According to a public description, ‘Internet, mobile devices, social media, search and other platforms are used for the purpose of digital marketing to reach consumers.” According to another public concept, ‘Marketing strategy is a business’s long-term game plan for achieving sustainable competitive advantage through knowing its wants and needs.’ Although the former obviously is a subset of the latter, the marketing role tends to take over.
When I joined the company circus, the key task of conventional marketing was to quantify input efficiency and its connexion to performance. It was therefore nearly impossible to separate the ingredients from any performance or failure — whether the quality of goods, prolific production, promotional preparation or placement of ATL and BTL media. Advertising networks developed complex media measures, while the world’s Nielsens made acceptable sales figures at a point of sale basis. However, at best these were strict inflow tests and no wizard could provide the mathematical precision that modern businesses pursued earnestly.
This is precisely where digital marketing has made a significant impact and has miraculously crossed the barrier between input and sales with precision. Boardrooms were pleased that transparency was created and brand managers saw their subjective decisions as justifiable alibis. When linked to online trading, the relation was even more sublime, and call-to-action was soon replaced as the new slogan. New-age digital companies acquired innovative technologies in order to further entertain the networks and became militant abetters themselves, whether they were Google, Amazon or Flipkart. Venture founders soon hooked up with this contemporary lingo and treated digital marketing as the secret sauce on the road to a unicorn.
In this new attack, the Marketing Strategy of absolute honesty started to take the second position, frequently pressured to represent the digital world rather than to be the source of legitimacy. So the rigour of creating an inspirational brand value proposition, evoked by data and imagination, was steadily and dangerously prioritised. Too much dialogue and conversational R&D focused on social media and new age platforms while ignoring that the company needed a distinct voice and a continuous stream of key insights. Insights were derived from studying consumer behaviour in all applicable categories and culture, which would have a crucial impact on the quality of goods and services.
When I resumed my practice in consultancy in 2020, it became the top priority to restore this precious balance armed with the innovative ‘Datavity’ toolkit. To spread this patented value proposition vigorously was the inevitable basis. This is a consequence of a deeper understanding of culture and creating a viable connexion to the actual product, ensuring true segmentation, concentrating and positioning. Every insight would rely both on numbers and creativity and ultimately contribute to an integrated marketing plan, the central component of which would be digital marketing. Only then will a deep dive into this topic lead to an effective implementation approach, in combination with traditional spray and spray communication.
There are a few other basic, but true explanations why the statutes of marketing strategy can easily be overcome by digital marketing. Technology is the hottest point of discussion and everybody in corporate corridors finds it rewarding not just as a confirmation of their portfolios, but also for advancing their jobs. It’s a concrete and scientific question, and without the subjectivity and uncertainty of classical strategy, a long-term exercise with unthinkable pitfalls. Google and Amazon are the latest oracles of business intelligence and support sleek digital marketing that overshadows classical consultants’ reputation. The blame is also on a revived sense of urgency in contemporary market environments powered by trigger-feeling shareholders and funders, thus tacitly converging short-term returns on future sustainability. Marketing strategy is becoming a complex backroom, whose perceived soundness is often the whim of digital front-footers. Find here the best website Audit tool.
This scenario is much more dangerously founded in my limited experience of dealing with startups, namely the need to do more than what to do. Not too many are prepared to invest in long-term brand identity and are more worried about the quarterly effect beautifully driven by digital marketing tools. Certainly, one must be versatile and agile, but in reality, a framework can not be replaced not only by technology but also by worldviews. There are plenty of dignitaries who expected that consumers in the post-corona world are much more mindful of intent and sense, tormented by the current news. The need for a systematic marketing plan is thus more effective than ever and advantageous for any business stakeholder.
Therefore, here is my basic advice for any business chief, regardless of your ambition or dimension. Marketing is first and foremost an unwavering mechanism which can not be disrupted. Digital Marketing is the rafale of the marketer’s ensemble and, once the goal is set, can be a gigantic game-changer. Without the first, you can’t get the second and you can’t come first with the second only.
