Marketing And Consumer Behavior

9, January 2017.

Marketing means that it is always been analyzing and knowing what is the consumers'
needs and wants. The concept of marketing has been developing through several phases since the
focus on the product, to the customer focus, to the expression of the best human spirit, and to the
global wellness and quality. These phases are called marketing 1.0, 2.0, 3.0, and the most up-date
4.0. Many of today’s marketers (for e.g, the factories in Myanmar) are still applying marketing
1.0, some are practicing Marketing 2.0 and 3.0, and a few are shifting into Marketing 4.0. I think
marketing 1.0 is being applied by the marketers in the developing countries. The greatest chances
and benefits will come to marketers practicing 4.0.
Marketing 1.0 was begun by the production technology advances and development during
the Industrial Revolution, so that the production technology advances are the core concept of
marketing 1.0. At this time, marketing 1.0 aims selling the production of products to all who
would buy them. And the goal was that the products standardized and scaled up to bring about
the lowest possible costs of production, so that these products could be priced lower and made
more affordable to more buyers. The products fulfilled the customers' s basic needs, also
satisfied the physical needs. The market design was a mass market, as well. Therefore, it is also
called the product-centric marketing.
Marketing 2.0, consumer-centric marketing, was followed by the marketing 1.0. After
Industrial Revolution, the production technology had already developed and also the information
era was coming. Before the revolution, the amount of the products produced by the factory was
limited. Then, during the revolution, the products could be produced more because of the
advanced technology. After the revolution, the factory could produce the amount more than the
market needs, and the competitors came out. As a result, there are surplus products in the market.
Therefore, the consumers have a chance to demand what kind of products they want. And they
also have the right to choose the products they like among the various products. For these points,
the factory needed the information about the customers' needs and wants, and competitors'
products. That is why the marketing 2.0 came out. So, the core force is that the products can
catch the customer value of these products. Its aim is that the company is able to satisfy and
retain the customers by applying the marketing 2.0. Today’s consumers are well informed, and
educated, and can easily know the advantages of several similar product offerings. The product' s
value is defined by the consumer. The marketer must choose the segment of the market and
develop a superior product for a specific target market. The golden rules of “customer is king”
and " customer is always right" work well for most companies. Consumers are better off because
their needs and wants are well addressed. They can choose from a wide range of functional
characteristics and alternatives. Today’s marketers need to try to touch the consumer’s mind and
heart. Unfortunately, the consumer-centric approach absolutely assumes that the customers play
a main character in the success of the factory and the passive targets of marketing campaigns.
The next phase is the marketing 3.0, also called the value-driven marketing. Its objective
is to make the world a better place. Instead of treating people simply as consumers, marketers
can see them as whole human beings with minds, hearts, and spirits. Increasingly, people are
eager and looking for solutions to their desires, fears, worries, stresses and nervousnesses about
making the globalized world a better place. Today' s world is the full of confusion, so that the
consumers search for companies that make fulfilled their deepest needs and wants for social,
economic, and environmental justice in their mission, vision, and values. Therefore, the
marketing 3.0 is the link between the hearts, spirit, and mind of human beings to the company' s
mission, vision, and values. Marketing 3.0 aims to satisfy the consumers' s needs and wants like
marketing 2.0, and companies practice marketing 3.0 in order to have bigger missions, visions,
and values to contribute to the world as well. Marketing 3.0 raises the concept of marketing into
the arena of human aspirations, values, and spirit. Therefore, Marketing 3.0 means that emotional
marketing and human spirit marketing go together.
 The final phase is the marketing 4.0 that means moving from traditional to digital
marketing (Philip Kolter, 2016). In other words, it is the combination of the online and offline
marketing. Nowadays, marketing 4.0 is the major solution from the information technology
evolution, i.e. internet is the easiest way to be integrated with marketing in order to reach a new
generation of it. The customers are not only looking for products and services to satisfy their
basic needs, wants, desires, and anxieties, but also need to satisfy that their creativity, innovation
and values make a better world such as defined in Marketing 3.0. That is why the new generation
is needed. But the most important is that the customers also require the right that is able to
participate, interact with the products, and be able to share their experience and check that the
product really satisfies what it promises. Therefore, marketing is not moving more around the
product. At the same time, the internet is not moving more around the data. But, the combination
of marketing and internet is moving around the customers, powering its interaction with the
products, considering the values of the users, and providing them more information. That is
marketing 4.0.
By overview of these phases of marketing practices, there are differences among
them. First, the objective of each phase is completely different. Market 1.0 is to sell all the
products that the sellers produce to the consumers. In other words, the factory produced what
they wanted, but they never produced the consumers wanted. Marketing 2.0 aims to produce the
products that fulfill the needs and wants of the consumers. Marketing 3.0' s objective is to make
the better world by linking between the hearts, spirit, and mind of human beings to the company'
s mission, vision, and values. It means that the factory combined the goods with the services. The
aim of marketing 4.0 is to make the global wellness and quality, and it intends the convenience
for the consumer, as well.
The second difference is the target market. The target market of marketing 1.0 is the
undifferentiated market because the industry emphasized to sell the products. Marketing 2.0' s
target market is the differentiated market due to satisfy the customers' s needs and wants. Niche
market is selected by marketing 3.0 because it makes the consumers satisfied the deepest needs,
and it gives the values. Marketing 4.0 targets the consumers who use the internet, prioritize the
convenience, and want to be a part of the product.
Finally, the marketing phases have gone from the physical to the mental. It means that
the marketing 1.0, 2.0, 3.0, and 4.0 provide the consumers the product only, the product the
consumer wanted, the product the consumer valued, and the product that is a part of the
consumer and convenience.
References

Marketing 3.0, Philip Kotler, 2010.

http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/abstract/document/6296965/?reload=true