Marketing Today: The New Challenge in the Digital Age

Slowly, but surely, the business world is changing. The antiquated world of product design is being replaced by that of service design – and it shows no sign of stopping. The information age that we were promised in so many childhood cartoons looks like it could finally be coming true (although I wouldn’t get your hopes up for a Jetson-esque utopian lifestyle just yet!)

Since the days of Arkwright and Watt, mankind has come a long way. We’ve developed planes, trains, and automobiles (minus John Candy and Steve Martin, obviously). We’ve developed the telephone, the computer and the atomic bomb. These things, however, are being consigned to the annuls of history for one reason – the days of the tangible product are numbered.
The concept of ‘experience’ has become the key. What should the customer experience be like? Could we improve it? It is this focus on people rather than the product that is most intriguing. While you can easily measure something tangible – it is easy to count the number of laptops in a warehouse, for example – it is, however, much more difficult to measure emotions and feelings, especially the emotions and feelings of something as unpredictable as man.

The last three decades have seen a clear shift from the tangible to the intangible. Although it is true that the economies of western industrial nations are still 60-70% product focused, it is, likewise, true that almost exclusively new business start-ups are service based. Businesses are more concerned than ever with their online reputation – and rightly so. The blogosphere, alongside social media in general, has the power to make or break a company. One bad review that goes viral and your start-up that you have worked so hard to create is ruined before it has even begun! The answer? The beauty of online reputation monitoring and management.