New Communications Approaches in Marketing: Issues and Research Directions

In the early part of the 21st century, the media landscape has been dramatically affected by the introduction of new, largely digital media. This increase in the number of media has been driven largely by improvements in technology and how customers interact with the technology and each other. In this paper, I describe the kinds of new media that companies are using to engage customers and the challenges that these media present from the perspective of the marketing manager. In addition, using the management challenges as a framework, I describe the research opportunities posed by these media and where marketing academics can make the greatest contributions.