Is disruption, the new norm?

Background

“Marketing refers to activities undertaken by a company to promote the buying or selling of a product or service”. Marketing can be broadly classified into three categories non-traditional, traditional and modern format of marketing. The oldest format of non-traditional marketing would be the Trojan horse used by Greeks in the famous war of Troy recorded as the first guerrilla marketing (a non-traditional marketing technique), while the Ancient Egyptians used papyrus to make posters to sell products 4000 years ago. Today methods of traditional marketing can include print advertisements, billboards, flyers, pamphlets, TV, newspaper, radio, etc. Lastly, in the modern marketing which can be defined as “The act of promoting and selling products and services by leveraging online marketing tactics such as social media marketing, search engine marketing, and email marketing.”

Image courtesy: maikolpetersen

Today “Why you sell- what you sell” is far more vital than what you sell and how you sell it. Today one of the most successful brands don’t offer material products or services, but real experiences and emotions. Disneyland or Coca-cola sells happiness, Adidas or Nike encourages you to be brave and follow your dreams, L’Oréal sells beauty and Apple sells a challenge to the status quo. 

The Transition from production era to experience era

The evolution of marketing has shifted gradually from the Production era to the Product era, Sales era, Marketing era, Relationship marketing era and not less than a decade ago into the disruptive era.

Just like what existed in the production-oriented era -in the early 19th century were promoting products with lesser quality was the norm and availability and affordability were the only requirement of the consumer.

In the product-oriented era, there was a shift from quantity (pricing and productivity) to quality of product making “a good product sells” - a standard mantra.

Thereafter, the consumers became more resistant and hence there was an increase in competition leading to the sales-oriented era which meant pushing products to consumers via promotion and advertising. Traditional media was being utilized and exploited to its full potential to help brands position rightly and sell without much resistance. 

Post this was the onset of the marketing-oriented era, a more tactical move to focus on the consumer’s need and want and delivering better consumer satisfaction- “The consumer is king!”. With the onset of the web, websites started being an essential tool for commercialization. The shift to relationship marketing-oriented era needed to focus on target markets more closely and build successful long term- relationships. 

The digital media offered some distinct advantages over traditional media leading to the usage of blogs, social media and influencers becoming the norm for content marketing using provided information, building customer relationships, generating sales leads, increasing brand awareness and utilizing customer feedback. Utilizing social media channels along with a well-planned website and e-commerce helps create a very adaptable real-time assessment platform which is highly measurable and extremely cost-effective compared to traditional marketing. 

The evolution of marketing has shifted gradually from the Production era to the Product era, Sales era, Marketing era, Relationship marketing era and not less than a decade ago into the disruptive era.

The shift to Disruption Era

Disruptive innovation is defined in the Harvard Business Review as “a process whereby a smaller company with fewer resources is able to successfully challenge established incumbent businesses” (Clayton Christensen, 1997).

One of the greatest things about disruptive marketing is that it’s unique to brand experiences that are simple yet exciting, engaging, and something the consumer needs. They are typically relatively inexpensive and can be tailored to your advertising budget. 

The new era we are currently living in is the “disruption marketing-oriented era”. The disruptors, innovators, the flag bearers irrespective of their sizes with the help of sheer innovative ideas shall overtake the market, succeed, and become the new world order. Netflix to the movie industry, Airbnb to the hotel industry and Uber to the transport industry are beacons of age of disruption. 

Disruptive Marketing in the Marketing Strategy?

Disruptive marketing as per the recent trends is utilized in an attempt to engage, entice and interact with consumers. If the target analysis is specified regarding their needs/wants, what do they do every day and where do they live is well researched. A combination of experiential marketing, guerrilla or non-traditional marketing paves the way to disruptive marketing.

Today brands understand the impact of social engagement and the need for risk-taking to stay ahead of the race. Creating an emotional connect with the audience using any of the newer media as a toolkit is surely the way to be when planning the new marketing strategy. In the world where attention span is so short, it's not a want but a need for brands to stand out. As of now, it seems disruption is the new norm in the current landscape but we never know what the future landscape will pave the way for.

What do you think about the embedding disruption in the existing marketing strategy? Share your opinion in a comment!