Marketing in a Digital World

Introduction

The increasingly changing digital marketing environment has extensive strategic and managerial consequences. This digital revolution has changed how consumers perceive business strategies: from the age of finding information on newspapers to instantly receiving updates from social media using digital platforms (Quinn et al. 2016). This change has not only been a challenge to marketing but also a real opportunity. According to Fierro et al. (2016), businesses have increasingly implemented strategies which are conducted in media platforms to offer a focused, measurable, and an interactive way of reaching their customers. This strategy is termed as digital marketing.

The concept of digital marketing emerged in the 1990s but at that time it was focused on advertising to consumers. Nonetheless, the concept of digital marketing expanded between 2000 and 2010 following the emergence of new mobile and social tools (Wallace et al. 2017). During this decade, the concept of digital marketing transformed from advertising-oriented technique for consumers to a concept if engaging with customers (Chaffey and Ellis-Chadwick 2019). Today, digital marketing is an essential tool that organisations use to compete in the market. Leeflang et al. (2014) note that everyone in the digital era is unintentionally immersed into social platforms using digital platforms thus the use of digital marketing by organisations to reach potential customers is a strategic decision.

In the current times of economic hardships, government funding to the third sector is being cut which means that UK charities are continually having limited resources to fund their operations. This reduced governmental funding is increasing the need for operational efficiency in UK charities maintaining their service delivery levels, which is something that can be offered by digital solutions (Charity Digital 2019). Similarly, Phethean et al. (2015) warn UK charities of becoming obsolete if they do not adapt to digital marketing. With this challenge, the importance of the Web and specifically the social media for marketing had become incontrovertibly important for charities as they seek to publish their campaigns and work and engage their supporters.

Recent literature has developed a framework for analysing the success of charities in using digital marketing techniques and the results reveal that social media among other digital platforms remain underutilised by UK charities in their marketing (Goldkind 2015). Likewise, Lloyds Bank UK Business Digital Index indicates that 58% of charities in the UK continue to operate without basic digital skills (Charity Digital 2019). The aim of this paper is to investigate and appraise the role of marketing management in the UK charity sector with a focus on Cancer Research UK (CRUK). In particular, the paper critically evaluates the marketing challenges faced by UK Charities, CRUK, in the digital era. In addition, the paper evaluates the transformations that CRUK has made in its marketing practices in response to changes in the technological and social environments. Based on the transformations that CRUK has adopted in its marketing practices, the paper concludes whether the organisation is adopting an integrative approach.

About Cancer Research UK

CRUK is known to be the world’s largest cancer charity with a dedication of saving lives through research. CRUK’s vision is to bring forward the day when all cancers are cured, from the most common types to those that affect just a few people (Cancer Research UK 2019). CRUK’s story begins in 1902 when the Imperial Cancer Research Fund was founded with a focus on laboratory work in order to find new approaches to treating cancer (Cancer Research UK 2019). Up to the 1990s, only less than a quarter of people with cancer survived but through extensive research, CRUK has been able to doubles survival for cancer patients over the last 40 years (Cancer Research UK 2019). The choice of CRUK as the case study in this paper was influenced by its success story despite the decreasing funds and support charities are receiving from the government.

Challenges faced by CRUK’s marketing department in the digital era

Organisations is the UK charity sector are faced with different challenges in their efforts to adapt digital marketing strategies. A study conducted by Quinton and Fennemore (2013) reveals that the most common challenge in marketing in the digital era is ensuring openness and transparency created by social media and lack of informed leadership, which minimises the resources an organisation allocates the digital marketing team. In its 2018/19 financial year report, CRUK identifies its fundraising activities to include shops, events, face-to-face, on the telephone, by email, in the press, through their website, and through social media (Cancer Research UK 2019). The report goes on to detail how each of these interactions are facilitated but no details are provided about social media fundraising, which could imply social media marketing is not considered an integral part of marketing even in the digital era.

Another challenge facing UK charities in marketing activities using digital platforms is receiving negative comments which the marketing team fear will affect the perception people, especially donors, have on the charity (Leeflang et al. 2014). In agreement, Royle and Laing (2014) write that most charities are quick to stop and or block any negative comments on their digital marketing platforms in fear of losing their supporters. In the year ended at 31st March 2019, CRUK received 4,196 complaints about its fundraising activities (Cancer Research UK 2019). Some of these complaints were made on CRUK’s digital marketing platforms and they had the potential to affect donors’ and supporters’ perception of the charity in relation to fundraising. However, unlike some charities in the UK, CRUK did not respond to the complaints through deleting or blocking the source; instead, CRUK abandoned the heavily criticised activities such as door-to-door fundraising and expanded guidance and training for its staff and fundraisers while developing new processes to prevent further negative comments and improve supporters’ experience (Cancer Research UK 2019). Thus, CRUK perceives complaints in its digital marketing platforms as an opportunity to learn and enhance its digital marketing activities.

