Published : Wednesday, 23 December, 2015 10:10 AM
MICA HOSTS LECTURE ON IMPACT OF SOCIAL MEDIA ON MARKETING BY DR. JAGDISH N. SHETH
MICA hosted a lecture by Dr.Jagdish N. Sheth on ‘How Social Media Will Transform Marketing Media’, at their campus in Shela on Tuesday, the 22nd of December between 14.30 and 16.30 hours.
Dr. Jagdish N. Sheth, Professor of marketing at Goizueta Business School, Emory University, is a world authority on global competition, strategic thinking, and customer relationship management and emerging markets. Professor Sheth is one of only four Americans ever honoured with the Viktor Mataja Medal from the Austrian Research Society in Vienna for his contributions. Professor Sheth has also been distinguished faculty member at University of Southern California, University of Illinois, Columbia University, and Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
The lecture broadly addressed how the spectacular growth of social media, including Facebook, WhatsApp and YouTube will have more dramatic impact on marketing media than television or telephone, especially fuelled by worldwide instant reach of Word of Mouth (WOM) communication and influence. Marketing media, as we know today, are passive (versus interactive) and mass (as opposed to personalized) messages. Social media will transform marketing media from mass communication to viral communication.
He started his lecture by talking about his journey and sharing his experiences. He spoke about how the young generation and older generation of people are helping each other to teach the generations even younger. His talk featured a discussion about how India bypassed the PC revolution. Talking about how linking social media with e-commerce will lead to greater sales, Mr.Sheth emphasized upon how smartphones have become a need, from a mere want and how countries like China and Japan are undergoing the trend of digital addiction.
Mr.Sheth also listed down the crucial differences between traditional word-of-mouth and social media word-of-mouth and described how much of a powerful weapon social media is, in marketing. His lecture also covered topics like comparing aspiration marketing and reality marketing, highlighting how people have different personalities online and offline. Mr.Sheth also warned of social media addiction and indicated that virtual reality is on a growth curve.
Mr.Sheth described how the social media is also transforming the lives of elderly by enabling them to contact their loved ones. He said that social media will have several transformative impacts on all Marketing Media (direct mail, print, radio and television). First, the fundamental concepts of Segmentation, Targeting and Positioning (STP) will become obsolete. Second, social media addiction especially with the growth of virtual communities and online gaming will invite public policy debates and social critics. Third, users will create their own channels. Fourth, users will be both producers and promoters of products and services. Finally, there will be a dramatic rise in social deviancy including brand tampering and brand hijacking.
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