ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the impact of digitization on marketing strategy. Viewing the outcome of the marketing strategy process in terms of customer acquisition, customer retention, and revenue growth, I focus on the following components of marketing strategy, which have been significantly impacted by digitization – targeting, product, pricing and promotion, and Omni channel strategies. The chapter also discusses the role of marketing intelligence in the digital environment and highlights the need to integrate these components with an overarching framework to realize the gains from digitization.
Digitization – penetration of digital technologies in markets and processes – has been increasing in all industries. While in some industries the penetration of digital technologies is less than 40 percent, there is deeper penetration in media, retail, and high-tech industries (Bughin, LeBerge and Mellbye, 2017). The role of digitization has been especially pronounced in the areas of marketing and distribution, products and services, and business processes. In this chapter we focus on how a firm can avail itself of the strategic opportunities that digital technologies and the digital environment provide. We start by examining how a conventional marketing strategy morphs into a digital marketing strategy in the context of digitization. We highlight the specific areas where firms’ strategies are impacted by digitization and discuss the components of such a digital marketing strategy. We discuss recent research within the broad area of digital marketing strategy and highlight important issues within the domain that require future research.
