Article Review
This article titled “4 Principles of marketing in the digital age” was written by Greg Satell and appeared in the Forbes magazine on the 16th of April 2013. It gives pointers to marketers on how to cope with the ever changing face of marketing especially in the digital age.
The second principle is “Use Innovation Teams to Identify, Evaluate and Activate Emerging Opportunities”. This principle will enable marketers to tap into new potential and stay ahead of the competition through taking advantage of new opportunities. Greg, however, advices companies to first test all innovations that come their way before integrating them into their strategy so as to avoid losses.
The third principle is “Decouple Strategy and Innovation”. Companies are advised to avoid the common pitfall of combining these two items as they are very different from each other. This is because the strategy is a means of achieving an objective while innovation is the creation of new products and services. He proposes that companies reduce their innovation budgets and also avoid delegating it to top executives as this only increases cost.
The fourth principle is “build open assets in the marketplace”. This means that companies should go beyond just getting sales. It is now more important to create a sense of community and belonging to the brand since most marketing strategies can be easily duplicated due to technological advancements. The key is to involve everyone in the development and improvement of applications and platforms so as to get maximum results.
The main point in this article is that marketers should focus on their strategy and the message and image that they want to convey instead of just trying to be on every platform. This is a different message as compared to other authors who tell marketers to ‘get themselves out there’ with little focus on content or strategy.
This article is well written in a simple language that everyone can understand. It, however, lacks in-depth explanations of the principles mentioned above and, therefore, does not give clear directions. The author downplays the importance of marketing models and formulae which have been scientifically tested and found to be effective.
Greg Satell educates marketers on how to make technology work for them instead of having it overwhelm them. This article is especially useful for all marketers who want to adapt to the digital age and adds to the literature on how to market using technology.
REFERENCES
Satell, Greg. (2013, April 16) 4 Principles of marketing in the digital age. Forbes
Retrieved from http://www.forbes.com/sites/gregsatell/2013/04/16/4-principles-of-marketing-strategy-in-the-digital-age/
