The futuristic philosopher Alvin Toffler once wrote, “The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn.” In fact, the whole advertising industry is based on this theory. For filling a vessel, you must empty it first. People in advertising must unlearn the old, to learn or be in sync with the new.
Advertising is the process of persuading a targeted audience to take a specific action, whether that’s buying a product or bringing awareness towards an issue. Today, all over the world, from the subway to public restrooms, advertisers are engaging with the consumers at every touch point in their lives, hoping to influence their buying decisions. According to a 2018 study by Nielsen, the average American adult spends more than 11 hours per day interacting with media in some capacity. If the ultimate goal for a business is to inform and connect with consumers, then they need to engage with them digitally.
Advertisements drive business sales growth because they create interest among consumers, particularly in young generation. Myanmar has a young population of 53 million consumers who are optimistic about the future despite the ongoing political issues. This generation Y is increasingly technically savvy and uncommonly open to learning about and interacting with brands. Experts are of the opinion that Myanmar is going to be one of their key focuses moving forward, as they are seeing some of their highest sales-growth figures, not just across Asia-Pacific, but globally. Personal income has doubled in the last five years. To be precise, average monthly income among 18- to 55-year-olds rose from US$122 in 2014 to US$264 in 2019. The median age is 27.8, according to CIA World Factbook, and 36% of the population is aged between 10 and 29. Myanmar citizens are increasingly spending their money in a number of categories, notably investments, travel, healthcare and household transportation, according to a research company.
There isn’t any specific method or approach that a business should use to reach their targeted audience. Businesses, especially large corporations, allocate tremendous amounts of their budget to receive insight into the habits, needs, interests, and characteristics of their ideal consumers. Once personas are established, the where and how of advertising can be determined.
Some 78% consumers in Asia-Pacific say they now see ads across more platforms compared to three years ago, but 61% also find ads more intrusive. According to Zenith’s Thirty Rising Media Markets report of 2018, Bangladesh and Myanmar were projected to be amongst the world’s fastest-growing in terms of ad spend over the next three years. Warwick Olds, founder and partner of Havas Riverorchid, which has been active in Myanmar for about a dozen years (Havas acquired the agency, which has offices across Indochina, in 2015), says the companies that came in after 2012 and have stayed the course, are seeing payback.
The tech-savvy generation of today has stretched the need for digital marketing online. It emphasized the fact that one needs to switch from the traditional media which in today’s world has less impact compared to digital marketing and social media advertising which seem to be ubiquitous. Part of this reality is due to the effectiveness of marketing and advertising strategies in driving success for companies of every shape and size.
Advertising is a component of marketing but most of the time the two are used interchangeably. In basic terms, marketing is the process of identifying customer needs and determining how best to meet those needs. In contrast, advertising is the exercise of promoting a company and its products or services through paid channels.
Advertising is the modern substitute for argument; its function is to make the worse appear the better.
The best advertisers use research to determine the placement, style, and purpose of an advertisement. If the ultimate goal for a business is to inform and connect with consumers, then they need to engage with them digitally. Jeff Bezos, the founder and executive chairman of Amazon, has said, “It’s hard to find things that won’t sell online.” Pierre Omidyar, the founder of eBay also supports technology and innovation by saying, “We have technology, finally that for the first time in human history allows people to really maintain rich connections with much larger numbers of people.”
Advertising not only drives innovation but also supports competitiveness by contributing to wider economic growth. It provides consumers with information on products and services, and helps to increase their choice of goods and services.
Cost-effectiveness is one of the biggest benefits of online/digital advertising or marketing. Digital marketing helps you save money and obtain more leads. “In the world of Internet Customer Service, it’s important to remember your competitor is only one mouse click away” says Doug Warner, Head of Business Innovation Amazon Web Services (AWS).
With traditional marketing methods, it’s difficult for small-to-mid-size businesses to compete with larger companies. Big businesses have the money to allocate for TV ads, radio spots, and more. This makes it hard for small businesses to compete with these larger companies.Digital marketing, however, puts businesses on the same playing field. It is an affordable way to market your business to interested consumers. Most digital marketing and advertising methods are budget-friendly. For example, pay-per-click advertising also called PPC advertising allows you to choose your budget. Whether you want to spend $500 or $2000, you set the amount that works for your company. This is a unique advantage of online marketing.
DK Mads adigital advertising agency based in Yangon deals with clients in FMCG, Pharmacy, automobile and telecom and other fields says that it would like to develop better Digital advertising culture in as digital media scape is getting bigger and more attractive in Myanmar.
One of the most significant benefits of a digital marketing strategy is the ability to track the results as your business grows. While traditional methods are extremely effective too but it’s hard to measure their effectiveness. With digital marketing methods, you can accurately track the results of your campaign. . For example, you may monitor your SEO (search engine optimization) performance with Google Analytics. This includes impressions, clicks, comments, shares, conversions, and more. It makes it easy for you to know how your campaign is performing. This way you get an insight into your campaign to see how you can improve it. This allows you to save money by optimizing your campaigns as you run them. You’ll get more out of your budget when you improve it as you go. By measuring your results, you’ll run better campaigns for your business.
Another significant advantage of online marketing is the ability to target people specifically. If content is king, then conversion is queen” said Bizzuka CEO John Munsell. It’s a challenge to obtain enough leads to justify your marketing costs. Reaching the right people makes the marketing campaign effective. With SEO services or other marketing strategies, you create right buyers. With platforms like Facebook, you can get extremely specific with the audience you target.
Targeting people with traditional marketing methods is difficult. Generally, your message goes to everyone in hopes of reaching people interested in your business. With digital marketing, you reach people interested in your business. You can specifically target consumers with interest in your company, services, or products. It’s a level of depth that traditional marketing can’t match. You’ll define your audience by attributes such as age, gender, occupation, interests, hobbies, and more.
As the proverb goes – Early bird catches the worm, same goes for digital advertising. The benefits of digital marketing include being able to help you reach people at the start of the buying journey. Therefore, it’s crucial that you make an impact early. People often turn to the Internet at the start of the buying journey. They begin to research and look for a product or service that fits their needs. If you offer the product or service they want, it’s the right time to make a positive impact. Your audience is looking to learn more about products or services to educate themselves. By utilizing online marketing, you can direct these users to your page to provide them with the information they need.
This way your brand exposure is built. These users find your profile and learn more about your business. Whether it’s through your social account or content, you’ll expose people to your company and brand. Even if leads don’t convert right away, they will remember your business. It will make an impact on them early in the buyer’s journey.
Last but not the least with digital marketing is that you can make changes as you go. This is unique to digital marketing. With traditional methods, you can’t make changes once you’ve committed. Once your flyers or your billboard is up, you can’t alter the ad until the campaign ends. This is hard on your budget because you can’t change your campaign when it’s live to drive better results.
When you invest in online marketing, you have the power to make changes whenever. You can update your PPC campaigns, tweak your social media ads, optimize your SEO campaigns, and update your content as you need. This means you can adapt your campaign to drive the best results.
