Judul PI:
PEMBUATAN APLIKASI SIMULASI MODEL RUMAH BERBASIS AUGMENTED REALITY
Digital Marketing
Jerry Wind, Vijay Mahajan
Abstract
The digital revolution has shaken marketing to its core
with consumers being offered greater price transparency and often even the
chance to dictate the price.
What does pricing mean in a world in which customers
propose their own prices (as at priceline.com) or buyers and sellers haggle
independently in auctions (as at e-Bay)?
The most significant changes in the digital marketing show the emergence
of 'cyber consumers', the cyber business-to-business world and the changing
reality of an increasingly complex, dynamic and global markets.
Keywords:
Digital Revolution; Digital Marketing; Global Markets; Price; Global
Competition
1.
Introduction
The digital
revolution has shaken marketing to its core. What does pricing mean in a world
in which customers propose their own prices (as at priceline.com) or buyers and
sellers haggle independently in auctions (as at e-Bay and many
business-to-business auction sites)? Are brands more powerful or less powerful
as we move closer to perfect information? What does marketing research mean
when companies can track every click of the decision making process? How can
they shift from broadcast communications to interactive communication that
provides information while educating, entertaining and ultimately persuading
the consumer?
As Mohanbir
Sawhney pointed out our metaphors for marketing may need to shift. We talk now
about marketing as if it were a hunt - 'targeting customers'. We may need to
shift to more of a gardening metaphor - 'nurturing ecosystems'. This
interactive gardening metaphor is consistent with the digital revolution as
articulated by Nicolas Negroponte in his book Being Digital. According to
Negroponte, the difference between a television screen and a computer screen
becomes one of mere size. And formerly 'mass' media evolves into a personalised
two-way street of communication. Information is no longer 'pushed' at
consumers.
Instead, people or their digital agents pull and help create the specific
information they need.
These
developments are not unique to the US dot com culture. European consumers, not
unlike the consumers in any other culture are empowered by the Internet which
creates, despite the attempts of some governments, a truly borderless economy.
No business, regardless of its geographical location, is thus immune from the
impact of the web revolution and the need to re-examine its fundamental
concepts, business models and mode of operations.
2.
The New Realities of Marketing in the Global Digital World
Among the
most significant changes in the business landscape are the emergence of 'cyber
consumers' and the cyber business-to-business world, the changing reality of an
increasingly complex, dynamic and chaotic world, and the waves of
entrepreneurship and innovation and their associated new business models.
2.1
The Emerging Cyber Consumer
Technology
changes people. Digital technology is changing the way consumers relate to
products and markets. It is not just our computers that are being reprogrammed;
it is customers themselves. The cyber consumer, as portrayed in Exhibit one,
clearly illustrates the need for new marketing approaches to meet their
changing needs.
These cyber
consumers expect to be able to customise everything - from the products and
services they buy, the information they seek, to the price they are willing to
pay. They want to be able to engage the producer in the kind of tussle that
used to characterise the street bazaar.
Consumers
can now sort products based on any desired attribute, price, nutritional value,
functionality, etc, or combination of attributes such as price value. They can
easily obtain third party endorsements and evaluations including tapping the
experience of other users. Empowered by digital technology, customers are
unforgiving. Pity the poor company that fails to see this or refuses to play by
their rules.
Cyber
consumers, though, are not homogeneous. They vary greatly with respect to the
degree to which they rely on the Internet. The reliance on the Internet varies
by domain (financial services vs food shopping vs automobiles, etc.) and the
characteristic of the consumers, especially their 'natural comfort' with the
Internet.
2.2
The Cyber Business-to-Business World
Whereas
most media attention has been on consumers' usage of the Internet and on the
new e-commerce start-ups that are aimed at the consumer market, most of the
Internet based activities and revenues have been generated in the
business-tobusiness world. Indeed, Forester Research Inc estimates current
business-tobusiness e-commerce to be five times that of consumer e-commerce and
to grow to 10 times by 2003.
