Digital Media, Society, and Marketing Strategies Analysis

This report comprehensively examines the dynamic interplay between digital media and society, focusing on its implications for marketing practices. It delves into consumer behavior in the digital age, highlighting how e-commerce and social media influence purchasing decisions. The report explores ethical considerations in advertising, emphasizing the importance of responsible marketing and its impact on consumer perception. It outlines integrated marketing communication (IMC) strategies, public relations (PR) techniques, and direct marketing approaches, providing a holistic view of how businesses can effectively engage with their target audiences. The report also covers planning and objective setting in IMC, marketing strategies, including segmentation and targeting, and concludes with an analysis of the role of public relations and direct marketing/personal selling in the digital landscape. The report includes references to various academic papers on the topics discussed.

Digital Media
 The world has embraced digital era and most of the activities are automated unlike in the
past
 All activities ranging from private, public, personal and professional lives revolve around
digital media
 With digital error comes Media, Entertainment, and Information industries which are the
core business of most people lately
 Digital IME has brought changes such as the era of smart phones and tablets and other
changes inhuman relationships
 Despite the several benefits of digital media, there are several other effects on society that
cannot be ignored.
 The IME businesses are faced with the tasks of continuously evolving to take to counter
the continuously emerging challenges
 All decision makers of the digital media have a role to play in ensuring there are several
positive impacts of digital media
 The Digital Media and Society Report is one such digital media decision maker with a
mission of increasing the chances of readers reaping the best out of Digital Media
 Technology plays a major role not only for individual purposes but also benefits the
society in several issues
 There is need to reduce the negative effects of digital media and technology such as cyber
bulling, digital addiction, and in countering developments.
 Digital Media has several social interactions, social empowerment, helps the public air
their voices in civic participation and enables community growth

 Digital media has also opened several job avenues especially for the young people.
 It has also played a big role in business marketing such as consumer marketing and
spreading consumer data to the target market
Reference
Sarita Nayya, (2016). Digital Media and Society Implications in a Hyper connected Era
January 2016 World Economic Forum Shaping the Future Implications of Digital
Media for Society

Week 4: Communication
 Communication is basically the exchange of messages between people
 Currently there has been emergence of Integrated Marketing communication whose
popularity has widely spread leading to immense development in business marketing
 IMC has positively impacted on the thinking and functionality of all organizations and
individuals either directly or indirectly
 IMC has 3 major attributes; strategic interrogation, financial perspective, as well as
tactful coordination
 The decisions and influence of IMC’s success lies with the advertising agencies assigned
the tasks of marketing the company
 The roles played by the management of an organization on Integrated Marketing
Communications very minimal due to the external influences such as that of the
advertising agencies
 An effective Integrated Marketing Communication positively impacts on a brands
success due to the ability to drive effective communication between stakeholders, and
foster organisational performances
 The ability of an organization to define its IMC in a distinct manner improves their
competitiveness
 The end product of successful Integrated Marketing Communication is a strong
Organizational Brand and improved financial growth for the Organization

 Communication has a track record of playing important role in influencing performance
both at an individual and organizational performance
Reference
Olof Holm, (2006) "Integrated marketing communication: from tactics to
strategy", Corporate Communications: An International Journal, Vol. 11 Issue: 1,
pp.23-33, https://doi.org/10.1108/13563280610643525

Week 5: Consumer Behaviour
 Customers who are the end users of all produce react differently. Marketing has the
ability to influence this way consumers reacts towards a company’s product or
service.
 With technological came the issue of e–commerce that has taken many consumers
by storm
 Initially ecommerce consumers were only concerned with the utilitarian issues and
the product functioning
 There is a considerable difference between the behaviour E-commerce and that of
traditional consumers
 E-commerce has gained popularity due to the emergence of several social site
resulting from the growing advancements in technology
 Consumers have reacted very well to e-commerce due to its navigation ability,
consumer interfaces, and easy and convenient modes of payment

