Push and Pull
Marketing in Context of Online, Mobile, and Big Data Business Models
Marketing is usually taken to be the entire gamut of
activities that span customer acquisition, retention, and customer prospecting.
In this context, we are used to receiving marketing messages and advertisements
that entice us and persuade us to buy and consume products
This is the traditional concept of push marketing wherein
marketing messages about new products and new releases often find their way
into our email, snail mail, and other channels.
Indeed, traditionally, marketing has always been
characterized as push marketing wherein marketers target advertisements and
marketing messages at consumers based on broad and wide as well as deep and
spread out parameters such as demographics, gender, income levels, geography,
and some personalized preferences based on consumer profiling according to
these parameters.
However, in recent years, there has been a rise in the pull
marketing wherein marketers do not stop at “pushing” products to consumers and
instead, “pull” the consumers to buy products and consume brands based on
proactive and predictive capabilities.
How this works is that marketers begin to take a consumer
database and then determine the various classifications and categorizations as
described earlier and then they begin to use Big Data to predict what those
consumers would buy next. In other words, when contrasted to the traditional
push marketing wherein products and brands are first conceived and then
consumers targeted, pull marketing differs in the sense that consumers and
their future consumer behavior is predicted and sensed as well as intuited.
To give examples of push and pull marketing, consider ads for
everyday products such as Toothpastes, Edible Items, and FMCG or Fast Moving
Consumer Goods. In these instances, marketers prepare a list of potential
consumers and then begin market research to determine the likely target market
for the brands and products.
Once the target market is identified, then marketers begin to
“push” the products to consumers wherein ads and marketing messages are
targeted at the consumer segments based on market research. Thus, demand is
sought to be generated for the supply of products and brands that are pushed to
the consumers who are at the center of the marketers’ universe.
In contrast, the new age marketers go beyond pushing
products and brands and instead, pull consumers into their universe wherein
their future needs and preferences are estimated and evaluated and then ads and
marketing messages targeted at them.
In other words, the marketing process is predictive and
intuitive in nature wherein marketers have the power to anticipate shifts in
consumer preferences and sense and intuit what consumers are going to do next.
This differs from traditional push marketing in the sense that consumers who
are again at the center of the marketers universe are pulled in an outward
circle manner whereas in push marketing, products are pushed in an inward
circle manner to the consumers.
Thus, there is a world of difference between push and pull
marketing and the latter has taken off in a big way in recent years mainly due
to the sophisticated tools and software that is available to the marketers
through Big Data.
Further, with the advent of the internet and
Smartphones, consumers can be pulled into the marketers’ universe more easily as
these channels provide the marketers with an ability to draw the consumers
rather than pushing the products alone.
Indeed, while one cannot pull consumers entirely through
pamphlets, TV ads, and radio spots that are generic in nature, the internet and
Smartphones allow marketers to reach consumers in a more micro and customized
as well as targeted manner.
In addition, the internet and Smartphones allow marketers to
combine Big Data software with the inherent technologies embedded in these
media and channels and hence, gives them unprecedented power over the
consumers.
Indeed, while push marketing was static and one way, pull
marketing is dynamic and two way meaning that consumers can be pulled more
easily since they “interact” with the marketing campaigns in a dynamic manner
which would allow them to communicate and reveal their preferences to the
marketers in a “real time” manner.
Thus, marketers can devise marketing campaigns that are more
personalized and customized that increases the possibility of the consumers
being pulled into the orbit of the brand universe.
As can be seen from the discussion so far, pull marketing is
something where the consumers and their future moves are anticipated and
predicted using Big Data and then leveraging online and mobile channels, they
are drawn to buying products based not only on customer segmentation principles
but also based on more micro and granular customer targeting methods and
processes.
Though some experts characterize this as push marketing with
more advanced technology being used, for the purposes of this article, it would
be safe to say that the term pull marketing suits this new age selling better.
Finally, given the awesome power of Big Data and the
convenience of the online and mobile channels, it would not be surprising if in
the future, we find more real time updating of marketing strategies that are
more dynamic and interactive. Already anyone who uses the internet to shop and
Smartphones to buy products would know how customized marketing works.
Thus, with more sophisticated technologies, it might be
possible to delve into the minds of the consumers and predict what they would
do next which is way ahead of traditional push marketing that depends on market
research conducted before the products are launched and instead, rely on market
research that is dynamic and real time in nature.
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