The Digital Journey: Reflected Learnings and Emerging Challenges

Abstract

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 complex changes 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 provides new options for routes to markets, communication, brand building, relationship development, trialling pricing, product development, sourcing insights, as well as 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. The gaps include the need for a strategic view, the issue of technical silos, the changing conceptions of time, and the tension between empowered consumers and their reliance on pre‐filtered information. 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.

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