Marketing theory has been so successful since its inception over 100 years ago that there are now several specific terms that describe particular marketing approaches, including:
- Influencer marketing: working with social media personalities
- Viral marketing: Attempting to generate word of mouth
- Cross-media marketing: Targeted advertising messages across different channels at the same time
- Event marketing: Organizing events that are then associated with the brand
- Direct marketing: marketing messages are sent to potential buyers via direct email or post
These different types of marketing all have in common that they are primary terms that describe where the focus of communication policy lies within the marketing campaign. This means that a viral marketing campaign, for example, only works with the same means that are available to all other marketing campaigns; it only focuses on a specific communication strategy – in this case, for example, eye-catching YouTube clips that are suitable for this purpose the viewers to be further disseminated independently.
Difference Between Online And Offline Marketing
Typically, marketing campaigns (and above all the communication levels) are differentiated into online and offline campaigns. These are not mutually exclusive but are usually treated separately due to the different communication situations.
The two types of marketing differ – according to the name – mainly in terms of which means of communication are used. Offline marketing primarily uses analog media such as magazines or posters, while online marketing uses digital elements such as advertising banners or games.
Both types of campaigns can achieve great success with their audience – an online campaign is, of course, more aimed at an online-savvy target group, while an offline campaign is more towards a magazine or television audience. The most crucial difference, however, lies in the traceability of the results: In the analog area, the effectiveness of a marketing campaign – i.e., the question of how many customers could be won due to the marketing activities – is challenging to measure. Ultimately, this is only possible by asking direct questions, which proves to be impractical at the supermarket checkout.
Online marketing is ahead here since the digital movements of website visitors can be technically tracked. For example, suppose customers click directly on an advertising banner. In that case, all other clicks can be traced until the transaction is concluded – it is immediately clear whether an advertising measure has led now to a sale or not. And even if the customer first leaves the website with advertising, the user can be recognized by cookies when he visits again, and a conclusion can be drawn about the effectiveness of the marketing measure.
The Development Of Marketing
In the post-war period of the 1950s, there was a great demand for goods. Here the focus of marketing was on production to meet the great demand. The 1960s were dominated by sales-oriented marketing. As we have come to know them over the past 50 years, advertising via radio, TV, and print began to triumph in the 1960s. As competition increased, so did advertising more and more at the marketing center. With privatized television and the increasing number of print publications, the frequency and volume of advertising increased dramatically. So it was no wonder that advertising agencies sprouted like mushrooms in the 1980s and 1990s. The increasing influence of the stock markets and stocks on corporate decisions and the resulting shorter product life cycles fueled the advertising industry. This led to increasing ignorance of advertising as early as the 1990s. To compensate for this, new marketing options such as PR, event marketing, and product placement were established to support classic below-the-line advertising.
And Then Came The Internet
Advertising agencies included the new medium as an additional channel in their “reach portfolio.” Still, until a few years ago, they did not understand that marketing on the Internet offers completely new possibilities in terms of measurability and interaction.
The beginnings of online marketing, which also like to refer to as “online marketing 1.0”, were replaced 5-6 years ago by “online marketing 2.0” or performance marketing. The range currency per thousand contact price ( CPM ) has been supplemented/replaced by pay-per-click ( PPC ) models. With its AdWords advertising system, Google is the pioneer in PPC advertising and has dominated the market for years. In general, search engine marketing ( SEO and SEA) has become the dominant online marketing discipline over the past five years.
Due to developments in recent years, (online) marketing is also becoming more and more technical and analytical. The traditional advertising agencies, which focused on creativity and conception, could no longer meet the new challenges. The time for online marketing agencies had come.
Creativity in digital marketing was initially pushed into the background in favor of web analysis and new tracking methods. The Internet can do more than lead a one-sided monolog was only discovered with the advent of Web and faster Internet connections. For the time being, new marketing disciplines such as viral or word-of-mouth marketing, unnoticed by the masses, saw the light of day. Again, creativity is required here.
Also Read: Use Social Media To Target Customers