Marketing resources in the processes of competing in the era of the virtualisation of socio-economic life

Abstract

Theoretical background : The growing scope of virtualisation of consumer behaviour and the emergence of new business models associated with it has caused changes in the approach to the processes of the competing and management of company resources. This is accompanied by the growing importance of the customer in each stage of the value management process. In this context, a question is raised concerning the significance of marketing resources in the processes of competing between enterprises. At the same time, it should be noted that nowadays, marketing is becoming one of the business functions associated to the highest possible extent with information technology. These changes are demonstrated by the creation of a new managerial specialisation, i.e. a manager for marketing technologies who creates the technological image of marketing development. The objective of the management in the sphere of marketing technology is to create the value spiral, in which what is possible in the sphere of technology will be an inspiration for what is indicated in the sphere of marketing, and vice versa . Purpose of the article : The purpose of the paper is to demonstrate the signifiance of marketing resources, with a special focus on marketing knowledge, in the processes of competing between enterprises in the era of new media. Research methods : The paper is based on the analysis of secondary sources, the basis of which are in-depth studies of the literature in the sphere of marketing and new media, reports from research concerning digitalisation on a micro and macro scale, and consequences resulting from these processes. Main findings : The conducted survey of the literature indicates that marketing resources play a vital role in the processes of competing between enterprises. It further demonstrates that categories such as marketing knowledge, brand and relationships with entities of the environment are characterised by limited substitutability, the imperfect ability to be imitated and big value. Therefore, according to the resource theory, enterprises determine the gaining of competitive advantage by an entity. At the same time, new information and communication technologies are having an increasingly bigger impact on the growth of marketing resources. This is especially notable in the area of the enhancement of relationships with customers or marketing knowledge management, because new technologies find application at the stage of acquisition, popularisation and application of knowledge in the processes of marketing decision-making, which are translated into a competitive position achieved by the entity. Furthermore, the relationship between marketing and new technologies is expressed in terms of the increase of the scope of product individualisation and marketing communication.