The evolution of marketing in the participation age

Technological advances have brought huge changes in consumers, markets, and marketing over the past century.

Somebody defines consumerism as a society in which many people buy goods that they clearly do not need for subsistence.

A well-known example of an early consumer behavior is the famous economic bubble related to tulips.

In 1600, tulips had no basic needs function. They could not be eaten or used for medicinal purposes. The attraction to the unique flower originally arose from a desire of individuals who wanted to display their power and status (because of its popularity with the Holland royal family).

As a result, the tulip became a novelty item in mid-seventeeth-century Holland, and attracted speculators trading on future tulip consumption which had a significant negative impact on Holland’s economy.

But now?

We know for a fact that people are not sitting on their seats waiting for a television commercial, or looking for the next advertisement in a magazine as they turn the page. Now we are in the Participation Age!

Since early 2000, information technology has penetrated the mainstream market and further developed into what is considered the new wave technology. New wave technology is technology that enables connectivity and interactivity of individuals and groups allowing individuals to express themselves and collaborate with others. This is what somebody called “the age of participation”, in which we have also the rise of social media, classified by P.Kotler in two broad categories: the expressive social media, which includes blogs, Twitter, YouTube, Facebook, photo sharing sites like Flickr, and the collaborative media, which includes sites such as Wikipedia, or Craigslist.

What is participation, exactly? And how can marketing survive in this context?

Participate means “to take part, have a share and become something larger”, in other words “Discover + Empower + Connect = Participation”.

So, marketing solution have to inspire and motivate participation with a brand, but not only this, it must consider three variables:

1.        It should express our basic requirements as humans and be less mechanistic. This is part of the transition from a more industrial age to the participation age. We are making decision with our heart more than ever, and we are using technology and devices to supply logic and data to support those decisions.

2.        It must embrace the new data-enriched marketing approach. The adoption of immediate information at our fingertips will continue to provide both participants and marketers with limitless information at all times.

3.        It must contain traces of traditional marketing methods. It has to bridge the techniques that marketers have always employed, also because change is difficult, organizations are complex and have been constructed to support traditional models.