What’s Next in Marketing by the Pioneer of Marketing, Philip Kotler
Marketing Guru, Philip Kotler, is the author of Marketing Management: Analysis, Planning, Implementation and Control, one of the best marketing textbooks for budding marketers all across the world. If you ask any passionate marketing student about this book they will give you at least 10 concepts that they learned and still remember from the book. Philip Kotler, who has authored 57 books, is a professor of international marketing at the Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University.
In the Forbes article, "Northwestern Professor Philip Kotler on What's Next For Marketing" by Paul Talbot, Professor Kotler explains how Artificial Intelligence will help today’s marketers to achieve their goals. He provides very interesting examples of how airlines can use AI to target the right set of consumers to achieve their marketing and business goals. He also explains how AI can help in making marketing decisions, such as when good data is available on consumer behavior, AI can assist in analyzing the data and target the right set of consumers at the right time (Talbot, 2018).
Kotler describes an interesting transition in the marketing world and how things have changed today. He argues that it’s not only about product or mass marketing -- it is much more. He states that marketing planning should start with market segmentation, targeting and positioning (STP thinking) before setting the 4Ps. He strongly believes that marketing should control more than advertising and marketing research. Marketers need to control and integrate the product characteristics, price, channels and promotion directed to a well-defined target market.
Kotler highlights the following changes in marketing over the years:
- It is all about digital marketing and using the Internet of things (smart devices interconnected via Internet) to connect with consumers and influencing consumer and product behavior;
- Companies are more interested in long term relationships with customers and want to motivate them to become brand advocates;
- It is important to have excellent service in winning customer loyalty;
- Marketers key mission is in building winning brands;
- Marketers see their key responsibility to lie in delivering a dependable measure of the Return on Marketing Spend (Talbot, 2018).