Chapters from a Marketing Textbook Published in 2020

Marketing today is being rewritten by a combination of tech evolution, generational change, emergence of new business models and much else. Hence, the textbook for it, will also have to evolve.

My name is Harish Shah, and I am a Professional Futurist. Herein I offer an insight into the Future of the Subject of Marketing, with a preview of what chapters in a textbook published in the future not too far away, just 2020, will possibly and probably look like.

Chapter 1: 15 Ps of Marketing

Yes the list of Ps has been growing for sometime now and steadily so. Far more rapidly in real world practice than even academia has been keeping up with. While different proponents have taken the list to ridiculous proportions of up to 44 Ps, logically, this Futurist concludes that by 2020, a relevant textbook to be published on the subject will cover the following practical 15, best consolidated by INTERNSHIP UK:

1. Product
2. Price
3. Place
4. Promotion
5. People
6. Process
7. Physical Evidence
8. Privacy
9. Personal Interest
10. Personal Social Networks
11. Public Commentary
12. Personalization
13. Participation
14. Peer to Peer 
15. Predictive Modeling

Chapter 2: The 7 Cs Compass Model

Somethings don't change except only to become more relevant over time than before, and such is Koichi Shimizu's model:

1. Corporation
2. Commodity
3. Cost
4. Communication
5. Channel
6. Consumer
7. Circumstances

Chapter 3: Marketing in Virtual Reality

This chapter will be more like, "Marketing in the Contemporary Reality". An upgrade from "Digital Marketing" and/or "e-Marketing", it will be about Marketing outreach through various #VR platforms, functions and channels, whether Headset Simulation, Virtual Worlds, Holographic Displays in the outdoors and so on.

Chapter 4: Augmented Reality Aided Marketing

This chapter will complement the previous because not everything will be virtual, but much of that which will not be virtual, but actual, will also be augmented, with opportunities for Marketers to exploit.

Chapter 5: Mixed Reality Marketing

You have to be kidding if you tell me you did not see this one coming. When the lines between actual reality, Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality diminish, and all the 3 blend, you get Mixed Reality, and it is a state of things in which, you want to be reaching and engaging consumers, if you are a Marketer.

Chapter 6: Marketing with IoT Tools, Applications and Features

Remember when the World Wide Web went public, becoming accessible to the masses and consumers? You know, that start point when you could create and make visible online a searchable Dot Com website? That is how Marketing on the Internet was born. We are in the midst of evolution whereby the internet is not about "information" or "data" or "knowledge", but rather, about physical objects, connections and ubiquitous coordination, with the manifestation of the Internet of Things, or, IoT for short. It is about, live, real-time, individualized interaction. It has tools, applications and features, for an augmented reach and engagement, that serves to Marketers' #benefits. Off course it will be a chapter in the Marketing textbook!

Chapter 7: Application of Artificial Intelligence for Marketing Automation

Just so that we are all on the same page, the key ingredient to a true working and functioning IoT, as to IoT's own textbook definition, is intelligent automation made possible with application of Artificial Intelligence (#AI). This chapter complements or builds on the preceding chapter only because, it only makes sense to utilize IoT ahead for marketing as the internet was utilized before, because of the possibility of instant #engagement or #data collection or #messaging that is replicating of an otherwise human endeavor, to meet Marketing #objectives.

This chapter will encompass the use of AI enabled automation for everything from data collection and surveying for Market #Research, to #Competitive #Analysis, Pricing to Product #Customization and more.

Chapter 8: Interaction in Marketing

The Future of Marketing is really about interaction. In general, the consumer IQ is on the ascend, thanks to the proliferation of both education and information over the past 3 decades at least. The consumer of the Millennial generation, the iGen or of any subsequent generation, is not going to be passive with a mind subjugated to static one-directional information flow or messaging. The consumer in question here, is about conversation, exploration and inquiry.

This chapter will entail the #conceptualization, #design, #strategy and #implementation of the interactive features of the Marketing #effort and #machinery.

Chapter 9: Marketing Content

#Content is the new gold. Any interaction or engagement with the consumer is futile or redundant without the employment of adequate, appropriate and strategic content, to lead to a favorable decision.

Chapter 10: Neuromarketing

Neuromarketing is going beyond just what a consumer expressly tells you or what you can visibly observe in physical presence. It is about being able to, even #remotely and #automatically, understand what a consumer truly feels or how he or she thinks, even at subconscious and unconscious levels with the use of technology such as facial reading and eye tracking. It also entails strategies to #influence #consumer #thought #patterns, #behaviors and #sentiments. This ties in with the preceding four chapters.

Chapter 11: Experiential Marketing

While content is the next #gold, and Marketing tomorrow will have to be interactive, a part and parcel of the #IoT era #interactive marketing, guided by #Neuromarketing, is well, experience. Nothing is more "interactive", than experience. Nothing gets more "neuroscientific", than experience. You can't leave out this chapter.

