Technology makes no difference. Evaluating the principles of marketing in the 21st century.

Introduction

This paper seeks to present the opposing arguments on the issue of technology in marketing practices among businesses. In particular, this paper will discuss this topic: “Technology makes no difference. Evaluating the principles of marketing in the 21st century.”

Marketing orientation becomes the buzzword in businesses not only today but also in past decades in which new technologies was not available. It engages a business to base their marketing plans to marketing concept with respect to the new consumer tastes. For instance, a certain company would utilize market research to determine consumer needs, use R&D to enhance the product based on the gathered information, and then make use of promotion methods to let people know the product was available. Regardless of the type of marketing strategies to be employed, marketers shouldn’t forget the ethics in marketing. Marketers need to be conscious of what good ethics are and how to integrate good ethics in diverse marketing promotions to better reach a targeted client and to get trust from patrons especially in the current age whereas the new technologies like internet technologies and e-business are proliferating.

The idea of marketing is thought of as just selling and advertising because we are bombarded with people, posters and ads selling and promoting products and services. However, both functions are only part of the elaborate concept of marketing and they are often not the most important ones but they are, obviously, the most tangible factors.

Marketing supersedes any business function because it deals with the understanding, creating and communicating with the consumer. There are many definitions for marketing. Kotler & Armstrong (2001, p.6) defined marketing as “a social and managerial process whereby individuals and groups obtain what they need and want through creating and exchanging products and value with others.” This definition requires a discussion of terms such as needs, wants, demands, products, services, value, satisfaction and quality to be able to integrate the concept of marketing in our daily life.

And as the new technologies like the internet emerges marketing approaches also changes such as the so-called e-marketing. It is indeed true that marketing approaches noted the importance of technology but in the end the principle of marketing remains at is i.e. to identify, keep and to satisfy the customer.

Discussion

Modernity, this is the kind of era that most of us believe that we live in. Computers, high-end technologies, appearance of liberal democracy, and the concept of nation-state, and also the proliferation and encouragement of corporate institutions worldwide became the common practice in the current era. In our environment, modernity supplies on the inspiration of growth, and describes an era where much of the social change we currently see has already occurred. Meaning, postmodernity has just begun. Actually, postmodernism was deeply attached in philosophy, government, architecture and business that carry various labels and changing definitions. Postmodernism basically hits the closing stages of the industrial era, and distinguishes a globally interrelated, yet strangely enough, increasingly disjointed, semiotic world where total certainty doesn’t exist. In businesses, postmodernism gradually affects the marketing practices considering that new technologies such as internet commerce or e-based marketing emerges but some argued that marketing principles remain intact if its basics and ethics are carefully considered by marketers. Ethics in marketing are crucial because it could affect the relationship of business to their consumers. For instance, consumers are frustrated with marketing especially to those marketers that are using new kind of marketing technologies such as internet marketing. Actually, in this postmodern age, consumers are tired of booting up their computers each morning only to find tons of irrelevant e-mails. As for the ethics in marketing, marketers should realise that consumers are worn out by the unvarying flow of uncongenial email offers. But who can blame them? The tons of messages in consumers’ email create an overload of information that no human being can process.

This paper clarifies the issue of the technology in marketing through the presentation of opposing views in the succeeding discussion to assist readers in making a stand on the issue. According to Tansey (2002), it has been a popular business practice to take advantage of employing information technology to transform different aspects of the company’s business processes. Even though there are many companies which have employed information technology in their business, Yeung (1995) argued that there are still those who do not realise the full potential of this innovation. One may argue that the main goal of marketing was to innovate things based on the needs of consumers in the future and makes them (consumers) buy those products and services. With the proliferation of new technologies, marketing methods changed but still receives unchanged ends. Actually, among the aspects of business processes which have been affected by information technology is marketing and this has formed a crucial part in conducting business as the concept of marketing implies, the subsequent expansion of markets through information technology meant that the marketing functions of businesses also have expanded. Just how much technology has affected marketing still remains an issue because as new innovations in the field emerge, marketing ends never changes. The methods in marketing might changed because of new technologies but keeps unchanged ends.

• The Marketing Principles

Extensive industrial competition, vibrant procedure of internationalization and globalization and efficient tracking of technological changes – these are just few of the essentials that affect the global marketing and its related operations. With such phenomenon affecting every company, there is a need to classify the most appropriate market answer in order to sustain with such rising impacts – helpful or harsh – not only to the marketing process but to the firms in general. According to Kotler & Armstrong (2001), marketing can be considered as one of the most imperative constituent reinforcing the business development. Maybe to its multifaceted significance in business, as seen in Brownlie, et al. (1999, p. 9) marketing have been defined in different number of ways. Basically, the concept of marketing was first publicized in the late 1950’s (Little, 1994). The value of marketing notion adds in oft-repeated aspects such as the idea of customer orientation, integrated marketing efforts, and resultant profitability among others. Nowadays, a lot of number of people and organizations are making extensive efforts to become successful in the business by using marketing as their core competitive identity. In accordance to this purpose, these organisations had been able to capably and successfully acclimatize to the position in the market place by means of diverse techniques that improved their competitiveness.

