Viewpoint - a big opportunity for interactive marketing post-COVID-19

ABSTRACT

Purpose The objective of this short research-informed, practitioner-orientated paper is to provide a viewpoint on interactive marketing pre and post COVID-19. Design/methodology/approach This is a conceptual article designed to articulate a viewpoint that despite COVID-19 the strategic considerations that marketers need to make remain unchanged. Findings As a result of the pandemic, there is much more obvious use of interactivity in other, aligned functions such as sales and customer services. The effectiveness of interactive marketing will only be increased by having focus on the fundamental roles of the marketing discipline, strategy and segmentation, and understanding customers at the individual level. We also need reminding briefly that the rules of competition had changed well before the COVID-19 pandemic. The traditional make and sell model has been substantially replaced by new technology-enabled organisations without the restrictions of high fixed costs and cloying bureaucracy. Customers can now search for and evaluate products and services independent of suppliers and now have as much information about suppliers as suppliers have of customers. This is the backcloth against which marketers face the challenges at the beginning of 2021. We conclude that there is a great future ahead. There is no reason why the best of interactive marketing will not be capable of building relationships that are great for customers, great for the people who create them, great for all stakeholders and great for the environment. Originality/value This is a practitioner viewpoint outlining the view that COVID-19 has not had as great of an impact on interactive marketing practice as technological change has and that interactive marketing will continue to develop after COVID-19 has receded.