Page 262 - Foundations of Marketing

Digital Marketing and Social Networking | Chapter 9 229

Digital Marketing
Marketers can use a number of
digital media sites, including
YouTube, Facebook, Pinterest,
and Flickr, to promote products
and create company awareness.

© iStockphoto.com/mattjeacock

use the Internet to form relationships with a variety of stakeholders, including customers,
employees, and suppliers. Many companies use not just e-mail and mobile phones, but also
social networking, wikis, media sharing sites, podcasts, blogs, videoconferencing, and other
technologies to coordinate activities and communicate with employees.
For many businesses, engaging in digital and online marketing activities is essential to
maintaining competitive advantages. Increasingly, small businesses can use digital media to
develop strategies to reach new markets and access inexpensive communication channels.
Large companies like Target use online catalogs and company websites to supplement their
brick-and-mortar stores. At the other end of the spectrum, companies like Amazon.com, which
lack physical stores and sell products solely online, have emerged to challenge traditional
brick-and-mortar businesses. Social networking sites are advancing e-marketing by providing
3
additional features, such as the ability to purchase products and send gifts through Facebook.
Finally, some corporate websites and social media sites provide feedback mechanisms through
which customers can ask questions, voice complaints, indicate preferences, and otherwise
communicate about their needs and desires.
One of the biggest mistakes a marketer can make when engaging in digital marketing is to
treat it like a traditional marketing channel. Digital media offer a whole new dimension to mar-
keting that marketers must consider when concocting their companies’ marketing strategies.
Some of the characteristics that distinguish online media from traditional marketing include
addressability, interactivity, accessibility, connectivity, and control, as defined in Table 9.1 .

TYPES OF CONSUMER-GENERATED LO 2 . Learn how types of
consumer-generated marketing
MARKETING AND DIGITAL MEDIA and digital media can be used
as effective marketing tools.
While digital media and e-marketing have generated exciting opportunities for organiza-
tions to interact with consumers, it is essential to recognize that social media are more
consumer-driven than traditional media. Consumer-generated material is having a profound
effect on marketing. As the Internet becomes more accessible worldwide, consumers are

Copyright 2014 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s).
Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.