The Digital Journey: Reflected Learnings and Emerging Challenges

• Published date: 01 October 2017
• Date: 01 October 2017
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/ijmr.12104

International Journal of Management Reviews, Vol. 19, 455–472 (2017)

DOI: 10.1111/ijmr.12104

The Digital Journey: Reflected Learnings

and Emerging Challenges

Sarah Quinton and Lyndon Simkin1

Oxford Brookes Business School, Oxford Brookes University, Wheatley, Oxford OX33 1HK, UK 1Centre for

Business in Society, Coventry Business School, Coventry University, Coventry CV1 5FB, UK

Corresponding author email: sequinton@brookes.ac.uk

This paper identifies and examines the four stages of marketing’s digitalization journey

to date and the points of interest along the way. The metaphor of a journey provides a

narrative through which to understand the complexchanges that are occurring within

the digitalization of marketing. The digital journey has no final destination yet, but

it is possible to identify an origin and chart its route thus far. In reflecting on this

journey, insights emerge, which pose ongoing challenges for businesses and for the

marketing discipline. The digitalization of marketing providesnew options for routes to

markets, communication, brand building, relationship development, trialling pricing,

product development, sourcing insights, as wellas a platform for innovation. But, only

if businesses embark on this journey, and then keep up with the pace once en route. The

implications for business stemming from marketing’s digital journey are detailed along

with avenues for future research, to develop further understanding of digitalization.

The theoretical contributions made by this paper include both a novel mapping of

the complex trajectory of marketing’s digitalization through a visualization and an

articulation of the main four gaps in current research and practice knowledge within

marketing.Thegapsincludetheneedforastrategicview,theissueoftechnicalsilos,

the changing conceptions of time, and the tension between empowered consumers and

their reliance on pre-filteredinformation. This paper provides a critical appraisal of the

digital journey so far, resulting in a distilled conceptualization and route map, which

should help guide future researchers.

Our perspective: the digital journey

This paper provides a literature-based examination

of the four stages of marketing’s digital journey to

date and the key milestones or points of interest

along the way. In reflecting on the path taken, intrigu-

ing insights emerge, which pose ongoing challenges

for businesses and for the marketing discipline. Ar-

guably, failure to heed the resulting warnings will

impede marketing’s ability to harness the benefits of

digital and to counteract effectively the associated

negative consequences of a digitally enabled market-

place. The implications of marketing’s digital jour-

ney are explored here along with their most pressing

consequences.

Given the proliferation of digital technologies both

within business and those used by consumers to

interact with other consumers and ‘their’ brands,

this paper aims to outline the emerging journey of

digital marketing and the relationship between dig-

ital and marketing with which we are all engaged

consciously or subconsciously. Digital marketing in-

volves computer-mediated environments that allow

consumers, firms and other stakeholders to create, in-

teract and access digital content (Hoffman and Novak

1996; Yadav and Pavlou 2014). The complexities of

digital marketing have required a paradigm shift (Day

2011; Quinton 2013), are regarded as a research pri-

ority (Marketing Science Institute 2013) and extend

beyond the simple use of digital technologies to com-

municate and interact with a variety of stakeholders

with a considered and deliberate orientation (Setia

et al. 2013; Theodosiou et al. 2012). As a practice,

digital marketing spreads beyond internet marketing

C2016 British Academy of Management and John Wiley & Sons Ltd. Publishedby John Wiley & Sons Ltd, 9600 Garsington

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456 S. Quinton and L. Simkin

to include also the use of non-internet-based technolo-

gies, such as mobile and social media, to achieve mar-

keting objectives (Chaffey and Ellis-Chadwick 2012;

Financial Times 2015).

This paper offers an outline map of the journey to

date, as an attempt to make sense of the trajectory.