In this part of the paper, it discusses the core marketing principles. Specifically, it focuses on marketing mix, strategic 3Cs concept – company, customer, and competition, and marketing strategy and plan. Actually, the marketing principles are known to be “technology proof” based on their objectives.

Marketing Mix

The marketing mix principles is a handy variable that is why it can be amended on a recurrent basis to meet up the varying needs of the target market and other factors of marketing situation (Krishnan, Tadepalli, & Park, 2009). With respect to marketing plan, marketing mix that comprises both long term and short term strategies adds up and makes a more advantageous marketing mix. Basically, long term considerations created brand/company understanding and give business returns an enduring, steady increase. Apparently, short term factors considered in marketing mix creates temporary but instantaneous revenue boost up by giving buyers an encouragement to buy. By executing both long and short term considerations in marketing mix, marketers can respond to instant sales goals while building their reputation and goodwill (Brownlie, 1999).

Strategic 3Cs Concept

The Strategic 3Cs concept in marketing includes company, customer (target market) and competition. These are all interacting components that serve as the primary marketing players.
Company - Marketing is the interfacing of a company and its target market. A marketer must always identify the strengths and weaknesses of the company in serving the needs and wants of the market. Therefore, there is a need to choose specific market segment where the marketer will establish potential leadership or at least a strong challenger role. Segmentation distinguishes that buyers of any product or service group need, desire, want and expect diverse feat from products or services in the group. Marketers should balance between the company’s requirements for profits and desired market share.

Customer (or Target Market) - Majority of marketing authorities argued that in achieving business triumph, all you need is a customer. Concepts and theories on how to supervise are not really necessary on this situation. Solving all problems is not also an assurance to be capable. Marketers need is to find out what you do right for the customers and you have by now got and do more of it. In fact, the clients play as the main players in the accomplishment of a business. In this case, market orientation is the main mechanism that caters the needs of the organization in providing the best service or product possible. The knowledge of the needs and wants of the consumers is an excellent way to improve the marketing management strategies. The rationale is that the more an organization understands and meets the real needs of its consumers, the more likely it is to have contented customers who will come back for more product or service purchase, and possibly tell their friends. Marketing is about satisfying the wants and needs of customers. Through an effective and efficient competitive advantage strategy, the organization will be able to reach its prescribed objectives and continuously operate in the chosen field of industry and at the same time earning more profit and expanding its operations.

Competition -According to Proctor (2000), competition is significant since it affects the success of a business endeavour. Proctor added that competition is more than just producing and distributing products and services that matches the needs of the consumers. Competition is about the company’s ability of positioning itself in the market so that they will stand out among the rest in the perception of the consumers.

Marketing Strategy and Plan

Marketing stimuli often consist of the four Ps of marketing: product, price, place and promotion while the other stimuli may include economic, technological, political and cultural factors which exist in the marketing environment. In lieu, there are certain ways or techniques that can be considered in order to emerge and continue to be competitive within the marketplace in terms of marketing. In a profit-making business, the business organization obviously has to try and achieve this level of customer satisfaction as a way of staying ahead of the competition and making a profit (Moschis, 1994). Bruckner et. al. (1999) affirmed that market expectations are hard for managers to understand and even harder for them to change. They also noted that there are applicable and practical ways that could be use to deal with such. It is much more bounded by science than the abstractions present in the marketing field. As they evaluate the relationship of the market and the business, they particularly put emphasis on strategy.

In the field of marketing, strategy falls in various areas and types (e.g. market segmentation, competition, innovation, growth, etc.). Specifically in marketing, they may be pricing, product, promotion, distribution, marketing research, sales, advertising, merchandising, etc. strategies. Strategy is concerned with effectiveness rather than efficiency and is the process of analyzing the environment and designing the fit between the organization, its resources and objectives and the environment (Porter, 2000). With respect to the emergence of new technologies, marketing strategy remains to be the fundamental groundwork of marketing plans designed to achieve measurable marketing objectives (Cavuoto, 1996 and Meek & Meek, 2003). It is given that a good strategy in marketing encompasses the organization’s marketing goals, policies, and action cycle. With this fact, strategy is the foundation of the marketing activity.

