An Analysis of the effectiveness of new media on marketing in Sri Lanka

Abstract

The economy of Sri Lanka is booming after ending 30 years of civil war. Across industries, firms have adopted marketing initiatives using new media to use the power of interactivity, which interfaces with the environment, despite the fact that Sri Lanka has only 13% computer usage (Department of Census and Statistics of Sri Lanka, 2009). Marketing on the other hand had evolved from traditional Product, Price, Place, Promotion, to Consumer Value, Cost, Convenience and Communication (Robert F. Lauterborn, Stanley I. Tannenbaum, & Don E. Schullz, 1993). In this study, a conceptual framework that captures the important aspects of marketer engagement, new media presence, customer engagement, achievement of new media objectives and macro environment is proposed and the data was empirically tested using data collected from respective marketing managers, business owners in one hundred and ninety five small, medium and large-scale industries. Applying a framework that captures the intensity of new media presence over marketer’s engagement across customer engagement and achievement of new media objectives, the study finds that new media presence is more important. Furthermore, the study finds the relevance of budget allocation, type of media tools used, use of complementary media, and nature of business to the achievement of new media marketing objectives. For example, the type of industry is irrespective in relation to the success of new media marketing but increase in budget allocation for new media can increase in the achievements in new media marketing objectives. The study also explains the significant relationship of the two independent variables, marketer engagement in new media and new media presence to the variance in the achievement of new media marketing objectives. The research findings provide the foundation for more specific studies of the impact of new media on marketing in the future.