The coverage of digitalization in marketing has gen-

erally been atomized into subject specific areas, such

as technology adoption, information systems litera-

ture, consumer use of digital tools to access brands,

multi-channel management and marketing communi-

cations. Unlike previous work, this paper’s contribu-

tion lies in its holistic stance in mapping the overall

journey through a literature review without subject

boundaries, in order to develop understanding and to

delineate a rapidly shifting terrain, which Jones and

Gatrell (2014) suggest is needed. The synthesis of

published works into a body of current knowledge

provides value to both researchers and practitioners.

Researchers will benefit, as this paper will assist in

explicating the state of digitalization and identifying

new research possibilities. Practitioners will also ben-

efit, as this paper attempts to span silos of thinking

and practice within digital marketing. ‘Spanning si-

los, is, in my view the marketing problemof our time’

(Aaker 2013, p. 8). Therefore, this paper is a response

to the increased atomization of marketing, the issue

of silos and the uncertainty of how digital will affect

marketing from here on.

The use of a metaphorical framework on which

to hang ideas and discussion is not original. Many

authors have employed a metaphor to communicate

marketing ideas, including but not limited to: Brown

et al. (1994), who used the evolution of man to ex-

plain the development of services marketing thought;

Mitchell (1995), who employed astrology to explain

segmentation; Dennis and Macaulay (2003), who ap-

plied the foundations of jazz composition to mar-

keting planning; and Rentschler et al. (2012), who

applied spirituality to arts marketing. Indeed, an il-

luminating discussion and defence of metaphor use

in marketing was authored by Rindfleisch (1996). A

metaphor is being employed in this paper as a repre-

sentation to transfer meaning within a shared world

view (Arndt 1985). The meaning can be transferred

from a familiar domain – here a journey – to an un-

familiar domain: in the case of this paper, this is the

digitalization of marketing.

The metaphor of a journey provides a narrative

with which to carry the reader through the complex

changes occurring in the digital marketing arena. The

digital journey has as yet no end or a final destination,

but it is possible to give it a start point, which is

‘Stage A: Waking up to the journey and starting out’.

Three stages then follow: ‘Stage B: Identifying the

travel essentials’; ‘Stage C: Travelling companions

and communities’; and ‘Stage D: Early reflections and

a postcard home’. Likely routes and options for future

research present themselves. First is an overview of

the approach taken and the development of the digital

journey as a conceptual contribution.

The approach undertaken and the

delineation of the digital journey

This literature review aims to make sense of past

academic endeavour in the digitalization of the mar-

keting domain, to provide insights to shape the future

research directions for the subject. The review creates

an overview of the digital field to outline the subject’s

evolution, delineate patterns, explore boundaries and

provide foci. We recognize the dynamic and shifting

nature of the digital sphere, but believe it is important

to create baseline foundations for the benefit of other

scholars and practitioners to draw from and extend,as

endorsed by Jones and Gatrell (2014). Through taking

a different approach and structure to the creation of a

conceptual framework, a different type of value may

be created (MacInnis 2011) by the framework. This

new framework also offers a partial stemming of the

decline of conceptual papers in marketing (MacInnis

2004; Yadav 2010).

This paper is not a systematic review per se, but

rather a judicious collation of influential papers lead-

ing to a critical reflection of the emergence and direc-

tion of travel of the digitalization of marketing. In line

with the ethos of this journal, our paper is highly inter-

disciplinary in nature, following the explanatory form

of research synthesis proposed by Rousseau et al.

(2008). Through the incorporation of diverse data via

predominantly published papers, the boundaries of a

domain and its context can be established in order to

generate theory. Furthermore, the use of a journey as

a metaphor fits with the delineation of an emerging

subject (MacInnis 2011).

Our paper is positioned as both an explicating

and summarizing conceptual contribution (MacInnis

2011). According to MacInnis, explicating papers de-

lineate a domain and its development to provide a

grounding for others who come after, just as a car-

tographer maps a journey. An explicating conceptual

contribution should explain why it matters to investi-

gate the chosen domain and how subsequent thinking

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