Marketing Opinion South Africa

Change is occurring at an accelerating rate in marketing

For the past few weeks, my colleagues have been rigorously asking questions about the future of marketing. I think to get a clear perspective on the rise of this question; perhaps it is appropriate to grasp the dynamics around traditional marketing.

The arguments around the question at hand have led to a line of thinking that suggests traditional marketing is slowly taking the exit door, while internet marketing is taking the marketing world by storm and continues to grow in mighty ways.

With an enormous amount of different cultures in our societies, traditional marketing seems to lose its relevance to a modern-day generation. Some marketing experts argue that traditional marketing will continue to grow because it gets everyone who watches traditional TV, views the side of buses, looks at posters and billboards, etc.

On the contrary, some believe that everyone is into the digital age. They further argue that people no longer watch TV all day and look at billboards for information. Everyone has moved on to the internet and phones. Their argument can be valid because since the dawn of consumerism, the way products are marketed to potential customers has adapted with changes in technology and accessibility. But research has proved that using both traditional marketing and digital marketing is the best way to get maximum impact. The real estate business is one industry that really benefits from this strategy.

Change is occurring at an accelerating rate in marketing
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With huge penetration of internet across the world, digital mobile devices such as the iPhone and other similar types are opening up the consumer public to convenient online opportunities. This penetration has made digital marketing become a popular figure as companies use it to sell goods and services directly to consumers, as well as those who operate in a B2B model. Most marketers have slightly moved from traditional to digital marketing, such as email marketing, viral marketing, display advertising, affiliate marketing, search engine marketing just to mention the few.

In the past decade, the internet has flipped the traditional marketing model on its head. We no longer think of television, radio or magazines as being the primary advertising outlets. People visit online content sources for the most part the day. The driver of people's media consumption begins and ends with social networking sites, such as Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest etc, but accurately capitalising on these sites has been a tricky business.

Marketing executives are generally unimpressed with the ROI on internet marketing. And of course, the question of the right content in the digital arena plays a crucial role in ROI.

The future may lie in the development of savvier analytical and metric tools, and a more consistent format for content, but will it be consumer driven? Will the top sites of today be the dusty digital relics of tomorrow? What, in essence, will the market look like 10 years from now? The key to this question lies in the accuracy of metrics and analysis.

About Brian Tebogo Mashego

Hailing from a village called Mphanama in Limpopo, grew up in the streets of Atteridgeville in Pretoria, and a resident of Johannesburg since his enrolment at Wits University. Brian Tebogo Mashego is currently working at e.tv as a Media Analyst.
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