The
organisational buyer is not only a cyber consumer in his or her personal life,
but is supported by a rich and growing Internet and intranet based
infrastructure that facilitates improved efficiency, effectiveness and
innovative new ways of performing traditional corporate roles.
The
emergence of increasing numbers of 'virtual marketplaces' - bulletin boards and
especially auction-oriented sites (such as Fastparts.com for electronics,
PlasticsNet.com for plastics, Metals.com for steel and numerous other sites for
almost all industrial products and services) that are bringing together buyers
and sellers - are changing the nature of the business-to-business
activities.
Companies
such as BizBots are developing a real time 24 by seven (24 hours a day, seven
days a week) automated market of markets that uses 'agents' (or Bots S/W) that
link multiple sites in any given business sector (such as chemicals and
financial services). These provide full transparency for buyers and sellers on
all the information they require to make 'optimal' product/service decisions.
2.3
A Complex, Dynamic and Chaotic World
The
half-life of change is being compressed. By 2003 Internet users are expected to
grow from 130 million today to at least 350 million worldwide users, split
between North America - 35%, Europe - 30%, Asia Pacific - 21%, South America -
9% and the rest of the world about 5%. This phenomenal growth is expected,
according to some forecasts, to reach 500 million by 2003 and over 1 billion by
2008. To appreciate the magnitude of this growth, telephone users reached the 1
billion mark only in 1999. The associated e-commerce revenues are expected to
grow from close to $100 billion in 1999 to over $1200 billion in 2003. This
expected growth is fuelled by the expected developments of information
appliance - access to the Internet via TV, freeing it from the traditional
computer keyboard based access. Other modes of access including cellular
phones, pagers and other devices that can be used in homes, cars and virtually
anywhere are expected to increase the ease of access and pervasiveness of the
Internet.
New
business models are emerging as rapidly as IPOs by 'dot com' companies. The
models encompass B to B, B to C, C to B and C to C and are typically based on
rapidly building market share and leveraging knowledge. This is in sharp
contrast to old models that have focused on profits and returns and leveraging
physical assets. The new business models are designed to embrace an
unpredictable future by redefining the firm's relationship with its customers
and suppliers and by creating new revenue streams.
A unique
aspect of the new business models is the ability to patent them as business
methods patents. Priceline.com for example is based on a number of patents.
These patents are part of the assets of Walker Digital which in mid 1999
included 12 business methods patents and 240 pending ones. These business
process patents are an extension of the traditional process patents and are
based on new ways of doing business - such as the business model of
priceline.com.
Given the
eventual need of all companies to provide economic value to their customers,
shareholders, and other stakeholders, some of the key management challenges
facing companies today are fundamentally marketing challenges. It starts with a
need to determine the right metrics for value creation and the valuation of
e-business and proceeds with a need to rethink and reinvent the vision,
objectives, strategies and organisational architecture based on a reinvented
marketing paradigm.
3.
The New Rules of Marketing in a Digital Age
These new
realities of the business environment have led a number of authors to develop
new rules for the new economy. While some of these 'rules' encompass some
marketing perspectives companies need to focus more explicitly on a new set of
'principles' for marketing in a digital age. Although these 'rules', as
summarised in Exhibit two (TOLTA), are still emerging, they are beginning to
shape the new discipline of marketing.
In
reviewing these rules it is important to note that while the advances in technology
make these rules viable strategies, the success of such strategies ultimately
depends on consumer acceptability. Will everyone want, for example, a
one-on-one relationship with a company? How are consumers going to deal with
the clutter resulting from every company's desire to develop a one-to-one
relationship with them?
