What Are The Marketing Fundamentals In The Digital Age?

If your marketing isn’t working, the most likely cause is you’re not following marketing fundamentals. While new channels, platforms as well as tools continue to emerge, the recipients of this marketing (in other words,  your customers) really haven’t changed all that much. Whether they’re millennials or baby boomers, the same buying concepts still apply as much as they did many years ago. What has evolved, however, is that today’s customer has the whole world at their fingertips.

Today’s consumer is more connected than they ever have been before, with more access to – and deeper engagement with – content and brands. This is thanks to the proliferation of digital devices as well as platforms. Content that was once accessible only to consumers by specific methods of delivery (such as print, radio as well as broadcast television) can now be sourced and delivered to consumers by their multiple connected devices. This is powering the media revolution and blurring traditional media definitions.

Ultimately, even with digital communications – whether that be through social or advertising – we are still moving to the same goal, which is positively impacting the organisation that we are working for or the organisation that we own.

The 4Ps

In marketing, the notion of the 4 P’s has been around forever and a day. These are:

• Price
• Product
• Promotion; as well as
• Place

What these portray are the fundamental things that customers need to understand about any product or service in order to make a purchase decision. The 4Ps can be presented to customers in a myriad of ways, however, these important fundamentals never change. Entrepreneurs must never lose sight of them.

In the 1960s, consumers were no less intelligent than they are today however they were much more likely to take your word that you had great customer service or a high-quality product. Today, few people will believe your messages or even take notice of them unless you can grab and keep their attention.

Utilise Innovation Teams In Order To Identify, Evaluate And Activate Evolving Opportunities

Marketing executives are very busy people.  They need to monitor the marketplace actively, recognise business opportunities, work together with product people as well as run promotional campaigns.  It is unfair to require them to stay in touch with the enormous array of emerging technology and tactics, particularly since most of it won’t pan out anyway.

Therefore, it is important to have a team which is dedicated to identifying emerging opportunities, meeting with start-ups as well as running test-and-learn programmes in order to evaluate their true potential.  Of course, most of these will fail however the handful of winners will more than make up for those that lose.

Once an emerging opportunity has performed effectively in a pilot programme, it can then be scaled up and become embedded in the normal strategic process as a viable tactic to achieve an awareness, sales or advocacy objective.

Marketing is a fundamental of every single business. If people don’t know about you, they won’t buy from you.

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