups and their own platforms like websites, emails, blogs etc. There has been a dramatic change in proportion of time spent by the people on the web w.r.t. that on the television.
Some statistics courtesy EntwinedDigital:

• More uploads to YouTube in 60 days than all 3 major US networks created in 60 years
• 110 million tweets are sent per day on Twitter or 4+million  per hour (Twitter)
• Facebook generates 770 Billion page views, 700+ Billion minutes, every month
• StumbleUpon (43%) has overtaken Facebook (38%) as #1 source for US social media traffic
• In 2010, Asia Pacific had more than 825 million internet users, 42% of the global total.

In 2011 Google suggested that digital media has transformed our buying decisions. Marketing has a Changing Rulebook based on Zero Moment of Truth or ZMOT, “the moment when you grab your laptop, mobile phone or some other wired device and start learning about a product or service.” Google provides  core digital training in ZMOT for all members of their sales team internationally.

These statistics tell the story of how our buying behaviors have changed:

• 65% of Asian Pacific consumers use online services to locate nearby products and brands
• 70% of Americans say they look at online product reviews before making a purchase
• 79% of consumers say they use a smart­phone to help with shopping
• 83% of moms say they do online research after seeing TV commercials for products that interest them

When people surf the web, they are in complete control of their actions and experience. They have an option to interact with the advertisements and promotions that are targeted at them.

This power in the hands of today’s consumers has brought in a sea change in the way the marketers need to look at their approach and is a result of the digital revolution brought by the explosion of internet through a devices ranging from standard computers to highly personalized  and extremely capable mobile devices.

Old-school marketers are used to one-way marketing communication and a sales approach that talks at the customer rather than with the customer. That just doesn’t work anymore. Newt Barrett, contentmarketingtoday.com

Marketing always starts with the consumer in mind.  Top Marketers are successful in influencing the need perception of the consumers, understanding their needs and wants, creating products and services to meet their needs, communicating effectively with their targeted consumers and in putting in place a mechanism to fulfil their needs and manage their lifetime relationship with the brand. Most of these principals are universal and evergreen. While these do not change constantly, what is changing today is the ability on behalf of the consumers to explore constantly, compare efficiently, comment and convince other co- customers for a given product or a service.

The people who are surfing on the web are mostly doing to so at their own volition and are out there to spend their time purely at their wish. The intrusive advertisements that they are subjected to in their real life can be avoided on the net and they can be drawn to see, interact and participate in only those advertisements, promotions and activities that they choose.

The near total belief in the minds of consumers today that any information they is need is available and easily accessible on the new has led to the growth of the internet based advertisement industry on a rapid basis.

The tipping point is that magic moment when an idea, trend, or social behavior crosses a threshold, tips, and spreads like wildfire.  — Malcolm Gladwell - from The Tipping Point

This brings us to the issue that the traditional approach of mass advertising can be ineffective and needs to take into account the changes in the consumer lifestyle and need for self expression.

The rapid advancement of technology in the recent past has brought to the quiver of the marketers, a tremendous computing, storage and processing power. This coupled with innovative products and solutions developed by thought leaders like Sergey Brin, Larry Page, Jerry Yang, David Filo, Mark Zuckerberg,Eduardo Saverin, Dustin Moskovitz, Chris Hughes, Jack Dorsey, Steve Jobs  in the recent past have put in the hands of people, unforeseen capabilities to create applications, choose the ways they want to participate, limited only by their own mind and extended competencies.

We have technology, finally, that for the first time in human history allows people to really maintain rich connections with much larger numbers of people. –  Pierre Omidyar, founder, eBay.

On the other hand, marketers are able to precisely target individual consumers as they get on to the net for their needs and their entertainment.

This has led to the marketers to abandon their one sided communication approach and start involving with their target consumers, existing  consumers and society in general for the prosperity of their businesses.

We will no longer view you as "consumers". Instead, you are co-creators, participants, and advocates. – David Armano - Logic + Emotion and Edelman Digital                                       

There has been rapid growth of online organizations and businesses and most of the new businesses are increasingly diverting their marketing spends on-line.

Google, one of the greatest companies ever, has taken full advantages of this changing face of marketing.
Google strongly feels that the Marketing strategies of companies has to keep in pace with this change in dynamics in the nature of shopping behaviour of the 21st century consumers.

Google, Facebook, Youtube, Twitter, Myspace, Yahoo, Linkedin, Amazon are a few of the new generation of businesses that get 100% of their revenue from the net based activities and their share in the global revenue generation is surging north rapidly year after year.

With increased spend happening on the net, there is now a requirement of analyzing the spends and calculating the ROI of the investments that are happening in this area. With precise targeting of potential customers and personalized communication to each individual possible in an extremely cost effective manner, the marketing arms of organizations are increasingly getting confident in spreading their wings on the net and are diverting their spends in large proportions.

While the entire marketing approach is undergoing a sea change with individual consumers now driving the character of marketing activities, there has been a corresponding and significant change in the competencies and profile expectation from the employees of the advertising and marketing industry.

The new types of employees that are going to fill the marketing, communications and sales departments of the most successful companies are going to have job titles like community manager, editor in chief, blogger, podcaster, videographer and social media director. – Mitch Joel - Twist Image