DOES DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION MEAN THE END OF MARKETING?
(A2019-9254)

AUTHORS

ISABELLE AIME, IPAG Business school; Fabienne Berger-Remy, IAE Paris - Sorbonne Business School; Marie-Eve Laporte, IAE Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne (Sorbonne Business School), laboratoire GREGOR

KEYWORDS

digital; transfomation; marketing

ABSTRACT

Many discourses predict the end of marketing following the changes in the digital age. Thus, this article aims to study the impact of digital transformation on the marketing function. The digital transformation is analyzed as a management fashion (Abrahamson, 1996), and via the role of experts, key actors to the production and dissemination of management fads. A qualitative thematic study was therefore conducted via NVIVO including 16 in-depth interviews of experts – high level consultants and specialists in digital marketing transformation –, and 12 conferences. It makes it possible to consider different scenarios for the evolution of the marketing function, depending on whether the focus is (1) more on expertise or integration of responsibilities, and (2) more on the customer journey (customer centricity) or brand management (brand centricity).