Impact Of Digital Marketing On Society And Economic Growth

Digital Marketing’s origins can be traced to SoftAd Group, now ChannelNet where people who would send in their queries and replies would get a floppy disk in their mail that contained digital information about several major automobile companies that had approached the firm. This was in the 1980s but it was only in 1990 that the term ‘digital marketing’ has been coined. In the 2000s it became a household name and statistics of 2010 showed that this industry is ever-growing and showing no signs of slowing down. One does not require any sort of evidence to prove that the internet has changed the lives of mankind and its global impact is unmatched by any other previous discovery or event. Even after living in such a reality, the process of digital transformation even today is the topic for a fierce debate among many groups. Today let us check on the impact of digital marketing on society and economic growth.

Price and Trust

In a very short description digital marketing can be defined as the way one effectively communicates to their potential clients and customers regarding one’s products and services through several online medias and channels. One of the most important and interesting aspect that digital marketing has introduced is its impact on the price range. Naturally prices on the internet for various commodities have lowered as the competition is that tight online and this in turn has forced offline retailers to reduce their price as well. Once equilibrium was attained the next notable factor was the online retailers’ reputation and product selection. According to several reports it has been suggested that, trust in all technology-based sectors declined since 2015, with concerns over data privacy and security a key factor. Establishing new norms so as to completely integrate ethical behavior with technology should be the fundamental step that needs to be taken so as to reach higher levels of customer trust.

Sustainability in Digitalization?

Although digital marketing and digitalization are two different concepts we cannot ignore the origins of marketing and where it would lead. If history is anything to go by then it stands to reason that for every 1% increase in global GDP the CO2 emissions and resource intensity have raised by nearly 0.5%. This means that there will be a margin of nearly 8 billion tones between supply and demand of natural resources caused due to current business practices alone by the year 2030. This amounts to 5 Trillion US Dollar loss. The time for change has in fact long passed us but now we need to aim to create a workforce for the next machine age and its smooth transition would inevitably lead to a sustainable world. Studies have shown that nearly all repetitive works can be substituted by digital means and it stands to reason that about half of all paid activities could be performed by AI and machine learning integrated devices. Digitalization will not just be useful in driverless cars but even to check the signs of cancer. It has probably dawned upon your mind that this would mean a lot less jobs to go around and the argument stands that future employment would probably emphasize human empathy and originality. Examples would include teachers, artists, and nurses among others who would need a human touch for job perfection.

The right solution to these issues is not denial. The inevitable fact of digital revolution should be accepted and improved rather than ignored and repressed and therefore we need to maximize the benefits of new policies that must ultimately pop up and respond positively to the future. While it’s true that digitalization is global, its pace and adaption is widely relied upon geographic socio-economic constraints. Not to mention social preferences of the people.

Conclusion

To legitimately assess the impact of digital marketing on society and economic growth we need only estimate the potential for the top 10 industries namely:

• Retail

• Automotive

• Real Estate

• Media

• Entertainment

• Healthcare

• Telecom

• Oil and Gas

• Education

• Logistics

And if reports are to go by then a collective 100 Trillion US Dollars is the projected revenue of these fields combined by the end of 2025.