Marketing 4.0

Making the Transition from Marketing 3.0 to Marketing 4.0

As the Internet leads business to become more global and inclusive, parallel technological advances make consumer items more affordable to people in emerging mass markets. The reverse is also true: Products created for developing markets – such as GE’s portable electrocardiogram machine designed for rural areas of India – later catch on in established markets elsewhere. Companies are also changing their product’s path from vertical to horizontal. Instead of controlling every aspect of development, production and distribution, they now collaborate. For example, Procter & Gamble “connects and develops” with outside innovators.

The generation of “digital natives,” those who grew up with digital technology, is refining current trends, such as where and when people shop. These new consumers are young, urban, middle-class, mobile and connected; they make purchases on their own schedule and in their own way. They research items online, even when shopping at a physical location, and they value interaction and engagement. They trust their social networks. People now trust the “f-factor” – “friends...