ISiM Special Lecture Series (9)on “Changing Paradigms of Digital Marketing - A Report

International School of Information Management
University of Mysore, Mysore


ISiM – Special Lecture Series (9)
23rd September 2009

“Changing Paradigms of Digital Marketing & Multichannel Commerce”
by
Mr. Ajay Malgaonkar

A special lecture was organized at the International School of Information Management (SiM), University of Mysore, Mysore on Wednesday, the 23rd of September 2009 at 10 AM. The special lecture was delivered by Mr. Ajay Malgaonkar, Group Project Manager, Infosys Technologies Limited on the topic of “Changing Paradigms of Digital Marketing & Multichannel Commerce”. Special lectures are organized in ISiM with the intention of providing students an insight into cutting edge trends in the field of Information Management and also an opportunity to interact with distinguished guests.

The event started with Prof.Shalini Urs, Executive Director, ISiM welcoming the speaker and the audience. She introduced the speaker to the audience and set the environment for an exciting discussion.

Mr. Ajay Malgaonkar began his lecture explaining the concept of Digital Marketing and the need for it in the contemporary world. Digital Marketing, he explained is the practice of promoting products and services using digital distribution channels to reach consumers in a timely, relevant, personal and cost-effective manner.

He provided examples to show how the traditional methods of marketing and reaching out to people have become redundant. He then spent some time explaining how these tools could be leveraged to build a relationship between producers and consumers, Create Brand Awareness, build brand equity and capture the public opinion. This practice predominantly uses the new age tools like Internet, mobile and other interactive channels for reaching out to the masses. On the other hand, Multi channel commerce refers to the practice of pursuing multiple means to promote or doing business. The two techniques go hand-in hand in the modern day business scenarios. It today’s business scenario, it is noteworthy that all popular brands are actively employing the techniques of Digital Marketing and Multi channel communications for a better visibility and market position.

He also explained how the videos, emails, websites, SMS’es, Podcasts, Banners and blogs can be used in tandem to create awareness and branding of any product. He emphasized on the current trends in customers’ decision making being deeply influenced by the opinions of their peers. In such scenarios, it becomes important for the companies/brands to monitor the blogs and other social networking platforms over the internet to assess their market positioning and sentiments.

Ajay’s point of view about marketing was that, “Instead of TELLING A STORY, Create the TOOLS that allow a story to be told”. He is of the opinion that acquisition of a customer online consists of following 6 stages namely - Discovery of the product by the consumer, Evaluation by the Consumer, Engage the customer, Interaction among various consumers, Convert the consumers interest and Advocate the consumers–


The speaker then took up a case study regarding the usage of digital marketing during the 2008 US presidential elections. He explained how the blogs, email campaigns were effectively employed to promote individual candidates as brands.