Strategic foresight in digital marketing research enhances understanding of emerging trends
Expert perspectives on digital and social media marketing reveal critical research gaps and future directions, highlighting the need for proactive investigation into evolving technologies and consumer behaviors.
International Journal of Information Management · 2020
Key Findings
- 01Significant opportunities exist in digital marketing through lower costs, improved brand awareness, and increased sales.
- 02Challenges include negative electronic word-of-mouth and intrusive online brand presence.
- 03Future research areas include AI, AR marketing, digital content management, mobile marketing, B2B marketing, eWOM, and ethical issues.
Application
Design takeaway
Proactively integrate ethical considerations and user-centric design principles into emerging digital marketing technologies like AI and AR to foster positive brand interactions and mitigate potential negative impacts.
How to apply
When designing a new digital marketing campaign or platform, conduct a foresight exercise based on these identified trends (e.g., AI, AR, ethical eWOM) to proactively address potential user concerns and optimize engagement.
Project actions
- 01When designing a social media campaign, consider how AI could personalize content without being creepy.
- 02For an AR marketing project, think about how to make the experience genuinely useful or fun, not just a sales pitch.
- 03Research ethical guidelines for digital marketing to ensure your designs are responsible.
Method & Evidence
Variables
Strengths & Limitations
Strengths
- +Provides a comprehensive overview of the future landscape of digital marketing from multiple expert viewpoints.
- +Highlights critical research gaps and proposes specific areas for future investigation.
- +Offers a timely contribution to both academics and practitioners in a rapidly evolving field.
Limitations
This paper doesn't give specific user data, so you'd need to do your own user research to validate the expert opinions for your specific design context.
Reliability & validity
The reliability is enhanced by synthesizing insights from multiple leading experts, providing a broad consensus. Validity is strong in terms of identifying relevant future research directions, though it's predictive rather than empirically proven user behavior.
Think critically
How might the 'intrusive and irritating online brand presence' mentioned by experts be re-framed as an opportunity for innovative, user-consented, and value-driven marketing experiences?
Design Principles
"Anticipatory Design Ethics: Design for future digital marketing trends with a strong ethical framework to ensure positive user experiences."
Understanding the future landscape of digital marketing allows designers and businesses to anticipate changes, adapt strategies, and develop more effective and ethical user experiences. Ignoring these trends can lead to outdated approaches and missed opportunities for engagement and growth.
What This Means for Your Design
Experts think that digital and social media marketing is changing fast, with new technologies like AI and AR becoming important. Designers need to think about how to use these new tools ethically and in ways that users will like, not find annoying.
How to use in your project
- 1.When structuring information for a digital marketing platform, consider how emerging technologies (e.g., AI-driven content) might influence content organization and user navigation paths in the future.
Add to My Project
Quick Cite
(2020). Setting the future of digital and social media marketing research: Perspectives and research propositions. International Journal of Information Management. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijinfomgt.2020.102168 Retrieved from https://designdex.org/study/1b264cfa-60ae-4ac1-b691-9c486bd8daa6/strategic-foresight-in-digital-marketing-research-enhances-understanding-of-emerging-trends
Paragraph starter
According to Dwivedi et al. (2020), future digital marketing research should focus on areas like AI and augmented reality, emphasizing the need for designers to consider ethical implications and user experience in these emerging technologies.
Source
International Journal of Information Management
Setting the future of digital and social media marketing research: Perspectives and research propositions
journal · 2020
View sourceQuestions about this research
- What does the research say about strategic foresight in digital marketing research enhances understanding of emerging trends?
- Proactively integrate ethical considerations and user-centric design principles into emerging digital marketing technologies like AI and AR to foster positive brand interactions and mitigate potential negative impacts. Evidence: International Journal of Information Management (2020).
- Why does "Strategic foresight in digital marketing research enhances understanding of emerging trends" matter for design?
- Understanding the future landscape of digital marketing allows designers and businesses to anticipate changes, adapt strategies, and develop more effective and ethical user experiences. Ignoring these trends can lead to outdated approaches and missed opportunities for engagement and growth.
- How can designers apply this research?
- Proactively integrate ethical considerations and user-centric design principles into emerging digital marketing technologies like AI and AR to foster positive brand interactions and mitigate potential negative impacts.
- What were the main findings?
- Significant opportunities exist in digital marketing through lower costs, improved brand awareness, and increased sales.. Challenges include negative electronic word-of-mouth and intrusive online brand presence.. Future research areas include AI, AR marketing, digital content management, mobile marketing, B2B marketing, eWOM, and ethical issues.
- What research method was used?
- Expert elicitation and narrative synthesis with 18 experts.
- How strong is the evidence?
- Evidence strength is rated Mixed findings, based on a 2020 journal from International Journal of Information Management.
- What should I do differently in my next project?
- When designing a new digital marketing campaign or platform, conduct a foresight exercise based on these identified trends (e.g., AI, AR, ethical eWOM) to proactively address potential user concerns and optimize engagement.
- What are the limitations?
- The findings are based on expert opinions, which, while valuable, may reflect subjective biases or overlook nascent trends not yet recognized by established experts. It's a forward-looking perspective rather than empirical data on current user behavior.
- Is there evidence that digital marketing affects design outcomes?
- The field of digital and social media marketing presents both significant opportunities (e.g., cost reduction, brand awareness) and challenges (e.g., negative eWOM, intrusiveness), with experts identifying several emerging areas like AI and AR as crucial for future research. Understanding the future landscape of digita Source: International Journal of Information Management (2020).
- Where does this digital social research apply?
- Digital and social media marketing research It sits within innovation & markets research on designdex.org.
Related research topics
digital marketing design research · evidence on digital marketing · does digital marketing improve design outcomes · digital social studies for designers · digital marketing and digital social findings · innovation & markets research evidence