Evolving Faster Than Lightning: How Is Digital Marketing Changing the Brand? The Future for Digital Marketing Tools

Introduction

Digital technologies and devices such as smartphones, smart products, the Internet of things (IoT), artificial intelligence and deep learning, show the changes, in the consumer´s life, for the near future; these digital technologies are changing the marketing approach and transforming research to what is known as digital marketing (Kannan & Li, 2017). Considering this, digital marketing is defined as a branch of marketing which uses digital devices and channels to promote products of a certain brand, and connect them with the consumer (Karatum, 2017); this is why digital marketing can also be seen as activities, institutions, and processes facilitated by the use of new technologies, communication, delivering value to customers and stakeholders while becoming an adaptive process (Kamman & Li, 2017).

Although digital marketing is growing fast, the progress in SMEs is slow (Pradhan, Nigam, & CK, 2018); however, digital channels are in great use by small businesses today, and it has proven to be more effective when connecting them with the consumer (Karatum, 2017). Thus, value must be created for the customer, and for this we must consider that creating digital value is not focused on developing marketing actions and sales only, but includes other edges where digital business operations, digital mindset and digital business models (in addition to marketing and sales) are of high importance for executives who work in this field (Seitz & Burosch, 2018).

Moreover, the digital consumer has evolved, with internet practices focused in fun, learning, feedback to a brand, and even talk about or work for a brand (Eigenraam, Eelen, van Lin, & Verlegh, 2018), making him a more participatory and collaborative consumer, it also depends on the age and therefore the generation to which he belongs, considering that digital tools are seeked according to speed, security and offered stimuli; such is the case, Baby Boomers are more skeptical and seek what they really consider useful for their lives; Generation X uses the internet as an additional practical channel; and Millennials are more prone to use the network to become acquainted with their environment, quicker and diversely considering their better skills for technology. (Barbery, Pástor, Idrobo & Sempértegui, 2018).

Nevertheless, not only the buyer's perspective must be taken into account, but also the employee's, the company´s, and additionally, the role of mobile technologies; each has a role which has been changing over time, and they must adapt to the technological developments of today (Shankar et al., 2016). From any of these perspectives, we must consider that communication between company and customer is the key to the development of relations, sales support and brand building (Karjaluoto, Mustonen, & Ulkuniemi, 2015), taking into account that interactive marketing is a key skill in growth which needs the support of business intelligence (Stone & Woodcock, 2014). Although it is true that with a website these ties with the client can be created (Kriechbaumer & Christodoulidou, 2014), digital marketing must contemplate getting support from other hardware, and adapt itself to the tendencies of the market.

This is where the concept of brand community becomes important; it is built on four elements: product, brand, consumers, and marketers. Under this scheme, the social networks become facilitators in the exchange of information so that more robust brand communities are built, thus increasing consumer loyalty (Laroche, Habibi, & Richard, 2013); but we must still consider other elements linked to the construction of this community such as the stakeholders, content, channels, and results (Turner, 2017), in addition to those tools mentioned by Kannan and Li (2017) as an example.