IT and Digital

Marketing-
SMEs and
Multinationals
Complementary Essay, 2017.

International Marketing
IT and DIGITAL MARKETING SMEs and MULTINATIONALS

List of Content

1.- INTRODUCTION: (page 2)

2.- WHY SMEs AND MULTINATIONALS ENTERPRISES

CHOOSE TO IMPLEMENT IT IN THEIR BUSINESS? :
(page 2)

3.- E-MARKETING AND TRENDS IN SMEs AND

MULTINATIONAL COMPANIES: (page 5)

4.- REFERENCES: (page 9)

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IT and DIGITAL MARKETING SMEs and MULTINATIONALS

INTRODUCTION

E-marketing is a process of planning and executing the conception, distribution, promotion,

and pricing of products and services in a networked environment, also includes marketing done via e-
mail and wireless media, to help to connect businesses to their customers and satisfy Their demands.
All of this is possible with the IT integral application in the companies.
With this essay, we intend to show a current image about IT and e-marketing; how SMEs and
multinationals can apply this type of management to their businesses, which kind of benefits and
disadvantages it have it, and know whether to apply the e- Marketing in SMEs and Multinationals
allows them to compete on equal footing in the market. Are they really facing in a global market or is
it a segmented market? And what does it hold for the future of e-marketing?

WHY SMEs AND MULTINATIONALS ENTERPRISES CHOOSE TO IMPLEMENT IT IN THEIR

BUSINESS?

Like any decision or tool used in a company or in any field, applying information technology
(IT) and with them e-marketing carries numerous advantages, but if they are not applied correctly can
destroy the business quickly.
Some of the main advantages in the IT business application are as follows:

- EFFICIENCY: IT allows companies to eliminate or reduce repetitive tasks; thus, reducing time and
costs that translate into large monetary amounts available to invest in other areas of the company.

- PRECISION: allowing greater accuracy in the administration of the information that streamlines the
exchanges between the different departments of the company, improves the internal integration of the
company, on the one hand; and on the other hand, it improves the feedback with the environment and
can thus better adjust to supply and demand; and reduce logistics costs.

- GLOBALIZATION: the company receives and sends information from anywhere in the world,
which facilitates the feasibility analysis for international expansion projects, as well as makes possible
the mobility of workers without having to maintain a fix schedule and a fix establishment of Work.
Today there are a large number of companies, which are increasing, such as startups, SMEs or
multinationals, who do not need too much economic resources to carry out their activity; many times,

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IT and DIGITAL MARKETING SMEs and MULTINATIONALS

with a small office or even from home, they can operate. In short, global communication facilitates the
globalization of business, adaptability and autonomy.

- CONNECTIVITY AND COLLABORATION: all the previous points are possible thanks to the
permanent connectivity and the collaborative work, being the axis from which IT start. In addition to
being able to obtain constantly updated information and new forms of learning.
An example of all this would be the application of Bigdata to the sports sector and in particular,
because it is a pioneer, to the football; which thanks to the IT that facilitate the transmission, storage
and processing of information, allow the development of logarithms based on a multitude of data
analyzes about variables that at first appear unrelated, predicting between 80-90% success, future
actions or results, as well as provide information about which sectors of the demand to focus the
business on, the correct way to do it, how much economic performance is attributed to each player and
their current and future physical performance, by monitoring and analyzing the data resulting.
Also notable is the application of Big Data of Real Madrid that allowed them to analyze all the
variables related to their work in international marketing (including of course the social networks) and
realized that they were based, erroneously, their positioning mainly to the whole of the Spanish
population and that the real potential demand was in the Far East; for that reason they began to contact
with influencers of the zone and to realize international soccer tours, something that has enormously
multiplied the income of the soccer club since then. For example, 1in 2005 the club entered 23 million
euros for a double tour between USA and the Far East, the maximum amount that a Spanish team has
achieved by a preseason tour.

As main disadvantages in the use of IT in the company we can point out:

- LACK OF PRIVACY of the information that makes possible the increase in computer frauds, as in
the case of 2BBVA bank in Colombia, where a profligate computer expert installed a spy program in
the country's ATMs and managed to extract $ 1,024 million.

