ALL WE NEED IS LOVE: What modern marketing is built on
Most consumer decisions are based on emotions: we buy not a new phone, but a burst of endorphins from owning a cool gadget. Marketers are aware of this and are constantly restructuring communications to the user's request. Of course, those who are set for progressive growth and development. Igor Korneev, Associate Professor of the Department of Economics and Management at MIRBIS, told how marketing strategies evolve and what a true professional builds his approaches on as part of a master class “Communications, or Marriage of Arrangement” organized by the Entrepreneurs Club of the HSE Faculty of Computer Science.
Bison on social networks
“When we make a decision to conduct joint activities with someone, it is always a story in which the risks are divided in half. Marriage is the responsibility of two. Modern communications, unfortunately, very often line up as a monologue - a message from the company to the consumer” began Igor Korneev. The art of a good marketer is to set up a constructive dialogue.
Communication is as old as communication between people. Just as modern users post news on the wall in VKontakte, primitive people painted bison in the caves. Now communications surround us everywhere: you walk down the street and see people with tattoos, wearing hoodies, on which they wrote about their problems after talking with a psychologist. When we share this, it becomes easier for us to live, because we stop holding emotions in ourselves. And this is the highest level of communication, notes Igor Korneev.
Emotions are the direction in which marketing communications have been developing for at least the last 100 years. Why are we now shopping in GUM or TSUM? Because the opportunity to acquire something there gives emotions.
In the past, marketers were guided by the principles of mass production and sales. However, with the development of technology and increased competition in the market, consumers have become more demanding and conscious, they want to receive a personalized service and interact with the brand anytime, anywhere.
In the past, mail was the main mode of communication. Brands sent out booklets and catalogs by mail, and used advertisements on radio and television. However, this approach does not currently allow establishing a close relationship with the consumer and providing him with a personalized service.
Igor Korneev
Business coach, PhD, associate professor, MBA
Russian Marketing
A somewhat distorted marketing model has taken root in the Russian market: the key task here has become to sell the unnecessary and at a high price. Companies take advantage of a lack of consumer awareness and a lack of transparency in pricing to maximize profits. Korneev complains that at the same time, they do not seek to form a latent model “take it because we have it” which would push the consumer to a conscious purchase. Instead, incorrectly built communications are used, which leads to ineffective marketing tools.
Today we live in a digital marketing paradigm: with the advent of the Internet and the ability to compare prices and quality of goods, consumers have become more informed and demanding, which forces companies to improve their service and offer customers more favorable conditions. Even home appliances are already connected to the Internet and can be controlled by voice commands. Igor Korneev admits that he himself has a voice assistant Alice in charge of the boiler room. This is M2M (Machine-to-machine) communication.
On the one hand, people's lives are being simplified, on the other hand, priorities are changing: buyers can no longer buy expensive unnecessary things. Marketing strategies also need to change.
"Points of contact" with communication: from sale to love
Communication approaches and strategies in marketing are indeed evolving along with the change in society: marketing has also gone through and continues to go through various stages of development, solving new problems and introducing more subtle tools.
If you look at stage 1.0, codenamed "retro-classic", which existed more than a century ago, then the concept of a monologue prevails there: there is a product, and you need to take it.
In Marketing 2.0, we already see a dialogue with the consumer. It is represented by the 360-degree integration model, when the company works in all directions to reach out to a potential client. For example, the Detsky Mir chain is constantly opening new stores, including in the regions, and at the same time also sells its products through marketplaces, developing cooperation with sites from Lamoda to Wildberries.
The Marketing Stage 3.0 came after 2005 in the era of values. Korneev called it “all we need is love”: now companies take into account not only the needs, but also the emotions and thoughts of consumers. The interaction of consumers with producers of goods and services has become more and more like a personal relationship. “It’s still love, albeit by calculation”, says the expert.
Consumer loyalty is unpredictable: try, for example, to convince a person that he goes to the wrong cafe. The customer's trust is formed by the product, value and convenience, he in return becomes a loyal, regular customer. And this needs to be emphasized. Who is the VIP client for a small stall in a residential area - a rich boy in an expensive suit or a grandmother with a meager pension, who every day takes a conditional "Doshirak" there? The boy, most likely, will choose another store or stall tomorrow, the grandmother will go regularly, and as a result, it will be she who will make the main turnover of the outlet. This is how loyalty works from the customer to the business.
The lecturer notes that the next stage is to “get confused about loyalty from business to client”. Now the basis of new relationships is not trust, but satisfaction. The business knows what the buyer wants, and goes to meet his wishes: as soon as he messes up, communication will collapse. Consistency is very important. The third stage is personalization, the need to work with each specific person.
Model 3.0 has undeniable advantages for both the manufacturer and the consumer. The main ones can be conditionally designated as price, package and costs.
- Do you have a favorite brand? - Igor Korneev turned to one of the listeners.
“Yes, like Luxio polish,” she replied.
What will you do if he raises the price of his product?
“I will continue to use it, because I am satisfied with the quality,” the girl answered after thinking.
So a loyal customer is harder to push away with price increases.
The package offer "A + B at a price of 1.5" is ultimately beneficial to both the seller and the consumer. The costs of retaining a loyal customer are mostly low: a discount on the occasion of a holiday, an invitation to a presentation, a competent mailing list - it is precisely the right communication that is important here.
Marketing 4.0
At the current stage of marketing development - 4.0 - the relationship between people and machines began to develop more and more. Its basis is integration with augmented reality.
When Apple released the 13th iPhone Pro, it introduced aggressive ads for the feature-packed camera. For example, in one of the videos shot on this very camera, they show how, using a slow, unnerving zoom, you can create the feeling of plunging the hero into madness. Other videos were no less spectacular. And remember this move.
The communication features of the 14th iPhone Pro turned out to be more difficult to remember. One of the participants of the master class succeeded, because he changed the 13th model to the 14th. “You are just a fashionable kid,” exclaimed Igor Korneev. “You are among the 3% of Russian innovative buyers”. It was for this category that the message of the developers of the 14th model was designed.
Communication is the following sequence: idea, message, channels. The first component is the most important. The slogan of one of the companies selling the powder: “Are you still boiling? Then we go to you". The main idea: boiling is the key to whiteness. When they tell you: “Don’t boil, the result will be the same,” this is a well-formed brief.
Given a certain consistency and how history is spiraling, in 2050, challenges are expected to be updated in terms of market realities, Korneev notes. Then what brands are needed today? Simple, understandable, inexpensive and Russian, if we talk about the average optimal option, the expert believes.