3.1
Target Segments of One and Create Virtual Communities
Companies
need to move from mass markets to segments of one. As the name 'segment of one'
suggests, companies initially saw these individuals as micro segments. They
used database marketing to tailor messages and products to these tiny segments,
just as they did with broader customer segments. The concept is now evolving to
the point where companies are using a more interactive process and advanced
data mining and related techniques to target, attract and retain individual
customers as 'partners' in the process. Collaborative filtering techniques, for
example, as applied by Firefly Network, allow personalized recommendations to
each consumer by comparing their preferences with those of others with similar
profiles.
Managers
need to determine how to design this process of interaction rather than
focusing only on designing specific products and communications. They need to develop
effective strategies for giving customers options without overwhelming them.
Companies need to suggest possible products without painting customers into a
box.
This
one-to-one strategy is based on (a) IT systems, such as the one offered by
Broad Vision, that deliver personalised information directly to the customer
thus allowing Internet based one-to-one marketing and (b) on the recognition
that strong customer relationships and management are the key to success. One
of the more advanced financial service companies, for example, is creating a
large interactive database and decision support system (DSS) that includes, in
addition to a real time depository of all the customers activities with the
company, the capability to allow continuous dialogue with each customer.
Customers who apply for a loan may get a note about the status of the loan
application when they use an ATM, look at their statement, or have any other
point of contact with the company. The data base, which is augmented with
external data including Internet usage, offers the potential for targeting
individual customers and developing and offering each customer the products and
services that will maximise his or her lifetime value to the firm.
A unique
aspect of digital marketing is the ability to create virtual communities for
consumers who share a common interest. Amazon.com, for example has been most
effective in creating chat rooms on various topics. Virtual Vineyards created a
community of consumers interested in finding out about and buying wines.
Virtual communities center on personal and/or professional relationships and/or
transactions and goes beyond the special topics offered by specialised
publications to create interactive communities.
Designing
and managing a virtual community strategy to complement the 'one on one'
segmentation strategy is a must. Such a strategy can and should encompass not
only consumers but also suppliers and other stakeholders. Communicating with
investors and security analysts, for example, can be greatly facilitated by
creating vehicles for interactive communication. In all such virtual community
initiatives one can consider planned interventions through the introduction of
experts and events around which to mobilise the 'community'.
3.2
Design for Customer-Led Positioning
The digital
environment can be infinitely manipulated by consumers. While it would be
impossible for customers to redesign a physical retail store based on the
product attributes they seek, this is quite easy online. With a few mouse
clicks on a service such as Peapod's online grocery shopping, the entire store
can be reconfigured based on fat content or calories or price. How do companies
then position their products in an environment in which customers decide what
factors are important and can obtain almost perfect information instantaneously
on the performance of the product and its competitors? How do companies
position a product when consumer chat rooms and other interactions allow for
real time global flow of 'word of mouth' communication? And how can companies
take advantage of the community building power of the Internet? Are sites such
as Talkway.com precursors to company designed Internet communities that change
the dynamics of relationships between the company and its customers and
prospects? This may allow the company to decide on a positioning built on
customer involvement and relationships while leaving the specific product and
service benefits and attributes to a co-determination by the customers and the
firms.
When a
customer purchases a product from the alliance of the auction powerhouse,
Sotheby's and the Internet powerhouse, Amazon.com it is the credibility and
positioning of both and the characteristics of the auctioned product, rather
than the specifics of the product alone that determines the positioning of and
attractiveness of the auctioned item.
When
considering a positioning for the changing global digital world it is critical
to focus not just on the benefits of the products offered by the firm (and its
immediate competitors) but on the benefits sought from the entire range of
products and services considered by the consumer (and accessible via the net).
For example, effective positioning for a pharmaceutical product is not just the
efficacy, safety, convenience and price of the given drug vs its direct
competitors, but the benefits sought by consumers who are increasingly
concerned about wellness. Increasingly, health sites offer in addition to
information and educational material, consultation with a physician (see
Cyberdocs.com for example), information on clinical trials, chat groups,
filling of prescriptions, (Drugstore.com or PlanetRx.com) and maintenance of
health records.
