Is digital marketing a waste of Money?

With internet penetration rate increasing, many brands have started investing in digital.

But the mass eyeballs still seem to be available through traditional media.

As business management students, what are your thoughts on the digital medium and social networks as a marketing channel.

Or do you think it's a waste of money as many brand managers spend a mere 5-10 % of their marketing budgets on digital and social media.

Currently its a waste of money.

Maybe in near future when we are as evolved as foreign markets, the only thing marketeers will advertise on is going to be digital space.

Everything is going online you see, including a cow which was on sale at ebay sometime back.

personally i dont think its digital marketing is waste of money its effective and great way of marketing as now ANy tom dick knows to serve internet and so our message through digital marketing will clearly be seen .

I somewhat believe that an advertising and marketing of any product depends on the features of the product. for eg. if your product comes under an FMCG category you may not serve your purpose by digital marketing where as if your product is part of a Consumer Durable category you may well digitally market it. On the whole the concept of digital marketing is evolving with websites like ebay, flipkart, tradus, pioneering the online sale.

I guess we should participate more into such discussions on a regular basis rather than posting comments after days unless someone is busy.

@Kulin

What do you think of Social Media. Even consumer brands can use social media to market their products, receive consumer feedback etc. No?

@Shreya Das

The numbers are huge now. Almost everybody googles now, or is on Facebook. How in this do you say that digital marketing is not big?

Hi Ankita,

Yes consumer brands can market their product on a social media website but do you think as an entrepreneur is it viable and feasible to market a product whose margins are low and work on volumes? FMCG product requires a feel and experience by a consumer, its prices does not suffice itself to be a component of a digital marketing avenue. Coming on to your second point regarding feedback i would like to say that selling a product and receieving a feedback are two different things. I would encourage that more and more companies start receiving feedback through social media. This way they will attract more and more feedbacks rather than paper filling and form filling. Feedback is an post-purchase phase where i can give a feedback for a product which i might have bought it from a different seller. Being a part of so many social media websites how many FMCG products do we see as compared to Non-FMCG? Very limited right. However, i would not discourage the whole digital marketing concept. If used fundamentally and financially well it would get you that extra sales along with which your topline will grow.

Originally Posted by ankitagaba

@Shreya Das

The numbers are huge now. Almost everybody googles now, or is on Facebook. How in this do you say that digital marketing is not big?

Yes the numbers are huge, but the numbers are of students surfing through their cellphones or rural audiences who do not have a credit card.

Most spend still happens in travel and luxury items available at cheap deals.

People are not as habituated buying online as often as they go to malls etc or as compared to a citizen of a developed nation.

Once we have a strong eCommerce demographic, more brands will splurge online.

Hi Shreya,

I appreciate your point about the age group who uses the digital medium. However you are ignoring the fact that we are here discussing about the digital media as a medium of marketing and advertisement rather than buying actual product online which means if a student is surfing on Facebook and he looks at a new samsung mobile phone advertisement on the right hand side of the Facebook page and he explores it and then goes and buys it from the shop. This would solve the purpose of a digital marketing for a company which is samsung in my above eg.

Originally Posted by koolin

Hi Shreya,

I appreciate your point about the age group who uses the digital medium. However you are ignoring the fact that we are here discussing about the digital media as a medium of marketing and advertisement rather than buying actual product online which means if a student is surfing on Facebook and he looks at a new samsung mobile phone advertisement on the right hand side of the Facebook page and he explores it and then goes and buys it from the shop. This would solve the purpose of a digital marketing for a company which is samsung in my above eg.

ya its true as i said before internet marketing is getting popular now days many companies are promoting their products on social site for eg take our home website eg at management paradise many institutes market their product so its right different segment of products are marketed at different site which suitable for it .