Branding in the Digital Age, Article Critique Example

The article suggests that companies are still following outdated marketing strategies which assumed that interacted between companies and consumers ended once the purchase had been made. Now consumers continue to engage with the brand long after they have made a purchase, thus, the companies need to better understand their customers and redesign their whole set of marketing activities. There are four stages through which an average consumer go and they are consider, evaluate, buy, and enjoy, advocate, bond. According to the author, old marketing strategies target consumers at the buy stage even though they should really be targeting consumers at the point where they consider their options and compare them. The author recommends the companies to integrate all marketing-related activities including collection of customer data so that not only the companies better understand their targeted markets but also portray consistent brand image through different marketing channels (Edelman).

The main strength of the article is that it carefully describes the whole processes consumers now usually go through from initial research and evaluation to purchase and brand engagement. Consumers’ interaction with brands doesn’t end now once the purchase has been made because internet has made it possible for consumers to engage with brands and express their views that is not possible through traditional media such as TV and newspapers. Another strong point about the article is that it sheds light on the importance of understanding consumers’ behavior and attempting to influence them while they are still at the decision-making stage. The article also mentions the fact that marketing should take more important role in the overall business strategy and some of the tasks previously done by other departments should be delegated to the marketing department such as customer data collection and management.

One of the weaknesses of the article is that it doesn’t mention the limitations of the recommendations offered by the author. There may be some items to which these recommendations do not apply or to whom some stages do not apply. For e.g. snack food products are purchased on frequent basis and many customers may not consider it worth their time to research options or engage with the brand because the products would simply be acquired taste or habitual purchases. Another weakness of the article is that the author has evaluated the effectiveness of the proposed recommendations on the basis of few examples such as a TV manufacturer. The author mentions that brands such as Nike and Apple have not really followed the proposed recommendation yet Apple and Nike are seen as effective marketers. Apple has done little to collect data on customers and Nike has done little to improve search engine marketing strategy yet they are strong marketing forces.

The article lends support to the idea that international marketing should take unique local characteristics into account and uniform global marketing strategies may be cheaper but not effective in achieving the marketing objectives. Another contribution of the article to international marketing is that it emphasizes the importance of portraying consistent brand image otherwise confused consumers will flock to the competitors. Strong brands can help companies gain market share as well as create artificial competitive barriers for the competition.

Reference

Edelman, David C. “Branding in the Digital Age.” Harvard Business Review December 2010: 1-8.