A third challenge of marketing in the digital era is loss of control over what will be said about an organisation, which significantly affects public perception of the organisation and its brands while its mission and vision could be misinterpreted. According to Pitta (2012), when an organisations posts on the social media platforms such as Facebook, internet users are more concerned with the comments by fellow consumers are less concerned with what the organisation has to say about its products. This means that the organisation’s message will be overshadowed by what consumers will say resulting in loss of control to customers. CRUK invites supporters’ comments on its Facebook page, which implies that as its supporters interact, the marketing team has less control over the discussion that progresses. Loss of control diverts supporters’ focus resulting in loss of efficiency in social media marketing (Cancer Research UK 2019).

Security and privacy have also emerged issues of great concern in today’s digital era. According to Niranjanamurthy and Chahar (2013), organisations are increasingly sharing customers’ data without asking for permission from customers. On the other hand, Kannan (2017) notes that pop-up ads and spams are an intrusion to consumers’ privacy yet organisations continue to use these approaches to digital marketing. Effective digital marketing depends on resolving these problems so as to keep customers engaged (Kannan 2017). Email is among the digital marketing strategies adopted by CRUK (Cancer Research UK 2019). The report does not indicate how supporters perceive and respond to the emails but the company should be careful not to intrude its supporters’ privacy through spams.

Today, charities among other organisations are facing increased risk of hacking strategies which is a major drawback of digital marketing. According to de Ruyter et al. (2018), competitors and hackers can easily track and copy valuable promotional strategies used by a company for their purposes. In agreement, Herttua (2016) notes that hackers can divert traffic to their domains resulting in failure of marketing messages reaching the target audience. Further, Sineni (2014) note that hackers can impersonate an organisation and use a fake account to respond to customers in of people in a negative way resulting in poor reputation. CRUK has not been immune to hackers; in 2018, Russian hackers attempted to steal the card details of supporters who had bought items through the cancer charity’s online gift shop (The Telegraph 2018). The group of hackers had planted a malicious code into CRUK’s website which was designed to siphon off the credit card information of people who made purchases through the site. Although the attack was not successful, it might have scared off supporters from using digital platforms to support the charity resulting in low conversion rates. Therefore, even as CRUK explores various digital platforms to market itself and its products, it is necessary it takes precautionary measures to ensure the details of its supporters are safe.

Big data management is another challenge facing charities in digital marketing era. According to Grishikashvili et al. (2014) the ability to track consumer behaviour across digital platforms leads to large and complex data sets commonly known as large data. Most companies lack the ability to generate and leverage deep customer insights in digital marketing. To overcome this challenge, organisations should implement efficient tracking systems in order to capture, store, share, transfer, analyse and visualise consumer data. CRUK currently does not have an efficient way analysing big data, which implies that the needs and contributions of some of its supporters could not be captured. As a result, some supporters could feel that their contributions are not appreciated leading to decreased willingness to continue supporting the organisation. Therefore, it is important that CRUK devised an effective way of capturing, analysing, and visualising big data in order to enhance its digital marketing strategies.

Finally, digital marketing strategies are affected by limited internet access. Given that digital marketing is reliant on internet, limited access and usage implies that charities are not able to reach potential supporters who are inaccessible via social media and other digital platforms (Yasmin et al. 2015). In addition, different age groups have varied internet usage patterns with youth being the age group with highest internet usage frequency. According to Lucas (2017), most of CRUK’s donors are women aged above 35 years yet this age group have limited internet usage, which implies that CRUK should consider extra ways of reaching its major donors.

CRUK’s marketing transformations in response to changes in the technological and social environments

Use of Facebook

CRUK extensively uses social media and website in its fundraising activities. CRUK has employed a social media management team responsible for managing all its social media marketing activities (Cancer Research UK 2019). A study conducted by Lucas (2017) focused on the role of Facebook in marketing CRUK’s products and brand. The results reveal that CRUK considers Facebook a platform to reach its supporters with brand messages, its stories, and research news. Therefore, CRUK is active at posting its news and advertising messages on its Facebook page and the Facebook fans consider the information important (Lucas 2017). In a survey why CRUK’s Facebook fans participate in CRUK’s Facebook community, the findings of a study conducted by Phethean et al. (2015) reveal that the Facebook page provides fans with up-to-date information about the organisation’s work and other important issues.

Another study aimed at exploring the extent to which charities target different audiences using social media platforms reveal that CRUK is aware that different population groups prefer some social media platforms to others, which is the reason CRUK considers Facebook more important that Twitter given that the main target audience is traditional women aged above 35 years (Phethean et al. 2014). In an interview, CRUK’s social media manager, Aaron Eccles revealed that Facebook allows better quality of interaction with people and is more popular among women aged above 35 years thus the digital marketing team at CRUK pays more attention to Facebook marketing than other social media platforms (Lucas 2017). CRUK’s social media manager Eccles added that Facebook has the potential to be used as a community-building tool as it helps CRUK strengthen its relationship with fans. In a different account, CRUK states that it joined Facebook and continues to use it effectively in order to keep communication with its supporters and strengthen the relationship over the long-term (Kang et al. 2015). Similarly, Eccles states that CRUK wants to have a one-on-one contact with its supporters in order to realise an engaged community that understand and loves CRUK’s brand and wants to help the organisation to achieve its vision, which influences the continued use of Facebook (Lucas 2017).

