In the last few weeks the hot topic of discussion at Underscore has been digital marketing and its’ use to deepen the customer and brand experience.
Marketing has changed significantly in the last fifty years, from business growth relying heavily on word of mouth, emphasising a one-to-one personal relationship with their customer, to the advent of broadcasting on mass media such as radio, television and Out of Home (OoH) which saw a shift in the archetypal paradigm with marketers then embracing the ability to reach mass markets but with the disadvantage of losing that one-to-one personal touch. The industry quickly realised the need to bridge that gap and employed the use of direct marketing tactics (think snail mail and loyalty cards).
With the rapid growth of digital, there now exists unlimited potential for companies and brands to reengage with their customers on a more personal level and truly bridge that gap between brand and client.
Smartphone technology is a booming area providing unchartered potential for growth if brands are able to embrace this new platform and allow digital marketers to truly innovate within their industry and take ideas to the next level as part of a holistic digital marketing strategy.
Speaking at Pernod Ricard’s Innovation Day, Pernod Ricard’s CMO Martin Riley told Marketing Week, “…it’s fledging digital strategy revolved around four pillars: data, branded content, ecommerce and internal expertise. The company’s digital managers, who would previously sit in a separate part of the marketing team, are increasingly being integrated into the main brand teams”.
Riley interestingly added, “We need to be careful when creating these innovations for our brands because it needs to make sense to a consumer and provide a service. I don’t want to just drive people in to bars [through mobile ads] on price promotions. The ad needs to have a value message built into it.”
Underscore understands digital has the potential to recapture that one-to-one customer experience and get back to the roots of marketing through innovative use of digital.
As companies and brands continue to trial different technology to engage their consumers and create an engaging relationship, it will be trial and error that will shape the direction of the digital marketing strategy to engage consumers, hone brand communication and impact customer loyalty, engagement and awareness.