Marketing Communication in the New Digital World : Take the leap!

Abstract: Background: During the last years, the boom of the Internet has carried along with it new possibilities for communication, in addition, other technological developments of society together act to form a new reality in which companies have to rethink their means for com-municating with consumers. Problem and Purpose: In a new reality where consumers seem to reap all the benefits of the technological changes, how then, should companies adjust to the changing environment? The authors first investigated the modern media environment and found some trends in how it is evolving, and after listening to what some experts within the field think about the future and of what should be done, they them-selves endeavoured to generate some guidance for companies in this matter. Method: This thesis is somewhat of a Delphi study, which means that it heavily relies on the statements of experts. What they have said has played a crucial role in the authors’ own formulation of guid-ance. The experts were interviewed either face-to-face, or through the exchange of e-mails. Conclusions: Major trends in how the media environment is transforming are; technology as an enhancer to rather becoming a determinant, segmentation to fragmentation, decreasing- to increasing returns to scale, an opening for entirely new business concepts and an in-creasing value of intangible assets as a complement to traditional, tangible assets. The authors then presented some elements that would be of crucial significance in this new environment, and they also formulated some more specific guidance in how these ele-ments could be instigated in companies. They were; Speed and flexibility, customization and sustainability. Advice in how they could be instigated where then summarized and illustrated in the “New Digital World Market Communication Diamond”, which basically emphasizes the need for updating the values and the cor-porate culture, the need for streamlining supply chains, the need of truly finding and using information about consumers, and fi-nally, the need for adaptive experimentation.