Value Chain Digitalization in Digital Marketing

Meaning and different Functions of Value Chain Digitalization in Digital Marketing were discussed here.
The User can understand the different value elemnts of digital value elements and the application of different Business Models. It also discusses about the consumer for Digital Marketing and their identification process.

1. Value Chain Digitalization

2. Meaning: Value chain is defined as a chain of activities that a firm operating in a specific industry performs in order to deliver a valuable product or service for the market

3. Functions of Value Chain:

4. Procurement function: Related to all activities for procuring raw material and other types of input content (for services) from multiple supplier sets Production function: Involves the set of processes towards creating or in certain cases assembling new products and services to be sold to multiple customer groups Delivery function: Involves the set of activities geared towards warehousing, delivering, and ensuring final consumption at the customer’s end Expert function: Relates to expert activities or services provided by multiple intermediaries or as we call them here “expert partners” who can bring down operational costs

5. Digital Marketing Business Models A digital business model is  a form of creating value based on the development of customer benefits using digital technologies

6. Value Elements Value elements essentially are the set of key differentiators which when used individually or in conjunction with each other provide a unique compelling proposition for any customer to buy a product from online rather than physical channels.

7. Convenience: The foremost value which any digital business will provide a customer is to make it more convenient for the him/her to search, catalogue, select, order, and receive goods or services than to do the same in the physical environment Variety: The next important factor is the variety of products and services which can be put on display across dedicated websites and commerce portals, and the sheer amount of information which can be shared for each of the available elements. Cost: Involves the ability to manage costs by either utilizing efficient expert intermediaries or bypassing multiple levels of middlemen who add to the costs of the final products. Aesthetics : It is one of the most novel differentiators which is not given much attention during online value creation discussions. Aesthetics include an array of tangible and intangible value-enhancing components like product design, overall styling of medium, channel and message, impact of subtle imagery, etc., all of which contribute a great extent towards the packaging of even average products and showcasing them online in a highly stylized manner.

8. Communication: A broad value differentiator, communication can go on a long way to provide digital value which normally cannot be generated for a product sold offline. Customization: Out of the six digital value addition elements, customization is probably the one which is being largely discussed and still has a lot of room for improvement. Customization typically means identifying key customer segments, developing their personals (key traits, buying patterns, goals, skills, attitudes, etc.), and being able to deliver the exact experience which even a single customer might be looking out for, provided it makes investment sense.

9. Application of Business Models Search engines : These are entities which provide search-related function and map customer searched content to pre-classified content. Content aggregators: These are companies/websites which aggregate content pieces from various sources and provide them in the form of curated articles in a highly classified format. Vertical portals : It will provide news, views, articles, forums, social networking features dedicated to that particular subject area.

10. Content aggregators: These are companies/websites which aggregate content pieces from various sources and provide them in the form of curated articles in a highly classified format. Marketing applications: Applications or mobile apps, (as they are mostly referred to these days), provide simple, intuitive interfaces to improve information retrieval and productivity. Content licensing: Includes models wherein content (which might be owned or tied-up with) is leased or licensed further to other websites, to create other content-based offerings or packages, a portion of which is then paid back to original content producers.

11. Consumer for Digital Marketing Consumer behavior and related studies have formed an integral part of marketing as it is crucial to understand the motivations and factors which lead to a consumer buying any specific brand over another and choosing certain websites, platforms, and channels over and over again for purchases. It is important to understand the difference between two terms which are often confused and substituted for each other—the consumer and customer. In marketing parlance, the term customer refers to the purchaser of the product whereas consumer refers to the end user of the product or service.

12. The simplest example relates to baby products wherein a mother is the customer while the actual consumer is the baby for whom the product has been bought. In several cases, the consumer can also act as a customer, when he/she is singularly involved in searching, evaluating, and buying the product, and finally consuming it.

13. Stages of Consumer Model (a) Information input stage (b) Information processing stage (c) Decision process stage

14. Elements of Decision process stage