TECHNOLOGY has changed the way we live our lives and how we communicate. Smartphones, tablets, laptops; our everyday tech has become ever more portable and on demand. With the advent of social media networking, it’s easier than ever to connect, and we almost forget that some of this technology is relatively young. The first personal computer was first created in 1975, just 42 years ago. Facebook is only 13 years old, barely just a teenager.
You may have heard of ‘disruptive technology’ It’s a term that’s floated around to describe the recent technological boom that’s struck every industry. Simply put, disruptive means a new innovation that displaces established technology and shakes up older practices. There isn’t a single industry that hasn’t been disrupted by technology in some form. Developments have, undoubtedly, had an impact on us as consumers, and an incremental effect on the business world: especially for communication and marketing.
Any new technology can be disruptive when it denotes change. In today’s digitally advanced world, we sometimes take for granted the true game-changers which altered the way people lead their lives and communicate. But, some examples are more obvious than we might think:
With the face of how we communicate forever altered by technological advancements, the field of marketing faces a unique challenge in the current business climate.
Marketing is a crucial management tool for the success of tomorrow’s business professionals. Marketing focuses on communicating the value of a service or product to potential customers in order to sell that service or product. As a marketer, you’ll be helping companies to identify and understand your customers, and brainstorm ideas to communicate the unique selling points of a company’s service or product.
“Digital marketing is a lot more than Adwords and analytics and that sort of thing, you need to understand the landscape and what people want’ Dr Susel Arguaga
The move from traditional marketing mediums like print and television to digital means that marketing communications or ‘messaging’ have changed in response to these new technologies. For example, today’s messaging practice encourages brands to communicate authentically with consumers, rather than appearing too much like an advert in the traditional sense. Largely, this has changed because of social media platforms.
Therefore, it is essential to understand the pressures and opportunities that can be created by new media formats and the key electronic communication tools which are being used to shape today’s marketing strategies. Utilising the right technology can offer marketers a chance to diversify both their promotional channels and platforms for future success. This is something that students wanting a career in marketing must be aware of.
Dr Mizan Rahman, Programme Leader for the MSc Marketing at the University of Lincoln explains how their course helps prepare students before they embark on their marketing career. “The MSc Marketing is designed to reflect current marketing practice and developments in thinking within the academic discipline. The link to the external environment enables our graduates to understand market opportunities and threats, assess possible options, and implement change. In order to provide the right opportunities to develop these skills, students will experience at first-hand industry/marketing activities through live projects and visiting speaker programmes so that students are kept up to date with issues facing a wide range of organisations in private/public/third sector”
Going digital: the future of marketing
Dr Susel Arzuaga, a lecturer in the Business school at the University of Lincoln, teaches a module on digital marketing to postgraduate students on the Msc Marketing course. According to Dr Arzuaga, businesses are trying to catch up with the way that society is turning to digital. “Some of our graduates now currently in employment say that the emphasis on digital has grown. They’ve gone from perhaps sending emails to being asked to update social media feeds and keep track of the conversations about what is happening out there’
“You now have these developments like the internet of things and automation and everything that it will bring, so it is exciting but at the same time scary.”
Dr Arzuaga believes it is bigger than just the technology itself “the biggest change in terms of marketing is more than the technology, that is always going to be evolving. The Facebooks of today will be the something else of tomorrow. It is not necessarily the technology that we need to get hung up on, it’s actually the change in the rules of the game. It used to be that organisations would talk ‘at’ the customer but these days it is not like that, you have to engage with the customer and they will talk back”
Assessment in Dr Arzuaga’s digital marketing module is geared towards what is required of students in the workplace. “They must create and maintain a live digital product throughout the term. Some will go for a Facebook page, some go for a website, some have a blog. It is all related to their own interests and I don’t force them to choose. It must be maintained as if it was something that needs to gather followers and get attention. They have to create content constantly, upload photographs, follow analytics. This will give them the tools once they are in the workplace to apply their knowledge for bigger projects”
“They also must work in teams to create a digital plan for an established company, some students with an interest in tourism have helped the local Visit Lincoln which was very interesting. It gives them a wealth of practical experience.”
“Digital marketing is a lot more than Adwords and analytics and that sort of thing, you need to understand the landscape and what people want. That’s what the students will try to do"
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This editorial was sponsored by the University of Lincoln to find out more about the MSc Marketing programme, take a look at their profile.
