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Digital Marketing: Opportunities and Threats
Rima Dinesh Puri
Abstract
Internet has become part of our daily lives. It plays role in various fields, may be to make friend or let friendship last, watching movies, ordering groceries, buying online, ordering clothes, gadgets, applying for universities, jobs, doing banking, study and much more. Individuals are going online for their basic requirements and so are the businesses. Businesses have realized the benefits of online marketing or Digital marketing. This research paper examines the benefits and the cost to the businesses and consumers for going online. Digital marketing is very effective at one end by allowing global reach, reduced cost etc. There is tremendous growth in the number of digital consumers and it is excellent opportunity to benefit from through digital marketing. The marketers need to move from traditional marketing to digital marketing. This required strategic planning and implementation.
Keywords: Digital Marketing, Traditional Marketing, Strategic Planning and Implementation.
Introduction
There is tremendous growth and developments due to improvements in technology. The innovations in technology has led to innovations in different fields. These improvements have significant impact on the methods of marketing. The online retail growth in India is expected to be at par with the organized retail trade. It is forecasted that India will become the world’s fastest e commerce market. The market is expected to expand to US$ 100 billion by 2020 from US$ 3.5 billion in 2014. This is an excellent opportunity for the marketers to grow and expand. The consumers are also going online. They are moving towards digital content services faster than expected. Marketing is no more just a communication to costumers, it’s having conversation with the customers. Changes in technology such as social media, online video, mobile networks, etc have enabled to companies to explore and expand further.
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Review of Related Literature
Elaine Sherman (1996) studies impact of technology through online retailing on consumers and
retailers. The opportunities and threats were discussed in detail including ease of use, opportunity to have conversation, time saving, 24/7 etc.
Ranganath et al. (2011) studies the benefits of technology for the retailers. It helps the managers
to access important information and adapt to the changing needs. Technology has helped to transform the retail environment and helped them to expand beyond their boundaries. Managers of the retail company to access important information almost up to the minute and consequently to take timely and quick decisions. There is increase in the distribution channels due to E- retailing.
Steve Burt and Leigh Sparks (2003) studies the effect of e commerce on retail process. The study
focused on the processes as support to B2C trade rather than impact on sales.
Objectives of the study
To study basics of digital marketing.
To study the opportunities due to digital marketing.
To study the threats due to digital or online marketing.
Digital marketing is the term used for marketing activities of goods and services using digital
technologies to inform potential consumers and turn the prospects into leads. Internet is used as the main promotional medium, along with traditional methods of advertising including TV, radio etc. The marketing covers different methods such as company’s website, online sales, email to customers, and purchase by mobile phones etc.
Digital marketing is evolving to greater extent amongst most of the industries. Online trade is apparent in many areas including clothes, books, medicines, groceries, apparels, property, industrial products to name a few. The marketers are utilizing digital mediums to reach masses
Rex Journal Volume 3 Issue 4 Page | 22 through the use of digital tools and social media platforms. Increased numbers of consumer’s spread across the globe can be targeted at a very competitive cost. Digital marketing involves channels such as email directly sent to the customers, display advertisements, e books, mobile phones, call back to customers and on hold mobile option.
In simple words Digital marketing is the use of digital channels to market goods and services to businesses and consumers. Digital marketing is often referred as online marketing, web marketing and internet marketing.
Key features and strategies of Digital Marketing:
1) Segmentation and Consumer Focus: The marketers focus on needs of specific consumer group and targets each group separately within a market. The specific target market are provided with differentiated product offering.
2) Influencer Marketing: Influencers are the important nodes within related communities. These influencers are very crucial in digital marketing. Paid advertising such as Facebook Advertising, Google Campaigns, and Customer Relationship Management can be used to create an impact.
3. Online Behavioural Advertising: Refers to the methods of collecting data about a consumer’s online activity over time. The information is collected on a particular device and across several websites, in order to deliver advertisements targeted to consumer’s interests and choices.
Opportunities due to Digital Marketing
Reduced Cost – Online advertisements is much cheaper than traditional marketing cost.
Brand Coverage and Development- Online marketing helps to spread the brand across the globe, ignoring the national boundaries and making the product accessible to the scattered customers via internet.
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Benefits of Viral Coverage: Using social media by pressing share buttons on your website the message is shared quickly and to larger audience. The likes on one advertisements makes the brand popular with no additional cost and gets popularity to the brand.
Greater engagement: The digital marketing encourages prospects to take action. It helps directing the purchases, provides them with choices, enable consumers to choose among different modes of payment and finally gets the product delivered across to consumers place with no additional cost.
Convenience to customers: Online marketing is accessible 24X7 and 365 days. The customers can buy from comfort of their homes from variety of offerings to choose from. The transaction can be completed quickly as well.
Digital Marketing enables the product to reach much more easily. The customers can research in detail about the information and specifications on a product. They can also make use of internet during the pre-purchase decisions.
Increased distribution through increase in customer base and further increase in revenue for the businesses.
Can respond to competitors’ actions more quickly and with less cost.
Threats due to Digital Marketing:
Cost can be high for businesses including the setup cost, running and maintenance cost.
Finance charges are imposed by the credit card companies, which in turn affect the total price for the consumers.
Fraudulent trade practices, hackers and spam issues, which prevent consumers from using online shopping.
May not be suitable for certain products and customers to encourage purchases. Marketers selling high price product may not benefit much from E- Commerce.
Problems of overload information on internet, might discourage consumers to make a purchase.
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Conclusion
Digital marketing has impacted the businesses and consumers in many ways. The effects are positive as well as negative. The use of e commerce has enabled the marketers to demonstrate range of products and using interactive websites. This has reduced the marketing cost, storage and the packaging cost. There is also increased price transparency, adjustments and e –Trailers due to digital marketing. The place component has also been adjusted due to increased market coverage. The element of promotion is also affected due to digital marketing in terms of detailed information, interactive sessions, FAQs etc. However there are challenges due to digitalization. There lies an immense opportunity due to technology, along with the challenges. The success lies to what extent the challenges are overcome along with traditional methods of marketing.
References
1. http://www.businesszone.co.uk/community-voice/blogs/robbo75/10-benefits-of-digital-marketing-v-traditional-marketing accessed on 28/9/2015
2. Elaine Sherman and Martin T. Topol (1996), Anticipating the impact of new technologies on retailing, Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Vol.3, Issue-2, pp.107-111.
3. Ranganath, N. Santosh; Kama, Raju T. and Rao, P. Trinadha (2011), “Emerging Role of Technology in Retail Sector”, International Journal of Research in Computer Application & Management, Vol. 1, Iss. 5, pp. 71-75.
4. Steve Burt and Leigh Sparks (2003), E-commerce and the retail process: a review, Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Vol.10, Issue-5, pp.275-286.