The Limitations of Digital Marketing
- Meshanah Mendoza
- May 23, 2020
- 2 min read
Updated: Nov 4, 2020
Digital Marketing is transforming the world, every single second. The methods and theories that marketers apply to their businesses today are evolving rapidly and have enabled many opportunities, for companies globally. Alongside this rise in Digital Marketing, marketers today have begun to question its effectiveness and its overall limitations.
Mark Ritson who is a senior professor and marketing consultant, is a strong advocate against ‘digital tunnel vision’. A thought-provoking statement, he presented at Marketing Week in 2018 was that ‘the tactics are changing, but the fundamental nature of consumers doesn’t change for a long period of time’. To further support this notion he stated, in a recent article that marketing comes down to three questions “who is the target segment(s) I am chasing? What is the position I want to adopt with that target? What is my objective with the target?”. He pointed out that NONE of these questions was directly associated with digital issues, as they were each solely about the consumers and their behaviours.
Other marketers such as Marc Pritchard, who is a global brand officer at P&G, announced that the era of digital marketing ended in 2013 and that the “murky world of digital media” needs a cleanup. Further to this Ian Pearman, who is the President at TBWA\Worldwide, has been asking clients to drop the notion of saying ‘digital marketing’ for several years…
This made me question why these marketers, instilled such harsh views towards digital marketing. And I think it may be due to the disadvantages of:
Security issues, especially the ethics surrounding the privacy of consumers.
The maintenance cost, due to the constantly evolving environment online.
The greater amount of competition, due to globalisation and the majority of business’ today are have an online presence.
Real-time consumer complaints and feedback, which poses the risk of the business image being ruined, as it’s visible to everyone.
Training and expertise are required in order to manage social media to the optimum.
To end on a lighter note, business executive Ivan Menezes states “it’s not about doing ‘digital marketing’, it’s about marketing effectively in a digital world”. Do you agree with these marketers perspectives? Feel free to leave a comment below.
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Thanks for reading my post Alysha. I think that digital marketing and traditional marketing have to be used at the same time. Yes digital marketing is more prevalent today, but I still believe that using tv advertisements and radio for example is still very effective. So I don’t think marketers just disregard digital marketing.
Hi Meshanah, I’m regards fo your question to an extent I agree with what the marketers have to say. So in my opinion, I think that digital marketing is slowly taking over compared to traditional marketing, just look at social media for example. What are your thoughts? :)
Thank you so much for the comment Bahar! Having a focus on strategies is vital for marketers today, when conducting digital or traditional marketing. The end goal should ultimately be to reach as many consumers as possible and to gain more brand awareness. :)
Cool post to wrap up the semester with! I found it quite interesting to see how strongly some big-name marketers react to the concept of digital marketing, too. As Ian Menezes said, I think digital marketing is all about carrying on with your strategy simply on a digital platform, rather than anything else. I think that's something important for businesses, both new and old, to keep in mind when initiating any digital media campaigning. You want to reach your customers and target audience the best way you can, which happens to be digital given the day and age we're living in, and to encourage them to engage with you and your business.
Thank you for reading my post Jai! Traditional marketing and digital marketing need to be used simultaneously.