Digital Marketing: Assessing the Landscape and Consumer Trends

This document provides an overview of digital marketing, including the assessment of the digital marketing landscape and the contrast between online and offline marketing. It also evaluates key consumer trends fueling the growth of digital marketing and discusses the use of digital tools and hardware in contrast with physical channels. Additionally, it explores the growth of e-commerce and digital marketing platforms and channels and compares them with physical channels. Finally, it covers the design of a digital marketing plan and strategy to build multi-channel capabilities and discusses the evolution of omni-channel marketing.

Digital Marketing

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION..........................................................................................................................2
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................2
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................2
P1 Assess the digital marketing landscape and contrast online and offline marketing..........2
P2 Evaluate the key consumer trends and insights which are fuelling the growth of digital
marketing................................................................................................................................4
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................5
P3 Explain the key digital tools and hardware which are used by marketers in contrast with
‘Bricks and Mortar’ and other physical channels...................................................................5
P4 Discuss the growth of e-commerce and digital marketing platforms and channels and
compare it with physical channels..........................................................................................6
TASK 3............................................................................................................................................7
P5 Design a digital marketing plan and strategy to build multi channel capabilities.............7
P6 Discuss how omni- channel marketing has evolved.........................................................8
TASK 4............................................................................................................................................9
P7 Explain measurement techniques and metrics in digital marketing..................................9
P8 Discuss a set of actions to improve performance in digital marketing...........................10
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................11
References:.....................................................................................................................................12
Books and Journals...............................................................................................................12
1

INTRODUCTION
Digital marketing refers to the use of technology for doing the marketing of products and
services by the company(Chu and Kim, 2018). The digital marketing has been evolved with the
expansion and use of technology and now the companies are making the promotion and
advertisements on the internet or on the digital media. The traditional way of doing the
marketing was just been limited with the print media, television, radio, or some business cards.
But now in the present era with the coming of technology, the marketers are also using the digital
platforms with which they can advertise the company name. Digital channels include the social
media, search engines, sending mails and the websites. Mercedes company is renowned and
known for manufacturing the luxury vehicles and other commercial vehicles. The company was
founded on 28 June, 1926 and has the headquarters in Stuttgart, Germany. This report will cover
opportunities, challenges and impact of the digital environment, digital tools, platforms with the
comparison and contrasting with Bricks and Mortar and other physical channels. It will also
include how to organise digital marketing activities and build multi channel capabilities and the
methods of monitoring and measuring digital marketing.
MAIN BODY
TASK 1
P1 Assess the digital marketing landscape and contrast online and offline marketing
Digital marketing landscape is the collection of tools by which the marketers can sell their
products and services to the consumers(Ozansoy Çadırcı and Sağkaya Güngör, 2019). This
collection of tools includes the social networking sites, emails, mobile devices, websites and
many others which involve the use of digital technology. The collection of different digital
platforms helps the company to spread the information about the business and their products and
services which they providing in the market. Mercedes is the big brand which is known for
selling the luxurious vehicles but to know more about the brand and its products they also take
the help of digital marketing.
Difference between online and offline marketing-
Online Marketing Offline Marketing
Meaning Online marketing means to
sell the products and services
Offline marketing refers to sell
the products and services to
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directly with the use online
channels (Kumar,
Ramachandran and Kumar,
2021). For example- social
media, websites etc.
the consumers with the use of
offline channels. For example-
newspapers, radio etc.
Focus In online marketing the main
focus of the marketers is
always on what they are
writing which means the
content and the video and
pictures which they are using
with the branding.
In offline marketing the main
focus of the marketers is on
the products only as to how
they have to convince the
customers to buy the products
and services.
Cost The cost which is spend on the
online marketing is not much
as to compare it with the
offline marketing because the
promotions or the
advertisement which are given
on the internet are cost
effective.
In offline marketing the cost is
high as they have to spend on
people, for maintaining stock,
salaries and many other.
