The digital revolution, as exemplified by the Internet and electronic commerce, has shaken marketing practices to their core. In a recent paper, Wharton's Jerry Wind, director of the SEI Center for Advanced Studies in Management, and co-author Vijay Mahajan, a marketing professor at the College of Business Administration of the University of Texas at Austin, examine the impact of digital marketing on concepts like pricing, when customers can propose their own prices (priceline.com), or buyers and sellers can haggle independently in auctions (eBay.com).
The paper provides an overview of some of the emerging realties and new rules of marketing in a digital world, and outlines what the new discipline of marketing may look like in the early part of the new century.
To begin with, say the authors, the rapid-fire growth of the Internet is helping to drive changes. "It is not just our computers that are being reprogrammed; it is customers themselves," says Wind. "These emerging cyber consumers are like an alien race that have landed in the midst of our markets. They have different expectations and different relationships with companies from which they purchase products and services."
For one thing, cyber consumers expect to be able to customize everything - from the products and services they buy and the information they seek, to the price they are willing to pay. And with digital technology opening new channels for gaining information, they are more knowledgeable and demanding than previous consumers.
Digital customers can also sort products based on any desired attribute, price, nutritional value, or functionality, and they can easily obtain third-party endorsements and evaluations, tapping the experience of other users. "Companies that cannot meet their demands and expectations will be at a loss," says Wind.
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