Effective
positioning and differentiation increasingly requires focus on 'affect' and
emotional ties between the consumer and the brand and the firm offering the
products and services. This emotional appeal that was once used primarily in
marketing fashion and perfumes is being applied increasingly to hard goods such
as computers (for example, the 'think different' positioning of Apple's iMac
and iBook) and automobiles (for example, as Mercedes-Benz's new positioning as
an American treasure).
3.3
Expand the Role of Branding in the Global Portfolio
By putting
more 'perfect' information in the hands of consumers, digital technology might
be expected to undermine the power of brands. Actually, some evidence suggests
that branding has become more important. With many options to choose from and
less personal relationships online, customers may turn to trusted and
trustworthy brands as an indication of more intangible qualities. Nike's brand
still has power in this environment because it conveys an image about the
purchaser. But an airline brand that relies on low prices and on time
performance may be eroded because the information it conveys about budget
prices and on-time service can be determined empirically through easily
conducted information searches.
The
development of brands such as Amazon.com, Yahoo, e-bay, e-trade and other
Internet brands can occur much more rapidly with the new technology. But, with
the possible exception of 'pure play' Internet brands, all brands should focus
on both their meaning and value in both Internet and non-Internet context.
Since
digital technology transcends national borders, companies need to pay more
attention to the development of global brands. To what extent can brands be
globalised and to what extent should companies develop a portfolio of global,
regional and local brands? This is especially critical given the heterogeneity
of all markets, the growing importance of globalisation, the trend toward
M&A and strategic alliances with other national, regional or global firms
which often have their own brands, and the enormous potential of the emerging
economies. Some 86% of the world population is in nations with GNP per capita
under $10,000. These emerging markets are quite heterogeneous and operate under
different principles. If focused on segments other than the one receptive to
global brands and positioning, companies cannot simply transfer their US
brands, marketing strategies and business models to Islamic or Asian markets,
for example. The brands need to be shaped and tailored to carry across
different parts of the world, or new brands need to be created.
3.4
Leverage Consumers as Co-Producers through Customerisation
From
computers to jeans to golf clubs to glasses to greeting cards, companies are
moving R&D out of the labs and into the hands of customers. Instead of the
traditional process of new product development, companies need to set up
creative mass customisation platforms which allow consumers to design their own
products and services.
This new
emphasis on customisation means companies need to be careful in presenting
customers with options without overwhelming them while assuring that the
selected design will function effectively and safely. They also need to be
careful they don't overwhelm their own capabilities to execute on what they
offer. They need to use the technology to streamline the process of
customisation. A hybrid solution is called for in which the company determines
the right balance between off-the-shelf options and customisation.
The
advances in flexible manufacturing, information technology, and consumer desire
for variety and customisation have led to the emerging trend toward mass
customisation, the creation of sense and respond organisations, and more
recently customerisation. Mass customisation has drastically changed
manufacturing. Its extension to the sense and respond concept is based on
electronically sensing customers' needs in real time and using the electronic
connection and shared infrastructures to respond to these needs.
Customerisation
is taking this concept further by combining the operationally driven mass
customisation with customised marketing and empowering the consumers to design
the products and service offering of their choice. In contrast to mass
customisation, customerisation does not require a lot of prior information
about the customer, nor does it require the firm to have its own manufacturing
functions. In effect, customerisation redefines the relationship between the
firm and its customers. It empowers the customer to design the product and
service while the firm 'rents' out to the customer its manufacturing logistics
and other resources. The difference between the mass customisation and
customerisation is outlined in Exhibit three (TOLTA).
Garden.com
is an example of effective customerisation. Customers can design the garden of
their choice on their computer, customising the gardens to the local climate.
They can select from over 16,000 products and can try out various landscaping
options before deciding. Throughout the process they can access any information
related to gardening they want and they can order all the products they need
with a click of the mouse. Garden.com coordinates the supply chain for the
selected products for over 50 suppliers and orchestrates the delivery. It does
not own any of the nurseries or transportation vehicles.
