Traditional vs. Digital Marketing: Which One Will Survive??

2023-04-24 4402

In this competitive era where innumerous products and services are fighting each other for better performance and higher revenue, the marketing wing of each company is facing tough business environment to bring out continuous innovative strategic plans. Amongst all the gossips and discussions around the office, it has been observed that people have been talking about which marketing tools would be more apt to strengthen the communication effectively? Is it the traditional or the newly adapted digital marketing?

When we talk about traditional marketing, we are referring to Television, Radio, Print (newspaper and magazine focused) on the ATL (Above The Line) front and Hoardings, Posters, Flyers, Brochures, OOH, etc. on the BTL (Below The Line) front. As for Digital Marketing, we are referring to all the hustle of Social Media, E-mail, SEO, SEM, etc. happening over the internet.

So, which one will finally survive is the question that beckons? There is no doubt that the majority of people are adapting to the digital space in their day-to-day tasks and the audience base has been growing exponentially for the past decade. There is also no doubt that people have not completely switched to only digital, but also have been experiencing interactions with the traditional tools that existed for the past 4 decades or more. So, how does one marketer determine which tool would be more effective?

The viewership on Television for many programs have stayed consistent over the years. For example, Nepal Television or Kantipur Television are doing equally good as before. The same goes for listenership on Radio and circulation of National Dailies. Audiences while outdoors experience all sort of communicative tools which are still consumed as presented. While audiences are online over the internet, various sponsored ads are also consumed surfing over social media, website portals, emails, etc. At this dilemmatic condition, one marketer is obvious to be confused over the choice of reaching the right “marketing” decision while strategizing a marketing campaign.

Do we always choose the right “marketing” decision through cost-benefit-analysis? Previously, the media benefit judgment was mostly based on CPM (cost per thousand) method for the reach it guaranteed. But now the time has come where CPI (cost per impression), CPA (cost per action), CPL (cost per lead), etc. have come into play through digital space. There is no understatement regarding the better reach being catered by the digital space accounting to individuals, however the brand value proposition is still stronger on the traditional tools.

Hence, as rightly understood, it is not that digital space has opened a “next” platform for marketing and promotion, but is an “additional” platform for the marketers to rightly utilize.

When we go back in time, Radio was the first medium to initiate marketing activities via radio spot and jingle on the electronic base. When Television was introduced, it added on to become an added platform for marketing through TV Commercials. TV was never taken as a threat to overtake Radio. Infact as a ripple effect, both the mediums gained GRP with support to the electronic ecosystem growth. Likewise, other mediums were gradually discovered for marketing purpose and each were added on for the marketer to consider for activation during strategic planning.

Digital platform accordingly has now become an add-on platform for the marketer to consider. It is the extensively growing platform where there is a higher level of consumer engagement, ease of measuring result and cater to a larger audience. In terms of cost comparison too, it turns out a lot cheaper for the reach success. But it alone cannot fulfill the entire requirement of better communication as planned by a marketer.

Integration is the key to success. A well-developed marketing plan which consists of a deeper thought process to integrate all platforms: ATL, BTL as well as Digital will now create ripple effects amongst the targeted consumers. There has to be cues placed on all platforms to lead from one platform to another seamlessly. Such marketing campaigns will then bring bigger results for brand value and positioning to be stronger. The traditional platforms are not going anywhere for some time at least and smooth integration with the newly adapted digital platform will make one marketer the outstanding, smart one.

Pedal Group is one of the Best Advertising Agency in Nepal helping you establish your business as an authority with informative, targeted content with a strategy that follows your audience and boosts your advertising efforts even further on the digital media.

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