In today's fast-paced life, there is no denying the fact that virtuality is now a reality. How do you plan almost anything you do today? How do you arrange a vacation? How do you search for information? How do you get the news? How do you manage your finances? If you are among the 1.2 billion using the World Wide Web, and among the 4 billion owning a mobile device, then you are among the new breed of consumers who live in a technology-driven world. The internet isn't a technology; it's a way of life. Now equipped with endless methods of finding and getting information, they know more and they want more. The new expectation is more explanation.
What is a marketer to do in all this craze over digital interactivity? Embrace it, use it, and gain from it. Follow where the consumers take you -- online. Customer relations marketing principles can be applied to digital marketing by integrating the traditional model of a customer life cycle into the practice of a digital consumer. The target market becomes the internet browsers, which, through search engine marketing and optimization, become prospects. Banner advertising turns into the primary means to connect to these prospects to become website users.
In the center of the process, which progresses from website users to repeat users to advocates, is customer utility. In digital marketing, it is defined as the heart of how well one uses content and context in the service of the brand to: ATTRACT -- ENGAGE -- ACQUIRE -- RETAIN consumers and key decision makers. More utility equals better results. Once this is applied, advocates become repeat users and extend to referred-users by building social capital. Social capital is the combined influence brands exert online as a result of search engine optimization and marketing, social networking and building tools, website affiliate marketing; and actual customer engagement, interaction, and customer utility.
This process is true in the sense that a consumer's sense of brand equity is being built through interactivity with the brand, perhaps more so than anything else. Now, there is a new rule for marketers to follow. The new consumer reverses the 80/20 rule: We used to spend 80 percent on distribution (media) and 20 percent on content (production). We will now spend 80 percent on the content (platforms), and 20 percent on distribution (drive traffic). The framework of traditional media is: buy more media get more engagement, while the new media's mantra is: CREATE engaging platform, win more REACH.
The digital world is at the front line, more so with Filipinos. According to a recent survey, 10 million Filipinos are on Yahoo! daily, 12 million Filipinos are on Friendster, and this population is still growing. 40 percent of Multiply users are Filipinos (and 60 percent is the rest of the world), and we upload 1 million pictures on Multiply daily.
Third world tag aside, the Philippines is a haven for digital marketers. Pinoy consumer attitude matches that of the advanced countries. They decide what to consume, at what time, where, and how. They have revolutionized product to personalization; price to performance; place to position; promotion to participation. The challenge now for marketers: Consumers are now open. Brands must follow.
Quad dela Paz is digital director of MRM Philippines, the digital and direct marketing discipline of McCann Worldgroup.
