The Evolution of Marketing

Mary Goodyear
Source: ESOMAR, Marketing Research Congress, Paris, September
1999
Downloaded from WARC

This important paper presents the case that marketing evolves through a number of stages, and that
what may appear to be cultural differences between countries, hindering global marketing, may not be
cultural at all but rather due to a country being at a different stage of marketing development.
Marketing evolution consists of `consumerisation', the growing sophistication of the dialogue between
marketer and consumer, with power moving towards the latter: marketing moves from `push' to `pull'.
The level of consumerisation can be assessed from several factors concerned with branding,
advertising theory, research methods etc. (listed and discussed). Certain factors predispose a country
or a product/service sector towards rapid marketing maturity (listed and discussed). How the evolution
proceeds is discussed: brand management as a dynamic process whose object is survival, with a
predictable pattern, developing through all aspects of the marketing mix (a company that does not
adapt in all respects will perish), involving step-changes arising from new inventions that `break the
rules' in products, advertising campaigns etc., awareness and exploitation of changes occurring
elsewhere. Five main stages of marketing evolution are identified, explained and discussed: 1)
commodity selling, 2) marketing, 3) classic branding, 4) customer-driven branding, 5) post-modern
marketing. This last stage describes a mature competitive market and a cynical and knowledgeable
consumer, and has been reached in most Western contexts. Ways in which marketing and research
practice evolve to keep pace with these different stages are illustrated (segmentation, needs mapping
etc.). How marketing is likely to develop in the future is discussed: one implication is an increase in
consumer-driven, e.g. social and ethical, marketing.

Mary Goodyear

THE UNITY OF IDEAS

'It is a wonderful feeling to recognise the unity of a complex of phenomena that, to direct observation, appear to
be quite different things.' Albert Einstein
T h e industrialisation of services, including advertising and market research, has led to increasing
specialisation. Service providers have a vested interest in acquiring and exploiting expertise in a niche area; to
know more about less provides them with commercial competitive advantage.

The same is true of knowledge about foreign cultures. There is a strong tendency amongst those who make a
living from translating and interpreting language and culture, to dig deeper into their chosen field and find an
even larger number of reasons to consider it unique and special.

Specialisation is endemic in other areas of learning; the diversification of areas of study described in the
average university prospectus is evidence of the trend. The roads to the future are narrow.

In recent years, however, there has been a growing band of theorists committed to the idea of unification, to the
search for concepts which link different areas of specialised thought by higher level theories. Popular science
writers, such as Dawkins, Dennett, Deutsch, Kuhn and Wilson etc. are key exponents of the strands of thinking
that weave the way towards the Theory of Everything.

Within the marketing world, globalisation of corporations and their brands has provided the spur to look for
emergent unifying theories concerning optimising strategic operations across national boundaries.

THE ASCENDANCY OF CULTURE

In the early days of global marketing there was some belief in the homogeneity of marketing and of consumers.

This may have been wishful thinking: the language of marketing may also have encouraged it. Unfortunately for
global coordinators, this is a deceptive language. Words like 'brand', 'brand equity', 'focus groups',
'segmentation', etc. are used under the assumption that they refer to the same phenomena in every company
and every sector and every country. But the marketer or researcher who works across product sector cultures,
or who is involved in international marketing, soon finds out that the common language is a facade. Behind that
facade are different structures, practices and values.

Even the word 'marketing' itself encompasses more than a few meanings. (Keith Crosier in the Quarterly Review
of Marketing reviewed over fifty definitions and categorised them as falling into three major groups).

Most marketers in the western world recognise the distinction made by Levitt in Marketing Myopia:

'Selling is preoccupied with the seller's need to convert his product into cash; marketing with the idea of
satisfying the needs of the consumer '

Definition becomes more complex when there is an international dimension. Thus, for example, 'marketing' in
some parts of Africa means going to the market place, and in some postcommunist environments, like Vietnam
for example, it can refer to the act of filling out an import form.

