Marketing communication: principles and practice

is
communicating.
T H E F U T U R E
344

---

CHANGING MARKETING COMMUNICATION
PRACTICES
Leading marketing thinker Professor Philip Kotler (1999) sees the digital
revolution as the driving force for markets and marketing to operate on
fundamentally different principles than they have for the past 100 years.
Marketing managers must adapt to the emerging electronic marketing –
rethinking the processes by which customer value is identified, communicated
about, and delivered – in many cases co-designing desired products.
Advertising will be obtained by consumers and buyers on-demand, with
information to aid product selection being found by intelligent agents and
information brokers.
Kitchen and Wheeler (1997) identify seven developments in the way
corporations develop and apply marketing in the contemporary world that
are impacting on marketing communication thinking and practice:
1 growth in advertising and promotion
2 the emergence of the global consumer
3 development and importance of integrated marketing communication
4 direct marketing (using local rather than mass media) as a new
promotional tool in targeting the likeliest customers for the particular
brand
5 database marketing
6 internet advertising and e-commerce
7 process-oriented coordination and control
Marketers will become more aware of the ways in which customers behave
in specialist roles of buyer, payer, and/or user, and will adapt their marketing
effort to the type of role of the person with whom they wish to exchange
(Sheth 
et al
., 1999). The marketing communication system must also be
capable of treating the consumer/buyer differently from the way the customer
is treated – not because they are inferior or less attractive, but because their
needs are different. The communication system must be especially capable
of supporting the retention of value-creating exchange relationships.
Recognition of interaction, relationship, and the need for integration are
becoming the foundations for marketing communication management. A
systems approach is becoming common practice.