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AGORA INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF ECONOMICAL SCIENCES, 
AIJES, ISSN 2067-3310, E - ISSN 2067 – 7669, VOL. 14 (2020) 

 

Traditional Marketing Versus Digital Marketing 

Valentina Simona Pașcalău1, Ramona Mihaela Urziceanu2  

1 Doctoral School of Economics and Business Administration, West University of Timișoara 
2 Faculty of Juridical and Administrative Sciences, Agora University of Oradea 

E-mails valentina.pascalau73@e-uvt.ro, ramona.urziceanu@gmail.com  

 

Abstract  

Today, the digital economy contributes decisively to increasing competitiveness, especially since a digital 

transformation involves migrating to new technological models, where digital marketing is a key part of the 

strategies of users’ growth and loyalty. The internet and digital marketing have become important factors in 

campaigns, which attract and retain internet users. This study aims to identify the main ways in which users can 

be gained and retained through the use of digital marketing. Digital technologies can monitor behaviours, can 

analyse the content of requests, problems, assessments, both on the platforms of organizations and on social 

networks. Organizations need to understand how favourable assessments will result in the outcome that the 

marketing department needs to achieve. 

Keywords: traditional, digital, marketing. 

1 Introduction  

Online marketing does not differ much from classic marketing, the ultimate goal being sales, 

regardless of the object of sale (products, services, information, etc.). At the same time, this 

type of marketing has some distinct features, the integration of the new media into the 

marketing mic, that leads to new concepts, such as: viral marketing (imitates the viral 

process), viral mobile marketing, transactional marketing, conversational marketing, internet 

marketing, digital marketing, interactive marketing. All of these being modalities to attract 

numerous clients with very low costs and presume a good web design, a comprehensive data 

base, links, using interactive promotional materials, development of the personal sale, etc. 

(Coltman, T., 2007). 

When registering the clients into the virtual shop, must be required their permission to send 

them messages with the company offers and promotions. With the information explosion and 

the revolution produced by the spectacular evolution of information and communication 

technologies appeared the concept of digital marketing that synthetized all the activities 

developed through the information systems that use the binary or digital environment, specific 

to ITC application. Thus was born the digital marketing, known also as online marketing, 

cybermarketing, webmarketing, e-marketing, i-marketing, electronic marketing, digital 

marketing of marketing on the internet. 

 

2 Conceptual delimitations 

Here you must presents your original contribution.  

The term digital marketing was first used in the 1990s. In the 2000s and 2010s, digital 

marketing became more sophisticated as an effective way to create a relationship with the 

consumer that has depth and relevance (Coltman, T., 2007). 

The main disadvantages or weaknesses of traditional marketing are (Orzan, 2007): traditional 

marketing is in many cases considered more expensive in terms of resources (material, 

mailto:valentina.pascalau73@e-uvt.ro
mailto:ramona.urziceanu@gmail.com


 

 

monetary, human), such as printing brochures, leaflets, catalogues presentation, product 

sheets (Jarratt, D., 2009). Also, direct marketing through classic mail is very expensive in 

terms of the costs of postage, envelopes, etc. and requires more time and staff involved in this 

activity. marketing research conducted through online questionnaires is much more cost-

effective than the classic one, which involves many costs. Another aspect is the abandonment 

of advertising companies, which act as intermediaries between the company and organizations 

or individuals, as in the case of advertisers on TV or radio, or in the written press, who charge 

quite high commissions. Negotiation with a website is often done directly by companies. 

Traditional marketing can be an intensive process, often its tools taking a long time to 

implement. a physical banner, to be placed in a public location, takes a long time to obtain 

permits, to create it, etc. a banner on online sites is displayed much faster. The marketing 

research carried out through the classic questionnaires takes a long time until they are 

completed by the subjects, until they are centralized, etc. while in the online environment all 

this takes place very quickly, and the centralization is much simpler, the online questionnaires 

having the possibility to export the data directly to specialized software for their analysis, 

such as SOSS, Quantam, Stata, EViews etc. Also, if there is a mistake in an advertising text 

that must appear in an advertisement, the procedure is very difficult and time consuming, in 

all this interning the advertising company as an intermediary, and for prestigious publications 

you can expect a few months until the desired message appears. 

Traditional marketing is not always available, for example a TV or radio commercial is 

broadcast at certain times, depending on how it is set out in the contract, while a commercial 

on a website is available all the time, these being some of the basic attributes of the internet 

through its infrastructure consist of online servers that are available 24 hours a day, 365 days 

a year (Jaworski, BJ, 1993). 

Also, the most representative element of the online presence, the website of the company or 

of another person, or even the one dedicated to a product, is available all year round, being 

most of the time updated. Traditional marketing has a low interactivity, as it is in the case of 

direct marketing through classic mail, where it is not known for sure if any feedback will be 

obtained from potential customers, the company thus having very high costs. also in the case 

of TV or radio commercials, the exact audience is not known, or in the advertising messages 

in the written press, it is not possible to estimate how many people noticed a banner they 

passed. In the online environment, all these aspects can be followed by the fact that most of 

the time online spots or advertisements have the possibility to click on them to direct us to the 

parent website of the company they come from or to get more many details about the products 

or services promoted, these clicks being easily counted, thus obtaining the possibility to 

evaluate the feedback of potential customers. 

