The advent of technological changes and the new media in an economy where every context of marketing channel is changing has transformed marketing. Technology places the customer at the centre of marketing. Marketers will find it useful to have a thorough understanding how the current technology works, integrate it to maximize profit. They should take initiative to reappraise their expectations and the role of marketing in a digital and networked marketplace (Ferrell & Pride 39).
The new technology defines the new customer-powered marketing concepts that are now possible due to digital channels. Technology facilitates permission, location, viral, real-time marketplaces and auctions in dynamic marketing environment.
Marketers can identify customer-centric marketing goals that technology takes to the next level, sales promotions, relationship marketing techniques, wide and narrowcast forms of advertising. Therefore, the current goal of marketing is to use digital, networked channels such as the Internet, mobile, interactive television as marketing tools that marketers can integrate in their work.
Technological advancement has now made it possible for Qatar to participate in the international markets. NYSE, Qtel, and Qatar Exchange technologies have connected the country to the Global Trading Network. Technology enables financial participants in Europe and the US to connect through a secure network platform in Qatar markets (Mashni 2011).
Qatar now joins high-performance financial network of the global community through technology. The major communities of the world leading financial institutions consisting of brokers, investors, and investment banks now have access across Asia, Europe, and the US. Connectivity enables the traders to faster and easily reach trading zones to provide and offers other services.
Advanced technology provides a robust world-class secure and reliable connectivity to ensure that Qatar exposes it international presence and provides more benefits to investors. The networking gives the country a strategic advantage in the region and further develops the cross-region financial trading across the three continents (Mashni 2011).
Competition: Summary of the article, “Mideast carriers forge ahead with aggressive expansion plans, but challenges loom”
Times have changed. Marketing competition is fierce. Consumers are savvier. Communications are faster, and once-successful companies are in crisis mode. Marketing should focus on how to adapt, compete, and finally succeed in an overcrowded marketplace. Marketers need to beat the competition to stay afloat. Businesses need to challenge their rivals by differentiating their products and increase value to enable them stand out in a crowded market.
Marketing strategies should change with time in regard to competition. They invest and adopt the latest technologies, multimedia and communication resources to connect with their customers. At the same time, marketing strategies should focus on managing crises. They identify how to cope with losses, rising costs, and even negative publicity (Ferrell & Pride 59).
In order to keep ahead of competition, marketing should find out how increasing product lines may affect the company’s overall sales. It should also look into why emerging new brands might outsell their established products, and how to position their brands. Marketing techniques should identify how to attack the competition and the value of emphasizing value.
Consumers have too many products and services to pick from in the marketplace. Marketing should focus on why consumers should pick a brand over another. There is a need to understand the psychological motives that drive today’s consumers in order to reposition the brand among competitors.
In Middle East, there are leading three regional airways carriers. These are Etihad, Emirates and Qatar Airways, which are the main competitors of the region. Boston Consulting Group puts it that the passengers’ movement in the region will increase to 140 million by 2015. As a result, the leading three carriers are now implementing their aggressive expansion initiatives (Florian 2011).
Emirates’ financial position puts it ahead of the competition. It has an immense advantage and flexibility to increase capacity and market share. Analysts say that Emirates enjoys significant costs in savings through fuel consumption and operating costs.
Now, it is repositioning itself in the market by consolidating to a smaller fleet to simplify its maintenance and costs of the operating crews. Cost-saving strategies of Emirates put it ahead of the competition. They save of fuel, cost of the crew, they pay a minimal fee at the Dubai hub, and the staff do not pay any personal income tax to the United Arab Emirates (Florian 2011).
The other two carriers also enjoy relative cost advantages. They follow the national policies of their countries. The three competitors are can compete with each other aggressively due to these benefits, and with other financial challenged airlines in the region. Industry leaders say that, within the next few years, there will be even fierce competition in the airline sector.
They are adding carrying capacity beyond the demand, expanding their networks aggressively by increasing frequency of flights and adopting more fuel efficient flights to manage costs. Managers will also focus on challenges posed by expansions, competitions and these rapid shifts.
The airlines must also contend with competition from emerging markets such as India, Turkey, and possibly China. These competitions also have the same cost-advantage models used by the three leading Middle East airlines. At the same time, the emerging competition now is connecting the airlines’ traffic to regions with no hubs in the Middle East. The leading airline companies also face potential changes from foreign governments’ restrictions of market access and changes in pricing.
Conclusion
This paper is focusing on two forces that drive the market. Firstly, technology is now a critical driving force in today’s fast-paced marketing environment. In the article, “Qtel, Qatar Exchange and NYSE Technologies connect Qatar to the World Trading Network” by Mashni Rima, shows how advent in technology is transforming financial trading across the three continents of Europe, Asia and the US foreign exchange markets.
Technology is opening international markets to traders across the globe. Faster and secure connectivity provides traders with real-time trading zones. Qatar now joins high-performance financial network of the global community through technology. The world-leading financial institutions consisting of brokers, investors and investment banks now have access across Asia, Europe and the US.
Secondly, competition in a marketing environment is now fiercer. The local article, “Mideast carriers forge ahead with aggressive expansion plans, but challenges loom” by Jeff Florian shows how competition among the three leading airlines of Middle East region is taking new dimensions. The airlines are expanding their fleets in anticipation of an increasing number of passengers to the region. It also focuses on the future anticipated competition and threats to the airline industry of Middle East region.
In conclusion, marketing strategies need to change with advancements in technology and competitive environment. Marketers should think ahead in order to match competitions and technology advancements in order to remain relevant. What works today might not work tomorrow. A successful company may be out of business tomorrow due to competition and technological changes, which it fails to adopt so as to match its rivals. Therefore, need to adopt what works today and tomorrow is of the essence in a dynamic marketing environment.
Works Cited
O’Ferrell, Sally Dibb and William Pride. Marketing: Concepts and Strategies.15th Ed. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2003.
Florian, Jeff. ”Competition.” AMEinfo. The Ultimate Middle East Business Resource. 19 Sept. 2011. 12 Oct. 2011 <https://www.ameinfo.com/>.
Mashni, Rima. “Technology”. AMEinfo. The Ultimate Middle East Business Resources. 19 Apr. 2011. 12 Oct. 2011 <https://www.ameinfo.com/>.