Towards a New Marketing (1): beyond the Analytic Marketing, toward a pro-sumer Market

Beyond the Analytic Marketing (beyond the “Big Data”)

The fact is that today, in times of rapid (and radical) change, we reason in terms of linear development of innovation. And in this way we use obsolete methods that are not able to provide effective strategic directions.

The problem basically lies in the fact that

the concept of
MARKET ANALYSIS
(as observation / or Listening to Customers)
is OBSOLETE,

That is, current Marketing is not able to grasp the needs of customers, and develops ruinous strategies (this inability is the main responsible for the current recession).

The awareness of these needs is missing because:

1) Market Players do not have the ability to identify today’s disruptive Demand (they lack the figure of the entrepreneur, replaced by the Managers and Consultants).

< see “The problems of the current Market strategies” >

2) when they are “observed” in their consumption, Consumers are not able to show how technologies can improve, in a truly disruptive way, the quality of their life.

The problems of the current strategies of Analytic Marketing

The problems created by this obsolete approach are, more generally:

1 – USERS ARE NOT NUMBERS BUT PEOPLE. Today we pretend to be able to interpret numbers to be able to understand aspects of the human being (desires, attitudes, etc …)

2 – The processing of Big Data is done by “experts” who should help to understand what needs to be met. But THE ONLY REAL EXPERTS OF THE NEEDS TO SATISFY ARE THE NEEDS OF THE HOLDER (the Customer). <see “The misunderstanding: on Crowd, on the User concept” in “Mobility 2.0: White Paper“ >

∙Hidden Demand, Evolving Needs (the virtuous circle of innovation)

One of the problems of interpreting consumer needs is therefore that

in moments of change
like the current one (disruption)
THE NEEDS ARE PARTLY HIDDEN TO THE USERS THEMSELVES.

Those needs are a “hidden demand“.

This is due to the fact that

in the evolution stages of the Society
THE NEEDS OF PEOPLE ARE IN EVOLUTION.

In the sense that in a rapidly changing society, Customers are constantly discovering new aspects of their specific needs.

This is due to the fact that when Customers have the experience of a “satisfaction” brought about by new products, they begin to better frame the outlines of their need; and at the same time to understand in which ways these needs can be satisfied.

It is an evolution of consumption, characterized by a phenomenon that can be defined as a virtuous circle of innovation°, which is typical of disruption moments.

In this dimension, evolution (innovation) develops in a completely new way compared to how it develops in the moments of linear evolution of the market: in the new modality a constantly evolving process develops, in which the innovative product stimulates new needs, and these needs stimulate the birth of new product versions (and often also new products).

That is, in the phases of rapid change, of disruption, it is necessary a radical change of Marketing – as we see in the next chapter – which must become functional to the evolution of consumption which is based on: evolving needs, evolving Value°, evolving Products (they are in progress, as it is for desktop applications such as browsers, in which there is a rapid succession of new versions of the product).

It is a process of awareness acquisition by the Consumer that “revolutionizes” the concept of Knowledge. The new marketing must adapt to the new reality: the new Knowledge

● it is no longer a knowledge of the producers; but a Consumer Knowledge.

● a Shared knowledge.

● evolving Knowledge – as we said, a constantly evolving knowledge.

A Marketing for the disruptive age: the Marketing of Pro-sumers

The answer to a Marketing that is no longer able to grasp people’s needs is therefore a new Marketing that consists in a reversal of current Marketing.

From a “passive” Top-down Marketing, based on the Customer’s observation,

we move on to a bottom-up Maketing,
in which the main actor becomes the Consumer.

That is no longer, in an age of disruption, to better understand the needs of the Consumer, to have insights of the Crowd; to collect new types of data and to improve their interpretation; to engaging customers (attracting them with baits that are not the actual quality of the product).

In the current Marketing, the basic principle is changed: in order to develop a value required by the new Demand (evolving nees) it is now a question of

give to the Customer tools that
let him participate in the process
of product iideation/production.

It is not a question of an interpretation of the Customer, but of its enabling (in which it becomes a Customer, a pro-sumer.) <See “Crowd-driven Innovation/Crowdsourcing“ >

More honestly it is necessary to admit that today Marketing is developed in a “creative” form that – instead of trying to understand the Demand as it originally did – develops itself a Demand. In other words, the current Marketing is aimed at “inducing” in the Consumer an impulse to purchase products of which there are no real needs (this is of strategies developed in an emotional dimension).

So a first “overturning” of the current strategies would be to re-develop a marketing actually aimed at understanding the needs of the Customer.

It is not a moral question, but a question of making the strategies of Marketing work effectively (to sell products at a time when customers no longer have the money to buy products that do not satisfy them In fact).

< see “The new direction of the innovation” > <see “Sustainable Innovation”>

With the “revolution” of Marketing, from passive Marketing, the Analytic Marketing (data-driven) that “observes”, moves

to the completely “overturned” Maketing
MADE IN HAND TO PRO-SUMER:

the Marketing of customers, (Marketing of Pro-sumers), Participated Marketing.

A Marketing in which the value of the product (the true aim of Marketing ) is defined by the Customers themselves (the real experts).

In other words:

Consumers can develop
an awareness of improving their quality of life
with new produc only when
THEY ARE ENABLED TO BE CO-AUTHORS OF CHANGE.

(human beings can improve their awareness of their lives only through doing – learning by doing).

< see “misunderstanding: on Crowd, on the User concept” in “Mobility 2.0: White Paper” >

Operational strategies of the New Marketing

From an operational point of view there is the need of:

1) BRING OUT NEW NEEDS – providing customers with a first generation of disruptive innovation products (ie a real useful value that is not present in today’s products).

Using these products, the Users (in learning by doing mode) can get an idea of how new technologies (together with new pratices) can improve their quality of life.

These products of disruptive innovation come today from the small Start ups that, living more in contact with the needs of the Custormers, can grasp a first insight of their needs. While Big Players are not able to realize this type of product, unless they incubate new branches of their business outside their corporate structures. < see “The great Firms are not able to develop disruptive innovation within them“ >

In fostering this process of customer knowledge growth it is necessary to take into account that today knowledge is developed through a sharing of the information that everyone has available. It is therefore necessary to make knowledge sharing tools available to Consumers.

2) give to the Customer tools that allow them to PARTICIPATE IN EFFECTIVE PROCESS OF THE IDEATION / PRODUCTION OF THE PRODUCT.

These tools have already been developed largely for forms of participated government. < see “The golden rules of Governance (of participation)” >

Of course this is possible thanks to two factors:

● New technologies (ICT, IoT, etc …).

● the potential of Smart Manufacturing, with which it is possible to develop a completely new ideation / production / distribution process. <see “The misunderstanding on Industry 4.0: towards Manufacturing 4.0”>

< see “The misunderstanding on Industry 4.0: towards Manufacturing 4.0“>