Abstract
Tourism businesses have become virtual organisations linked to information technology available for innovation in marketing as well as using other platforms in the social media environment such as Facebook, Instagram, etc. This use of social media is creating innovation, as the tourists are becoming co-designers, co-producers, co-marketers, and co-consumers of tourism experiences. The branding strategies methods, tools, and process are changing since the adoption of digital technology in marketing and branding. The organisations are able to reach their tourism appeal through multisensory information that touches the five senses in a more effective way. The use of liquid branding and audio branding to introduce, enhance, and develop various audio and visual elements of the brand is a new trend in branding. Therefore, as brick and mortar or virtual organisations, the destination marketing organisation should innovate their marketing efforts and should respond to change within a dynamic business environment.
TopInnovation
Innovation is becoming one of the most important elements in modern society and the changing global nature of business. A lot of research has been carried on the kinds of innovation and marketing innovation found to be one of the main fields which when traced backed into the literature; is not explored in depth but has relatively huge benefits. It is simply defined as the new ways in which businesses can market themselves to their current and potential customers.
One of the main reasons that innovation is getting so much attention is that is the companies are becoming successful and are found being able to achieve a competitive advantage based on those innovative products, processes or services. In today’s globally competitive environment, the key to be the best and achieve the highest market share is to understand what the customers want and to cater them with the changing needs. Successful firms found being acknowledging the fact that engaging the customers is a two-way dialogue and this is something that is very critical for the long-term development and profitability of the company. Innovation combined together with marketing helps the company to grow by providing products and services that are valuable to the consumers. Marketing is all about the end consumers and especially the four marketing P’s found to assure that the organisation would use innovation in all main areas.
The rapid pace, at which the world is developing, has changed the way people used to live and has created a need for change, thus making marketing innovation even more important concept to be studied and implemented. The current customers are always seeking new developments while the potential customers want a differentiating factor, which is one of the many areas under the umbrella of marketing innovation.
Companies have different perceptions when it comes to innovation and particularly when they deal with marketing innovation. Even though the underlying perception might be different for each organisation, the main point is that unless innovation is built in every single fabric of the system that the firm has, it is not possible to implement it. Every organisation in order to be successful requires being innovative and marketing innovation can help them from micro to the macro level, to gain the position that they dream about.
Innovation is not something new (Verloop, 2004) rather it dates back to pre-historic times when a man was able to transform ideas into realization. The innovations of humanity continued to develop over time with huge variations ranging from controlling fire (Goudsblom 1992) to the light bulb to the new medicine that has been recently developed (Achilladelis and Antonakis 2001). Defining the process of innovation, Jacobs and Snijder (2008) explain it as developing and selecting ideas for innovation followed by the transformation of these ideas into innovation.
Given the many forms of innovation, many authors argue that it is vital for organisations to innovate (Tidd and Bessant 2005, Mulgan and Albury 2003) and manage innovation at the same time. Innovation management has therefore been a widely studied area and according to Brinkshaw (2007), innovation management is the ongoing and conscious organisation, control and execution of activities leading to innovation.
The modern-day business theory states that companies must compete in order to retain or gain market share and in all this, innovation is thought to be the key for creating and achieving competitive advantage (Stalk, 2006). It has not linked with a competitive advantage in growing markets but also in mature markets and unlike the majority of the other business practices, innovation might change the competitive balance in the mature markets (Brown, 1992). Not only does innovation renders firm-specific benefits rather in the 1930s, but it also became closely associated with economic gain and competitive advantage. Besides, Letenyei (2001) mentions in his work that the theory of economic development by Joseph Schumpeter bases economic development on five types of economic innovations including setting up or discovering a new product, a new market, manufacturing process and setting up of a new organisation.
Key Terms in this Chapter
Audio Branding: Is a process of brand development and management that uses audible elements of the brand for communications so that a multi-sensory brand communication gives a unique brand identity and provides opportunities for a holistic brand design.
Social media: Electronic communication platforms such as websites and applications that enable users to create online communities to share information, ideas, personal messages, and other contents and to participate in social networking.
Tourism: It is a collection of activities, services, process, and industry that delivers travel experience to individuals or group of travelers; who will spend time away from home in pursuit of recreation, relaxation, and pleasure while making use of the commercial provision of service.
Marketing Innovation: Is an ability and the process that an organisation follows in order to continuously improve its products and services, ideas as well as marketing process in order to satisfy the needs of its customers effectively.
Innovation: Innovation is knowledge-driven change process of introduction or modifications of a new policy, structure, method, process, a new idea, product or service or use of existing products or a new markets for existing products or even a new marketing method.
Liquid Branding: Is a technology-enabled process of branding such that the various brand elements such as colors, size, backgrounds, and elements are displayed dynamically and malleable, so that the brand can adapt and be fun and seemingly appear “new” to consumers without having to redesign the brand every few years.