Exposure In online marketing, the
marketers don’t have to search
people for promoting the
products.
The people are dispersed in
the offline marketing and the
marketers have to take the
products to them so that they
can know about the company.
People for management In the online the requirement
of the people are less because
the whole marketing is done
on internet(Crittenden,
Crittenden and Crittenden,
2019).
In this the requirement of
people is large and so the cost
is also high as the company
has to provide them the
salaries.
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P2 Evaluate the key consumer trends and insights which are fuelling the growth of digital
marketing
Digital marketing and the trends is always evolving and the changing nature of the consumes
needs to be taken into consideration while making any digital marketing(Martins, Dominique-
Ferreira and Pinheiro, 2021). Mercedes have always considered the trends while also taken into
consideration the trends which are taking place in the market for making the promotions. The
application of applying the digital marketing should be in regard with the dynamic nature of the
market. Mercedes is developing the advertisements which will help in building the relationship
of the consumers with them. The factors which are fuelling the growth of digital marketing have
been explained below in context with Mercedes-
 Changing technology- The technology is not constant and has been evolving with the
time and with that the style of doing the marketing has also changed. The consumers
demand with the company and their products have also changed and they want that the
product which has to be delivered to them must be fully modern. Mercedes in its vehicles
use the technology and the marketing strategy of the company is the BCG matrix which
has made the company leader in the market.
 Changing channels of communication- Earlier the channels of communication for the
companies to promote their products were based on offline manner. Now the channels of
communication have been changed and the companies are using these channels of
communication for communicating it with consumers(Gelbrich, Hagel and Orsingher,
2021). Mercedes advertisements are on every platform and they promote their products
with the help of using the social media channels, promoting the products on different
websites which the people use in high percentage.
 Video marketing- The marketing which used to be done earlier on the basis of just
writing has now been used with the help of making video advertisements. Mercedes have
promoting the vehicles while making the video advertisements and those advertisements
are displayed on the official website of the company and also on the social media
platform. In the present time of good quality phones and laptops the development of the
video advertisement has become necessary for the companies. It is also said that
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consumers gets attracted when the companies promotes their products with the use of
videos.
TASK 2
P3 Explain the key digital tools and hardware which are used by marketers in contrast with
‘Bricks and Mortar’ and other physical channels
Bricks and Mortar means the strategies which are made by the companies for doing the
marketing of products and services which is started or operated form the store which is helpful in
increasing the foot traffic(Kingsnorth, 2021). There are different tools and hardware which are
used by the marketers for making the promotion of the products and services of the companies.
These tools and hardware have been discussed below in context with Mercedes-
 Design tools- For the advertisements which has to be made online it is important in it
that the marketers use the design tools for designing the advertisements. Mercedes
promotions and branding of the products which it sells is of high quality and the design
which is made is unique. This is the reason why the company have made the unique and
different identity in the market. The design tools basically include the Canvas, Photoshop
and many others.
 Social media platforms- The social media platforms have now become the famous and
the most important platform for the companies to make their promotion. In social media
platforms there are many platforms which includes the twitter, facebook in which the
companies can make the promotions and branding of their products and services.
Mercedes has its own page on all the media platforms and in such the people who wants
to know more about the company can take the whole information from the websites only.
 E-Mail marketing- Email marketing is the most common but the most important tool for
the marketers to make the promotion and branding of the products. In email marketing
the company marketing team sends the mails to the people and it is known that at present
time every person are having their mail and they open it every day(Kumar and Nanda,
2019). The marketers make the campaigns of email and this helps them in providing them
the information regarding the people. The mail is also send by the team of Mercedes and
this application helps the marketing team for making the analyse of every campaign
which they are conducting and with this they take the test and optimise it quickly.
