Defining Digital Marketing #001

There are numerous definitions of digital marketing as there are for marketing more widely. The traditional definitions of marketing have historically been process driven or society driven. You might consider authors such as Kotler, and areas such as consumer needs and wants, anticipation, satisfaction and profit. Kannan & Honghuang (2017) present a very similar type of definition of digital marketing as an,

adaptive, technology-enabled process by which firms collaborate with customers and partners to jointly create, communicate, deliver, and sustain value for all stakeholders

Kannan & Honghuang (2017) reviewed previous literature relating to digital marketing covering a fifteen year period concentrating on a number of key journals. They define a technological process that links with the creation of shareholder value.

Don't forget the technology; there are other definitions that will talk about Digital Marketing in terms of the use of certain technologies for the process of marketing, and marketing being that exchange process between one party and another e.g. I give up something in return for something else.

It's a fairly long read but its not a difficult read. What I like about it is that it covers a generic marketing framework based on consumer buying behavior. It takes the customer side of things, it takes the marketing side of things and sees where technology fits. It will bring you up to date on where the research has been.

Reference

Kannan, P. K., & Honghuang, A. L. (2017). Digital marketing: A framework, review and research agenda. International Journal of Research in Marketing, 34, 22-45. Retrieved from http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijresmar.2016.11.006