OVER the years, marketing has evolved through three stages that we call Marketing 1.0, 2.0, and 3.0. Many of today's marketers still practice Marketing 1.0, some practice Marketing 2.0, and a few are moving into Marketing 3.0. The greatest opportunities will come to marketers practicing 3.0.
Long ago, during the industrial age-when the core technology was industrial machinery-marketing was about selling the factory's output of products to all who would buy them. The products were fairly basic and were designed to serve a mass market. The goal was to standardise and scale up to bring about the lowest possible costs of production so that these goods could be priced lower and made more affordable to more buyers. Henry Ford's Model T automobile epitomised this strategy; said Ford: "Any customer can have a car painted any color that he wants so long as it is black." This was Marketing 1.0 or the product-centric era.
Marketing 2.0 came out in today's information age - where the core is information technology. The job of marketing is no longer that simple. Today's consumers are well informed and can easily compare several similar product offerings. The product value is defined by the consumer. Consumers differ greatly in their preferences. The marketer must segment the market and develop a superior product for a specific target market. The golden rule of "customer is king" works well for most companies. Consumers are better off because their needs and wants are well addressed. They can choose from a wide range of functional characteristics and alternatives. Today's marketers try to touch the consumer's mind and heart. Unfortunately, the consumer-centric approach implicitly assumes the view that consumers are passive targets of marketing campaigns. This is the view in Marketing 2.0 or the customer-oriented era.
Now, we are witnessing the rise of Marketing 3.0 or the values-driven era. Instead of treating people simply as consumers, marketers approach them as whole human beings with minds, hearts, and spirits. Increasingly, consumers are looking for solutions to their anxieties about making the globalised world a better place. In a world full of confusion, they search for companies that address their deepest needs for social, economic, and environmental justice in their mission, vision, and values. They look for not only functional and emotional fulfillment but also human spirit fulfillment in the products and services they choose.
In times of global economic crisis, Marketing 3.0 gains more relevance to the lives of the consumers as they are impacted more by rapid social, economic, and environmental change and turbulence. Diseases become pandemics, poverty increases, and environmental destruction is under way. Companies practising Marketing 3.0 provide answers and hope to people confronting such issues and, therefore, touch consumers at a higher level. In Marketing 3.0, companies differentiate themselves by their values. In turbulent times, this differentiation is arguably a strong one.
Dr Philip Kotler is the S.C. Johnson & Son Distinguished Professor of International Marketing at the Northwestern University Kellogg Graduate School of Management in Chicago. He is hailed by Management Centre Europe as "the world's foremost expert on the strategic practice of marketing".
Hermawan Kartajaya is CEO of MarkPlus, Inc - a leading marketing consulting, research and training organisation.
They will be talking at a one-day executive seminar at The Royale Chulan Kuala Lumpur on June 1 on the topic of Going World Class. For more information email Mimien Aziz atmimi en.aziz@markplusinc.com
By Philip Kotler and Hermawan Kartajaya
http://www.btimes.com.my/articles/KOTLER2/Article/
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