Marketing in the wake of sociological upheaval

Marketing theorists have a pervasive tendency to promote their pet strategies as universal truths. Companies then find themselves swept up in the marketing fad of the day, be it customer relationship management, continuous innovation, or zero defects.
“Alternatives Marketing” argues against this radical approach. The authors claim that society has changed. In today’s postmodern culture, people are challenging values that have long held sway. They no longer systematically believe that technological progress and individualism are beneficial. In consequence, once-predominant strategies are no longer a panacea for all marketing problems. Companies must therefore find new ways to differentiate themselves:

– The return of the community challenges strategies founded upon individualized customer relationships.
An alternative to customer relationship management is tribal marketing, which seeks to forge links between customers by helping them share a common interest.

– Growing consumer nostalgia suggests that differentiation is possible without innovation.
Innovation is no longer considered as a quality in itself. In fact, a growing fringe of the population is seeking greater authenticity. Brands can consequently use the nostalgic character of their offering to differentiate themselves.

– Consumers increasingly reject excessively standardized offerings.
Rather than trying to offer products or services perfectly tailored to identified needs, brands can henceforth employ proxy marketing to empower consumers to use the offering as they see fit.