Identification and Classification of Innovative Applications of Internet of Things in Digital Marketing

There is almost no comprehensive and integrated view of the diverse applications of Internet of Things (IoT) in digital marketing by far. Given the increasing trend of research in this field, the present study aims to systematically and scientifically integrate previous studies to identify innovative uses of IoT in digital marketing and also to provide a comprehensive classification in this field. In addition, it is expected to determine which countries are leading in the use of IoT in marketing, how the IoT technology is used in each of the marketing areas, which marketing areas are affected the most by the use of Internet of things technology, and what mechanism are applied more by the researchers in the field of marketing.

This fundamental study uses both qualitative and quantitative methods. In this way, firstly, the meta-integrated approach was used to identify the applications of IoT in marketing, and thencontent analysis was used to understand the trends and hot topics in this field. In the present research, Sandlowski and Barrowso's seven-step method was used to perform the meta-integration. The study population consisted of exclusively English-language articles in the databases of Google Scholar, Science Direct, IEEE Explorer Scopus, and Emerald Insight between 2005 and November 2018. And the content analysis method was used to analyze the data.

Having examined and integrated the uses of IoT in all the different articles, initially the concepts encompassing the sub-applications and then the main categories that encompass the main applications are extracted into seven marketing integrated categories. Most applications have been reported in the field of promotion, as the majority of the articles have highlighted the ability of data obtained from the Internet of Things to understand customers’ behavior and personalized suggestions and advertising based on this information. The second highest contribution of IoT is reported on the applications of smart products in marketing and the changes that these products have made accordingly. The applications of Internet of Things in marketing have been investigated since 2012 onwards. In addition, product and process domains have been the first areas to propose the application of IoT technology, which makes sense given the development of intelligent products and the increasing role of IoT in process automation. On the other hand, the use of IoT in the field of human resources has recently been included in studies and has received the least number of researches which confirms the diminishing role of the human resources in the IoT era. Throughout time, Internet of Things has been used the most within the domains of products and promotions.

According to the results of this study and based on qualitative and interpretive content analysis, Internet of Things have effects on seven integrated marketing areas including product, location, price, promotion, processes, physical evidence and human resources. In terms of the impact of the Internet of Things on the product domain, the advancement of product features, product support, product quality, blending and branding of products and services can be taken into account. In terms of promotion, one can consider the use of new advertising methods and the creation of personal promotions as well as sales promotions, improvement of public relationships in marketing and direct marketing. In terms of of marketing processes, innovation in both sales processes and support and marketing research processes have attracted the attention of many companies and researchers. In terms of pricing, online data gathering and analysis have provided the opportunity to apply changing pricing methods and create diverse and effective discounts, as well as new revenue models. In terms of distribution, the Internet of Things has also been used as a new distribution channel and also for locating, especially in retails. In terms of physical evidence, the use of smart devices has also provided a more interesting customer experience. Applying IoT to human resources training and evaluating their performance have also been influenced by Internet of Things. Given the wide range of opportunities provided by IoT in marketing, it should also be noted that data protection and customer privacy are among the major threats of implementing IoT in marketing. It was even considered as a new and very important element of the marketing integration in the era of information.