Chapter 12: Electronic Word of Mouth

This is really an upgrade not so much on the traditional historic "Word of Mouth" marketing, but more so really, on the Influencer Marketing, Viral Marketing and "Trending" all rolled into one, as we know it on current platforms of Social Media and online Social Networks. Someone has already written a whole book on this topic alone.

Chapter 13: Sharing Economy

You really can't consider Marketing anymore without factoring the Sharing Economy realities and models. This has to be a basic that Marketers learn to begin their journeys with.

Chapter 14: Disruptive Marketing

This is going to be a deep chapter that encompasses the Blue Ocean Strategy, which in turn requires a broad understanding of business in general, overall, as well as the functioning of organisations, to enable its application. The future of business, or rather specifically, the competition or survival of business tomorrow, will not be something contingent upon product features, pricing or reach of advertising and promotion. Each of all those elements, will to certain degrees, remain. What it will all truly be about, will be disruption. You either disrupt or get disrupted and rendered obsolete/redundant. Marketing plays a role in that ahead and it cannot be insulated from the reality either. So what do you do? You Market to #Disrupt, and in this chapter, you learn about that.

Chapter 15: Marketing Innovation

Apart from inventing, to not get disrupted and also to disrupt, you #innovate. No different for Marketing.

Chapter 16: Marketing in Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity and Ambiguity

This chapter replaces the #PEST and #SLEPT factors most of us learnt as part of Marketing when we were in our varsity days. By 2020, if you still have to learn PEST and SLEPT for anything, you were probably born sometime in a forgone past and would have arrived into #2020, in a time machine. The prevailing environment by 2020, as it already is now, will reflect the conditions of Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity and Ambiguity (#VUCA), within which Marketers will have to operate.

Chapter 17: Thinking Models for Marketing

Operating in a complex world is a complex reality to negotiate through with all the technological layers, the Marketers of the future will need to have better thinking models, methods or tools at their disposal, that they'll have to be good at. This chapter will encompass Systems Thinking, Design Thinking, Layered Thinking and Holistic Thinking. After all, Marketing tomorrow will be about systems and layers.

Chapter 18: Scenario Planning and Strategic Foresight

We are not talking about #Predictive #Analytics because the software will do that. This is about the non-linear exploration of chaos to find sensible means to make sense of the ever changing market conditions and consumers, before they change to remain relevant. It will be about appreciating Futures Studies, to have a future in the business or industry, and have that job ahead, as a #Marketer.

Chapter 19: Green Marketing

This will be a primary necessity for inclusion in any Marketing textbook ahead, because while everyone is whining about bringing this planet to a point where the human race cannot survive, greed is prevailing in business very predominantly, and we are not changing the trajectory. The #Millennials have already lost this war in trying to save the world, but hopefully, the #iGen and subsequent generations thereafter, will still stand a chance, and fare better.

Disclaimer: This is probably not an exhaustive list of chapters, but any useful textbook published in 2020, should encompass the 19 above, or at least the content entailed by the 19 Chapter headings or titles. Also, the terminology or terms of reference may somewhat vary or differ in time to come or in the writers' or publishers' preferences. The idea here, was to present, what Marketers of tomorrow, will need to know, as basics in the field. Also, the chapters in the actual good Marketing textbook published in 2020, may not be in the above order. Everything described above this disclaimer herein though, ought to be anticipated for practical applicability as foreseeable ahead from the current point in time.

Humble Request: I have written outlines or briefs of 19 chapters from a typical Marketing textbook from the future, for free, online, on LinkedIn Pulse, for the world to view. I have not done this to educate anyone to be honest, but in hope that I get to learn, myself. If you read this therefore, I request that you kindly leave me a comment on this article, telling me, what you think of this list, as in what have I missed out, what you think I am wrong or misinformed about or if there is something you wish to add, or if you disagree wholly, or anything else that comes to mind. Even if you agree, tell me why. Going beyond, if you are a Marketer, tell me if this is useful, a waste of time, frightening or whatever else. Also, if you are a Marketer, share this, whether on Facebook, LinkedIn or any other channel with your colleagues at work or with other Marketers in your network or circle to get their thoughts and opinions or to start a discussion. Remember, as a Professional Futurist, I can contribute to the world, so far, as I get to learn, about what is happening out there. An active discourse or discussion or feedback on something like this, will help me help you, by fine-tuning the homework I do, to help individuals and organisations in understanding and preparing for the future.

Harish Shah is Singapore's first local born Professional Futurist and a Management #Strategy Consultant. He runs Stratserv Consultancy. His areas of #consulting as well as #Keynote topics include #Marketing, Strategic Foresight, Systems Thinking, Scenario Planning and Organisational Future Proofing.