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P4 Discuss the growth of e-commerce and digital marketing platforms and channels and compare
it with physical channels
The growth of digital marketing is everywhere in comparison with the earlier time and the
main reason of the increases in digital marketing is that the process of business is evolving and
the market is becoming dynamic with the increase in competition (Koehn, Lessmann and Schaal,
2020). On the other hand, the behaviour of the consumers are also changing which makes it
utmost important for the use of digital and e-commerce websites. This is because the digital
marketing which is done by the companies are attractive as compared to the offline marketing
and also according to the study it has been seen that the people gets attracted with the
advertisements made and displayed on the digital platform. The pandemic has also increased the
value of e-commerce websites as people are taking the help of such websites for making the
purchases. Mercedes has come up with different strategies in doing the marketing digitally which
increases the attraction of the people towards the company. The unique and amazing style of its
vehicles cannot be known by the people unless they have been communicates well to the people.
Physical channels refer to the offline channels in which the products and services are provided to
the consumer’s offline.
The marketing of the company’s products are also made offline which was the major issue
and the marketers use to face the difficulty while making the promotion of the company. The
digital marketing has created the expansion of the company in a less time as in earlier time to
spread the information about the company was not the easier task. The cost and the brand
awareness which can be created with the help of digital marketing cannot be created with the use
of traditional methods of marketing(Coelho and Mendes, 2019). This is because in the physical
channels the audience reach was not higher and the cost of marketing was also high and the
businesses have to employ more people for the work of making promotions. The attractiveness
and the feasibility which the digital marketing and e-commerce websites provides to the people
and the business cannot be made by the physical channels. This is because the e-commerce
websites provide the products deliver at the doorsteps of people which was only inspired by the
coming of technology. These technologies have helped in increasing the business and reaching to
the large segment of consumers.
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TASK 3
P5 Design a digital marketing plan and strategy to build multi channel capabilities
Digital marketing plan is the strategy which the team of marketing makes for performing
the actions. The marketing plan has to made by conducting the research in the market and also
analysing the competitors marketing strategy (Haenlein and Kaplan, 2019). The main aim behind
this is just to build the relationship with the people and make them attracted with the products
and the company. Mercedes is the biggest brand and so also their marketing plan as they know
their target market and to promote the features which they are bringing in their products are
attractive which they do it with the use of marketing tools.
Company Overview- The company Mercedes Benz has the global business expansion and the
headquarters of the company is in Germany(Haenlein and Kaplan, 2019). The main focus of the
company is on the production and manufacturing of cars, passengers cars and to provide services
which are related with the vehicles. Mercedes Benz is the biggest producer of the luxurious
vehicles which includes the cars. The company is expanding its business globally which includes
35 production sites in the four continents.
Goal- The goal of the company is to become the largest and desirable producer of the cars and
the strategy of Mercedes is made with the help of using six pillars. They want to change the
structure as to increase their profits ratio and also to be sustainable at the same time.
SWOT analysis-
Strengths Weakness
The Mercedes is a well established brand and
the manufacturing of the vehicles are
worldwide. The products are luxurious and the
features and the quality which is provided by
Mercedes is unique and different from its
competitors.
The goals of the company which they have
established are conflicting. Also, the issue
which is faced by the consumers also is that the
cars are of high price which cannot be afforded
by every person.
Opportunities Threats
Mercedes Benz is now expanding the business
in the Asian Markets and the demand of the
products of the company is also increasing.
The main threat for Mercedes is that of the
competition which has been increasing in the
market. Also, the other companies are
providing the products which are similar to that
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of Mercedes cars. The company as they are
expanding the business might also face the
difficulty of economy recession in some
countries.
P6 Discuss how omni- channel marketing has evolved
Omni channel marketing is the link or combination of various channels of marketing
which is used by the companies to spread the message of the company and its products to the
consumers. The idea of Omni channel was introduced in the year 2010 and this term was higher
than the multi channel marketing(Qin and Jiang, 2019). The multi channel marketing was to
communicate with the customers with the use of different direct and indirect communication
channels. But as the time passes by the demand of the consumers also changed and the
consumers expect that the offerings which the company provides to them must be consistent with
the same message which is delivered with help of using the communication channels. In such a
way the use of multi channel marketing was changed and the companies started using the Omni
channels which is used to provide the message seamlessly across multiple channels which
includes the social media, website and other channels used in the digital marketing. The
messages which are delivered with the use of omni channel marketing is based on the interest of
the consumers.