 There are functional models that influence ecommerce consumer behaviours
especially their attitudes
 Positive consumer attitudes lead to improved consumer loyalty and the actual
engagement in e-shopping
 Consumers prefer shopping from brands which have a good brand image based on
what they deem relevant and positive to them
 A consumer’s final decision to shop from e retail is not a one day event. It results
from several interconnected shopping stages such, as information gathering and data
assessments
 The consumer behaviour of an e commerce shopper is defined by the treatment they
receive from the retailer and affects their trust, loyalty and interest to shop again
Charles Dennis, Bill Merrilees, Chanaka Jayawardhena, Len Tiu Wright,
(2009) "E‐consumer behaviour", European Journal of Marketing, Vol. 43 Issue:
9/10, , https://doi.org/10.1108/0309056091

Week 6: ethics and Advertising
 Ethics ensures that an action taken by an individual or organisation does not go against
what is good for the society
 IN Marketing the topic of ethics is very critical as it ensures that in their bids to advertise
themselves and gain large customer bases,, companies do not go against what is good for
the general public at the expense of their own interests
 While advertising and marketing their products and services, managers should consider
several factors such as the effect the processes will have on consumers,
 Consumers weigh any advertisement from an organization and their perception towards
them as either ethical or unethical influences their response and view towards the
organization
 Organisations should identify the desirable ethical boundaries based on the general public
acceptance and reactions

 For organizations are to avoid falling prey of any ethical myopia, the management should
seek the views of consumers before settling on any form of advertisement
 The companies can search through the minds of consumers to identify the possible
impacts of their advertising intentions.
 Before engaging in any advertisement, companies should seek to know the legitimacy of
the action from the consumers as well as from the relevant legal bodies
 Ethicness in advertisement seeks to lower any possible chances of the organization
hurting the consumers and the public at large.
 It
 calls for the act of justice from the organization towards the consumers
Mohammad Ekhlaque Ahmed and Marium Mateen Khan (2016) Ethics in Advertising:
Exploring the Telecommunication Industry’s Employment of Ethics in
Advertisements

Week 7: planning/ objectives setting in IMC
 The author explain that every company that seeks create a market awareness concerning the
new or old products and services, must ensure proper planning and establishment of Integrated
Marketing Communication. There exists six different stages that any marketing manager can
apply when developing an effective IMC. The author outline them as follows;
o Understanding the target market when the company seeks to sell the products. As a
thumb of rule, we do not have generalized customers in a market. Every market should
seek to communicate to a given population that exhibit certain behaviours.
o Designing a situation analysis. This approach helps to understand the company internal
and external environment in terms of its strengths and weaknesses, and the market
opportunities and threats. It is from this that the company understand the best strategy
to communicate to a target market.
o Appropriate objectives that meet SMART framework. That is to mean that such
objectives need to be specific, measurable, realistic, and time bound.
o The fourth stage is to determine the budget that could help meet the objective.
Development of a realistic idea helps the company in coming up with resources that
shape the tactics. The budget need to cover all the resources in terms of finances and
staff.
o Fifth, the objectives sets a foundation on which to establish strategies and tactics. The
author points out that all strategies should fit well with objectives. While on the other
hand, tactics should only act as appropriate actions to execute the strategy.
o The last aspects that need to be considered is the evaluation and control measures. For
example, evaluation covers among other thing, setting of benchmarks, identifying the
weaknesses and coming up with the best corrective measures.

References
Joseph, H. (2016). A study on the effectiveness of integrated marketing communication on different
brands of gold jewellery. CLEAR International Journal Of Research In Commerce & Management,
7(9), 77-82.
Week 8: Strategy
 Classical marketing strategies depends on a number of factors such as positioning,
segmentation, and targeting to achieve the established objectives. According to Bang, Joshi &
Singh (2016), managers can only create value when they design appropriate strategies that
revolve around brand names, service levels, and increased reputation.
 In overall, therefore, marketing comprises of different elements that assist the company create
a competitive advantage. Irrespective of the position or the size of a company Bang, et al. (2016)
points out that company can still design generic marketing strategies. The author maintain that
apart from the low-cost, differentiation, and focused strategies, companies can go ahead to
design the following types of strategies;
 Vertical integration- This is when a company creates a cooperation among independent firms
while applying value chain. Similarly, smaller companies can also adopt symbiotic strategy to
assist a company in having a long-term perspective into the future.
 Co-competition- the strategy involves cooperation among companies that specialize in different
products and services.
 Horizontal integration strategy – the strategy is good for companies that are still in their early
stages of growth. Such companies still need resources to market their products. Smaller
companies can adopt this strategy in order to create a market awareness.