• The Role of Technology in Marketing – Advantages and Disadvantages

If current statements are to be believed, the speed of execution of technology within organizations would come into view to be persistent and its extent invasive, with extravagant asserts made in terms of technology's organizational advantages such as increased competence and augmented levels of customer service. Particularly, much literature has centred on the power of technology to assist and emphasize theatrical transformations in organizational structures (Gillenson, Sherrell, & Chen, 1999). Management practices linked with the amplified utilisation of technology, such as downsizing, business reprocessing, and the knowledge based enterprise and the boundary less organization have become an important part of organizational language. Technology in businesses are said to ease the way in which information is practiced, with the latent to transform the way in which decision making is assumed, and even to effect a shift in the nature and scope of activities undertaken by the business (Capps, 1993). For instance, technology at least guarantees dramatic effects for the shape and content of inter-organizational associations in addition to intra-organizational communication; the foundation on which organizations contend; the ways of construction; the procedure of allocation and service support; certainly for approximately every feature of conventional organizational action (Gresham, Hafer, & Markowski, 2006).

As a matter of fact, whether essential organisational changes have in fact happened with the implementation of technology is not clear. Few would oppose, nevertheless, that technology, because of the rapidity with which it can process, analyse and transmit massive quantities of information and present these in pleasant, suitable and specific ways, offers at slightest the latent to facilitate major change in the way in which organizations are structured and undertake actions (Laudon & Laudon, 2003). The degree to which these alterations are realised and the appearance they take is expected to stream from an enduring progression in which a quantity of parties, together with, of course, technology suppliers and end users, play a part.

Advantages of Technology in Marketing

So far technology has mainly involved to the marketing practices of big firms. They have been the preferred customers of big technology companies such as IBM or Intel for offering technology-based marketing solutions, since they have professional skills in understanding the complexity of the products offered, they are cash rich companies with centralised decision making for investments. Why the interest in this market then? Although it is far from a unified market, cobbled together is it enormous. For instance, Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (SMEs) represent the majority of all companies around the globe, and in EU they employ 99% of the workforce and provide some 75 million jobs (Commission of the European Communities, 2005). On another front, SMEs are just starting to enter the technology era. As an example, most of the small-business market is essentially untapped in terms of new technologies like the Internet. According to Red Herring (2000), just over half of all small businesses in the US have Internet access, but few use it for much more than email and basic research. The market is structurally difficult to tap by traditional channels, because it is diverse, it is expensive to reach and it does not aggregate easily. The technology like the Internet changes this by providing an inexpensive and interactive means of aggregating them and also keeping a customised relationship. And without the hassle that geographic dispersion places over traditional channels. Aggregated and automated electronic procurement by using buying consortiums to negotiate prices can significantly cut processing costs. Thus, the field of small businesses could be levelled against big corporations, and they can enjoy some of the economies of scale of big firms (The Economist, 2002).

As part of the advantages of technology in marketing, the interaction between SMEs and consumers becomes possible considering that at first, it is often difficult and lacks transparency, since they are geographically fragmented. Questions about the products, features, price, availability, and credit worthiness involve both buyers and sellers also becomes available with the use of new technologies. In previous years, businesses usually have to locate many suppliers, request quotes from many suppliers, and then decide (Yiannis & Tim, 1995). The same applies for suppliers in when selling to many buyers. But with the use of new technologies and consideration of the e-marketplaces with respect to the use of technologies lower the costs of shopping for customers and customer acquisition for buyers. As Gravitz (2000, p.1) says: "The internet is not only the perfect low cost vehicle for distributing information and services to this diverse, geographically dispersed market, but also the unifying market opportunity.”

Disadvantages of Technology in Marketing

Small businesses have traditionally been able to gain the advantages over larger competitors by developing personalised relationships with customers, customising their offerings and efficiently targeting niche markets, usually not large enough to be cost efficient for larger business to enter (Kleindl, 2000 & White, 1998). However, with the emergence of the new technologies in marketing approaches such as the Internet and E-marketplaces, its disadvantages also show significant effect:

Loss of the protected niches: the Internet and especially E-marketplaces allows businesses to enter niche markets at no additional cost. This threats the established position of SMEs in geographically isolated or small markets, bypassing them and shortening the distribution channel, where distributors or sales representatives add little value. Big corporations are now able to reach more consumers and customise their offer, destroying some of the advantages that SMEs enjoy.

Commoditisation of suppliers: This occurs when customers can suddenly find a large number of suppliers with relatively similar offerings and have them bid for the sale. The costs for customers to go out of the "protected niche" have come down, and his search over the Internet for alternative sources can result in a large number of suppliers, who may find themselves in a commodity market with its consequences from price and tendency towards industry consolidation. When there are many suppliers bidding for the order of one or s few monopolistic buyers, the E-marketplace model could lead into serious monopolistic behaviour (The Economist, 2002).

