media update’s Adam Wakefield was at the latest PRISA JumpStart breakfast session where Lwandile Luzipho, marketing and communications manager for Bobbi Brown Cosmetics and Jo Malone London, within Estee Lauder, elaborated on marketing and PR in the age of digitisation.

Digitisation is everywhere and everything

Luzipho began the presentation by noting a study conducted by EY in 2012, called The digitisation of everything: How organisations must adapt to changing consumer behaviour. According to the study, digitisation is an epoch shift more important than the Internet. Exponential advances in technology, greater consumer power, and increased competition mean all industries face the threat of commoditisation.

As pointed out by Luzipho, the winners will act now and build a strategic advantage so their competitors will be left in their wake.

“Digitisation is bigger than the Internet. It’s made our consumers and our audience access information faster than we have ever thought… Companies that react swiftest to change, change the game or lead the game.”

Digitisation has manifested itself through the social media tools people now use every day, such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Instagram. It has made everything faster, searchable, with the interactions and conversations taking place within social happening continuously and in real time.

Consumers do their own market research

Digitisation has also affected how consumers interact with brands. In the 1980s, consumers engaged with brands in-store or at head office, but digitisation has heralded a diversion of rivers. Consumers now seek meaningful engagements away from physical touch points, going online instead. The touchpoints where the consumer and the brand can interact have multiplied.

“We will take all of these touch points: your flagship stores, your social media, your e-commerce site, social media, and all of these will create a seamless experience of the brand or of the message,” Luzipho said.

However, consumers are now approaching brands with already pre-conceived ideas of what the brand means to them. They would have visited the brand’s site, YouTube, done a Google search, and found out what they wanted to know before dealing with the brand directly.

Prosumers, new media and the old

Digitisation, and the influence of social media, has also led to the mushrooming of consumers Luzipho refers to as “prosumers”.

Prosumers are consumers that brands can use to promote their product because they are authentic fans of a product and knowledgeable of the content that the brand has produced. Another word for prosumer is the oft-used “influencer”, but Luzipho is not a fan of the term because “it is a moving target”.

An influencer can be either a person who authentically follows and uses a brand, or someone paid by a brand to endorse their products. Prosumers, however, are those fans who are 100% authentic about their preference and use of a brand.

Digitisation has also seen questions asked of where old media fits into the digital picture, and according to Luzipho, the correct combination of old and new media in today’s digital environment is a potent brand promotion cocktail, if done correctly.

That means ensuring that all platforms, from old to new, speak with one voice and one message.

“It also depends on who we are speaking to and where we’re trying to target that person. The audience is king. If they want to be spoken to via radio or television, that is where we try to start first,” Luzipho said.

“Everything needs to converge to create that holistic omni-channel experience. Successful marketing and communication happen when we send the right message and reach the right people, using the right medium at the right time.”

Marketing in an omni-channel world

Luzipho explained the world has moved on from a one-channel environment, to multi-channel, to today’s omni-channel world. No channel operates in isolation.

“Marketing should really present the opportunity to create compelling and authentic content, which sparks considerations for our brand,” Luzipho said. The content needs to be meaningful and make an impact.

Public relations should follow through on these opportunities by creating moments of shared conversation that can linger that little bit longer.

“The way companies are investing today is changing. They are reviewing where they are spending their money. It’s all about ROI [return on investment].”

Digitisation has changed the way the world communicates and interacts with one another, and if your brand is not evolving with the times, it will be left behind.

For more information, visit prisa.co.za

The integration of traditional marketing into the digital mix is one of the topics discussed at this week’s Marketing Indaba. Read more in our article, Day one of the Marketing Indaba packed with insights.