Ushering in a new era in marketing

Product, Price, Place and Promotion.

These four P’s build the foundation of marketing that every marketing student has been taught in the last few decades.

But that is all about to change, thanks to one man – Philip Kotler.

Philip Kotler – dubbed by some as “the father of marketing” – was a significant force in ushering in the consumer era (Marketing 2.0) from the more product centric era (Marketing 1.0).

While Kotler still stresses the importance of the 4P’s, he has identified three important factors driving marketing towards a new era, fittingly dubbed, marketing 3.0.  These forces reflect current societal trends: the age of participation, the age of globalization paradox, and the age of creative society.

Marketing 3.0 calls attention to a more holistic and more consumer-involved approach to marketing.  This has been clearly evident with the emergence of social media.

Kotler, author of one of the most recognized and used marketing textbooks, Marketing Management, brings these ideas together in his recently released book, Marketing 3.0 (John Wiley & Sons, Inc.), co-written by Hermawan Kartajaya and Iwan Setiawan.

The book is divided into three distinct parts: trends, the strategy and the application.

The first analyzes the current situation, building a foundation based on current societal trends.  This enables the authors to delve into many of the issues influencing the necessity for change and ultimately suggests revamping many current disciplines of marketing -  the Four P’s, STP(Segmenting, Marketing and Positioning) and brand building  – into the Three C’s – Cocreation, Communitization and Character building.  This leads to into three core concepts: identity, integrity and image, the main objectives of marketing 3.0.

The second part tackles how to communicate the marketing 3.0 concept to various stakeholders: consumers, employees, channel partners and shareholders.

In the final part, applying the marketing 3.0 theory, there is continued emphasis on the social-responsibility of companies to act as social champions through philanthropy.  This ties into the responsibility companies have in acknowledging the need to create more social business enterprises – companies making profit while positively impacting the society in which it operates – to make product and service offering more accessible to the ever-growing low-income population.

The final chapter brings all the concepts together in 10 credos, worth taking note for any (aspiring) marketer.

Kotler argues that marketers have not truly been listening to the needs and wants of consumers, eventually causing consumers to feel disconnected from product and service offerings.  Human needs and wants are becoming ever more complex, thus revamping the hierarchy of needs, used by marketers.

While many aspects of marketing 3.0 have been discussed and some have already been applied, Kotler, Kartajaya and Setiawan seamlessly synthesize many different ideas to make the concept of marketing 3.0 relevant and accessible.

For any marketer this is a must-read, and answers the all-important question posed by the authors:

“Is it possible to be a human-centric company and still be profitable?”

Marketing 3.0: From Products to Customers to the Human Spirit, is available at all major bookstores in North America, 188 pages, hardcover, John Wiley & Sons, Inc. ($24.95 US/$29.95 CAN)

- Michael Chu

Tagged as: book review, Marketing 3.0, Marketing 3.0: From Products to Customers to the Human Spirit, Philip Kotler

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