By segmentation and targeting to customer community confirmation
Traditionally, marketing startsa custom of dividing the market to groups according to their geographic, demographic, psychographic, and behavioral profiles. Segmentation is typically accompanied by targeting–a practice of selecting one or more segments which a brand is committed to pursue based on their attractiveness and match with the brand. Segmentation and targeting are equally basic aspects of a new strategy. They allow for efficient resource allocation and positioning that is sharper. They also help marketers to serve multiple sections, each with offerings.
However, targeting and segmentation exemplify the vertical relationship analogous to prey and hunter. Segmentation and targeting are decisions made by marketers without their customers’ consent. The variables that define the segments are determined by marketers. The involvement of clients is limited in market research, which usually precede exercises and segmentation to their inputs. Being “targets,” customers often feel intruded upon and annoyed by irrelevant messages aimed supporting them. Many consider messages to be spam.
By having countless logo adaptations, MTV and Google remain strong yet flexible as brands
In flat webs of communities, customers are connected with one another in the digital economy. Today, communities are the new segments. Unlike sections, communities are naturally shaped by clients within the boundaries which they themselves define. Client communities are resistant to spamming and irrelevant advertisements. In fact, they’ll reject the attempt to force its way in these webs of connection of a company.
Brands must request permission to engage with a community of customers. Permission advertising revolves around the notion of requesting clients’ approval prior to delivering marketing messages. But when brands must behave as buddies with true desires to assist, not hunters with lure. Like the mechanism on Facebook, customers will have the choice to “confirm” or “discount” the friend requests. This demonstrates the relationship between brands and customers. But, companies can continue to utilize segmentation, targeting, and positioning.
From new location and distinction to new clarification of characters and codes
In a traditional sense, a brand is a group of images–most frequently a name, a logo, and a tagline–which distinguishes a organization’s product or service offering from its rivals’. Additionally, it functions as a reservoir which stores all the value. In the last few decades, a new has come to be the representation of the total customer experience that a company delivers to its customers. Since any activities that the business participates in will be associated with the brand, a brand may serve as a platform for a company’s strategy.
The idea of new is closely linked with brand positioning. Since the 1980s, new positioning was recognized as the battle for the mind of the customer. To establish powerful equity, a new needs a clear and consistent placement as well as a real set of distinction to support the positioning. Brand positioning is a compelling promise that marketers communicate to win the customers’ minds and hearts. To exhibit brand integrity that is true and win customers’ trust, marketers must meet this promise with a distinction through its marketing mix.
In the digital market, clients are eased and allowed to rate and even inspect any company promise. With this foil (due to the rise of social media) brands can no longer make false, unverifiable promises. Businesses can position themselves as anything, but unless there is basically a community-driven consensus that the placement amounts to nothing more than corporate posturing.
Always communicating brand identity and positioning in a repetitive fashion — a vital success factor in conventional marketing — might be enough, now. With disruptive technologies, shorter product life cycles, and quickly changing trends, a brand has to be energetic enough to act in certain ways in certain situations. What should stay consistent, nevertheless, are the newest codes and characters. The character is the raison d’être of that the brand. After the center of the brand remains true to its roots, the outer vision can be flexible. Think of it this way: by having innumerable emblem adaptations–Google calls them doodles–Google and MTV stay strong yet flexible.
By selling the ‘four P‘s’ to commercialising the ‘four C‘s’
The marketing mix is a traditional instrument to assist plan what to offer and how to supply to the customers. There are four P’s: product, price, location, and promotion. Product is developed according to clients’ wants and needs. Firms control the majority of product decisions from conception. Businesses use a combination of competition-based, and customer value — based procedures to establish a price for the item. Clients’ willingness to pay is the most important input that clients have in connection with pricing.
Once companies pick what to offer (product and cost), they need to decide the best way to offer (place and marketing). Companies need to ascertain where to distribute the item with the aim of which makes it conveniently accessible and available to customers. Companies need to convey the information about the item through various methods such as public relations, advertising, and sales promotions. When the four P’s of the marketing mix aligned and are brilliantly designed, selling becomes challenging as clients are drawn to the value propositions.
In a connected world, the notion of promotion mix has evolved to adapt client participation. Marketing combination (the four P’s) should be redefined as the four C’s (co-creation, currency, communal activation(and dialogue).
In the digital market, co-creation is the new product development approach. Through co-creation and between clients early in the ideation phase, companies can enhance the success rate of new product growth. Co-creation also enables customers to customize and customize products and solutions, thereby creating value propositions that are superior.
The concept of pricing can be evolving in the electronic era from standardized to dynamic pricing. Dynamic pricing–setting elastic prices based on market demand and capacity utilization–isn’t new in certain industries like hospitality and airlines. But advancement in technology has brought the practice to other industries. Online retailers, for example, collect a massive amount of data, which lets them perform big-data analytics and in turn to offer a exceptional pricing for each customer. With lively pricing, companies can maximize profitability by charging different customers differently based on historical purchase patterns, proximity to store locations, and other customer-profile aspects. In the market, cost is similar to currency, which fluctuates depending on market demand.
The concept of channel can be changing. The distribution concept that is most potent is distribution. Players such as Airbnb, Uber, Zipcar, and Lending Club are interrupting the hotel, taxi, auto leasing, and banking businesses, respectively. They provide customers easy access to the services and products not owned by them by other clients. 3-D printing’s growth will spur this distribution in the near future. Imagine customers wanting a solution and in a matter of minutes getting the merchandise printed in front of them. In a world, customers demand access to services and goods instantly, which may be served at close proximity together with their peers. This is the essence of communal activation.
With a connected advertising mix — the four C — companies have a higher likelihood of living in the digital economy
The concept of promotion has evolved lately. Promotion has been a one-day affair, together with firms sending messages to customers as audiences. Today, the proliferation of social media enables customers to react to these messages. It also permits clients to converse about the messages with other clients. The growth of systems such as Yelp and TripAdvisor supply a platform for clients to have conversations about and offer evaluations of brands they’ve interacted with.
With a connected marketing mix (the four C) companies have a higher likelihood of living from the electronic economy. On the other hand, selling’s paradigm needs to change also. Clients are objects of techniques. In a world that is connected, the idea is to have both sides acquire commercial value. With increased client involvement, businesses are engaging customers in commercialization.
From customer service procedures to collaborative customer care
Prior to purchase, clients are treated as goals. They’re considered kings at a traditional customer-service perspective, as soon as they decide to buy. Changing to the customer-care strategy, companies view customers as equals. A company demonstrates its concern for the client by always following through on terms dictated by the customer and the company, reacting, and listening.
In traditional customer-service, personnel are responsible for performing processes and specific roles based on standard operating procedures and strict guidelines. This situation puts service employees in a dilemma over objectives. In a world, cooperation is the secret to success. When companies invite clients to participate in the process by employing facilities, collaboration happens.
This is an edited extract from Marketing 4.0: Moving from Traditional to Digital, by Philip Kotler, Hermawan Kartajaya and Iwan Setiawan (Wiley, 2017)
