From product and customer to human spirit

As the world changed over the past decades because of the technology evolution, so did marketing.
Long ago during the industrial age -- where the core technology was industrial machinery -- marketing was about selling products to a target market without considering the needs and wants. This was Marketing 1.0 or the product-centric era.
The famous saying of Henry Ford marked this era: “Any customer can have a car painted any colour that he wants so long as it is black.” In this era, there were many misconceptions of marketing. Marketing was considered as mere selling, an art of persuasion, and even cheating.
When it comes to today's information age, where the core is information technology, the job of marketing is no longer that simple. Consumers are well informed and can compare several value offerings of similar products. The product value is defined by the consumer. It is a must for marketers to identify unfulfilled needs and wants and convert them into profitable opportunities. This is Marketing 2.0 or the customer-centric era. In Marketing 2.0, consumers still are skeptical about marketers and marketing practice. Marketers are seen as focused primarily on profits and ignoring the effects of their policies on the larger society.
Now that almost every organisation claims to be customer-oriented, the strategy may not work anymore. We will soon witness the rise of Marketing 3.0 or the human-centric era where consumers will be treated as human beings who are active, anxious, and creative. They will request more participation in value creation. They will demand that their deepest anxieties and desires, not only their traditional needs and wants, be identified and fulfilled. They will ask for their creativity to be appreciated. In other words, companies today need to serve consumers as human beings in order to stay relevant.
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 to the customers as human beings 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. That is, how you position the product in the mind of the prospect relevantly is what matters.
The marketing concept then evolved further. Targeting the mind is no longer enough. Marketers should also target the hearts of the consumers. The concept of emotional marketing 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.
Marketers such as Howard Schultz of Starbucks, Richard Branson of Virgin, and Steve Jobs of Apple, apply a more emotional approach to their companies. Starbucks' concept of 'third place for drinking coffee', Virgin's 'unconventional marketing', and Apple 'creative imagination' are implementations of emotionally relevant marketing. These aim to stir our emotions as a means to lock in brand preference.
The marketing concept will need to evolve once more to embrace the spirit of the consumers. Marketers should discover the anxieties and desires of the consumers 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 a mind, heart, and spirit. The point is not to overlook the spirit.
Marketing 3.0 is values-driven marketing. It is not just about the meaning of marketing. It is about the marketing of meaning, that everyone can make a difference in the lives of others. Companies that can implement the values-driven marketing model will win the competition in Marketing 3.0.
The meaning of marketing
In Marketing 3.0, marketing should be redefined to its root as a triangle of positioning, differentiation and brand. A brand should be clearly positioned in the consumer's mind to give it a clear brand identity. To give brand integrity to your positioning, it must be supported by strong differentiation. Positioning supported by strong differentiation will in turn lead to a strong brand image.
Brand identity is about positioning your brand in the minds of the consumers. The positioning should be unique for your brand to be heard and noticed in the cluttered marketplace. It should also be relevant to the rational needs and wants of the consumers.
Brand image is about acquiring the consumer's mind share. Your brand value should appeal to consumer's emotional needs and wants beyond product and service functionalities and features.
Brand integrity is about fulfilling what is claimed through the positioning and differentiation. It is about being credible to your promise and establishing the consumers' trust in your brand. The target of brand integrity is the spirit of the consumers. It is the main message of this triangle: marketing aims to deliver the promise and enhance customers' lives.
SC Johnson & Sons Inc. for example, positioned itself as “the sustainable five-generation family company that specialises in home care consumer products.” The differentiation lies in the sustainable business model. The company is an early pioneer of targeting the 'bottom of the pyramid', people earning less than $1 a day, in some markets such as Kenya.
Marketing of the meaning
In Marketing 3.0, a new matrix should be introduced where, on one axis, the company strives to occupy the minds, hearts and then spirit of current and future customers. The other axis takes into account the company's mission, vision and values.
This matrix combines the Marketing 1.0, 2.0, and 3.0 approaches. In Marketing 1.0, companies predominantly apply vision-driven marketing, which emphasises more on the achievement of the corporate goal. It must not only promise 'profitability' and 'returnability' to current and future shareholders, but also sustainability. In Marketing 2.0, companies predominantly apply mission-driven marketing, which emphasises more on the mission to serve the customers. While delivering satisfaction to the customers at the product level is essential, at the highest level, a brand ought to be seen as realising aspirations and practicing compassion in some form. In Marketing 3.0, companies must predominantly apply values-driven marketing that emphasises more on the employee values. The company must become a brand that is better, different, and that makes a difference to current and future employees.
SC Johnson & Sons Inc. embeds its commitment to social and environmental sustainability in the mission, vision, and values of the company. With the mission of “contributing to the community well-being as well as sustaining and protecting the environment”, the company satisfies the consumers by providing various products, realises aspiration by inviting consumer's participation in sustaining the environment, and practices compassion by targeting “base of the pyramid” market.
The company has the vision to be the world leader in delivering innovative solutions to meet human needs through sustainability principles. The achievement of the vision is marked by a profitable growth and several awards obtained by the company. It also releases a public report to measure its achievement in the area of sustainability.
Its values lie on the concept of triple bottom line: economic value, environmental health, and social progress. To target the minds, hearts, and spirit of current and future employees, the company uses the triple bottom line concept. By saying that the company's fundamental strength lies in its people, it targets the mind. To target the heart, the company hires working mothers and was dubbed as one of 100 best companies for working mothers. By offering the opportunity to do what's right for the environment and social sustainability, the company targets the spirit.

The writer is an expert and teacher in the field of marketing. He is the president of the World Marketing Association and also the president of Mark Plus & Co. Kartejaya is coming to the World Marketing Summit in Dhaka to be held on March 1-3.