Traditional marketing generally operates locally, while online marketing is global, reducing 

communication barriers, a website being available in any area of the globe that has access to 

the internet, while most televisions, radio stations and the print media are only available in a 

certain geographical area. Before, it was exceedingly difficult for a company to provide 

technical support to its customers, requiring a representation and a service with numerous 

staff in each country. Now, with the advent of global websites, which have identical versions 

for each country, the only difference being the language spoken in a certain area, this staff has 

been considerably reduced, with customer support being able to deal with a much smaller 

staff, many one of the problems being solved through online support from another country. 

The internet can be considered a free market, where consumers can more easily compare 

prices for certain goods and services offered by companies than in real life. they can also 

compare prices in one country with those in another. The emergence of online stores and 

global sites like Ebay or Amazon has greatly facilitated the purchase of goods from foreign 

countries. There was also a freedom on the labour market, so companies in one country can 



 

 

promote their services in another country, such as software companies or websites, which can 

also place orders from abroad, not being their physical presence in a certain place is 

necessary. the internet has also reduced communication barriers, so a negative news about a 

certain company is in a very short time in any area of the globe with online access. 

The advantages of online marketing over traditional marketing are summarized and listed 

(Orzan, 2007), so we see that online marketing can save money and help reduce the marketing 

budget, due to the fact that on the Internet the transmission of information from the company 

to the customer or the potential customer is significantly more profitable. For example, an 

online catalogue can be updated at any time, it can be sent to a very large number of people, 

all costing almost nothing, while the classic method requires printing costs, postage, shipping 

staff this, plus the very long time to perform these procedures. The same happens in the case 

of direct marketing through classic mail, unlike email, which has minimal costs, where only 

one employee can perform the task for which a team was previously required. The email also 

reduced telephone calls involving large staff and high costs for companies in service or 

customer service departments, due to the fact that an email can be answered in a timely 

manner, unlike a classic letter, with the advantage that the message remains in the memory of 

the servers of the email service, thus being useful to both customers and the company. Some 

companies also offer online chat support, thus reducing the cost of fixed or mobile telephony. 

Online marketing can save time and reduce the steps of the marketing process, so marketing 

materials no longer have to wait a long time for printing, they can be uploaded to servers 

immediately, becoming accessible all the time for potential customers. In the case of the 

company's customer service, they no longer must write letters or call; now, by sending a 

simple email this problem is solved much faster. Practically, internet marketing puts you in 

touch with the market much faster, guaranteeing instant access to marketing information: 

presentation website, catalogues and brochures, online video presentation spots, etc. thus, the 

online marketing process is much simpler, more accurate and more efficient. 

Adopting digital technologies, online marketing is continuously available, so the online 

presence of marketing materials is guaranteed by the servers that make up the Internet 

infrastructure 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, and changes to these materials or updates can 

be made also at any time of the day. This allows a much higher accuracy of the information, 

so the customer can be better informed about the various promotions, price reductions, special 

offers and their availability (Jayachandran, S., Sharma, S., 2005). 

Online marketing is interactive and offers customers another way to shop. Interactivity is 

achieved mainly through personalization, which leads to the interaction between the potential 

customer and the company. Customers in modern society want much more information about 

the product, they are much more analytical. And the category of customers who purchase 

products and services online is a very dynamic one, usually with higher education, with a very 

high analytical spirit, often documenting themselves long before purchasing a product. This 

whole category of customers is looking for opinions written by other users of a product on 

forms, blogs or in the comment sections of online stores. 

All these elements presented provide a much greater interactivity of the online environment, 

but there are several methods of companies to achieve it, one being the so-called cookies that 

remember the pages visited from a website and what products attracted the visitor's attention, 

thus making recommendations or remind him when he enters another time on the site what 

were he was interested last time. 

Another method is that of interactive argumentation (Orzan, 2007), which makes the 

mentality of mass dissemination disappear, being replaced by a personalized communication, 

an involvement of the customer in the purchasing process, a focus on real-time satisfaction of 

prospecting and the immediate provision of advice and information, thus invigorating the 



 

 

company's innovative image and allowing it to differentiate its product portfolio from that of 

the competition. 

Thus, on many websites customers are allowed to choose the colour for a certain product, the 

method of transport, the delivery date, the method of payment, or if they change their mind 

and want to buy that product again, it remains in the shopping cart online with all options 

selected as long as the product is still available. In conclusion, this interactivity by 

personalizing the products and services offered ensures visitors a much better percentage of 

remembering the website where they encountered this, this personalized dynamic of content 

ensuring much greater customer loyalty and customer choice optimally. 

 

3 Conclusions  

Online marketing is global and offers equal opportunities for access to both organizations and 

individuals. 34% of the planet's population has access to the Internet, which means an 

unprecedented possibility of disseminating information, plus the advantage of the 

disappearance of physical borders between states (Reinartz, W.J., 2003). Thus, companies in 

one country can promote, sell or offer their services in another country, which is a huge 

advantage for their development. At the same time, hundreds of millions of potential 

customers around the world can document themselves, or search for or buy products from 

another geographical location. another advantage is the fact that in online marketing the 

discriminations related to the ethnic framework, to the type of business, to its size disappear, 

thus being attacked the monopolies that until now certain companies had in a country in a 

certain field. 

The problem regarding the legal aspects disappears, the company from a certain country 

respecting the legislation in force of that state and not that of the state where it offers its 

services online. Faxing was the first step in removing these barriers, but the internet and email 

completely eliminated them by ensuring the freedom of movement of written information. 

Thus, the internet contributes to a democratic globalization, and consumers in the online 

environment, once accustomed to this freedom, will hardly ever give it up, no matter what 

political regime comes to lead a state. 

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