Marketing 3.0: From Products to Customers to the Human Spirit

CHAPTER ONE

Welcome to Marketing 3.0

WHY MARKETING 3.0?

Over the years, marketing has evolved through three stages that we call Marketing 1.0, 2.0, and 3.0. Many of today’s marketers still practice Marketing 1.0, some practice Marketing 2.0, and a few are moving into Marketing 3.0. The greatest opportunities will come to marketers practicing 3.0.

Long ago, during the industrial age—when the core technology was industrial machinery—marketing was about selling the factory’s output of products to all who would buy them. The products were fairly basic and were designed to serve a mass market. The goal was to standardize and scale up to bring about the lowest possible costs of production so that these goods could be priced lower and made more affordable to more buyers. Henry Ford’s Model T automobile epitomized this strategy; said Ford: “Any customer can have a car painted any color that he wants so long as it is black.” This was Marketing 1.0 or the product-centric era.

Marketing 2.0 came out in today’s information age—where the core is information technology. The job of marketing is no longer that simple. Today’s consumers are well informed and can easily compare several similar product offerings. The product value is defined by the consumer. Consumers differ greatly in their preferences. The marketer must segment the market and develop a superior product for a specific target market. The golden rule of “customer is king” works well for most companies. Consumers are better off ...