1
More information on web: communication&society, article: el futbol y el negocio del entretenimiento global. Los
clubes como multinacionales de ocio,vol.24(1), 2011: https://www.unav.es/fcom/communication-
society/es/articulo.php?art_id=383#C03
2
More information, BBVA case, 2014: http://www.elespectador.com/noticias/judicial/el-millonario-fraude-al-bbva-
articulo-524960

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IT and DIGITAL MARKETING SMEs and MULTINATIONALS

- LABOUR TRANSFORMATION which results in the gradual elimination of jobs or reorganization

of jobs, since, with a global market composed of IT, the profiles of jobs demanded have changed and
continue to do so in positions that Need specialization or replacing them with machines. Efficiency in
software and productivity increase to produce more goods and services, also makes the number of
human capital required is lower. All this has just been ratified by 3Janet Yellen, President of the Federal
Reserve System (FED) of UE, which recognizes that "wages and jobs of middle-class families have
been losing weight and diminishing their opportunities. The middle class have suffered a downward
pressure, on the one hand technological change has eliminated jobs and globalization has reformed the
impact of technology. "

-Almost absolute DEPENDENCE on computer tools. An example of this is the huge expansion of
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FinTech (Financial Technology) used by world banking; That is, any technology applied to financial
services that allows banking users to operate from their smartphones, that is, online banking. This is a
problem for banks because SMEs represent more than half of the world's GDP and with the FinTech
they have greater financial facilities, something that the Banking traditionally has not allowed.

-DEPENDENT COLLECTIVE LEARNING OF SOCIAL PATTERNS since cooperative

learning is supported by social attitudes, a lazy society can influence effective learning.

-The prompt OBSOLESCENCE of both, computer equipment and the knowledge necessary to
operate with them, necessitates having to renew equipment and knowledge frequently; and taking into
account that the use of IT usually involves a high technological cost, companies must pay attention on
this for their budgets. In the case of the specific use of e-marketing for SMEs, it wouldnt be as much
expense as it can be a data analysis center for Bigdata in a multinational firm.

An example of a failure in IT integration was, for example, the case of the NHS (National
Health Service) in the United Kingdom. The project aims to revolutionize the way technology is used
in the healthcare sector by facilitating the path between electronic records, digital scanning and
integrated computer systems in hospitals and community care centers. It would have been the largest
civilian computer system in the world, but the contractual discussions from the beginning, with

3
More information, FED, Labour transformation, 2017:
http://www.eleconomista.es/economia/noticias/8495198/07/17/La-Fed-reconoce-que-la-tecnologia-y-la-globalizacion-
estan-aniquilando-a-la-clase-media.html
4
More information, FinTech, 2016: https://rootstack.com/es/blog/la-drastica-evolucion-de-un-movimiento-llamado-
fintech-que-puso-temblar-al-sector-bancario

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IT and DIGITAL MARKETING SMEs and MULTINATIONALS

constant changes and technical problems; disputes with suppliers; as well as the unrealistic forecasts
of both time and costs, were an inadequate preliminary study, the absence of reviews of progress and
a clear lack of leadership. The project has been described as "the biggest computer failure ever seen"
and "a scandalous loss of taxpayer money." The estimates of damage to the British fluctuate, around
10 billion pounds.

E-MARKETING AND TRENDS IN SMEs AND MULTINATIONAL COMPANIES

It is clear how the introduction of IT and globalization have changed the way companies relate
to their customers, improving their positioning and market standing; but also the profile of consumers
has evolved towards a more demanding, informed and up-to-date type of demand in the use of
technologies.

Logically, marketing has also evolved in consonance giving way to e-marketing; the adaptation of
traditional marketing using virtual tools; but the question we are asking is whether, by using digital
marketing in business, SME's can compete on equal terms with multinational companies? Let us see
some examples to be able to contrast this hypothesis.

Taking into account that SMEs constitute about 90% of companies in most countries of the
world, deserve special attention. As the Google Playbook, the Mobile Playbook, nearly 50% of
consumers use their smartphones to make comparisons of products and services, and about 60% would
not recommend a company whose web is not adapted to such dispositive; gives us an idea of the
importance and opportunity for SMEs to use this trampoline to catch the consumer. A clear and
successful example is the restaurant sector in urban areas, where there is a lot of urban movement and
density of competitors so the use of e-marking is practically mandatory if they want to draw attention
and approach the population potential.

