This is indeed important question - from a marketing standpoint. We should educate students that marketing is not communication and vice versa. From my modest lecturing experience I concluded that majority of student can not really distinct those two categories.

As for your question, I guess there should not be distinction between marketing plan and digital marketing plan. The ultimate goal of marketing plan is well known - digital as such should be observed only as a channel that could be utilized. Digital tools, techniques and extensions should be only extension of marketing [with all accompanying sub-concepts]. So, to get back to your question, I would insist that "old school" logic of marketing is fully applied [simply this is a backbone] with a digital habitat as an additional dimension that requires special approach.

Namely, if we observe, let's say, 4Ps. In it's essence this logic applies online as well. We can not distinct and have digital product, promotion, price and place. For me, these should only be adjusted for online environment - and surely they are not novelties.

I hope that I contributed somehow.

Dear Paulo,

try this: Kotler & Keller Marketing Management, global edition, 2016, chapter 19, p. 583

Regards,

Jens

I agree with Dušan Mladenović - all maeketing concepts can be viewed from difital perspective, so difital marketing plan is just another "extension" of "how to" in marketing plan.

I thank you, Mirna and Dusan for your contributions; that was my first impression, but let me present two objections: i) i don't think digital is just another channel, since it impacts everything, even if your business isn't totally digital. Your product, price, commerce and promotion can these days be totally under digital, and for several years i have been battling with the realization that borders between the Ps have become extremely muddled. A site is not just a promotion device, it's the path you lay out for your customer so it's at the same time distribution and promotion.

And ii), continuing with the site for the sake of argument, if all of the marketing tactics have a website presence, this website itself becomes an entity present in a lot of places inside the marketing plan, and yet never as an entity in itself. And this is the problem. In the old days, you just had a point called "website". Nowadays, it doesn't make sense, so the site itself is a bit abstract, do you see? Thank you, i'd very much like to know your views on this.

Thanks for getting back. :)

According to me, there are no easily distinctive borders between 4P concepts. Newer were, never will be. Only, all of them mixed they do achieve synergy and properly satisfy customer need. If we observe only one of them individually and exclusively, it is senseless. Basically, this is not a novelty of digital revolution. Anyway, I do strongly stand with my previous statement regarding digital as yet another dimension based on ordinary or manual marketing. :)

The problem with understanding website as a promotional tool takes us back to my previous comment, whereby we must educate students that marketing and promotion is not the same. You are right in this sense, website could be observed as product/service itself, place of distribution, promotional tool etc. I am quite assured that huge majority of us consider website as a poor promotional channel.

As for you second remark. It is a bit philosophical but interesting observation. If we sum up everything, website is indeed a backbone concept very widely used for marketing purposes. But, let us imagine digital environment without websites? We do still have internet, yes?

So, Dusan, forgetting about the 4Ps, and thinking a bit more broadly, would you say the design for marketing plans for i) an offline venture, ii) an offline venture with digital presence and iii) a totally online venture with no offline presence other than say package transport, would be the same?

That once you pick a model for your marketing plan structure, it doesn't matter whether your business is online or offline or any other complex case?

And another question, businesses have different focuses, depend on different variables. Some businesses do indeed imply a complex communication plan, others rely more on their distribution strategy to deliver value, and so on. So this merits specific strategical plans for these issues, depending on the business. Would you say that these sectorial plans should always be included hierarchically as a part of the marketing plan? Should this be the clearest and most correct way to present it?

Glad to have this idea exchange with you,

Paulo