The Next Level: Marketing 3.0

Marketing, today, has really come of age - from being 'product centric' (Marketing 1.0) in the industrial age to being 'customer centric' (Marketing 2.0) until recently. But the world is fast reaching a point, at which a complete shift will occur in the way customers are perceived and in the way marketing is done. And to stay ahead of the curve, brands will have to evolve themselves to survive in the renewed market, to think on their feet and express their benefits through ideas, service and entertainment.

Welcome to the world of Marketing 3.0 - the ‘human centric’ era. Today, we are witnessing a transition from the information age to the ‘age of participation', and hence it is imperative for the marketer to look at people not just as customers, but as ‘humans’, who are active, expressive, anxious and conscious. No longer is the purpose restricted to identifying and fulfilling only the needs and wants of the customer; now it's vital to identity and fulfill their deepest anxieties and desires as well.

An unprecedented coalescence of low-cost computing devices, easily available bandwidth and open-source has allowed unlimited connectivity and interactivity of corporations and individuals alike. So today the people are creating news, ideas and entertainment as well as consuming them. The means of marketing must now evolve as the media itself evolves, and as the marketer exercises little, if any, control over what the customer sees. The internet and the multifarious terms of social media have enabled the customer to see what a company is doing for the benefit of the community as a whole. Hence, collaboration with the customer is called for to listen to his/her voice and to capture market insights which can help in distilling out a distinctive ‘cultural dynamic’ that has a significant resonance among the various communities. Moreover, as a natural consequence of globalisation, cultural issues urgently need to be put at the core of a company's business model.

A steady rise of the ‘creative society’ has also necessitated that the products and services must overreach the satisfaction of needs to deliver an experience that touches the customer's spiritual side as well. The customer isn't just the king, but s/he’s also the R&D and product development head today. Hence, it is imperative for companies to create personal communications with the customer by promoting their freedom to talk about the company and its brands.

The customer today demands collaborative, iconic, and independent marketing approaches. Sophisticated consumers of today are creating the future's creative consumer markets, in which targeting the mind isn't enough, but the key is to target their hearts. So, marketing must be emotionally relevant and redifine its root as a triangle of Positioning, Differentiation and Brand. A clear positioning in the customer's mind will lead to a distinct brand identity; strongly differentiating your brand will give it a different brand image; and a clear positioning bolstered by a strong differentiation will lead to formidable brand equity.

Companies must also realise that they are a part of the society and the environment, and must align their mission, vision and values towards social responsibility. Aspiring for sustainability will definitely strike a chord with the people and this is what people share on social networks.

Marketing 3.0 requires the companies to create not only products and services, but entire corporate cultures, which are customer value driven at the fundamental level. Instead of a linear relationship between a brand and a consumer, an interconnected linkage between company, brand, employees, consumers and community is the need of the hour.

Neuromarketing: Scanning India

Neuromarketing – scanning people’s brains to gauge their reaction to products – has made huge strides over the past five years. India is the next country to submit its subconscious to the probing.

For consumer goods companies, the technique is an alternative to verbal feedback from would-be consumers, which is not always reliable. The idea is to scan people’ reactions, then design products, packaging and advertising to stimulate particular parts of the brain. And the leading practitioner sees India’s bulging middle class as a prime target.

Neuromarketing’s critics dismiss it as a fad. Yet Neurofocus, the global market leader in neurological testing, has seen 100 per cent year-on-year growth over the last three years. It employs leading neuroscientists, works with major food, car, electronics and cosmetics companies, and has offices in London, Tokyo, Tel Aviv, Seoul, Bogotá, New York and Dallas.

Neurofocus’s Indian-born chief executive, says the idea of selling products through multiple celebrity endorsements is misplaced. And he sees huge opportunities for neuromarketing in India:

It is a culture that is highly emotional and companies need to be able to talk to people in a language that they truly understand. If you look at the India’s ancient scriptures and philosophies

you can see that it is a culture obsessed with the brain.

For thousands of years the country has looked into the human condition, how people should live their lives, how they should think and react in any given situation. How does the mind and body connect? If I don’t do this here, where will I do it?

Companies might not share such mysticism, but they know understanding India’s middle class is crucial. In a report from earlier this year, analysts at Deutsche Bank said:

India’s middle class consumption is roughly equivalent to Ireland’s total private consumption and is forecast to triple as a share of India’s total consumption over the next 15 years…

For corporations, the middle class in India thus presents significant business opportunities. The sales growth of consumer goods such as televisions and mobile phones to the middle class has already been established, but a new range of products such as financial services is increasingly being geared towards this group as well.

Meanwhile, penny-pinching customers might soon have to control their subconscious, if they’re to avoid overspending on saris, spices and the rest.