Have you heard of something called Marketing 4.0? The term has been going around quite a bit lately. It’s a book by a man named Philip Kotler – he’s an academic, author and professor who published a ground-breaking marketing journal decades ago.
Marketing 4.0 explains marketing through combining traditional marketing with lead consumers. There’s a lot of hype around the book, not only because it was written by a leading marketing expert, but also because it’s useful for businesses that want to understand how to succeed in this changing consumer landscape. It’s a worthwhile read for anyone working or interested in marketing.
Kotler describes how in the past companies decided what to offer and how to offer it. But now, with the rise of the digital economy, customers are now co-creators from the very start. What this means is that customers can have the power to personalise a company’s products and services. A product is more likely to be successful if the company identifies what their customers need and what content would be the most useful and attractive. It’s all about co-creation.
In this digital economy, distributions occur peer-to-peer. Companies like Uber and Airbnb are giving customers easy access to products that aren’t owned by them but by customers. Some of the biggest most disruptive companies today are using peer-to-peer distribution. And it’s giving customers instant access by keeping peers nearby.
There’s also this idea of promotion. In the past, a company would send a message to their customers as audiences. But customers can now respond to their messages thanks to social media. Customers can even discuss products with other customers, creating a customer-rating system.
Social media has really changed the way companies market. Without a platform for customers to have discussions and provide evaluations, companies like Yelp and TripAdvisor wouldn’t be as successful as they are today. To make it in the digital economy, companies need to combine these aspects of marketing.
Marketing 4.0 provides a detailed discussion of how an understanding of customer paths can boost productivity in the digital economy. It’s a new reality to which marketers need to adapt.
The book is worth a read if you want to understand more about customer paths in the digital economy, look at new marketing practices, or learn a new set of marketing metrics.
