Varun Satia is the Founder and CEO of Kraftshala, India’s top marketing & sales learning platform. Strongly passionate about being an entrepreneur, after a successful corporate career, Varun followed his calling and founded Kraftshala in 2016. He firmly believes that the need for change in the education system in India led him into building Kraftshala. What was initially a passion project, catapulted into a well-rounded organization with over 100,000 members in its community, having facilitated programs for thousands of users thus far.
A careful understanding of the evolution of marketing is important for developing sound marketing strategies and using the domain well in the current scenario. While the basic philosophy of marketing has always been to mobilize the resources of a brand in order to engage with as many customers as possible and in turn help the business’s overall revenue to skyrocket, the Marketing Models and how marketing has been carried out have continuously evolved over the last century, particularly rapidly in the last ten or fifteen years with the development of technology and the advent of the digital era.
Let’s take a look at some of the evolutions in this field that have created a big impact:
Let long format advertising work it’s magic
Ten or so years ago when people heard the word “marketing”, they immediately thought of long, flashy advertisements on television that they had no option but to sit through as they waited for the commercial breaks to end and for their favourite TV shows to resume. Old school marketers were determined to spread the message of their brand or advertise their products as far and wide as possible. Due to the limited targeting capabilities then, marketers would often put greater stock in the number of users that they reached as opposed to focusing solely on users who would view the advertisements and later be translated into tangible sales and revenue. Back then, the major marketing tactic was to create one perfect advertisement, choose specific running times for it and reuse the same clip throughout the year. Consumers would have to sit through half-a-minute long videos that, most of the time, they had no interest in viewing. However, these days people rarely have the time or the patience for anything more than 5 or 6-second-long ads.
The rise of personalisation in messaging & targeting. With the advent of technology which has led to the rise of digital platforms as well as the number of available consumer products increasing rapidly, marketers have been forced to think on their feet in order to appease their audiences and allow their products to stand out in a cut-throat competitive environment. The evolution of marketing in the digital age has led to a
new school of thought which is known as precision marketing. The idea now is to focus on quality over quantity, by reaching a specific group of consumers by telling better stories that are tailored to their individual interests. Digital platforms have made it easier for marketers to identify their target audience by providing detailed information about their users and analyzing the aggregate data in order to create promotional content that adds real value to the brand.
Knowing exactly when to Sell
One of the keys to a successful marketing campaign in this day and age is to identify demand occasions for products. It’s the job of the research and marketing team to create a model user for their products and identify occasions when they’re most likely to buy these products. For example, the best time for a phone reselling app like Cashify to advertise themselves would be on occasions when users want to sell their old phones in order to buy new phones like during new launches of phone companies or year-end bonuses/salary hikes, etc.
Building Trust & Relationships
Earlier, traditional marketing majorly relied on print advertising, through mediums like newspapers, magazines, etc. The aim of good marketing was to add credibility to the brand by creating a solid and trustworthy presence in the market. Using celebrity influencers in order to attract consumers, while building trust.
But nowadays, it is much more important to engage and build a strong relationship with the consumers which will evoke a sense of trust and later inspire loyalty in the consumers. Opening up digital channels in order to create a dialogue between the brand and the users has allowed brands to customize their offerings based on consumer interactions and feedback. Social media networks play a huge role in inducing loyalty in customers, and building personal relationships with them.
As marketing gains momentum, brands are moving away from the concept of “any product can sell itself if it’s good quality” and honing down on the demands of the consumers. Long-term profit will be achieved if marketing is consumer-driven rather than product-driven. Therefore, marketing tends to coincide with market research and consumer engagement a lot more than it does with production or sales.
Support a Social Cause & Stand for a Purpose
Most recently, brands are aligning themselves with social or environmental impact causes in order to reflect the concept of “societal marketing” which promotes sustainability and the needs of a society as a whole. For the long-term survival of a brand, acknowledging their impact on the environment and promoting their efforts to preserve natural resources are crucial to characterizing themselves as a compassionate and humanitarian enterprise.
The overall model of marketing in the modern era has given birth to concepts like business development, client servicing, brand identity and strategy, etc. A good marketing strategy will make or break a brand’s reputation and standing, and in this digital age, brands must identify the role that social media and digital marketing channels like SEO, video, email, content, PPC, affiliations and more, play in loaning credibility and reach to their brand.
Marketing may constantly evolve as does the world. While there has been disproportionate amount of evolution that has happened and has helped businesses leverage it and grow exponentially, at the very core its proposition will always remain to deliver a stellar experience for the end customer and solve the problem.