Marketing Environment - Technological Factors

How technological factors affect the marketing environment?

Many marketing managers are already aware of the four Ps and how pleasing customers has become a major priority in marketing today. With increases in technology, however, customer approval is more important than ever before, and all aspects of business are rapidly advancing to conform to expectations of today's varied consumers. The internet has offered consumers the ability to not only rate a large number of products, but also easily provide their own reviews, opinions, and input into the most popular products.

The effect of this on production is that today's products are tested and engineered to be of the highest quality and also accommodate many customer needs. In terms of marketing management, it means being able to listen to the customers and not only what they like and dislike but what their needs are and how they can be met. One great example of how businesses have adapted to customers can be seen in the auto industry. Today's vehicles come standard with such things as mp3 players, navigational systems, Bluetooth capability, and even added cup holders and grocery bag hooks. Also, cars are now equipped with more added safety features than ever before.

With the increased availability of information on a variety of different products, today's consumers are more educated than ever before, demanding products that are made from the safest materials and production methods that are safer for the environment. Increased consumer demands for hybrid vehicles and cleaner fuel alternatives have also prompted further government regulations, incentives for vehicles that benefit the environment, and also increased government funding for research into other forms of fuel.

Fuel and the price of gas in today's economy is also another aspect that has greatly influenced the auto industry, and a number of other industries as well. While sales of larger SUVs and trucks are declining, more people are interested in smaller, compact cars that offer better fuel economy. Another advantage that technology has offered auto dealers and consumers alike is price comparison shopping and referrals. Now, when a customer is looking for a new vehicle, they can go online, research certain models, compare prices, and easily get a referral to a local dealership that offers the best price. For the dealers, this has lead to increased competitiveness and greater cost cutting, as well as no haggle pricing on the part of some companies.

With more and more people turning to the internet not only to shop, but also to do product research prior to buying, price comparison is becoming increasingly important. In fact, in a recent survey, it was determined that 58 percent of online shoppers felt that all ecommerce sites should offer a price comparison service that enabled them to make the best choices on the spot. Marketing management is shifting faster than ever before, and customer input and approval is valued much more today than ever before.

Professionals who have contact with customers are now "touching" with technology. With each passing day, sales, marketing, and even customer service positions are becoming increasingly focused on technology. In a one-on-one interview with SearchCRM.com, Stephen Diorio, President, IMT Strategies, shares his thoughts on the 12 impacts of technology on sales and marketing.

Diorio and IMT Strategies have identified 12 ways technology is changing the sales and marketing executive's job:

Collaborative Customer Relationship Management (CRM): Organizations must assemble and integrate customer relationship management (CRM) systems that enhance customer collaboration and build customer loyalty and exit barriers.

Outsourcing Sales and Marketing Functions: Organizations must strategically outsource sales and marketing budgets to a new generation of businesses, including marketing agencies, e-commerce utilities and service providers, and e-channel partners to obtain talent, technical expertise, and cost efficiencies.

Customer-Centric Organizations: Organizations must recast their familiar organizational and functional models, transforming them into a natural extension of customer segmentation, enterprise selling processes, and complex demand chain partnerships.

Operationalizing E-Care: Organizations must adopt enterprise-wide management of the customer care processes to ensure seamless service and enhanced intimacy across multiple-channel interfaces and throughout the customer lifecycle.

Hybrid Distribution Systems: Organizations must build multi-channel, hybrid distribution systems that leverage low-cost, high-touch technologies to improve cost efficiency, market coverage, and overall selling performance.

Value-Added Direct Sales: Organizations must migrate the role of direct sales to better align high-touch, face-to-face selling interactions with high-value and high-margin products and services.

Demand Chain Remediation: Organizations must restructure demand chain relationships to maximize value creation and customer access while leveraging costs and value-added channel partnerships.

Customer Interaction Centers: Organizations must consolidate and integrate call center, Web, e-mail, fax, and marketing technology assets to better manage selling resources, technology infrastructure, and customer interactions.

Product Channel Readiness: Organizations must design modular, "channel-ready" products optimized for specific sales channels, partners, and customer segments, improving personalization, ease of doing business, and transaction costs.

Dynamic Pricing & Trading: Organizations must creatively manage the impact of buy- and sell-side technologies and trading communities on margins and pricing.

Changing Role of Branding: Organizations must aggressively build brand equity in e-channels, in virtual communities, and across multiple selling partners, channels, and points of interaction (POI).

Interactive Direct Marketing: Organizations must deploy new tools, approaches, and strategies for anticipating or influencing the way customers buy.

Determining which of these twelve areas are of most importance to your specific organization is a first step in acknowledging the impact of technology on sales and marketing and in moving your organization into the world of e-business.