Digital Marketing and Social Media

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Digital Marketing and Social Media

Introduction Digital technologies have revolutionized every aspect of a business, including customer relationship management, brand management, communication, selling, and buying, among other things. However, the manner in which digital technology has been taking over the marketing scene has been a gradual process over the decades, hence changing marketing in a manner that is not likely to be reversed. This qualifies the technological advancement as an evolution, yet the manner in which the technology has disrupted business is more of a revolution.

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To a greater extent, businesses worldwide are increasingly accepting digital communication as a cost-effective, advanced, and more relevant alternative to conventional marketing traditionally used. The revolution has been continuous to such an extent that it has crossed the boundaries of a traditional computer and extended itself to various digital devices such as tablets, smartphones, and phones, among other platforms. As such, companies have been forced to redesign the marketing communication initiatives to better engage with past, present, and even future customers. The paper explores whether digital marketing an evolution or revolution in marketing practice. In order to achieve this, there is a need to evaluate the core marketing concept of customer value as to whether it has evolved or been revolutionized by digital technologies. This is substantiated by the use of a case study. The shift in the meaning and perception of customer value courtesy of digital marketing has happened in an extreme, forcible, and sudden manner, hence qualifying it as a revolution.

Revolution of “Customer value” courtesy of digital technologies Traditionally, customer value used to be a relatively simple concept. Business organizations would have a product targeted to a customer at a specific product point and end up selling the product once or even multiple times to the customer. When an organization firms a customer relationship, it would be possible to allocate some money revolving over the customers, commensurate to the value assigned to the relationship (Heriyati & Siek, 2011). With the gradual emergence of digital technologies, the customers are not obliged to stay loyal.

Business organizations are tending towards an era where there is no single service, product, or business model that is so essential that it cannot embrace the changes.

During the pre-digital era, a customer's purchasing decision was to a greater extent based on the value that they perceive to obtain when they buy a product or service (Chaffey & Ellis-

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Chadwick, 2019). This was more of a subjective construct, given that every customer could have a different reaction to the marketing message. As such, organizations had to think through many questions, e.g., whether the customers believe in the product and marketing messages they are trying to put across, whether the products meet their needs, and whether the perceived benefits equal or outweigh the price. In the modern commercial world, digital transformations have made it possible by enhancing the subjective evaluation of customers of both the benefits and costs (Nguyen, 2014; Punj, 2012). The customers have more access to reviews, expert opinions, information, low-cost digital channels, and more transparency than ever before. The customers have also become more cognizant of reputation and the absence of frictions in the purchase process. This has become as important as the absolute price of the product. Business organizations are obliged to rapidly adapt to the changes because the demand for real-time information is high, thus creating revolutionary pressure on the manner in which the organizations are handling this aspect.

Currently, it is not just enough to rely on marketing messages in order to convey customer value. Marketers are being forced to consider various ways in which they can be able to grow perceived value by delivering and creating value for the customers beyond the limits of what is being sold in the market. A good example of this phenomenon is the disruptive entertainment offerings such as Netflix, Stan, and Chromecast, whose customers have been trained for over 20 years by pay-TV and free to air providers to expect a more curated range of content for them to be able to discover (Yen, Teng & Tzeng, 2020). In order to improve the perceived value of the customers, these new companies are now embracing the use of digital tools to change the selection and discovery process by not only recommending content but also creating content that is aligned with the untapped needs of the customer base, based on the same

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analytical tools. The shift is revolutionary in the sense that any company that enters the market is expected to maintain such standards for it to garner a competitive edge (Kaptyukhin, Romanov, Zhidkova & Danchenok, 2013).

The concept of customer value has also been revolutionized from the perspective of business organizations. Unlike before, businesses are increasingly being obliged to value the consumer base. For the marketing teams to understand the metrics of value there is a sense in which the different audience types sometimes require different approaches. This includes the use of data and analytics that are becoming important to understanding and segmenting the customer bases (Weinstein, 2020). Again, the distinction between creating customer value from the creation of revenue for the company is an important one to make. Currently, companies do not expect to extract revenue directly from the customers after creating value for them. The approach is changing because companies are having more innovative ways of delivering and creating value for both parties on both sides of the transaction (Hooda & Aggarwal, 2012). All the companies that intend to attain a sustainable competitive advantage are conforming to this. As such, the change is sudden and big enough to be a revolution.

Customer value during the initial days could only be achieved through brick and mortar, whereby long queues were the norm, and there were so many customers waiting in the lines for their turn to be served by a business (Matarazzo, Penco, Profumo & Quaglia, 2021). It was impossible to buy any product or service without interacting with a salesperson until digital technology came along and gradually did away with this trend. The adoption of self-service technology by companies has made the process of buying hustle-free. The customers now have the power to control what they buy, when they buy, and how they want to buy the same.

Customers are also defining value through the convenience that they can realize. There is an

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increase in convenience through mobile technology. Social media is making life more convenient for customers by removing technology constraints, time, and location. Customer value and customer satisfaction go hand in hand. Increased automation is now saving time and improving customer satisfaction, hence guaranteeing customer value. Introducing digital technologies such as artificial intelligence, chatbots, and behavior-triggered tasks are now the norms and ensure that the customer relationships run smoothly with minimum human intervention. Automation has made life easier for both offline and online customers and has proved to be a key determinant of customer satisfaction (Jones, Malczyk & Beneke, 2011). Such massive changes can only be described as a paradigm shift that has been so sudden, given that digitalization has redefined every facet of customer value within a very short time of technological innovation, such as the emergence of social media platforms.

