Marketing has evolved rapidly with the technological growth that has occurred throughout the 21st century. The advancement in technology has led to the evolution of different marketing methodologies. The canvas has changed from paper printing to digital marketing that uses Computer Software, the Internet, Social Media, Mobile Apps, Television and Radio advertisements, and much more.
The Scenario in the Past Ten Years
In the past decade, people had limited choices of a few websites when they needed to look for a product and make an informed decision. In the past, companies had the reason and power to convince customers regarding purchases. At that time, talking directly to the company was considered a logical step in making a purchase. Traditional strategies like cold e-mails, cold calls, trade shows, and snail mails impacted the marketing scenario back then.
The Scenario Today
Today marketing battle zone in India is undergoing rapid changes and transformation. Globalization is one of the reasons for such a shift from traditional practices. The other cause of the changes in the Indian market is technology change. Nowadays, in the marketing arena, success only belongs to those companies that are best suited to the current environmental essentials. To stand tall in the market, the companies are coming out with various innovative and advanced strategies. The marketers today know that the content is the king to survive in the market as the users always search for new information. Therefore, they are using social media, blogs, mobile phones, websites, and all other possible penetrative means to reach the target audience.
Let us browse through the evolution of marketing in India during the last decade.
Billboards
Billboards, or commonly known as Hoardings, are being used for marketing purpose since 1867. Billboards present giant size advertisements to passing pedestrians and drivers on the roads. The relatively large-sized billboards are called Bulletins and are usually placed on highways. Posters are another form of billboards. Billboards contain slogans and product-related images and have been a steady product in the marketing world for long.
Radio Advertisements
Nowadays, radio stations are a consistent means for marketing products. Marketers use the exemplary reach of the radio to their benefit. Radio is, however, more localized in its reach to the target audience and potential customers. People use radio for revealing additional promotional offers such as the announcement in stores, running a competition, or sampling in air. Radio marketing is beneficial as it reaches even those who cannot read.
Television Advertisements
TV advertising is growing day by day as it also has a significant reach to every house. On average, each person watches TV seven hours every day, and television is a primary source of their information. However, television advertising is expensive, and it might cost you as a big dent in your pocket for a prime time 30-second commercial. Nevertheless, in the last decade, the number of channels has increased and so has the number of advertisements on television. It remains a significant marketing source.
Mobile Mania
The sharp increase in the use of smartphones has played a significant role in marketing. Today people use various mobile applications for advertising. Mobile phones have revolutionized the way consumers get connected, gather, and exchange information. The advertising arena has changed with the mobile revolution as marketers have used it effectively for driving their revenue during the last decade.
Mobile and Telephone Marketing
Telemarketing is a process of connecting with customers through telephones or now through web-based voice and video calls and conferences. The most common form of telemarketing technique is calling customers to pitch them a product, an event promotion, and much more. A political campaign and a political leader's message are also examples of telemarketing. However, it is not so efficient as surveys have found that 98% of people claim that telemarketing calls irritate them, and 92 % claim to have received fake calls.
The Text Marketing
Push messages or SMS is one of the most common tools nowadays for marketing anything from product to a Government scheme. The message pops on the customer's mobile screen while he is using some applications. He should read it once. The message might offer or contain coupons, offers, and discounts. Even messages by political leaders and parties on any occasion or festivals are also broadcasted. Even for the election campaign, push message marketing widely used in India. This marketing methodology has evolved exponentially during the last decade.
Mobile App Marketing
With the advent of technological changes and the rise of smartphones during the last decade, apps are now an unavoidable part of our life. We start our day with a routine app or a to-do app. It is a grand style for companies to make a healthy relationship with their customers. The mobile marketing process can complement a brand's offline experience like exclusive offers, drive e-commerce, or allow them to connect to their loyal customers on mobile, together with mobile websites.
Digital Marketing Arena
Web Marketing
The Internet market is rapidly increasing as everything now is somewhat dependent on the internet. More than half of the population and youth are using the internet. Various websites, blogs, and social media sites like Facebook are excellent sources of marketing and advertising. It is extremely high traffic on the website such as Facebook, Linkedin, Twitter, and others that make these an excellent place for marketing.