While the
introduction of a customerisation perspective has enormous implications for the
new product development process of the firm, other fundamental changes can not
be ignored, such as:
-
Product
design which assures product updates. Given the rapid technological changes and
obsolescence, an increasing number of companies design their products to allow
automatic update and upgrade. Nokia for example designs its line of cellular
phones with this option and so does Bernina, the premier sewing machine
producer.
-
Speed
of development. As product life cycles shrink, an increasing number of firms
focus on innovative concurrent NPD processes, customer involvement in the
design process and other approaches for shorter development cycles.
-
Concurrent
development of the product, process, the associated service offerings and the
business model. R&D should focus not only on the physical product but on
the entire product and service offerings, its development and logistic process and
its associated business model.
3.5
Use Creative Pricing in the Priceline.com World
Digital
technology is shifting the pricing power, from companies to customers. The most
extreme customer-driven pricing is Priceline.com, in which the customer
proposes prices for an airline trip, hotel or even cars and the company decides
whether to accept them.
The
surprising thing about the Internet is that, while it facilitates the creation
of buying groups (eg Mercata.com) buyer agents services (e.g. BizBuyer.com),
provides comparative price information (e.g. CompareNet.com) or facilitates on
line auctions (eg eBay or OnSale) customers are sometimes willing to pay a
premium for ease of shopping or for the value of customisation.
Companies
also are creating value-based pricing so that when the customer wins, the
company wins. The company partners with the customer to make the customer more
profitable. Then, the value that is created is shared between the company and
the customer. For example, Hewlett-Packard is using value-based pricing in a
$500 million contract to supply computer equipment to Qwest Communications
Intl. Qwest pays only based on the revenues it generates and if it achieves its
objectives HP will get $1 billion in three years. In addition, as part of this
arrangement, Qwest will buy 95% of its Windows computers and 75% of its Unix
servers from HP.
3.6
Create Anytime-Anyplace Distribution and Integrated Supply Chain
One of the
major impacts of the Internet has been on the disintermediation of the
increasing number of industries. The 'Brick and Mortar' distributors and
retailers such as Barnes & Noble face a new reality forced upon them by
Amazon.com, while giants such as Merrill Lynch have to reinvent their business
strategies in light of the enormous growth of the e-business of
CharlesSchwab.com, e-trade, AmeriTrade, and others.
More
recently, however, attention has been given to the rise of the infomediaries
who link diverse customers to diverse producers. Exchange type firms such as
Total Transportation Exchange or Adauction.com provide valuable benefits to its
users and create new business models and modes of operations.
An
innovative way of distributing and promoting products and services is the
Internet version of the traditional sampling which under the name viral
marketing offers free service with the hope that it will capture the attention
of prospective customers, lead to trial, loyalty and word of mouth 'buzz'. The
free e-mail service Hotmail, for example, was one of the pioneers of this type
of distribution and was sold to Microsoft for $400 million.
Companies
need to redesign their supply chains and find the right balance between digital
and material distribution. For physical products such as wine or flowers or
books, the problem can be complex because the digital component is only part of
the equation. It must be joined to a physical distribution network such as Fed
Ex or UPS or creates its own. The use of technology on the business-tobusiness
side can help integrate the supply networks, reduce product inventory,
streamline processes and as a result cut cost and speed up the development,
manufacturing and delivery of products and services.
3.7 Redesign Advertising as
Interactive and Integrated Marketing
Communication
Education and Entertainment
Advertising
and other marketing communications were shaped by the mass media. The new
interactive media created by digital technology is spawning a very different
type of communication with customers. It is more addressable and responsive,
moving from broadcast media to interactive media. This shift and especially the
advances in technology that are lowering costs of the technology, providing
Internet access through television set-top boxes and introduces interactivity,
challenges the current 'troika' of the advertising industry-advertisers,
agencies and media - and redefines direct marketing.
