If you thought that the move from the Industrial Era to the Digital Era was the last major economic transition that your business would have to deal with, think again. We are in the middle of yet another transformation of comparable magnitude. The slow but steady shift of power away from companies and to customers as we moved into the Digital Era will reach its zenith in the years ahead. Today’s customers, clients, and consumers are instrumented, interconnected, intelligent, engaged, informed and empowered. They want companies they buy from to know them, interact with them on their terms, and personalize marketing offers and customer support. They even want personalized products and services. IBM (my employer) calls this the Connected Consumer Era and it will lead into a digitization of the front office comparable to the back office digitization of the past two decades….
Marketing plays a key role in strong business models
The market share battlefield and its weaponry changed considerably as our economy transitioned from the Industrial Age to the Information Age. In particular, the growing sophistication of marketers (and IT needed to support them) has been nothing short of breathtaking. The movement from the Industrial Age to the Information Age increased customer power, expanded offerings and growing competitive intensity. (See Sidebar.) As a result, both of marketing’s roles have become more important. Marketing’s tactical role is demand management, or deciding on the right channels and teeing up the awareness, considerations and positive attitudes that lead target customers to select their company’s offerings. The strategic role is to make sure the company has the right offering at the right price and margin. In the information age, marketing is transitioning from an art to a data-based science highly reliant on the strength of the IT…