Gone are the days of the ads for massage therapy placed in the Yellow Pages. Today, we tweet.
And according to new research, advances in technology have spawned “a radical new online marketplace, challenging the old behaviors of buyers and sellers.”
Social networking sites like Facebook, YouTube and Twitter give customers “a bigger role as market players capable of reaching and being reached by almost everyone, anywhere and anytime,” say the study authors, in a press release.
“Making use of these opportunities and avoiding their respective dangers requires a thorough understanding of why consumers are attracted to new media and how they influence consumers’ attitudes and behaviors,” the authors write. “New strategic and tactical marketing approaches must match the characteristics of new media and their effects on customers.”
Beyond this, the authors add, most people are making purchasing decisions on the go, from smart phones and laptops, rather than a home computer—and sites like Facebook “have made real-time information exchange an integral element of consumer behavior without restriction to time of day or location.”
The report is running in the Journal of Service Research.
• First-of-its-kind Research: Facebook Fan Pages are Effective Marketing Tool