Marketing in the digital age revolutionized by the customer at the center

At a time when strikes last six weeks, and babies are born in the RER, those born in the last millennium are invariably losing their bearings.

From the sustainability of the manufactured products we buy to the authenticity of the foodstuffs we are offered, nothing is the same anymore.

 

Marketing management models are aging and must reinvent themselves, or die. Maslow’s pyramid has gained two floors and is walking on its head, the SWOT analysis is systematically unbalanced, the SMART no longer gives relevant objectives and the 4Ps have become SAVE, or 4E, ahead of the new way of manufacturing, distributing and consuming.

The only one that still seems to hold the helm is the Pareto principle, which does not submit to the laws of time and remains smooth, strong and straight.

As a reminder, Philip Kotler’s 4Ps formed the 4 variables of a product’s marketing mix: Product, Place, Price, Promotion.

Kotler himself made it his mission to add two Ps in the 80s (Public opinion and Political power), then we increased this figure to 10Ps with Packaging, People, Process and Physical Evidence. The 4Ps became a gas factory, going from 12 to 100 variables.

 

With the advent of digital, commerce has become increasingly fast, dematerialized, lazy (for the buyer), technological, volatile.

Richard Ettenson then rethought the 4Ps in SAVE, where Product became Solution, Place became Access, Price became Value and Promotion became Education.

Robert Leuterborn, for his part, has renamed the 4Ps into 4Cs: Customer, Cost, Convenience, Communication.

 

A think tank organized by Adobe and called TheFuture of Experience Business went even further. According to this group, “Marketing is an outdated discipline. And that’s it. »

This statement comes in response to the question: What is the role of marketing in the customer experience economy, where it’s no longer enough to sell a product? »

Nandini Nayak, Managing Director of Design Strategy at Fjord (Accenture) says: “The customer no longer wants to buy your product, they want an experience and engagement with the brand. The product is the sum of experiences.”

 

According to the postulates of this think tank and many others, and in the simplistic line of the 4Ps, Ps become E’s under the formula developed by Brian Fetherstonhaugh, of Ogilvy & Mather, where everything is based on the customer’s experience.

It’s time for commerce according to the 4Es: Experience, Exchange, Evangelism, Everyplace.

• Experience (replacing Product)

E-commerce, especially mobile, is a development that supports experience, when the product sold is not a sensory product. It replaces the visit to the store with its welcome, cleanliness, merchandising, organization and payment. This is not just about customer service 3.0 but about the customer’s experience from the beginning to the very end of their purchase.

• Exchange (replaces Price)

As an extension of the first E, the Exchange symbolizes the entirety of what the consumer does to buy his product. And it is not only the price to pay in money: it takes into account his time (the value of which is constantly increasing), his effort, his knowledge (training). Exchange also covers the notions of extras such as the level of personalization of a product or service, or the societal or environmental assertion of the “1 tree planted for an item purchased” type

• Evangelism (replaces Promotion)

Obtaining a mark of commitment from the customer is the mission pursued by the E of Evangelism. You use social networks with expertise and you become a word-of-mouth doctor if you want to trade with the customers of today and tomorrow. An edifying statistic is given to us by The Word of Mouth Martketing Association: 13% of sales are based on word-of-mouth, 2/3 of which are person-to-person “in real life” and only 1/3 online, mainly on social networks.

• Everyplace (replaces Place)

The concept is to allow customers to make a purchase on their terms: where I want, when I want, in short. Longer store hours, brands fighting to be able to open on Sundays, e-commerce platforms with infinite aesthetics and sophistication. It is here that the customer sees his loyalty undermined by his opportunism.

 

At WAYDEN, we believe that these 4Es could be a reference guide for any merchant who wants to navigate according to customers’ expectations and experiential needs. WAYDEN, with its interim management missions, has understood this, as have a few other interim management firms. We are already using the 4Es to communicate with the customer and offer them meaning and added value. We are also investing significantly to accentuate this trend, expand our support and strengthen WAYDEN’s pioneering DNA in the digital boom.

Philipe Kotler, who was inspired by Jerome McCarthy for this model created in 1942 (sic), must no longer understand anything about it. We especially hope that he doesn’t take too much interest in it, with a fishing rod in one hand and a fresh lemonade in the other.

His “modern” marketing, which modelled the production-distribution-consumption chain of the time, has been renamed “classic”. His 4Ps have become as obsolete as they were simple, effective and reassuring. It’s time to make way for new techniques, both digital and offline, to support today’s retail revolution.

 

Philine Klop

Business Support & Marketing Manager