Marketing 3.0: Collaborative, Iconic, and Independent

In summary, Marketing 3.0 will be very much influenced by the customer. It is the more sophisticated form of customer-centric era where the customer demands collaborative, iconic, and independent marketing approaches.

Technology which facilitates the widespread dissemination of information, ideas and public opinion enables customers to collaborate in value creation. The technology also drives globalization of political and legal, economy, and social culture landscape which will create paradoxes. The iconic brands which address the anxiety and desire of the customers will win the competition in this world of paradox. Consumers’ sophistication generates the future market: the creative consumer market. In order to stay relevant in Marketing 3.0, companies should always target the consumers as human beings. 

According to Stephen Covey, a whole human has four basic components: a physical body, a mind capable of independent thought and analysis, a heart which can feel emotion, and a spirit—your soul or philosophical center In marketing, the concept of being relevant began with targeting the mind. Al Ries and Jack Trout argued in their classic book Positioning, that the battle is in the consumer’s mind. 11 That is, how you position the product in the mind of the prospect relevantly is what matters. The concept evolved because the world became more emotional. Targeting the mind is no longer enough. Marketers should also target the hearts of the consumers. 

The concept of emotional marketing in various terms emerged. Some of those works include Experiential Marketing of Bernd Schmitt, Emotional Branding of Marc Gobé, and Lovemarks of Kevin Roberts, to name a few.12 Marketers such as Howard Schultz of Starbucks, Richard Branson of Virgin, and Steve Jobs of Apple, apply more emotional approach to their companies. Starbucks’ concept of “third place for drinking coffee”, Virgin’s “unconventional marketing”, and Apple “creative imagination” are the implementations of emotionally relevant marketing. These aimed at our emotional hearts which bear feelings. 

The concept will need to evolve once more to embrace the spirit of the consumers. Marketers should discover the anxieties and desires of the consumers and do what Stephen Covey calls “unlocking the soul’s code” in order to stay relevant. This does not mean that companies should only target the spirit of the consumers. Companies should target consumer as a whole human who consists of mind, heart, and spirit. The point is not to overlook the spirit.