The content
of the communications is also changing. Customers are no longer the passive
recipients of ads and commercial information, but are active participants in an
interactive ‘edutainment’ process seeking the tools to learn about the products
and services (education) while being entertained and inspired. Media
advertising, Internet communication, public relations, packaging, customer
service and any other point of contact between the firm and its customers and
prospects has to be integrated.
The more
captivating and engaging a website's design, the more likely customers are to
spend time on the site and develop relationships with the company. An
interactive design which is consistent with and reinforcing of the design
elements of the other marketing activities of the firm is a must. This has to
be augmented with a network of strategic alliances and marketing agreements to
assure access to the site from other Internet access points. Consider for
example the aggressive strategic alliances of Bank One that include relationships
with AOL and Excite (including co-branding), Broadcast.com, CarsDirect.com (to
select, finance and purchase cars over the Internet), CFN, Cnet, CNN,
Cybercast, eBay, GeoCities, inane, iVillage, Lifeserve, Microsoft Network,
Peapod, SportsLive, ValueAmerica, WebTV, Yahoo and others.
3.8
Reinvent Marketing Research As Knowledge Creation And Dissemination
While the
costs of gathering data drop significantly with the addition of digital to
traditional sources (face-to-face interviews, mail or telephone interviews),
the avalanche of new and old information creates new costs and requires new
competencies for the development and use of effective data mining tools. Data
mining and other forms of analysis are the key to a firm's ability to target
its customers and prospects based on their lifetime value to the firm as well
as the basis for identifying and meeting the customer's needs and wants.
The
technology benefits marketing by making tacit knowledge more accessible. Some
of the most important knowledge about customers is tacit knowledge, such as
their shopping patterns, interest and activities profiles, payment transactions
and chatroom discussions. These can all be captured online. But companies need
to find ways to get customers to part with the knowledge and they also need to
be able to capture and use the knowledge once they obtain it.
While data
mining is gaining in popularity, the rest of marketing research cannot just
stay as it is. A major reinvention of the marketing research function is called
for by focusing on at least four areas:
-
diagnose
problems rather than just test solutions;
-
increase
speed and efficiency by using new information technology;
-
take
an integrated approach;
-
expand
the strategic impact of marketing.
Key aspects
of the new approaches to marketing research offered by the new technology are
the opportunities it offers to the firm, and to new type Internet marketing
research firms, to collect information that is initiated and generated by
customers and other stakeholders. In this context intriguing opportunities are
offered by applications such as ThirdVoice.com that lets anyone attach post-it
type notes throughout any website. The notes do not alter the underlying site
but allow active interaction among all who are interacting with the site.
To fully
capitalise on the opportunities the new marketing research offers the firm,
often requires a reinvention of the marketing research function and
repositioning it as the knowledge engine of the firm.
3.9
Use Adaptive Experimentation
Adaptive
experimentation has always been a powerful philosophy and methodology allowing
learning while doing and thus 'optimising' the strategy over time.
The major
benefits of adaptive experimentation - ability to continuously learn, added
incentive to develop and test innovative strategies, making it harder for the
competition to figure out what your strategy is and creating a culture of
experimentation and learning - are even more critical in the changing and turbulent
digital marketing environment. At the same time the advances in technology
allow easier and better ways to design and implement 'master experiments'
across various products, marketing strategy elements and geographies. Whereas
adaptive experiments require the identification of the key marketing variables
to be tested - advertising level and message, sales force size and approach,
pricing options, etc. A somewhat less structured approach, but in the spirit of
continuous experimentation has been developed by firms such as Seiko. Seiko
develops over 2500 new watch designs a year and introduces them in a number of
'test markets' the successful designs are further developed, tested again and
then launched in the target markets.
