Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
facing tourism marketers in the digital, global economy, and a fi nal section speculates on
the future of digital marketing communications, making suggestions for further research in
this area.
Today's digital marketing environment
The marketing communications environment has changed enormously in the last decade.
Technology and the Internet have fundamentally altered the way the world interacts and
communicates. Traditional approaches to branding that put emphasis on mass media techniques
are less and less effective in a marketplace where customers have access to massive amounts of
information about brands, products and companies and in which social networks have, in some
cases, supplanted brand networks (Keller 2009).
In the new media environment, consumers are increasingly in control. Not only do they have
more choices of media to use, they also have a choice about whether and how they want to
receive commercial content. In response marketers are employing more varied marketing
communications techniques than ever before. To communicate effectively and effi ciently,
tourism marketers have to go where the consumers are - and this is increasingly online. There
were over two billion Internet users in 2011, up from one billion in 2005, 420 million in 2000
and 45 million in 1995. Two-thirds of the population in North America and Europe regularly go
online. Much of current and future Internet user growth is coming from populous countries
such as China, India, Brazil, Russia and Indonesia. The travel sector itself boasted annual online
sales of almost $100 billion in 2012, around a third of all global e-commerce activity (Carey,
Kang and Zea 2012).
The Internet is moving marketers much closer to one-to-one marketing. The web not only
offers merchants the ability to communicate instantly with each customer, but it also allows the
customer to talk back, and that makes it possible for companies to customize offers and services.
The Internet also allows organizations to provide 7-day, 24-hour service response. In fact,
the main reason consumers have adopted the Internet is that it enables them to shop 24/7 in the
comfort of their home with no time zone worries. Ease of navigation is then the primary reason
for variations in purchase decisions between different online products.
Many consumers, too, are looking to build relationships on the web. Godin introduced
the concept of permission marketing (Godin 1999), in which consumers volunteer to be
marketed to on the Internet in return for some kind of reward. This type of marketing uses
the interactivity offered by the web to engage customers in a dialogue and, as a consequence, in
a long-term interactive relationship. Permission marketing is based on the premise that the
attention of the consumer is a scarce commodity that needs to be managed carefully. Its
emphasis is on building relationships with consumers instead of interrupting their lives with
mass marketing messages.
The Internet has also upended how consumers engage with brands to the extent that
consumers are promiscuous in their brand relationships (Edelman 2010). They connect with
myriad brands through new media channels often beyond the marketer's familiarity or control.
In the past, marketing strategies emphasized brand awareness and ultimate purchase. However,
after purchase, consumers may remain aggressively engaged, actively promoting or assailing the
products they have bought and collaborating in the brand's development. The touch points
when consumers are most open to infl uence have changed, requiring a major adjustment
to realign marketers' strategy and budgets with where consumers are actually spending their
time.
Table 35.1
summarizes some of the interactive marketing communication options that are
now available.