Lack of resources to be a first mover: the high costs of setting up a website and E-commerce facilities may result on the delay of SME to engage into E-commerce. Firms that are web pioneers already have cost advantages as they move along the experience curves. They are likely to have captured market share and achieved scale economies. First movers are also likely to have developed customer loyalty through brand name preferences, and customer relationships, which can act as a barrier to entry. The relevance of brand image is far more important in the Internet than in the physical world (Kleindl, 2000). In the words of Coltman, Devinney, Latukefu & Midgley (2000, p.1): "In a busy over-communicated and untrustworthy world (like the intangibility of the web) consumers continue to gravitate towards brands as a way to simplify choices. Brands act as a substitute for information gathering reducing search costs and they build trust, security and expectation regarding product quality".

• The implication of technology in the marketing practices of the 21st century

With the small review of marketing principles, the marketer can now stare at the use of technology to enhance and efficiently execute the Marketing Plan. Technology, particularly the use of the Internet and the different sets of hardware and software that collaborates with the internet, is radically changing the way all business procedures are administered but the truth is the marketing principle remains intact i.e. to satisfy the needs and wants of consumers. Regardless of methods to use, whether it is traditional or technology-based or e-based marketing, the basic principle of marketing remains unharmed. Basically, the expression “e-business” has been used to depict the means in which technology will modify the business venture. Goals of e-business are to (Paley, 1999):

Ø Decrease buy/sell costs

Ø Get in touch with global and remote markets

Ø Perk up the effectiveness of the supply chain

Ø Reconstruct the value chain

Ø Enhance customer relationships

E-business includes supply chain assimilation, e-commerce, and for the purpose of this paper, “e-marketing”. The terrific intensification of technological development has become the dynamic force of current industries. The dissemination of the internet has transformed the business environment. The make use of new technologies such as the Internet is altering high-tech marketing suddenly while diverse industries have been trying to use it as division of their marketing approach. As indicated in the paper of Donthu & Garcia (1999, pp. 52-58), technology has not only reconstructed the way diverse firms do their marketing approaches and the way the customers purchase goods and services, but it has also become an efficient tool in revitalizing the value chain from producers to retailers to consumers, making a new trade distribution control. In accordance to the implication of new technologies in marketing, the so-called e-marketing became known. Actually, e-marketing is a great instrument used by different businesses. It is defined as the process of achieving marketing objectives through the use of electronic communications technology particularly the internet. Little, (1994) have supplied a 5Ss’ mnemonic for how the technology such as the internet can be applied by all business firms for different e-marketing tactics. These 5S’s are selling, serve, speak, save and sizzle. E-marketing is also acknowledged to be the online marketing approach used by different businesses whose main purpose is to be the most excellent business in their field. In various countries around the globe, numerous business firms have been using e-marketing approach in order to be viable. From foods and beverages, books, automobiles and other products and services, various firms, regardless of their company sizes, are trying to survive by means of e-marketing strategy. Aside from being a promotional medium, the internet is a tool for marketing communications as well. Due to its interactive nature, the internet is an efficient method used in communicating with the consumers. Hence, several companies are beginning to understand the advantages of using the internet as a tool for communication. Companies then started to concentrate on designing web-related strategies and employing interactive agencies that will facilitate their development of specific company web sites as part of their integrated marketing communication strategy. There are companies however, that are effectively using the internet by incorporating their web-related strategies with the other areas of their strategies. The approach now becomes integrated and more strategic.

E-marketing is the latest marketing approach for any firm who wants to effectively market its products and services. In addition, e-marketing allows businesses to be known around the globe considering that a lot of people nowadays are able to access information derived from the internet.

Conclusion

As revealed in the discussion, the marketing notion justifies that the environment of the marketing oriented organization, whether service or product based, profit or nonprofit based, is the classification and authentic satisfaction of customers’ needs and wants, more efficiently and competently than the competition. The marketing notion or idea has been constantly developed and transformed into more modern and classy ways. And one of this was the emergence and existence of new technologies that covers the overall progression of marketing. Though, the instruments that is usually used has also modified to the changing times. It demonstrated to be very flexible taking into account that marketing methods has been employing the use of modern technology in enhancing business efficiency as well as capability to supply the needs of consumers. Now, in order to address the problem and possibly eliminate business threats, there is a need to implement changes not only in the application of Internet technologies or e-commerce but with consideration of the marketing principles.

In this paper, I learned how the new technologies played significant role in marketing and have a clearer understanding that makes marketing principles become ‘technology proof’. By identifying the role of technologies in marketing it helps me and possibly other marketers to create marketing strategies that will not alter marketing goals and principles. This paper creates significant help for marketers in maximizing the potential of new technologies in enhancing marketing approaches.

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