To many
bystanders, the classic theories of marketing management seem to lose their
relevance in this turbulent market. In fact, there has been a great realization
of the limitations of the marketing
mix theories. What is merely happening is the extension of the
existing theories to the world of internet marketing using newly developed and
deployed channels of communication with the customers and other partners. So
what has changed so drastically in these years and why? In this article, we respond
to a few burning issues which has evolved with the digitalization of one of the
most important function within an enterprise.
One of the major
issues is how to address the concerns over intellectual property? This becomes
even more relevant as we move towards offerings (sometimes products and
sometimes services) which by their very definition is intangible. The
differentiating factors are slowly getting dissolved in this era of internet
marketing. The mantra to “create, communicate, deliver the value to the target
market at a profit”, a term that has been popularised by Philip Kotler, is
being stretched like never before. Creation of replicated intellectual property
and communicating them across geographically dispersed segments has really made
it easier to deliver the same and thus acquire new customers, unlimited by
market structure or dynamics.
Another key
concern is strategy implementation through a roadmap of implementation and the
replicability of the roadmap over a short period of time. While there are a lot
of guides for internetmarketing, which are readily available on the web, implementation of a
successful internet marketing strategy has become quite difficult due to the
high concentration of competition despite the elasticity of demand of the professionals.
Indeed, one needs to take a deeper insight while strategizing, while
formulating a digital marketing blueprint. All the more difficult is to
actually replicate the model of a successful strategy, after it has been
implemented, and thus, the sustainability becomes a major question. This in
fact prevents many marketers to even try this new channel, despite being
convinced about the potential benefits.
In fact, a lot
more has changed since the internet took our world like a whirlwind. Today it
is of utmost importance to understand the dynamics and implication of the
digitization of the web. Do get in touch with me if you have any queries
regarding this article.
About the author:
Dr. Arpan Kar (PhD) is a faculty of the
globally renowned Indian Institute of Management. He has rich experience in
research, training and consulting in e-business, e-commerce, digital marketing,
technology marketing and technology enabled supply chain management. He was
earlier associated with IBM Research and Cognizant Business Consulting besides
handling advisory projects for multiple Fortune 500 MNCs. He is the Editor of Business Fundas and also writes for
Technorati.