Consumer Reliance on Alternative Digital Touchpoints

Introduction

On a daily basis, contemporary consumers are faced with an abundance of marketing messages across traditional and new media. The resulting intensity of competition for consumers' attention, requires marketers to improve coordination of marketing tactics. However, the effectiveness of marketing management is hindered by the fragmentation of traditional channels and the advent of novel and interactive communications' options. Because of continuous technological advancements and shifting consumer habits, the digital marketing toolkit is constantly growing and evolving. From websites, e-shops, email and text messaging, contemporary interactive marketing tactics now include search engine marketing, social media, blogging and artificial intelligence, among other. Although digital marketing provides significant advantages to the marketing function, such as precise targeting, increased message relevance and measurement of impact, it may also lead to loss of control and endanger brand reputation.

Irrespective of the nature of the channels employed, a primary aim of marketing is to devise and implement appropriate strategies and tactics for each stage consumers go through when they are considering a purchase. To achieve effective use of available marketing options in the digital environment, marketers ought to determine the purpose for which consumers rely on each of these options. The multitude of available ways brands can interact with consumers on digital media, labelled as digital touchpoints, accentuates the problems involved with coordination of marketing activities. Prior studies have emphasized the need to examine the relationship between digital touchpoints and the content needs of consumers, and understand the specific roles each digital touchpoint plays in consumer decision making, considering the digital device preferences of users.

To fill the aforementioned gap, the present research aims at investigating consumer perceptions about the importance of digital touchpoints during every stage of the consumer buying process. Furthermore, the study aims to examine the impact of personal characteristics and type of digital device used on consumers' perceptions about the relative importance of digital touchpoints. Overall, identification of consumers' reliance on particular digital touchpoints for need recognition, information collection, evaluation of alternatives, purchase decisions and post-purchase evaluation, is assumed to be of critical importance to effective digital marketing planning, in terms of implementing appropriate tactics for each stage of consumer decision making.