Technology Intervention In Marketing_proclivity At Present

Technology Intervention in Marketing-Proclivity at Present

Jayanta Adhikari

adhikari.jayanta@rediffmail.com

PGDBM 2005-07

Institute of Technology and Management

Kharghar, Navi Mumbai 410210

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Over the past two decades marketing has seen various changes. These changes are mainly coming from the intervention in technology, especially with the application of information technology (IT). Yet, as more marketing changes, more it seems they are the same. It is still a dynamic, competitive and creative activity that is the part of our day to day life. Marketers always wanted to understand the need of the market and try to satisfy the consumer demand. For this, they create or modify products or services, communicate about the new products or services and their benefits, distribute and sell in such a manner so that customers can get the maximum value from the product/services. In this process, they have to understand the target segment, their willingness to buy and ability to buy, economic condition, communication strategy, competitors offering in the market, pricing strategy, supply chain network, inventory management strategy and finally the social impact. So implementing successful marketing strategy is not so easy, as it is perceived among most of the organizations.

The economic power has shifted from marketers to customers. This shift happens in the market place due to the technology. Today customers have the access to information that lets them make much more informed decisions. Customers are increasingly telling companies what type of product or services they want and when, where and how they want to buy them. Before purchase a product or service, they compare each of the competitors' product and their pricing, availability and value for money. So customers are now in control. Customer's action and their demands are profoundly impacting every industry in the market.

So today most of the companies are investing huge amount of money in necessary technologies for surviving in the long run. Not only the internet, but global cellular and wireless infrastructure, product design software packages, Radio Frequency Identification Tags (RFID), Digital Communication System, Just in Time inventory system(JIT), Enterprise Resource Planning packages (ERP), Disaster Recovery (DR) and Business Continuity (BC) planning, online survey or polls are playing an important role in the changing face of marketing. Also there are some new trends in marketing which has created a lot of buzz around the industry. These are new age media for communication and promotion, e-inks, handheld wireless device for the sales force, cross docking system, quick response inventory management system (QRIMS), blogs, advertising through internet, viral marketing, simulated environment for marketing research process, digital products, product lifecycle management(PLM).

Today marketing is no longer a company department charged with a limited number of tasks. It drives the company's vision, mission and strategic planning, both in long term and short term. Marketing succeeds when all the departments working in synchronization. So the technology intervention in marketing becomes more and more effective. It helps to run the whole marketing process faster, smoother across the organization, market and customer, effectively and efficiently.

Here in this article we are trying to focus on: how different technology helps traditional marketing and how will it affect the same in future.

INTRODUCTION

We all know that marketing is revolving around 4P's; product, place, price and promotion. But according to the marketing guru Philip Kotler, the old marketing is not working. Products are failing, advertising costs more than it is worth. Old marketing means a heavy reliance on advertising, sales promotions and marketing research. So to survive in the new age, marketers include technology in the process. With the use of technology, the marketing game is just become more competitive, challenging and interesting in nature.

Marketing is a process, that involves thorough understanding of customers' need and demands, develop or modify new or existing product/services, communicate the features or benefits of the product or services, distribute the products through proper channels at the right time and influence voluntary exchange transaction between the customer and marketer. Thus a full understanding of marketing requires recognition of the fact that product development activities and product modifications are planned in response to customer's changing need and demands. So marketing is a 5 step process, identifying demand through marketing research, develop or modifies the product or service, communication of the features and benefits of the product/services, distribute the product at the right time through proper channels and transaction process. But the marketing activity doesn't stops here. After the transaction process again marketers have to think about the benefit laddering for the product, through which they wanted to find out how they can retain customers, how they can provide more value at the same price level, so that customers will come back to the market again for experiencing the same product/service.

KNOWING THE CUSTOMER

The first step in marketing is to know the customer, their need and demand and market or economic conditions. In the earlier years, marketers were never worried about the consumer and just produced whatever they want in large quantity. The managers believed that consumers will like the products. Then there were production, product and selling concepts that are followed by marketers extensively. But when customers became more informed then none of the above concept makes sense.

In the mid of 1950's marketing concept emerges. According to this concept, the company must produce right products for customers; not finding the right customers for the product. So in this process marketing research became the most effective tool to find out about the customers, their needs and wants, their attitude towards a product or service. Knowing the customer became most important in marketing.

Market research asks questions about competitors, market structure, government regulations, economic trends, technological