Dodo Loves Marketing

A key role of modern marketing is that of a management `mindset’ implemented throughout an organization rather than confined to a particular department (Payne 1995). This viewpoint regards marketing as a guiding management philosophy or ‘attitude of mind’ that puts the customer first, and it is commonly described s a ‘marketing orientation’. It is a much broader view of the role of marketing an has been envisaged in the past, and it cuts across a wide range of organizational functions. Successful adaptation of a marketing orientation requires effective management of all stakeholder groups (this means people with a particular — although not necessarily the same — interest in the activities of the company) such as staff, business partners, shareholders and suppliers, as well as customers. As Chaffey et al. note, ‘The marketing concept should lie at the heart of the organisation, and the actions of directors, managers and employees should be guided by its philosophy’ ..more

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While press attention has focused on the achievements (and, more recently, the struggles) of Internet entrepreneurs in dotcom companies, comparatively little mention has been made of the increasing numbers of service workers who make up the bulk of the demand for labour in new technology industries. Leibovich, in an article appropriately entitled ‘Service workers without a smile’, provides an interesting account of employment conditions at Amazon, world famous for its ground-breaking policies of online customer relationship-building. He notes how staff are pressured to work as quickly as possible in order to achieve customer satisfaction targets, particularly those who earn low wages packing books at the firm’s distribution centres or answering emails from customers, and goes on to observe the irony of the Amazon geography: ‘Customer service employees work in a patchwork of cubicles scattered over three downtown Seattle buildings. The quarters have an old industrial feel, with gritty exteriors that belie the company’s sleek online identity’ (1999: 3). Many other ‘new economy’ employees work in call centres that have been dubbed ‘the new sweatshops’ because of pressure to work as quickly as possible under electronic surveillance that monitors, for example, the number of customer emails responded to per hour. ..more

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`Second-generation’ mobile phones introduced early in 2001 offer faster connection speeds and are starting to carry advertising. High response rates are currently enjoyed by advertisers (perhaps owing to the novelty factor!), and the most successful campaigns have been run by companies such as the Sun newspaper, which has used the mobile channel to advertise competitions being run in the paper itself. In other words, the Sun is using online advertising to drive its traditional core business — which is offline newspaper sales. Mobile advertising still represents a very small percentage of company promotional spend in comparison with more traditional media such as radio and television, but the figure is increasing. Business services via mobile channels are currently few and far between, but early experiments are under way with order placing, stock-checking availability and order tracking to facilitate supply chain integration. ..more

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Review of recent developments

The growth of the mobile Internet now exceeds that the PC version. Mobile communications offer considerable potential to marketer because of their unrivalled combination of:

• instant response;

• personalized content (as each customer has a unique telephone number);
• scope for geographical location tracking.

The potential for mobile networks is particularly high in developing countries that do not have an established wired telephone network and hence no established PC-based Internet services. In the Philippines, for example, SMS messaging (see p. 194) has recently taken off rapidly, and mobile Internet services there- ore offer huge marketing opportunities in these emerging markets. ..more

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