The main difference between the multichannel and the omni channel is that in multichannel
the messages are delivered with using different channels of communication and in omni channel
the messages are integrated with one another. The main benefit which the companies takes form
the use of omni channel marketing is that they achieves the better experience and they need not
have to employ many people for the management of different channels(Stolyarov and et.
al.,2019). The Mercedes has increased their revenue with the help of suing the omni channel
marketing as the messages are delivered consistently and they don’t have to focus on the
different messages to provide it to the people. The automobile industry is taking the help of this
marketing as the investment is high and to make loyal customers becomes their prior importance
for the dealership and manufacturing. The main trends which have been brought up in omni
channel marketing is to provide the main focus to the brand and not to the channel and Mercedes
have identified that multiple channels means more loyal customers.
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TASK 4
P7 Explain measurement techniques and metrics in digital marketing
The marketing team in every company conducts the research and then works on the
marketing of the products and services of the company. But after the beginning of their
marketing strategies it becomes very important to analyse and measure whether the marketing
strategies are working or not. For the measurement, there are different techniques and metrics
which can be used to check the marketing progress. Those marketing techniques and metrics
have been discussed below in context with Mercedes-
 Total site visits- Every company has their own website in which they provide the
information about their company and the products which they are selling (Wenzel, 2019).
Not just this, there are other promotional ways which are used by the companies to create
the marketing of the products. This can be calculated and measured by the company with
the help of number of people who have visited the site as this provides them the rough
idea of their campaign. Mercedes does this only to find out whether the strategy is
effective or have to be changed to evaluate the issue.
 New v/s returning traffic- The main goal which the company wants to achieve should
be first identified before using this technique. This is because the company main focus
will be on increasing the number of new customers or to make the comeback of the old
customers. For this the gaol has to be identified which the marketing team of Mercedes
wants as if they want to bring new people to the website. But if the issue arises that the
consumers are not making any purchase not in the offline mode that is the stores nor
online then the company have to design the whole campaign again.
 Mobile traffic- The demand and also the use of the mobile phones has been increased
not by the higher age group people but also by the children. So for this measurement, the
company has to check the percentage of people who are operating the company websites
on the mobile phones. For this the marketing team has to check the ratio regarding the
number of people who are spending the time on the websites, how much time they are
spending and after this they have to make the plan for those who are not using the sites o
their mobile phones.
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P8 Discuss a set of actions to improve performance in digital marketing
The digital marketing is the difficult tool for making the promotion and branding of the
products and services of the company. It is important to choose the channels and the content in
the digital marketing very precise and accurate so that it attracts the target consumers. The main
focus of the Mercedes is always on choosing the best platforms to promote the brand and the
products which they are coming with while defining the features of the products (Lui and Au,
2018). Still there are some actions which have to be taken into consideration for doing the
marketing with the use of digital marketing platform. The actions which has to be taken into
consideration for improving the performance of digital marketing has been discussed below-
 Focus on conversion and not just leads- The main priority of the marketing team of the
company should be on the data. The data is the main source which helps to plan the
strategies for marketing and which provides the information regarding where the target
customers are spending their time. This helps to target the right people and the company
thus makes the success. Mercedes also conducts the same idea which provides them the
information regarding which customers and people they have to target for their products.
 Google ads- There are many other sources by which the company can do its marketing
but the Google ads are considered to be most reliable one. the marketing team of the
company has to pay the Google for displaying the advertisements which they have
prepared for the people which means to just define the keywords and the budget and all
the other things are done automatically (Taylor and Carlson, 2021). Mercedes displays
the advertisements and the marketing of the company is also displayed on the Goggle
ads.