A common reaction among those early global marketers to finding out that the marketing world is not
homogeneous, was then to ascribe all the problems they encountered to culture, be that a national or a product
sector culture. So, for example:

American advertising was 'hard sell' because the American culture was moneyfocused.
 Financial services ads were all about the functional properties of various products because that was the
kind of advertising that the financial sector produced.
Japanese respondents in group discussions were stiff and formal with each other because that was the
way the Japanese interact. Etc. etc.

After the optimism of the globalisation attempts of the early 1980s, the next approach 'glocalisaton think global,
act local' was more circumspect. Culture was king.

It also became politically correct to defend and respect and maybe exaggerate cultural differences; to some
extent this made it difficult to assess exactly what part they played in different marketing styles.

CULTURAL DIVERSITY OR DEVELOPMENTAL STAGES?

My belief is that culture is only partly responsible for the variations that are seen in marketing today. A bigger
factor is the stage at which a country or a product sector has arrived at in terms of marketing evolution.

A marketer who makes one visit to, for example, Africa, may decide that there is an African style of advertising.
Were he or she to be exposed to that same market over time, then they would see the style of advertising
evolve. The snapshot suggests a difference in type; longer exposure reveals a difference based on time.

What appears to be 'a complex of phenomena' has an underlying unity. Different national cultures and different
product sectors are merely at different stages in their marketing evolution.

WHY DOES MARKETING EVOLVE?

Marketing evolution consists of the growing sophistication of the 'dialogue' between marketer and consumer;
what I call 'consumerisation'.

The assumption underlying consumerisation is that markets are dynamic, and that marketing (and all the
disciplines that are part of it) is driven in a consistent and predictable way by the principles of evolution.

The 'selfish gene' of evolutionary theory is the marketer fighting to survive; competing with rival companies
against the background of a constantly changing consumer environment. And, like biological evolution,
marketing evolution is nonpurposive, beyond the immediate goals of yearend profitability and selfpromotion.

Unlike biological evolution, change is achieved, not by random mutation of the gene, but by individuals who
transcend best practice, and, through innovation, point marketing in a slightly new direction. Benetton, Nike,
Tango, The Body Shop, Virgin all are brands that have benefitted from the maverick thinking of successful
'selfish genes' bent on survival.

The factors that drive consumerisation are growing choice/competition in the market place, and growing power
and discrimination on the part of the consumer. The marketer's job is to develop winning strategies that deal
with both (see Figure 1).

Simply put, the more consumerised the environment, the more evolved the marketing.
ASSESSING A SECTOR, CORPORATION OR CULTURE IN TERMS OF
CONSUMERISM
The following factors appear to be key indicators of consumerisation:

1. proportion of goods and services that are branded overall;

2. role that brands play within the specific market arena (see Figure 2);
3. extent to which brand equity is measured in terms of soft as well as hard values;
4. extent to which segmentation is defined by external measures (such as S.E.S) or based on internal,
attitudinal measures (such as psychographics or, more recently, needsmapping);
5. level of advertising literacy and the prevailing model of 'how advertising works';
6. level of market research literacy and whether the prevailing drive is to measure or to understand the
consumer;
7. attitude of the marketer towards the consumer: is it combatative or cooperative?

The basic shift that takes place in the evolutionary process is that power moves from the manufacturer to the
consumer, and marketing must move from push to pull. See Figure 1.

Different national cultures, product sectors or corporations at different

levels of consumerisation
The level of marketing sophistication depends primarily on the density of the product competition and the level
of knowledge consumers have about those products.

The following factors predispose a country or a product sector towards rapid marketing maturity, see Figure 2.

1. A competitive market economy is a precondition. Centrally planned economies are relatively static and
there is no competition and, therefore, no reason to create brands.
2. A buoyant economy; the consumer must be able to exercise their choice as well as intellectualise about it.
3. Branding, persuasive advertising and customer focus requires a culture that can accommodate the concept
of emotions being relevant in business. Some cultures find this mixing of 'thinking and feeling'
unacceptable.
4. Strong media are important. If brands are to symbolise values and meaning beyond their functional
benefits, then it is essential that these values can be easily communicated. In societies where the media
are censored or where word of mouth is the main cultural channel, then branding cannot be so rapidly
established.
5. Cultures based on trading and services rather than primary production seem to find it easier to deal with
intangibles, and with consumer motivations. They are more used to the concept of satisfying needs.
6. Customerdriven marketing is based on the art of listening. This is a passive art, whereas the marketing
paradigm has, traditionally, been warfare. The more sophisticated forms of marketing seem likely to flourish
where the more passive 'feminine' values play a major role in business.

