You can book travel tickets over your mobile phone or the
Internet. You can use SMS to pay the bill at a restaurant or a departmental
store. The Internet and the cellphone are packing more functionality and ease
into your life. And the ad spend going into Internet advertising in India is
climbing as it is doing the world over. By 2008 it will generate about $19 bn
worldwide, say Pricewaterhouse Coopers. This is the era of digital marketing.
When combined with traditional marketing devices such as print, TV, radio,
offline sales strategy, integrated marketing-as it is called-can redefine
the rules of marketing.
Take for instance, Best Buy, a chain of technology stores in the
US. In just one quarter, it has seen an 8.4% increase in in-store sales and a
30% revenue increase in one of the stores by employing innovative e-mail
marketing campaigns. From their e-mail surveys and online sign up service, they
were able to profile four types of customers who would buy, and could weed out
those with a history of returning sold items repeatedly. The stores were
redesigned to help the four types of customers browse through them. And of
course, the sales staff was retrained to handle them.
Another example is Yahoo. It has managed to deliver a successful
marketing experience for retail and consumer packaged goods companies by
integrating the TV show-The Apprentice-with a web campaign. In one of the
episodes, for instance, the competing teams had to whip up new flavors of ice
cream for the company Ciao Bella Gelato. A call out at the end of the show urged
the viewers to go to Yahoo! Search and look for 'Apprentice ice cream'. The
portal's local site listed out the stores selling the ice cream and had maps
to reach them. The Apprentice ice cream sold out in 24 hours, along with which
went other flavors of Ciao Bella. Yahoo managed to repeat this success for other
brands like Levi's, Nescafe and Dove.
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Closer home, Coca Cola's myenjoyzone.com won appreciation for
managing to connect extremely well with its consumers. It used movies, sports,
jokes, music, games and contests to keep the consumer engaged. At every step, it
offered gifts and prizes. For example, in its 'Coca-Cola Khara Sona'
contest, you have to enter the number printed under the crown or closure of the
Coke bottle to win a prize. Pepsi too won awards for its 'Toss ka Boss'
campaign for having managed to run a successful multi-level campaigning though
the press, TV, the Net, SMS, and direct contact in schools, cinemas, etc. Zee's
DTH initiative required a prospective consumer to SMS his/her pin code to
solicit a buying enquiry. Based on the pin code, the Zee DTH official would have
a dealer from the area contact the person.
All these are examples of the net and the mobile getting
integrated into the marketing plans of companies. Digital marketing has a higher
utility value in the Western market due to high penetration of the Internet and
mobiles. Compare this: With 26 mn Net users, India has barely 3.6% Internet
penetration while the US has 68.5% and European Union 48.1%.
Hence comes the next question: Is it the right time for Indian
companies to take up digital marketing in a big way? The answer lies in the type
of products and services offered, the geographical area targeted and the profile
of the consumer. Even with limitations of Internet penetration there are areas
where digital marketing can play a very significant role. But it is obvious that
a smart mix of digital and traditional marketing techniques is very much on the
way.
The net, emails and the mobile offer simply too many benefits to
be ignored.