The digital world and technological development transformed the marketing industry as it fostered innovation and created integrated ecosystems. A marketing mix is a business model based on the combination of four Ps: product, price, place, and promotion (Chaffey and Smith, 2017). The following essay will evaluate the ways the marketing mix is applicable in digital marketing and provide two organizational examples contributing to the discussion.
The framework might be applied to the digital world in four principal ways. First, Huebner (2019, p. 1) suggests that “digital advertising performs similarly to traditional media advertising.” Marketers use a targeted or personalized approach to identify adequate prices, websites, and effective promotional strategies for their products (Sharma, 2020). Second, proper digital marketing strategies should include the development of engaging promotional content driving purchases and require the application of the four Ps (Kingsnorth, 2019). Third, digital media impacts the marketing mix by enhancing brand recognition and customer service through the use of social media (Marketing in the 21st century, 2021). Fourth, the digital world stimulated the emergence of the e-marketing mix (Sriram et al., 2019). The influence of the marketing mix in the digital era is characterized by improved conversion rates, social currency, personalization, and measurable results (Develop a digital marketing plan, 2021). Thus, the benefits of the marketing mix make it applicable in e-commerce and digital marketing.
The organizational examples of two major companies will be explored to examine the role of the marketing mix in the digital world. Smith and Zook (2019) discuss the case of Unilever that changed its digital marketing strategy from a media-based model to the marketing mix in 2007. As a result of the transformation, the TV dominance of Unilever brands was replaced with an increased online presence and product value via multi-platform digital marketing (Reza, 2020). The case study by Nur, Andriani, and Kusdi (2018) demonstrates how a language services provider, Excellent Translation, improved customer trust, satisfaction, and purchase decision by adapting the marketing mix to the digital platform. The authors concluded that the marketing mix adjusted to the e-commerce company correlated with customer motivation and positive purchasing behavior. To sum up, the marketing mix can be applied in the digital world to stimulate product promotion, manage customer behavior, and implement personalization strategies.
Reference List
Chaffey, D., & Smith, P. R. (2017) Digital marketing excellence. 5th edn. London: Routledge.
Develop a digital marketing plan (2021).
Huebner, C. (2019) ‘Digital advertising and the marketing mix: a review of current literature and implications for higher education marketers’, Journal of Marketing Communications for Higher Education, 1(2), 1–25.
Kingsnorth, S. (2019) Digital marketing strategy: An integrated approach to online marketing. 2nd edn. London: Kogan Page.
Marketing in the 21st century: How does digital media affect the marketing mix? (2021).
Sharma, F. C. (2020) Marketing management. SBPD Publications.
Nur, F. R., Andriani, K., & Kusdi, R. (2018) ‘The effect of marketing mix for e-commerce on customer behavior: a study on language services provider’, Eurasia: Economics & Business, 7(13).
Reza, M. H. (2020) ‘Marketing strategy and sustainable plan of Unilever.’ International Journal of Scientific Research and Engineering Development, 3(4), 680–692.
Smith, P. R., and Zook, Z. (2020) Marketing communications: integrated online and offline, customer engagement and digital technologies. 7th edn. London: Kogan Page.
Sriram, K. V. et al. (2019) Does e-marketing mix influence brand loyalty and popularity of e-commerce websites?