 The above type of strategies play a critical role in organizations of sizes and types. Just as
explained in term of establishing plans and objectives, setting strategies helps give a company a
sense of direction in terms of the current and future positions.
References
Bang, V. V., Joshi, S. L., & Singh, M. C. (2016). Marketing strategy in emerging markets: a conceptual
framework. Journal of Strategic Marketing, 24(2), 104-117.
Week 9: Public relations
 Managers in the public relations have tried to separate what they do from those conducted by
marketing managers. The major objective for doing this is because they always want to separate
how they coordinate their functions. Contemporary organizations now use marketing public
relations as the best way to support promotion of the company as well as a brand.
 The above explanation therefore, shows that MPR assumes the work of assisting in the launch of
a product, positioning a brand, and ensuring that a company repositions any product that could
have reached its maturity stage.
 Besides, also other specialized activities contribute towards creating awareness of the company
and its brands among the public. The author outlines in his paper that this can cover a number
of activities;
o such as lobbying (government officials, endorsement),
o public service activities (teaching specialized topic to schools, assisting in a fundraising,
helping the disadvantaged group in a society),
o giving speeches (senior managers receive invitation to speak at a function, provide
information about a product, service),

o new stories, sponsorship (sponsoring community events such as sports, supporting
association functions),
o special events, and
o Publications.
 The recent study conducted by Ivan and Arionesei (2016) sought to understand the application
of public relations in Romanian tourism sector. The finding showed that the marketing
department succeeded in creating awareness and attracting a considerable number of visitors
through tourism forum, conferences, craftmen and other initiative techniques, evening and
contexts, popular demonstrations, vising the stands, visualizing films, and participating in
different cultural programs
References
Ivan, P., & Arionesei, G. (2014). Marketing of tourism destinations from the public relations' Journal of
tourism, Vol. 23(14), p. 90-97
Şerbănică, D., & Constantinescu, M. (2016). Using public relations in sports. Romanian Journal of
Marketing, (2), 30-35.

Week 10: Direct Marketing/ Personal Selling
 A direct marketing is an approach of avoiding to use intermediaries and instead, interacting
direct with the target buyer. Furthermore, marketers also use direct marketing when they want
to deliver a product, announce any future expected products, or guarantee information to
customers. The key objective for doing this is to gain a deeper understanding about the targeted
customer.
 Advancement of technology has made it easier for companies to develop and utilize different
strategies when they want to interact with targeted customers.
 The author identifies the channels for direct marketing as direct;
o Direct mail- this involves that use of mail lists that a company uses when sending
brochures, audiotapes, cds, and letters to prospective customers. The strategy permits
the company to personalize the message and receive responses from customers.
o Catalogue marketing – this can incorporate the use of business-to-business catalogues,
online distribution, or online catalogues in order to reach the wider market.
o E marketing – the evolution of technology has now provided opportunities to create
accounts through social media platforms. According to the author, companies now
utilize social media marketing (SMM) tools, search engine marketing (SEM), and Search
engine optimization (SEO).
 Apart from the directing marketing, companies can also train salesperson to represent the
company when it comes to selling products to different customers. Besides, every salesperson
should gain skills and knowledge that make them to think like strategists. In today dynamic
market, salesperson should also be in a position to make decisions that would result in
increased sales volume. Of course, this goes beyond receiving orders.

References
Chotechuong, W., & Vesdapunt, K. (2015). A Managerial Internal Marketing Strategy Model for Life
Insurance Industry in Thailand. International Journal Of Behavioral Science, 10(2), 53-68.