Case Study Analysis The case study under consideration is “COVID-19 is transforming how companies use digital technology," which unveils the manner in which the pandemic has intensified the need for a digital shift for the people and organizations who are encouraged to approach interpersonal engagement and communication mire differently (Ercolano, 2020). One of the areas that have been immensely revolutionized by the trend is marketing and sales function, whereby digital capabilities in areas such as project management, video conferencing, and customer engagements facilitate collaborative undertakings to serve and engage the customers. In this regard, the organizations are called to action to profoundly rethink their process, structure, culture, and competency models for digital engagements to be in a position to drive customer value. In this case, a revolution has been sparked by the COVID-19 pandemic, and there is a need that the organizations accelerate their revolution by aligning themselves in terms of competencies,

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processes and structures, and cultures that can make it possible to drive customer value (Ercolano, 2020).

The service sector, such as the education field, has been most affected by the trend in terms of the "product" and the services that the institution has delivered. Before the pandemic, the instructors were the main channel enablers for distributing and channeling the knowledge content within the classroom context (Ercolano, 2020). Currently, the professors are in a better position to make a difference for the students beyond the commoditized, readily accessible content. To align themselves with the changing customer value concept, the perceived value of digital college-based knowledge and degrees will shift to the well-distributed and well-designed content through virtual, innovative, and remote experience instructions. There is also a dilemma that students may question the need for college-based degrees and knowledge if they cannot enjoy the physical experience of being on the campus and learn in the classrooms with their peers (Ercolano, 2020). This implies that colleges have to change the approach to digitally distributed and transformed instructions radically.

In driving customer value, the students can interact and learn at the comfort of their homes while getting optimal value; just the same way they would while they are on the physical campus. It can also be noted from the case that remote and virtual marketing and selling reflect the expectations of the modern customer, in their will to use social media and internet platforms rather than using the salespeople and marketers as the effective sources of communication and information (Ercolano, 2020). From the motivation point of view, there is a sense in which marketing and structures are leveraging powerful sales technologies for customer and interpersonal engagement, communication, and managing and sustaining the team's and

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individual's productivity, which can be reflected in customer value on the other end of the continuum.

The case is an ideal example of a revolution caused by a sudden occurrence that has been transformed the manner in which service delivery, marketing, and sales are made to improve customer value amid turbulent times. The provision of services such as teaching is being looked at from the perspective of the customer, who is not ready to settle for a lesser value. The revolutionary changes are forceful in the sense that the organizations that cannot adapt to changes will not compete favorably, and therefore be phased out (Hinterhuber & Liozu, 2015).

Conclusion Consumers have experienced a paradigm shift in their behavior in digital realms, as evidenced in the change of the customer value concept from the pre-digital era to the present.

The way the changes have taken place is revolutionary. For a revolutionary change takes place more rapidly, and it is extensive. The advancement of technology took place gradually, and technological innovation is still happening. However, the impact of these technological transformations has disrupted business practices in a spontaneous and rapid fashion, hence redefining marketing concepts such as customer value. During the pre-digital era, customer value was looked at from brick and mortar perspective, and there was very limited information, especially for the customers. The businesses also used to approach the customer base as a uniform entity. The revolution in marketing practice has made it possible for the consumers to become more innovative, updated, connected, informed, empowered, and accustomed to digital technologies and exercise their control over the process. As such, it suffices to say that digital marketing is more of a revolution in marketing practice.

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Reference list Chaffey, D., & Ellis-Chadwick, F. 2019. Digital marketing. Pearson UK. Ercolano P. 2020. COVID-19 is transforming how companies use digital technology. Johns Hopkins University.

Heriyati, P., & Siek, T. P. 2011. Effects of word of mouth communication and perceived quality on decision making moderated by gender: Jakarta blackberry smartphone consumer’s perspective. Contemporary Management Research, 7(4), 329–336 Hinterhuber, A., & Liozu, S. M. 2015. Pricing and the sales force. London: Routledge Hooda, S., & Aggarwal, S. 2012. Consumer behaviour towards e-marketing: A study of Jaipur consumers. Journal of Arts, Science & Commerce, 3(2), 107–118.

Jones, A. T., Malczyk, A., & Beneke, J. 2011. Internet marketing: A highly practical guide to every aspect of internet marketing [Monograph]. Retrieved from https://open.uct.ac.za/bitstream/.../Internet_Marketing_textbook.pdf Kannan, P. K.2017. Digital marketing: A framework, review, and research agenda. International Journal of Research in Marketing, 34(1), 22-45.

Kaptyukhin, R. V., Romanov, A. A., Zhidkova, O. N., & Danchenok, L. A. 2013. Features of online marketing communications and their classification. World Applied Sciences Journal, 27(13), 131–136.

Matarazzo, M., Penco, L., Profumo, G., & Quaglia, R. 2021. Digital transformation and customer value creation in Made in Italy SMEs: A dynamic capabilities perspective.

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Nguyen, H. T. 2014. Factors affecting customer satisfaction and trust in an E-commerce setting: A case study of Muachung. vn in Vietnam. AU-GSB e-Journal, 7(1), 43–52.

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Punj, G. 2012. Consumer decision making on the web: A theoretical analysis and research guidelines. Psychology & Marketing, 29(10), 791–803.

Weinstein, A. 2020. Creating superior customer value in the new economy. Journal of Creating Value, 6(1), 20-33.

Yen, C. H., Teng, H. Y., & Tzeng, J. C. 2020. Innovativeness and customer value co-creation behaviors: Mediating role of customer engagement. International Journal of Hospitality Management, 88, 102514.