VALUE OF THE EVOLUTIONARY CONEPT

VALUE OF THE EVOLUTIONARY CONEPT
1. One of the most important implications of the evolutionary concept is that brand management, essentially,
is a dynamic process. The relationship between brand and consumer needs constant vigilance and
occasional 'refreshment', even if there is no perceptible threat to the brand from 'outside'. The relationship,
like all relationships, changes over time as the partners get to know each other better. Brand managers can
never assume, therefore, that their consumers 'still feel the same' about the brand. Consumers' awareness
of themselves as consumers is constantly being reassessed, as well as the fact that within the specific
product area their needs may be changing.
2. Linked to this is the concept that the process has some kind of regular and predictable pattern. The
relationship between brand and consumer is going to develop in a familiar way, regardless of the
consumer's culture, or of the product sector. Moreover, although this process is purposive (i.e. to keep the
consumer's custom), it does not have any end objective. As with biological evolution, the game is survival
not arrival.
3. The development should be diffused through all aspects of the marketing mix. In a market, say, where the
consumer is ready for Classic Branding (Stage Three), where they want to know that the manufacturer and
the brand recognises their emotional as well as functional needs, then it would not be enough just to
develop Stage Three level advertising. The packaging, delivery service, retail environment etc. should all
reflect this change A financial institution for example, that decides to talk about their customers' needs
rather than focus on their financial packages must make sure that all others aspects of their management
system is also focused on the consumer. The literature, the sales people (or, rather, 'financial advisors') the
people who answer the telephone, the public offices, all of these must reflect Stage Three commitment.
Even the corporate strategists and senior management had better concern themselves with dealing with
consumer emotions rather than with their functional world of finance. Many researchers have come across
the agrochemical, the financial, the businesstobusiness, the petroleum and the pharmaceutical companies,
etc. where product formulation is god, until a 'boltedon' consumer marketing division commissions a new
agency to develop some consumerfocused advertising. While shortterm, the brand may prosper, sooner or
later the lack of commitment of upper management will be revealed. (For example, the financial advisor is
found to be a partisan, oldfashioned salesman in disguise, or the petroleum company does not deliver
against its commitment to the environment, the computer company's R&D department still develops
overlycomplex programmes, the airline cabin crew are still rude, the fertiliser bags can still not be resealed,
etc.) At some time and in some way, the company will be 'caught out', with a possible dilution of brand
loyalty.
4. In biological evolution, gene mutations or irregularities are responsible for the stepchanges in development.
In marketing these are represented by the breakthrough product invention, or by the breakalltherules
advertising campaign. Very often these rules are only recognised as rules, once they are broken.
Twentyfive years ago on British television, a breakfast cereal company ran a campaign using 'street
accents' (which in those days were described as 'uneducated'). It was more or less the first time that this
kind of voice had been used in communications directed towards children. Until then, the 'rule' had been
that advertising, like all authorities, spoke to children in received English (i.e. the English of the middle
classes.) This campaign met with a strongly polarised response with the love it/hate it evaluation by
parents running directly along the class divide. However, it was immensely successful with the target group
of young adolescents. And the use of accents and language that reflected, rather than instructed, the
audience, became the norm. The rule breaking had a high survival factor.
 5. There is value to the manager of brands in sectors that are relatively low on the marketing evolutionary
ladder in knowing the developments that have happened in other, more developed, sectors. Thus, for
example, financial service marketers can anticipate their future from FMCG brand managers. Agrochemical
managers can learn from OTC pharmaceutical companies, and the businesstobusiness supplier may pick
up some innovatory ideas from consumer durables marketing. After all, much of what is called 'innovation' is
merely a familiar idea in a new context. Brand managers can also anticipate by stealing ideas from other,
more marketingsophisticated countries. In this context, the sophistication of a country varies across
different product and service sectors according to the level of competition/knowingness of the consumer.
Advertising is probably the strongest indicator of level of sophistication. The degree to which the target
audience is comfortable with the different advertising conventions and the underlying form of address, is
good indication of 'where the market is'. To use advertising that is too far ahead of or (possibly worse) too
dated for the target audience is to lose touch with them. (See Figures 3 and 4.) There are glorious
exceptions to this general rule. Ferrero Rocher produced a campaign (widely known as 'The Ambassador's
Party') with advertising that was so far below current levels of literacy that it was reevaluated as ironic in a
postmodern way. It became a cult ad, welcomed each Christmas, and apparently is linked with healthy
sales and overall growth.
These two columns represent the elements in advertising and the gradual evolution that takes place over
time from low consumerisation to high.

