Essay Sample on Digital Marketing vs Traditional Marketing

Introduction

Individuals think that marketing is just advertising in order to get a sale. However, this is not the case as marketing is everything that a company does in order to attract customers as well as have a healthy relationship with them (Leeflang et al., 2014). Meeting with customers for a cup of coffee and writing thank-you notes to customers can also be considered marketing. The main aim of marketing is for a company to find a match for the company's services and products to the individuals who need them, which should have the give a positive return on investment for the company. One of the oldest, most natural and simplest forms of marketing that have been used for years is the 'word of mouth'. This form of communication has been effective because customers are able to convey their experiences regarding the brand, service or product in their day to day interactions with others (Tavukcuoglu, 2018). These experiences can either be negative or positive.

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In simple words, marketing is anything and everything that a firm does to place their service or product in the consumer's reach. This includes packaging, pricing, sales, distribution and public relations. It is a management practice that identifies the customer requirements and then supplies them profitably and efficiently. This process could also include identification, coordination, selection of the product, its development, pricing and a selection of a distribution channel that will ensure the product reaches the customer's place as well as development and implementation of ideal promotional strategies. Marketing is also about meeting customer requirements, and it is a business-wide function and not something that operates separately from other company activities. It includes advertising, retailing and delivering of products and services to customers. Individuals who work in the marketing departments focus their attention and efforts to ensure that they get the attention of the consumers through the use of packaging designs, slogans, endorsements, and celebrity designs among other general media exposure.

In traditional marketing, companies directly find and target customers while in digital marketing, the company's main aim is to have as many consumers find them. The success of digital marketing is greatly dependent on the clienteles that have contact to the internet, and are accustomed with the different websites, and social media networks that have been used to target them (Kiang, Raghu and Shang (2000). Moreover, traditional methods such as street marketing, TV, magazines, newspapers or radio are easily accessible to a larger majority, as well as the older generation. Some of these methods like street and event marketing allow firms to have a personal interaction with the consumers, and thus they are able to get real-time and direct feedback. This method of marketing is more valuable especially when businesses that are testing a new product that is about to be launched. Traditional marketing as compared to digital marketing uses approaches such as TV, direct transactions, magazines, mail, newspapers or print ads as well as printed materials such as brochures, posters, billboards, or catalogs (Tudor, 2016). Digital marketing, on the other hand, uses one or more forms of digital devices to promote the company's products (Tudor, 2016). So, between digital marketing and traditional marketing, which option offers the best way to reach the market and get customers to buy?

Digital Marketing vs Traditional Marketing

Traditional marketing uses approaches such as TV, mail, radio, print ads in magazines or newspapers, direct sales, and printed materials like catalogs, posters, brochures or billboards. Digital marketing, on the other hand, is the promotion of products and services through the use of electronic media. This includes the use of handsets, internet and social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook among others. Digital marketing is more like traditional marketing, but the major difference is that it uses digital devices.

Advantages and Disadvantages of Traditional Marketing

Traditional marketing has its pros and cons. The advantages include:

• Traditional methods of marketing may be the only means to reaching the target consumers such as the old generation persons.
• Another strategy of traditional marketing is person-to-person. Sometimes, this type of direct selling can be the most effective form of marketing for goods and services depending on the time and place.
• The traditional form of marketing provides a hard copy reference material.

Traditional marketing, on the other hand, has its disadvantages. They include:

• Traditional marketing is prohibitive to a number of small businesses because the purchase of radio, TV or print can be costly. Mailers, business cards and brochures are also costly to produce as hard copies.
• Buying airplay in media, producing radio commercials and printing materials often requires outsourcing of the service, and this adds to the cost of marketing.
• In traditional marketing, results cannot be easily measured, and in most cases, they are not measured at all.
• Traditional marketing is considered static which mean that a company is not able to interact with its customers.