E-commerce or online shopping trend is rapidly increasing as consumers look to the internet for purchases. Various e-commerce shopping websites such as Flipkart, Amazon, eBay, Snapdeal provides ample traffic for marketers to provide banner advertising on their platforms. E-commerce sites are one of the best places for advertising nowadays, attracting millions of target audience.
Inbound Marketing
It is a unique way of attracting customers towards products and services via social media marketing, content marketing, and search engine optimization without any interruptions. Blogging, SEO, Pages, CRM, Marketing Automation, E-mails, and social publishing are some of the tools of inbound marketing that have evolved during the last ten years.
SEO
SEO or Search Engine Optimization has become an important marketing tool that is used on a broad scale today. A few years back, there were techniques such as link spamming and keywords stuffing that was in vogue. However, SEO techniques have undergone significant changes during the last ten years. Initially, no one cared about the usability and impact of social media. At that time, keywords were embarrassing, and SEO was like an island, but today, people have learned about it. Now SEO is less of a loner and more of a necessity in a world powered by other channels and strategies.
Blog Marketing
In India, the number of active blogs has witnessed a quantum jump during the last decade. Blog marketing uses blogs for advertising or publishing a website, business, brand, or service. It is a process of reaching a business's target market through the utilization of a blog. Business owners use separate blogs besides their websites to promote their product and for targeting a broader audience. WordPress is a premium blogging platform commonly used by millions.
Social Media
Various surveys suggest that India has the maximum number of WhatsApp and Facebook users. Even Twitter is often used by Indians nowadays. Social media marketing, a concept across disciplines and functionality, use social media as its tool. Today social media, instead of being just a way to chat and connect with friends, has also become a way to communicate with brands, spread news, complain, shop, and even influence other shoppers. It forms an essential part of any marketing strategy. With the help of social media platforms like YouTube, Pinterest, Instagram, and Twitter, billions of users are targeted with advertising and marketing gimmicks.
E-mail Marketing
In e-mail marketing, commercial messages are sent to a group of people, using e-mails. In e-mails, most advertisements request business or solicit sales or donations. Various websites and shopping sites send their promotion and discount offer e-mails. Usually, they appear as spam e-mails. However, e-mail marketing is not an efficient way as it reaches a less number of the target audience.
VoIP calls
The VoIP market has grown 28% during the forecast period. VoIP technology provides voice communication and data traffic integration into a single network unit to minimize the total TCO associated with a combined voice or data network. Video sharing, Screen sharing, File sharing, Instant Messaging, Video, and Voice calls, CRM Integration Services are some product-based segmentation of the mobile VoIP market. Apps such as Viber, Line, Wechat, Whatsapp are providing this feature.
Digital PR
In the early days, no such thing like Digital Public Relations (PR) Agency existed. Then PRs used media tours to press meetings and secure exposure for their clients in Radio, Television, and Print. They frequently used to send out questionnaires and reports to collect information from the contacts and to find out whether they have been featuring their clients. However, nowadays, a digital PR expert can know everything about a contact. With SEO, digital PR is leading to better targeting and quantifiable results.
The Auction Methodology
In India, various websites like Quicker, OLX, and many others are using the auction market criterion for selling their products where buyers bid the highest amount for the products they want to buy, and the seller announces the lowest acceptable price.
The Essence
The marketing space has evolved rapidly with technological advancements during the last decade. India, with its robust economy and the considerable youth population, has swiftly taken a ride over these new and innovative marketing methodologies. The response rates have touched the sky.
The penetration to the target audience has been exemplary during the last ten years in the Indian context. This evolution in marketing ways has brought huge profits, increased sales, a larger audience to many companies. Flipkart, Ibibo Group, InMobi, Myntra, BookMyShow, Saavn, Meru, YuppTV, and Next Education are just a few instances of various start-ups that used innovative marketing ways to ride the technological wagon during the last decade.
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