MAIN CHALLENGES OF HUMANTECH MARKETING (*), A MOLECULAR AND HUMANIZED MARKETING

The exponential technological evolution has been impacting marketing practices. Digital allows a new set of techniques and instruments, which are deeply changing marketing and customers′ relationships.

As ever, mostly in times of rapid and disruptive change, several forces still follow different paces and speed, according to the level of companies’ management sophistication, impacting the economic progress:

- Planning models of the past still exist, notwithstanding their rigidity and lack of agility.

- Consumers have a higher sophisticated demand – in particular, Millennialls and the Z Generation – with a high capacity of intervention, concerning their interests and needs, while most companies are not responding accordingly, on a fancy and rapid mood.

- Companies – specially the bigger ones – are organized around multiple hierarchy levels, working under hardly adaptable silos.

- Many companies and advertising agencies still have digital departments (online) separated from the traditional (offline) ones, hardly assuring a coherent strategic practice.

- Notwithstanding the Cloud and the gathering of huge amount of data, research reveals that around 80% of data collected is not duly analyzed.

- Agility, Innovation and continuous Experimentation, are not typical characteristics of labor and business processes.?

- The need to pursue Sustainable strategies and practices.

Meanwhile, we are living on the threshold of the 4th Industrial Revolution, of Industry Intelligent Automation, Interconnectivity, Internet of Everything, Artificial Intelligence, Augmented Reality, Machine Learning, Biotechnology, the integration of physical, digital and biologic systems, and faster and faster Network Communications, of the 4th and the 5th generation to come.

Concerning these impacts, a new marketing paradigm is needed, which may embody and be able to respond to all the challenges produced by the technology impacts, but principally respecting and focusing in the Human Being - a Molecular and Human Marketing - all along the era of Humantech Marketing.

And, why a Humantech Marketing era will emerge? (upcoming up in this and next decade).

The new marketing era – “the Post-digital Marketing”, and “Humantech Marketing” (Oliveira, Carlos Manuel, 2020 and 2023) - is the natural evolution of digital marketing, at an upstage phase, following the 4th Industrial Revolution and the rapid evolution of digital communications, of the 5G and of the upcoming 6G.

Having all this in mind, which will be the characteristics of this new marketing era, human-centered and human-generated, in which digital will not be any more a factor of differentiation, but the “minimum cost of entry” into the market:

- A new Onlife environment, with online and offline integration. Total digital and analogical ecosystems integration, and of all the business value chain.

- Dynamic Planning, always accounting of consumer behavior changes.

- A better consumer knowledge and a more sophisticated segmentation, using Digital Anthropology, so as all the other research methods and procedures.

- Customer Relationship management, based on following Social Media Listening and the Customer Journeys, creating insights combining Big Data with Small Data analysis, in order to better anticipate customer needs and elaborate products and services, in real time, on a “1 to moment” fancy mood.

- The need of a new marketing-mix, from the prevalent 4P to the new 4E, built under four new ledgers: Experience, Exchange, Engagement and Everyplace, allowing personalized and immersive consumer experiences.

- A Brand-humanized relationship with the clients (based on its strong Identity, Social Responsibility and Purpose), a H2H relationship, brand-to-human being, contrasting with brand to consumer, in order to conquer intimacy and trust.

- A Molecular Marketing, which can incorporate all the moments of contact and needs, in real time, to each customer himself.

- The use of Integrated Technologies, based on Artificial Intelligence.

- Project-based Inter speciality and interdisciplinarity, in order to deal with company silos, allowing a better flexibility, agility and customer obsessed focusing.

- The need to change to Open Business Mindsets, focused in different areas, such as: having a social and environment Purpose, and stakeholders’ satisfaction; collaborative networks; empowerment, instead of control; transparency of processes and decisions; medium/long term management perspectives, in contrast with short-term management.

- The practice of Sustainable Marketing Strategies, in line with the protection of earth ecosystems.

New environments and new situations in business, mainly the most disruptive ones, we are presently facing, need new solutions. Therefore, a new marketing era is emerging, in order to cope and respond to the market needs and consumers’ demands.

Carlos Manuel de Oliveira

17 January 2024

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(*) “Humantech Marketing”, ed. Actual/Almedina, Oliveira, Carlos Manuel, 2023