Introduction
The purpose of this report is to explore the nature of digital marketing and the advantages that come with it.
Speaker 1: Paul Sinclair, Head of Digital Strategy, Marketing, e-commerce and Product development with Atlantic Records.
Atlantic Records is a renowned recording firm that manages among some of the world's top-rated artists such as Bruno Mars. Having been in the industry from as early as 2005, Paul Sinclair highlights three major points about digital marketing:
Firstly, he explains how he grew up listening to music on cassettes which later developed into compact discs and now comfortably listens to music on YouTube, an online channel for live music streaming (Burgess & Green 2013). Secondly, he concurs that marketing one's music, what was then an uphill task, is now easy to do through online platforms such as iTunes, youtube, personal websites as well as social networks (Vaccaro & Cohn 2004). He adds to say that their greatest source of revenue is online streaming, all of which confirms that digital marketing is the way to go for businesses that wish to remain relevant in the current digital society.
Speaker 2: Tatiana Oliveria Simonian Head of Marketing and Entertainment Partnerships at Tumblr
Tatiana insists on the need to differentiate one's products online to set them apart from the competitors. For example, Tumblr has to set its products apart from the likes of Twitter and Facebook from the products, to the ease of use (Chang, Tang, Inagaki & Liu 2014). Secondly, she insists on the need to lay a firm foundation for the digital strategy for the organization to allow for easy scaling upon setting off. More importantly, Tatiana insists on the need for objectivity in the strategy such that there is always an answer to the ‘why' that arises before undertaking any action. As for monetizing one's online platform, Tatiana emphasizes on the ease of navigation around the site to allow for a quick find of what one may be looking for.
Speaker 3: Naomi Grewal, Ph.D. Consumer Insights Manager, North America at Facebook.
Key among considerations in rolling out digital marketing according to Naomi Grewal is gathering business intelligence about brands through online platforms such as social media. Also to put into focus is the variety of data points that one analyses in coming up with an audience for whose digital content is targeted. Lastly, Naomi Grewal, emphasizes demographics, psychographics as well as behaviors across various consumer groups in designing content or consumption by the online community.
Key Common Observations from the Panel
The following stood out from the panel about digital marketing:
That determination of the target audience is key.
That the digital strategy adopted should provide for a growth path and as such needs a firm foundation
That marketing has shifted from the traditional media to the current online platforms and that businesses should take advantage of this.
Conclusion and recommendation
Having identified the vast opportunity presented by digital marketing, every company should invest money and resources to have a competent digital team that generates online content as well as determines the right audience for it and the appropriate channel for its delivery.
References
Burgess, J., & Green, J. (2013). YouTube: Online video and participatory culture. John Wiley & Sons.
Chang, Y., Tang, L., Inagaki, Y., & Liu, Y. (2014). What is tumblr: A statistical overview and comparison. ACM SIGKDD Explorations Newsletter,16(1), 21-29.
Vaccaro, V. L., & Cohn, D. Y. (2004). The evolution of business models and marketing strategies in the music industry. International Journal on Media Management, 6(1-2), 46-58.