Advantages and Disadvantages of Digital Marketing

Digital marketing just like traditional marketing has its pros and cons as well. The advantages of digital marketing include:

• It is an interactive means that companies can use to reach the global as well as the local audience when appropriate.
• Data from digital marketing is easily available and in this regard, a company is able to measure the results.
• Social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook enable the company to the community directly with the consumers, who can also spread the word about the company's products through the word of mouth marketing (Tavukcuoglu, 2018).
• Digital marketing is available 24/7 and is able to capture a more energetic crowd.
• Digital marketing also has its disadvantages. They include;
• Digital marketing only relies on clients who are interactive on social media networks and the internet.
• Content for the internet sites must be created, approved and published, and comments should be responded to and the pages and sites have to be maintained.

Though digital marketing is vital, there are questions about its reliability.

According to Tiago and Verissimo (2014), there are countless ways in which companies can market their products and services. Tiago and Verissimo (2014) steered a study of marketing managers to provide an understanding of the usefulness of social media and digital marketing as well as its inhibitors and benefits. The article shows the pressures that firms have to adopt digital presence in the social media networks. The authors found out that digital marketing enhances a firm's marketing efforts by implementing innovative forms of communication as well as create content for their customers. Though the traditional methods of marketing have been used over time, digital marketing is becoming more popular, since the world is transitioning to the digital environment. Almost everything is going digital including newspapers, as well as other daily tasks like banking and reading online. With this rise of the digital age, companies are investing in digital campaigns. Traditional marketing still has a place in the marketing world, but with time it is diminishing because of this digital era.

According to Shang et al. (2018) for today's companies, it vital to use the website as a means to interact with the customer base. With this new approach to marketing, what are the benefits of digital marketing that make it a better option for companies to reach and get consumers to buy? Results obtained from the study by Shang et al. (2018) suggests that digital marketing is the most preferred type of marketing as opposed to traditional marketing. From the study, the authors found out that digital marketing as a tool of marketing is a better option because it is cost effective. Digital marketing according to Bianchi and Mathews (2016) allows companies to market their products and services at the desired destination using the desired amount. Previous researches show the importance of digital marketing in export activities in developed markets. However, there were gaps as to whether digital marketing had an effect on the performance of exports in emerging markets. Bianchi and Mathews (2016) conducted a study to effect the internet had on the growth of export markets in emerging markets. A sample of 204 firms dealing in exports from Chile was studied. The findings indicated that digital marketing has a positive influence in availing export information that can be used by firms to develop business networks which would, in turn, lead to a growth in export markets. Furthermore, digital marketing saves the environment by saving on paper as well as other resources, speeds up the company's marketing trend, and is able to reach a number of individuals even in remote places.

The sudden developing interest in the use of internet among fashion brands as well as other businesses, Kim and Ko (2012) identified features of internet activities and observed the relationship these activities have on customer relationship, value of the comapny, purchase intention, customer parity and brand loyalty using the structural equation model. Some of the observed internet undertakings of the luxury brands as identified in this study include communication, showbiz, customization, word of mouth and trendiness. These activities showed a positive outcome on customer relationship, value equity as well as brand loyalty. These findings show that a measure of such results can help luxury brands, as well as other companies, projection of the future buyer purchasing patterns more accurately, as well as provide a guide that can be used in managing company-customer relationships.

Also, in research by Szmigin, Canning and Reppel (2005), the authors found out that the use of electronic channels and posting of positive comments, and feedback from customers about a product can help attract new customers as well as build healthy consumer-company relationships. However, the authors were quick to point out that it can work in both ways, in that while happy customers can help in building the brand, the unhappy ones can also harm the business seriously. Regardless of such problems, the authors concluded that digital marketing has a wholly positive influence on businesses and despite the certain cons, its impact on business is usually highly positive. Moreover, as compared to traditional marketing, it is easy to measure results that can help in marketing decisions. Through internet tools like Google Analytics, companies are able to keep track of the traffic on their websites including the conversion rates. This analysis can help a company better in adapting their marketing strategies accordingly. Such tools also help provide great insight into the effectiveness of digital advertising campaigns.

Importance of Digital Marketing

According to Mathews et al. (2016), digital marketing is important in a company in that if managed properly, it can help a company reach more customers and get them to buy. From the Study, the authors found out that digital marketing is a tool that connects the company with the consumers. The internet is a tool of marketing and communication that facilitates internationalization including network opportunities and information accumulation. However, as identified by Mathews et al. (20...