A study conducted by Dung and Diep (2014), sought to establish how effective Facebook is at fundraising in the charity sector. Similarly, Lucas (2017) reveals that only 29% of Facebook users have ever donated to a CRUK’s Facebook fundraising appeal by clicking a link on CRUK’s Facebook page. In support, CRUK’s Eccles state that the donation tool on Facebook has proven unsuccessful in raising funds (Lucas 2017). In line with this information, CRUK does not have any reliable return on investment figures to justify that their investment in social media is profitable. Lack of social media return on investment figures implies that CRUK treats Facebook as a communication channel rather than a fundraising activity. Thus, it is recommendable that CRUK devised more strategies to raise more funds using Facebook rather than just using it for communication purposes and a community-building tool.

CRUK’s website

CRUK has an interactive website where it posts updated information of its work and other relevant stories. CRUK generously uses user-generated content on its website among other social media platforms, which is aimed at empowering customers to influence purchase decisions on others. In one instance, CRUK shared a philanthropy story about Jill and Mick. The story was actually written by Jill who explained how her husband Mick had benefited from several clinical trials and personalised medicine offered by CRUK. Jill states that CRUK’s support has seen his husband live longer that anybody expected and as a result she commits to donate to the charity hoping that her contributions will help prolong the lives of other people suffering from cancer just as it had prolonged the life of her husband (Cancer Research UK 2019). By sharing the story, Jill encourages internet users that research is of critical importance to the lives of cancer patients thus everyone must support it. The post received more than 3,000 likes and over 1,000 comments with some people pledging to support the charity in pursuing its vision towards a cancer-free country (Cancer Research UK 2019). In user-generates content, CRUK includes photos of the source and their families, which helps attract internet user’s attention to the posts thus increasing the likelihood of higher conversion rates.

CRUK not only uses its website to communicate with its supporters and funs but also to raise more funds. On the charity’s website, there is a donate button inviting internet users to make donations to the charity. Further, the website has different buttons each with elaborate information on what the charity does and how it does what it aspires to do. The website also has a shop button, which markets the products CRUK offers its customers. According to Kirk and Abrahams (2017), effective website marketing should be responsive such that a click on a button provides the internet user with more information. CRUK’s website is interactive in that every button is clickable and provides an internet user with more details. In addition, the website is not overcrowded thus a user can easily trace the information he/she is looking for. Further, the website uses just two colours that are well contrasting and appealing to the eye. Moreover, CRUK’s website applies the principles of web design and conflict in particular: background colours are either very dark or very light while the content uses a completely contrasting colour making the content legible. CRUK’s website does not contain inappropriate information: just the charity name, mission statement, detailed information summarised into six simple buttons, and two buttons inviting internet users to make donations (Cancer Research UK 2019). This way, the website is very simple and appealing to capture users’ attention.

Email marketing

CRUK sends direct mails to specific supporters and potential supporters indicating the mission of the charity, progress towards the mission, and asking for donations among other forms of support that will enable the charity attain is strategic objectives (Cancer Research UK 2019). According to the findings of a study conducted by Hartemo (2016) email marketing works but it is challenged by the stigma of spam, which lowers its effectiveness as a digital marketing tool. In the same vein, Yasmin et al. (2015) note that sometimes direct mails aimed at marketing a company and its products are lumped in with the category of spam but email marketing is still effective at yielding the intended results in the digital era. Another advantage of email marketing is offering an advertiser the opportunity to customise messages for different customers and provide promotions and contents that are consistent with the profile of individual recipient (Reimers et al. 2016). This implies that through email marketing, CRUK has been able to continually reach its supporters with updated information, which shows progress giving supporters the confidence that funds are effectively used to achieve organisational objectives. Despite its strengths, email marketing is challenged by undelivered email; today many ISPs use complex junk-mail filters thus there is no guarantee that an email will reach the intended audience (Wilson 2014). With the increasing use of junk-mail filters, CRUK may not be able to reach new supporters through email marketing.

Conclusion

The aim of this paper was to appraise the role of marketing management in the UK charity sector with a special focus on Cancer Research UK. The paper identifies various challenges facing CRUK in digital marketing era including negative comments on its digital marketing platforms, loss of control over social media content, security and privacy concerns, big data management, and limited access of internet and limited usage of internet my older adults. The paper identifies three digital marketing strategies adopted by CRUK namely social media (Facebook and Twitter), website, and email marketing. Nonetheless, the charity does not provide information about return on investment in using these digital marketing platforms making it difficult to ascertain the contribution of digital marketing strategies in promoting organisational performance.

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