 Analysis of the past- It is essential to analyse what the company has conducted in the
past and what changes they have made in the present. Analysis helps to measure the
performance and also tells the marketing team regarding whether the new changes which
they have done is correct or not. If some changes are required to be made then the team
focuses on that thing.
CONCLUSION
From the above report it can be concluded that in today’s time digital marketing has become
the most important tool for the business to make their success. The companies who are more into
the digital marketing then they are more in the minds of the people and with this people get to
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know more about the company. Now the use of internet has become important and more people
are spending their time on the internet and use social media. This has increased the importance of
the digital marketing and the marketers are also using this tool for the promotion and branding of
the products and services.
References:
Books and Journals
Chu, S.C. and Kim, J., 2018. The current state of knowledge on electronic word-of-mouth in
advertising research. International Journal of Advertising. 37(1). pp.1-13.
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Coelho, M.P. and Mendes, J.Z., 2019. Digital music and the “death of the long tail”. Journal of
Business Research. 101. pp.454-460.
Crittenden, A.B., Crittenden, V.L. and Crittenden, W.F., 2019. The digitalization triumvirate:
How incumbents survive. Business Horizons. 62(2). pp.259-266.
Gelbrich, K., Hagel, J. and Orsingher, C., 2021. Emotional support from a digital assistant in
technology-mediated services: Effects on customer satisfaction and behavioral
persistence. International Journal of Research in Marketing. 38(1). pp.176-193.
Haenlein, M. and Kaplan, A., 2019. A brief history of artificial intelligence: On the past, present,
and future of artificial intelligence. California management review. 61(4). pp.5-14.
Haenlein, M. and Kaplan, A., 2019. A brief history of artificial intelligence: On the past, present,
and future of artificial intelligence. California management review. 61(4). pp.5-14.
Kingsnorth, S., 2021. In a data-rich world, which metrics should digital marketers focus
on?. Applied Marketing Analytics. 6(4). pp.359-365.
Koehn, D., Lessmann, S. and Schaal, M., 2020. Predicting online shopping behaviour from
clickstream data using deep learning. Expert Systems with Applications. 150.p.113342.
Kumar, V. and Nanda, P., 2019. Social media in higher education: A framework for continuous
engagement. International Journal of Information and Communication Technology
Education (IJICTE). 15(1). pp.97-108.
Kumar, V., Ramachandran, D. and Kumar, B., 2021. Influence of new-age technologies on
marketing: A research agenda. Journal of Business Research. 125. pp.864-877.
Lui, R.W. and Au, C.H., 2018. Establishing an Educational Game Development Model: From
the Experience of Teaching Search Engine Optimization. International Journal of Game-
Based Learning (IJGBL). 8(1). pp.52-73.
Martins, N., Dominique-Ferreira, S. and Pinheiro, C., 2021. Bridging tourism, architecture, and
sustainability: Design and development of an app for contemporary architecture built in
Portugal. Journal of Global Scholars of Marketing Science, pp.1-18.
Ozansoy Çadırcı, T. and Sağkaya Güngör, A., 2019. Love my selfie: selfies in managing
impressions on social networks. Journal of Marketing Communications. 25(3). pp.268-
287.
Qin, X. and Jiang, Z., 2019. The impact of AI on the advertising process: The Chinese
experience. Journal of Advertising. 48(4). pp.338-346.
Stolyarov, N.O. and et. al.,2019, April. The digital reality of the modern economy: new actors
and new decision-making logic. In Institute of Scientific Communications
Conference (pp. 882-888). Springer, Cham.
Taylor, C.R. and Carlson, L., 2021. The future of advertising research: new directions and
research needs. Journal of Marketing Theory and Practice. 29(1). pp.51-62.
Wenzel, A., 2019. Public media and marginalized publics: online and offline engagement
strategies and local storytelling networks. Digital Journalism. 7(1). pp.146-163.
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