6. The evolutionary concept is, perhaps, most useful for creating a framework for global or regional
strategies. Identification of the consumerisation level of the target groups in the different territories, and
isolating that as incidental 'noise' rather than a national characteristic helps establish where there are real,
cultural differences. This, in turn, helps determine how far and in what way communication can be
standardised across territories. Byfield and Caller have used the evolutionary model to create a five option
framework (See the ESOMAR Handbook), each option linked to a different Evolutionary Stage.

The stages are not entirely discrete. Literacy is a continuum from confrontation to conspiracy.

Stages of marketing evolution

Five stages are proposed (see Figure 5). The transition from one stage to another is based on a discrete and
real 'mutation' of the existing process. A new idea is one introduced by a market maverick which, over time, is
followed by the competition. Most marketers who have extended experience of a particular product sector or
national marketing style, can probably identify the mutant genes, the milestones that influenced the development
of marketing in their business. The five stages are:

1. commodity selling;
2. marketing;
3. classic branding;
4. customerdriven branding;
5. postmodern marketing.

The journey from Commodity to Postmodern marketing could take decades in the past, when markets were
relatively slow growing, but now the process has been speeded up by the internationalism of modern commerce.
No market remains free from the press of imports and commercial information. In a consumersophisticated
market environment a newlyprivatised commodity (like the water supply in the United Kingdom for example) can
leap from Godgiven commodity to being branded within a year or two. In societies where people are less
sophisticated consumers for example, some of the less industrialised countries of Africa, and some
postcommunist economies although mature brands are available in those markets, the role they play and their
importance to the sense of individual identify is relatively low.

Perhaps it needs to be emphasised here that there is nothing intrinsically good or bad about consumerisation; it
is just inevitable in an industrialised capitalistic society. If manufacturers had the choice, they would prefer to be
able to sell a commodity and not have to bother themselves with all the heavy investment that branded
marketing involves. To be a culture that has sophisticated marketing is to experience the best and the worst that
modern life has to offer: plentiful choice and a stimulating environment on the one hand, gross materialism and
overcommercialisation of daily life on the other.

Let us look more closely at each of the five stages.

Stage One commodity selling

This is the stage that is easiest to describe but which has virtually disappeared from the industrialised world.

In the seller's world of undersupply the customers come to the manufacturer's door. The products are packaged
only to the extent that they can be handled; indeed purchasers may have to use their own containers. There is
no need to develop a brand name, or to advertise or commission research. There is no segmentation of the
customer base: volume sales at the right price is all the information that is necessary. The manufacturer has the
power and for as long as the product sells, he need have no further interest in his consumers.

Although commodity selling is a position of strength, the sensible marketer considers the option of branding if
there is the risk of real competition. The branding might be of the product itself, or of the delivery system and
any accompanying service. See Figure 6.

Stage Two marketing

Marketing, as opposed to selling, starts if and when the manufacturer is faced with competition and the
customers have a choice.

The branding process may start with the stamping of the maker's name on the product (rather as cattle are
branded), or there may be an attempt to make the product different in some way: either just more noticeable or
more attractive to the potential purchaser. If competitors follow, then the manufacturer may be forced into other
activities to protect his share of the market.

