The Influence of Technology on Contemporary Strategic Marketing Essay

The Influence of Technology on Contemporary Strategic Marketing Management Practices - Essay Example This essay also explores how strategic marketing management practices have been strengthened by conventional and latest information technologies. Examples from the health care organisation are used to support the arguments. An Overview Above all, it is important to consider the concept of ‘strategic marketing management’ to examine how technology has influenced marketing. As defined by Jobber (1998), strategic marketing management is â€Å"the approach a firm takes to securing and retraining profitable relationships with its customers.†2 It was demonstrated by Leverick and colleagues (1998) that numerous organisations have transformed their marketing strategies through the influence of technology.3 For instance, in the manner an organisation communicates with or approaches its customers and the way it carries out marketing activities. Technology, in particular, information technology (IT), helps an organisation build competitive advantage, enhance managerial outco mes, and attain more accurate and wide-ranging environmental scanning. As stated by Porter and Miller (1985), â€Å"the usage of IT enables companies to increase internal efficiency.†4 The application of information technology in marketing strategy has been talked about since the 1960s. Yet, it is only recently that strategic management has been gradually reinforced or remodelled by information technology5 (e.g. Internet marketing, database marketing, decision support systems (DSS), etc). Gaur and colleagues (2003) supports the earlier assumption that â€Å"the technological revolution is changing the nature and activities of the marketing function.†6 Traditional and emerging technologies allow the customer to communicate efficiently, directly, and openly with the marketers. By means of technology, companies are becoming increasingly informed about their customers in a more cost-effective way, which allows them to carry out direct marketing, particularly via interactiv e technology. According to Foskett (1996), the Internet has transformed marketing ‘from mass marketing to customised one-to-one marketing’7; the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) views e-marketing as a quantum leap for marketing because it facilitates genuinely customised and individualised marketing, availability of lower costs and the mass market for smaller companies.8 However, in the 1980s and 1990s, oversupply of information/data became a crucial problem. Data overload resulted in less accurate and appropriate management data. Technology created the groundwork for a better data management to work out this issue.9 Information technology provides ingenious processes of data gathering about customers’ needs, behaviour, and character. Examples of these data collection methods are online surveys or electronic mail surveys. Database methods, in addition to the Internet, have a considerable effect on strategic marketing as they help marketers refine outcomes i n seven major areas10: (1) understanding customers; (2) managing customer services; (3) understanding the market; (4) understanding the competitors; (5) managing sales operations; (6) managing marketing campaigns; (7)