The Influence of Technology on Marketing

Technology is one of the main catalysts for today’s changes in how marketing is done. Easier access to more and more information and the possibility of people to network with each other has put the customer “in control”. Until a few years ago, with “traditional” media, marketing was mostly a one way communication (from the company to the consumers). Word-of-mouth was still at low levels and feedback was time-consuming and not necessarily effective. Free market – people choosing to buy something else – was the only effective feedback mechanism.

Today however, consumers have great and collective power to “dictate” what companies do. People value others’ opinions. With social media anyone can set up a website and voice their views. Anyone can visit online meeting places like Digg and Reddit and promote the voices and opinions of others, and anyone can mobilize a group around a common cause on Facebook or elsewhere. The global loop is now closed: communication becomes bi-directional. Two-way communication is the most productive way: companies and consumers talking to each other, not at each other.
New Channels

New media channels such as social media marketing and online advertising/e-commerce are becoming more and more popular, especially among specific market segments such as generation Y and part of generation X.

- Social Media Marketing (discussions forums, corporate blogs, community groups, etc.) is a new low cost tool for companies to “damage control” bad news and also to get feedback from their customers (communication becomes a 2-way communication)

- New Sales Channels. Sales expenses are cut down when using e-commerce enabled websites. These virtual malls are open 24/7 and have better gross margins than brick and mortar stores (i.e. amazon.com)

- Online Advertising as a new media channel used for advertising, has lower costs than traditional media advertising (i.e. cheaper online advertising is said to be the reason why newspapers’ revenues from classifieds have dropped and continue to drop)

- Informational Websites can be used as ways to communicate the messages and/or drive customers to the stores (i.e. the BestBuy.ca website). Communicating efficiently product value is a way of increasing maximum value for your customers

- Online promotions offer new sales promotion tools (i.e. pepsistuff.com, where Pepsi customers can redeem points from bottle caps for prizes)

- Companies/Customers can save money by using Internet to compare sellers’ prices before purchasing, to train staff or to hire employees. Easier access to this kind of data makes the market research easier and cheaper.

Traditional media channels (newspapers, television) not only face competition from the new, emerging media channels but they are affected by technological changes in other markets and industries. For example, the increasing popularity of personal video recorders that allow customers to “zap” the commercials has affected the coverage of television advertising.

The conclusion is: the chosen media strategy and the promotion tools used need to take into consideration and anticipate the emerging channels and trends in the marketing today in order to deliver the advertised messages both efficient and affective.
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