Government cooperation, as in Japan and Korea, may protect their industries from external competition, thus
preventing the need for higher order branding. If the supplier/manufacturer has enough resources, it may then
be possible to buy up the competition, or to acquire the source material thus creating an insuperable barrier to
entry.

Some may use price as their weapon, trying to wipe out the competition by price wars. This tends to be the
adversarial style preferred by some of the powerful American corporations. Others sometime resort to
undercover sabotage; inflicting real damage by direct action or spreading rumours about the competition.
If these actions are not possible, then branding may be the only answer.

At this stage 'the brand' is really a product with a name on it. Its role is to provide a 'handle' for the consumer; the
brand name is both identification, and a reassurance of a particular quality or character of good. Many
developing countries have brands that are reference names.

If there is any attempt to segment and target consumers at this stage, it is likely to be through an external
measure like standard demographics, which can use national statistical information as a database.

Advertising support is minimal, with an emphasis on the functional attributes of the product. The advertiser
assumes the role of maker, 'expert' or salesman, and the purpose of the advertising is to inform the consumer of
the brand's presence and, increasingly, convince them of its superior qualities.

The 'straight sell' becomes a 'hard sell' under competitive circumstances. This is the kind of advertising that
respondents welcome when the brand is new but often find intolerable when the brand is familiar. Unless there
is something new to be said about the brand, the rational informational ad is often resented as an intrusion.

Endorsement, either by famous people or, in more developed marketing, by 'real life consumers' is often used as
a way to add some humanity and appeal to factual advertising.

The information requirement of Stage Two marketing is usually for hard, numerical data. Information about the
consumers' motivational drives, or about their associations with the brand, is not required because it cannot be
used.

At this stage, marketing departments are still likely to be structured around sales regions or channels. Brand
management is not the norm, so information about brand intangibles has no utility.

Qualitative research in this context is likely to be Cognitive in style rather than Affective or Creative (see Figure
7).

The underlying assumption is that consumers' relationship with the product sector is entirely rational and
accessible for discussion in a group (or individual) interview.

Many financial sectors, business equipment/technical companies, agrochemical, pharmaceutical, oil and utility
companies are functioning at this level of branding. Typically they tend to be managed by an older generation
whose ideas about their industry were formed when it was a seller's market.

They may be comfortable with the rationality of Stage Two Marketing but find the humanistic and emotional
content of Classic Branding distasteful in the context of business. Much of American marketing is at Stage Two.
However, the mid1990s saw the beginning of a commitment to the advertising planning movement, a sign of a
major renewal in the use of psychology in the American marketing arena. See Figure 8.

Stage Three classic branding

Classic Branding is a difficult step forward from Marketing for the following reasons:

The focus shifts from selling the product to pleasing the customer.
This involves learning about consumer emotions and letting them direct the branding strategy.
It is a shift from being in control to relinquishing control, from push to persuasion.
 It needs heavy advertising support and similarly heavy investment in packaging design and supporting
material.

Typically Classic Branding starts first in the FMCG sector where purchases are frequent and of less value and
importance. This allows the consumer a chance to build up a relationship with the brand over a number of
purchases and to have some idea of the merits of the competition.

The brand role at this stage becomes very important, whether this is the corporate brand or a 'standalone'
brand. It is a product 'with added values': a bundle of associations that tap into consumer's motivational
psychology. Exploring the brand's personality facilitates the understanding of the relationship between consumer
and brand. Consumers invest the product and its intangible values with human qualities, allowing the brand to
play an active role in consumers' lives.

Psychological understanding is the stuff of Classic Branding and this extends to segmentation approaches,
which tend to be psychographic, based on attitudinal or personality typologies.

Advertising in Classic Branding deals with the reaction of fiction and entertainment. Communication is focused
on the consumer's life (either idealised or enhanced) and how the brand fits into that life. Very often the Classic
Brand plays the role of magical agent that solves an emotional problem.

