Marketing 3.0: From Products to Customers to the Human Spirit

CHAPTER SEVEN

Delivering Socio-Cultural Transformation

MARKETING TO THE POST-GROWTH MARKET

A maturing market always poses a challenge for marketers. There is little or no growth. Existing consumers are knowledgeable and begin to see products as commodities. Creative companies differentiate themselves in this market with great service and exciting experience. All of those may fuel market growth for a while but they will eventually be commodities as well. Marketers need to step up and deliver transformation.¹ Transformation lasts longer as it makes a stronger impact on human lives.

In mature markets such as the United States and the United Kingdom, an increasing number of consumers favor companies whose activities have a positive socio-cultural impact. Consider the following from recent surveys.

• For the past 15 years, surveys by Cone have consistently shown that 85 percent of American consumers have positive images of companies that support social challenges. Even in difficult times, more than half of the consumers still expect companies to support social challenges.²

• Even during the recession, 38 percent of Americans were undertaking socially-conscious activities in 2009.³

• The majority of consumers in the United Kingdom (93 percent) want companies to improve the social impact of their products and services, according to a survey by Ipsos Mori.⁴

Companies need to address the challenges in society and participate in finding solutions. In the United States, profound social ...