Assignment 2

Module: Digital Marketing 5N1364

Assessment Title: Clear identification of digital marketing strategies, with full discussion of the differences from traditional marketing practice and good explanation of their integration.

14th February 2016

 

The differences between digital marketing and traditional marketing are obvious: one focuses on the web and the other focuses on media like print, television, radio, and direct mail.

Both share similar goals. Digital marketing and traditional marketing are used to attract qualified customers and build brand awareness in your market, and they work together to power successful marketing results.

Defining Traditional Marketing:

There are many facets of traditional marketing and examples might include tangible items such as business cards, print ads in newspapers or magazines. It can also include posters, commercials on TV and radio, billboards and brochures. Traditional marketing is anything except digital means to brand your product or logo. 

Defining Digital Marketing:

The marketing of products or services using digital channels to reach consumers. The key objective is to promote brands through various forms of digital media. Digital marketing extends beyond internet marketing to include channels that do not require the use of the internet.Examples of digital marketing include things like websites, social media mentions, YouTube videos, and banner ads. Specifically, digital marketing is similar to traditional advertising, but using digital devices. Businesses put content (or ads) out for individuals to find. People may conduct an organic online search, a paid search, find your business on a social network or by reading content that has been published online such as a blog or an article.

The more they see you or your content, the more familiar they will become with your brand and they will eventually develop a trust and a rapport with you through this online presence.

Traditional Marketing’s Advantages and Disadvantages:

Traditional marketing is around a long time and people are accustomed to it. Finding ads in magazines and newspapers, or reading billboards are still familiar activities and people still do them all the time. 

Usually, traditional marketing is only reaching a local audience even though it is not limited to one. One of the main disadvantages of traditional marketing is that the results are not easily measured, and in many cases cannot be measured at all. In most cases, traditional marketing is also more costly than digital marketing.  Perhaps the biggest disadvantage today is that traditional marketing is static which means there is no way to interact with the audience. It’s more like you are throwing information in front of people and hoping that they decide to take action.

Digital Marketing’s Advantages and Disadvantages:
 

One benefit to using digital marketing is that the results are much easier to measure; and another is that a digital campaign can reach an infinite audience. It is also possible to tailor a digital campaign to reach a local audience but it can also be used on the web and reach the entire globe when appropriate. Digital marketing is also a very interactive means of reaching an audience since it makes use of social outlets. There can be plenty of direct contact between the audience and the business which means that the business can get some very valuable consumer feedback. One of the disadvantages to using digital media marketing strategies is that it can take some time to realize measurable success.

Is there a realistic balance between the two?

 The world has transitioned into a very digital environment. Not only are magazines going digital, we perform many of our daily tasks such as banking online and much of our reading is done on e-readers. Because of the rise of the digital age, it just seems like common sense to invest in a digital campaign. Even though traditional marketing still has a place, it is diminishing in our digitally based world. For today’s businesses, it is imperative to have a website and use the web as a means to interact with their consumer base. There are some successful traditional marketing strategies, particularly if you are reaching a largely local audience, but it is important to take advantage of digital marketing so as to keep up in today’s world.

 The Marketing Mix:

Simply put the Marketing Mix is a tool used by businesses and Marketers to help determine a product or brands offering. The 4 P’s have been associated with the Marketing Mix since their creation by E Jerome McCarthy in 1960

Product:

The Product should fit the task consumers want it for, it should work and it should be what the consumers are expecting to get.

Place:

The product should be available from where your target consumer finds it easiest to shop. This may be High Street, Mail Order or the more current option via e-commerce or an online shop.

Price:

The Product should always be seen as representing good value for money. This does not necessarily mean it should be the cheapest available; one of the main tenets of the marketing concept is that customers are usually happy to pay a little more for something that works really well for them.

Promotion: 

Advertising, PR, Sales Promotion, Personal Selling and, in more recent times, Social Media are all key communication tools for an organisation. These tools should be used to put across the organisation’s message to the correct audiences in the manner they would most like to hear, whether it be informative or appealing to their emotions.

In the late 70’s it was widely acknowledged by Marketers that the Marketing Mix should be updated. This led to the creation of the Extended Marketing Mix in 1981 by Booms & Bitner which added 3 new elements to the 4 P’s Principle. This now allowed the extended Marketing Mix to include products that are services and not just physical things.

The extended 7 P’s

People:

All companies are reliant on the people who run them from front line Sales staff to the Managing Director. Having the right people is essential because they are as much a part of your business offering as the products/services you are offering.

Processes:

                            

The delivery of your service is usually done with the customer present so how the service is delivered is once again part of what the consumer is paying for.

Physical Evidence:

Almost all services include some physical elements even if the bulk of what the consumer is paying for is intangible. For example a hair salon would provide their client with a completed hairdo and an insurance company would give their customers some form of printed material. Even if the material is not physically printed (in the case of PDF’s) they are still receiving a “physical product” by this definition.
 Though in place since the 1980’s the 7 P’s are still widely taught due to their fundamental logic being sound in the marketing environment and marketers abilities to adapt the Marketing Mix to include changes in communications such as social media, updates in the places which you can sell a product/service or customers expectations in a constantly changing commercial environment.