Relationship marketing communication: traditional versus digital techniques

Relationship Marketing Program

Relationship Marketing

The idea of relationship marketing has been the .prime focus of many businesses and the trade oriented organizations of late. There has been an upsurge in competition with more players getting into the various fields of operation that there before had not been flooded by the same kind of businesses. This then called for the relationship marketing into play.

Relationship marketing is promotions and selling engagements whose prime aim is to inculcate trust and a long-term relationship between the company and the big clientele. In this endeavor, the customers' profile, purchase history, contact and any other pertinent information is stored in the database and an account executive to a number of major clients to follow up on their needs and maintain the relationship as well (Web Finance, 2011).

From this precedence, any value-adding policy or approach must of necessity take into account the ultimate aim of relationship marketing as Gronroos, (1994) puts it "…establishing, maintaining and enhancing relationships with customers…at a profit, so that the objectives of the parties are met…"

Thesis statement

To obtain the ultimate goal of the relationship marketing, there has to be a wide range of marketing communication to be incorporated since there is a wide range of customer base that the company deals with. It would be a fallacy to assume one technique and use it solely as the only marketing communication tool.

Basically there are two marketing communication approaches that are to be discussed in the scope of this paper; the traditional and digital marketing techniques.

Traditional marketing techniques

These were the techniques that were used before the invention and the wide spread of the computer technology and are still being used to date. The wide range of traditional marketing involved though not limited to the following; tradeshows, direct mails, events, banners, placards, danglers, teardrops, rollups, billboards, wall murals, vehicle branding, shirt branding all these that could e done to the particular client the company felt was an instrumental client to them. There was also the option of presenting branded cups, pens hats or diaries to the particular clients.

Digital marketing techniques

This is the employment of all forms of digital advertising channels and techniques to reach the clientele. These may include internet, mobile calls/sms/mms, social media for the relationship marketing and in a wider sense of marketing the use of television, radio, banner ads ad n digital outdoors.

Strengths of Traditional marketing techniques

Even the internet has taken over the marketing trends and almost everything is done on the net, there is still a vast majority of potential clientele out there who still are not enabled to aces the internet. This makes it a challenge to reach them through the digital marketing hence the traditional methods apply best.

The other advantage that the traditional technique has is the brand consciousness where there is till a vast number of people who eve though they are aware of the internet and use it, they may fail to trust it for some specific marketing and purchasing needs. For instance one would trust a billboard on a promotion by some small company than if the company does it online. They are tempted to think it is a fraudster marauding in the name of the mother company. It takes time to convince the customers to do the internet transaction according to Tony Baker, (2009).

The other advantage is that the traditional techniques can last longer in terms of the material used hence having a longer lasting impression on the mind of the customer than the digital technique. One is more likely to find a flyer or company calendar in a house two years after a promotion but you are least likely to find someone with an image downloaded from a website in the flash-disk even one week after the promotion is ended.

Weaknesses of Traditional marketing techniques

The traditional techniques are faced with quite a number of shortcomings that make more and more companies opt for the digital technique in their marketing.

The timing of the traditional technique has been overtaken by time since the timeliness of an advertisement does not go hand in hand with the product availability itself. For instance a company can advertise a product and the very morning people flock in and carry away all the available stock. The company cannot immediately update the stock status on the newspapers and banners hence there will be a he number of disappointed clients (Debbie Mcrill, 2011).

The cost of the advertising mode is also prohibitive since the company has to pay for every advert per day and every time they update it there are new charges. The company has to pay as well for the delivery of the flyers and banners every time they send out a bike boy.

The traditional techniques are restricted in terms of ability to customize them. They can only be formatted to target a given age group but not an individual.

The pricing trend on the print is hard to explain. There is a good extent of rigidity that comes with it since there may be other benefits that come with buying a given category of products and all that cannot be carried in a traditional advertising technique.

Weaknesses of digital marketing techniques

The digital method excludes those who are not technology oriented or have no access to technology since it is just a common mode among the urbanites that have technological know-how and the resources to access the technology as well.

The other undoing of the digital means is that it has been clouded by fraud which makes it quite hard to trust and work with. Many people would fear trusting an online commitment especially when it comes to money or personal information.

In the cases where clients need some personal or personalized attention in terms of service or personalized product and feel the texture and even smell it then the internet comes to great short since it cannot provide al that as the physical presence of the brochures distributor would do.

Conclusion

Generally, there are several advantages that come with the digital means of communication in the present age and time. However, it would be wiser to supplement the points of weakness that are noted in the digital means of communication with the traditional means. For instance a company can have brochures and someone giving explanations, wherever needed about a product that is on the internet.

Another interesting hybrid of the traditional and the digital technique that is so dominant is the use of letters to invite people for a launch of a new company product since it is more respectable and official, but using the company website to persuade the prospective attendees giving further explanations of the benefits of attending the launch plus supplementary information like who the guest singer will be, guest comedian or any other details that cannot be included in the official letter.

This way a company can have the most effective means of communicating to the intended client base and retain them to their company for as long as they are still instrumental in the quest for the targeted customer base.