3.10 Redesign the Strategy Process
and Supporting Organisational
Architecture
Key to
success in the changing business environment is the understanding of the
changes, their drivers, their interdependencies and consequences and their
summary in meaningful scenarios. Having established the scenarios, the focus of
management should be on establishing:
-
a
vision which combines the company's own aspirations with the type of firm that
will succeed in the changing environment and which should incorporate an
explicit reference to the firm's vision for its e-business and the role of
e-business in enhancing and achieving its overall corporate vision;
-
measurable
stretch objectives encompassing all key performance measures such as maximizing
the lifetime value from target customer segments or minimizing the time to peak
sales. Explicit objectives regarding the ebusiness aspects of the business,
such as share of target market or revenue from e-business or even objectives to
spin off a high market cap e-business is essential;
-
having
established the vision and stretch objectives the key is the development of
creative strategies. This requires, at the minimum:
-
a
re-examination of the business model and value proposition;
-
innovative
strategies reflecting the ten new rules of marketing;
-
having
established the e-business strategy and the other strategies of the firm, including
strategic alliances, attention should be given to the determination of the best
organisational design. Companies are experimenting today with a variety of
organisational designs including:
-
incorporating
e-business throughout the organisation (for example, Prudential California
Realty);
-
creating
e-business subsidiaries (for example, MagazineOutlet.com a subsidiary of
Newsweek Services Inc.);
-
creating
separate e-business subsidiaries with the objective of spinning them off as
separate online activities (for example, BarnesandNoble.com which was spun off
by Barnes and Noble as a separate publishing company);
-
investing
in or merging with Internet companies (for example, Pet Smart, a pet supply
chain, invested in PetJungle.com or Rite Aid investment in Drugstore.com);
-
shifting
the entire business to the Web (for example, Latham [real estate] auctioneers
changed their business to a Web only operation called Homebid.com);
-
the
final set of decisions involves the redesign of the supporting organisational
architecture assuring that it capitalises on the advances in Internet and other
information technology. This redesign should include the seven interrelated
components of the organisational architecture:
-
the
organisational culture and values;
-
the
organisational structure;
-
the
value creation processes including those for knowledge creation, dissemination
and use;
-
the
people and their required competencies;
-
the
required technology and especially the IT infrastructure;
-
the
required resources;
-
the
performance measures and incentives
4.
Conclusions
As the
digital revolution has taken place, companies have tended to look at the
technology itself while paying too little attention to its implications for
marketing. Yet as the world shifts from physical to virtual, as value moves
from the greasy gears and hard steel of the industrial age to the high concepts
of a knowledge economy- what could be more important to companies than the
relationships with customers and other external constituencies, knowing their
needs and how to communicate with them and meeting their changing needs and
building sustainable relationship and loyalty?
The
reinvention of marketing requires a re-examination of all the concepts, methods
and practices of marketing to assure their appropriateness for the changing
global digital environment. This poses an enormous challenge both to the
academic community and the business practitioners. For academics this poses the
most significant challenge of changing their research agenda. A change that
requires a shift toward a multi-disciplinary cross-functional perspective based
on a thorough understanding of the power and pervasive impact of the Internet
and related advances in information technology. The challenge for the emerging
research agenda is how to avoid becoming 'reporters' of current advanced
management practices and build on the methodological and traditional strengths
of the discipline to provide management with useful new conceptual and
methodological tools to cope with and succeed in the changing global digital
world.
The
recommendations in this article are not just motivated by a parochial interest
in seeing marketing elevated in the organisation, but by a recognition that
marketing and especially as it is shaped by the new marketing paradigm, is a
central philosophy, approach and set of activities that should be adapted by
all executives. If we have great technology that is not focused on the market,
what value will it provide? What advantages will it create? By understanding
the new global digital reality and focusing on the new rules of marketing,
marketing professionals can begin to reclaim some of their lost ground and
corporate executives can increase their likelihood of success in the turbulent,
chaotic, changing global digital environment.
References:
Wind, Jerry, and Vijay Mahajan. "Digital
marketing." Symphonya. Emerging Issues in Management 1 (2002): 43-54.
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