Marketing Opinion South Africa

Understanding traditional and digital marketing

First and foremost, you have to understand what is marketing as it has been known over the years. The first step to understand marketing is by breaking down the 4Ps; Product, Place, Price, and Promotion. This sets the stage to fundamentally have an idea where to start in the journey of marketing. Although, today, marketing transcends the 4Ps. However, a marketing strategy should always revert to these four pillars.

“With the fundamental role of marketing understood, the 4Ps really are the best way to consider marketing’s functions. For this reason I demand my students look at every new concept to confirm for me where and how it affects, and is affected by, the 4Ps. Single-minded focus on the 4Ps as marketing’s area of action is critical to business success. Yet it is important to understand the 4Ps are functional activities and not roles” - Doug Garnett

The definition of marketing is: the action or business of promoting and selling products or services, including market research and advertising.

Over the years marketing as a service has changed. But, the core principles of marketing remained the same. The most recent changes have brought about the rapid penetration of social media and digital media marketing channels.

Digital marketing

Digital marketing doesn't differ much from the traditional marketing model. The only difference is that digital marketing is based on online channels. For this reason, some of the traditional marketing methods can works in digital marketing, as well. It is important when planning a digital marketing campaign to always remember the marketing methods.

Social media marketing

Social media marketing is a member of digital marketing channels, which has gained momentum in recent years. It is important to recognise the intricacies of social media marketing which helps marketers to reach the right target audience. Unlike traditional marketing which usually uses a blanket approach to targeting and reaching the consumer audience.

Social media marketing can work as a platform to communicate impactful information to niche target consumers. This is why marketers must familiarise themselves with all social media platforms, and how they can use them to market and promote brands and products. It is also important to note that individual social media platform works differently. And they use different algorithmic calculations. The blanket approach doesn’t apply in social media marketing.

Community management

In today’s digital landscape, is important to build a community of audience for your marketing and brand building purpose. That is why having a strong community management strategy must be prioritized. In a B2C business model, having community management will assist in marketing efforts or brand activations to reach targets that are already familiar with the brand or product. For traditional marketing, this would be about creating a word-of-mouth campaign.

Be that as it may traditional marketing and digital marketing could be harness together without creating parallel campaigns.

About Rirhandzu Shingwenyana

Rirhandzu Shingwenyana is a marketing, advertising and communications professional with experience in account management, social media and digital marketing campaign management.
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