For example, the social media platform Facebook presents many advantages to establishments
through fanpages where they can present their products, their environment, staff, reply messages,
generate specific offers and announcements, share curious news or even make live videos of events,
in addition customers can make reservations, rate the visit immediately. Another interesting strategy
that also allows this platform is to conduct contests, so that with the data and emails of the people who
register, later the company can carry out personalized email marketing campaigns.

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IT and DIGITAL MARKETING SMEs and MULTINATIONALS

Given that 5each media user has 150 friends, if the company gets at least 500 followers this
translates to a potential minimum reach of 750,000 people.

It is more than evident that this platform and others like Instagram, that in this sector unleashed
the madness with the hagstag #foodporn that counts on about 100 million associated images; and
enables SMEs to compete on equal terms with multinationals such as McDonalds or KFC.

An example of this is the case of the chain of fast food restaurants in Czech Republic PaxFood that
already competes in the country with the big brands thanks to its positioning in the street sale and the
use of the socialmedia or the Spanish 100 montaditos that uses A policy of affordable prices and also
uses social networks to reach the final consumer and has already managed to become a multinational.

These are just some examples that can be extended to other sectors such as fashion or retail,
where many brands have emerged as Hawkers or Franklin that use the same methods but also, here
also appears the important figure of influencers that bring the public Its products at the same level as
other major multinational brands such as Inditex.

Another sector to highlight could also be the literary, how are replacing traditional books by electronic
books at an overwhelming speed reflecting data such as those in Spain where an annual turnover of
more than 200 million is collected for this type of products.

As can be seen, thanks to digital marketing, have appeared the calls Bornglobal, companies that since
their birth are focused on international expansion. Before this was only viable for large companies, but
with the implementation of IT, SMEs now also compete worldwide.

To conclude this analysis, we want to show the Forber trends and predictions in the use of e-
marketing for the next years:

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Every year, Forbes publishes different articles gathering tendencies from the best experts in the sector.
Here are some of the predictions that Brian Sutter, Marketing Director at Wasp Barcode Technologie,
has shared:

Increased satisfaction after the execution of Content Marketing campaigns. 62% of B2B and
B2C companies claim to have achieved better results in 2016 after having carried out new Content
Marketing campaigns, which is expected to increase investment in them.

5
More information, 2016: https://es.semrush.com/blog/redes-sociales-para-restaurantes-ejemplos/
6
More information: https://www.40defiebre.com/predicciones-tendencias-de-marketing-digital/

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IT and DIGITAL MARKETING SMEs and MULTINATIONALS

Visual content for B2B. Following the growth of the audience on platforms as visual as
Instagram, Snapchat or Pinterest, B2B companies began to increase their presence in those networks
that until now were associated much more with B2C companies.

Content produced by the users themselves. 85% of users rely more on content generated by
others than those generated by brands. The change lies in the way in which the traditional system of
influencers seems to point to a rethinking in which each more and more will be bet by the "micro-
influencers".

In addition, if we speak in figures, according to the Digital Density Index developed by

Accenture, the increase in the use of digital technologies could increase the GDP of the world's top 10
economies by more than 1,250 billion (millions of millions) An increase of 2.3% over current
estimates.

The following chart 1 shows the 17 leading economies ranked according to their Digital
Density scores in 2016, these profiles can be useful for companies when deciding and implementing
digital strategies, in addition to pointing out the specific opportunities for improvement.

Figure 2 shows the club of the most valued startup / startup companies in the world (more than 1000
million USD, 2016).

Chart 1, DIGITAL DENSITY:

https://www.accenture.com/t20150523T023959__w__/it
-it/_acnmedia/Accenture/Conversion-
Assets/DotCom/Documents/Global/PDF/Dualpub_13/Acc
enture-Digital-Density-Index-Guiding-Digital-
Transformation.pdf

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 IT and DIGITAL MARKETING SMEs and MULTINATIONALS

Figure2: club of the most valued startup in the world, February 2016:
https://es.statista.com/grafico/4494/el-club-de-las-empresas-startup-mas-valoradas-del-mundo/

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IT and DIGITAL MARKETING SMEs and MULTINATIONALS

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