A global survey of 2,500 marketers highlighted key trends, opportunities and challenges for marketing professionals. Many businesses have realized the importance of their digital presence. Monitoring new developments in this area is necessary to take advantage of business opportunities and identify threats.

Customer experience will be a priority for C2C marketers in 2014. It is the most exciting opportunity for 20 percent of respondents, who are focused on enhancing their customers’ digital experience. Mobile marketing is the second most attractive marketing opportunity for businesses worldwide. It will probably only grow in importance, as the number of people who own cell phones and tablets increase.

Mobile technologies have made it much easier for companies to access and communicate with their customers, but there are some challenges ahead. For example, cell phone screens are quite small, which requires marketers to adapt their messages and communicate brand image with very little available space.

For companies marketing their products to other businesses, content marketing will be the key opportunity in 2014, with 24 percent of survey participants giving it the highest ranking. The main purpose of content marketing is to engage business consumers with various forms of content (video, images, blog posts, ebooks, etc). at the various steps of the buying cycle. It seems that B2B marketing is quite information intensive, while B2C marketers focus on the whole experience.

It is interesting how personalization was the main priority for only 10 percent of respondents. One of the most recent examples where personalization is being used to increase sales is grocery shopping. ScanIt! mobile application provides consumers with different offers depending on whether they are time- or financially constrained. For example, it will send financially constrained consumers coupon deals, while time constrained consumer will be able to order deli and pick it up whenever they can.

References:

Blog: http://www.getelastic.com/key-digital-trends/

Hamstra, M. (2014, January 13). Targeted marketing: Retailers step up personalization. Supermarket News. Retrieved from LexisNexis Academic database.

Murthy, A. A. (2011). Content marketing. PRIMA, 2(1), 31-45. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com.ezproxy.library.ubc.ca/docview/1478064964?accountid=14656

Tesla’s last DriveFree campaign demonstrates a very interesting use of marketing techniques including social media. Promotion has become a difficult task in our time-poor society, which is constantly under attack of perhaps millions of advertising messages today. It requires marketers to ensure that each message that they develop for their target markets grabs attention and conveys the value of the product. However, it is necessary to define who your target market actually is.

The New York Post article mentions that Tesla wants its cars to be within the reach of upper-middle class. There are many different ways to define a company’s target market, and I think one of the best ways to segment Tesla’s market is using psychographics.

Since these people can afford a car that runs on gas, why would they buy Tesla? Because it satisfies more of their needs and wants, and it does so better than other car producers. I assume these are also the people who have certain lifestyle, beliefs and values. Not only should they be able to buy this car, but also believe that it reflects who they are or who they want to be.

Now, who exactly those people are? Assuming that Tesla established itself a luxury brand, its target market wants to buy things that are not necessarily practical, but promote their self-image. Their target customers probably follow a luxurious lifestyle and would want buy things that are the best in their product categories. High quality, high-tech cars such as Tesla’s Model S sedan would likely to appeal to them the same way innovative and technically superior Apple products appeal to its buyers.

This is the value that a luxurious electric car has for these consumers. One model will probably not be enough for them; Tesla wants to widen its product selection and target families. It will be very interesting to see how Tesla’s plans to expand its market share turn out.

https://blogs.ubc.ca/yahel/

“Tesla Cars to Allow Owners to See US on $0 gas.” New York Post. MarketWatch, 2 Feb. 2014. Web. 02 Feb. 2014. <http://nypost.com/2014/02/02/tesla-cars-to-allow-owners-to-see-us-on-0-gas/>.