Advertising support may start with 'Lifestyle' (showing the brand in an idealised consumer setting) move on to
story telling (which may be serialised, as for example the Nescafe Gold Blend campaign). This is 'soft selling'
where the commercial motive is implicit and subordinate to pleasing the consumer. The underlying paradigm for
Classic Brand advertising is show business: commercials are created as minitheatre, twentysecond or
thirtysecond movies. This is very popular advertising with consumers around the world, and, if sufficiently
entertaining, is a safe option especially for brand leaders.

The research for Classic Brands needs to explore consumer feelings, even those that they cannot or will not
articulate. In qualitative research this is the occasion for projective techniques and all those methodologies
borrowed from psychology and designed to reveal unconscious material.

Classic Branding is the stage when competition is intense and when the manufacturer is aware that to survive
he needs to please his consumer and appeal to them in a persuasive way. See Figure 9.

Stage Four Customer driven marketing

As the market place becomes saturated, some brands are capable of becoming icons. These are brands that
have, over time and usually with massive investment, become associated with primary motivational drives and
values. (Nike for example with aggressive winning, Marlboro with machismo, The Body Shop with harmony with
nature, and increasingly with Enabling the Third World).

At this stage, the brand is in the public domain; it is a part of society. Consumers' relation is not just through
personal 'standalone' brands but through all facets of the corporation; the concept of brand expands to
encompass a complex structure that often is expected to play a social as well as a personal role. This is both a
responsibility for the brand (they must live up to their status) and also an opportunity to forge a stronger
relationship with the consumer.

The values of the brand are wellknown by this time, and so too is the brand's 'language' which is often
communicated through symbols (the tick of Nike for example). 'Through the line' integrated communications are
essential to stay in favour with the consumer and all stakeholders. Integrated research is also required to
understand the many roles the brand must perform.

Brands of this stage often have a complex 'brand architecture' which demands a portfolio of specialist
researchers and advertisers to monitor the full corporate image. See Figure 10.

Stage Five Postmodern marketing

There comes a time when consumers become so literate about marketing and communication that they 'see
through' all the conventions and devices designed to persuade them. As they realise their power they start to
challenge the marketer's message; armed with product knowledge and consumerist convictions they bring a new
critical framework to the appraisal of brands.

Stage five marketing must cope with a mature competitive market and a cynical and knowledgeable consumer.

Why postmodern? Postmodern thinking describes the culture of the late twentieth century as having lost its
strategic focus and, as a result, as having fragmented into numerous threads of beliefs, value systems and
lifestyles. There is a lack of belief in the possibility of progress or even that life's narrative has meaning or
significance. Old themes are reenacted but this time with a sense of playfulness and irony.

Postmodern in the marketing sense describes the knowing cynicism of the consumer, and their growing
individualism. The proliferation of media coupled with new technology enable manufacturers to customise
products to eversmaller target groups.

Postmodernism proposes the concept of the fragmented, multifaceted personality. Stage Five Marketing
segmentation acknowledges the demise of the singular personality with the introduction of Needsmapping. This
approach is particularly relevant in highly competitive, mature, FMCG markets where consumer loyalty has
become notoriously unreliable and often dependent on the need or mood of the moment.

Brands play many roles in the postmodern stage. In some areas of consumption, all the activities associated with
branding play a muchdiminished role. Consumers may, for example, be searching for product quality without any
'added values'. Sometimes this search for authentic experience results in a barely perceptible layer of marketing.
The 'Nobrand brand', for example, with its carefully minimalist packaging and signage tried, with some success,
to satisfy the criteria for postmodernism.

In other areas of consumption, Classic Brands continue to persuade and please, simply because the consumer
is willing in this particularly product area to 'play the game'.

And much will be expected of the Icon brands: as political establishments lose their authority so it seems likely
that major corporation will take their place. Already companies express political alignment and address social
issues (e.g. Benetton, The Body Shop). They can expect to play a part (by choice or by force) in the
sociopolitical life of tomorrow. Ethical marketing will emerge as a major strategic route for many.

Advertising for this stage is often playful and ironic: 'antiadvertising' as it is sometimes called. It acknowledges
the consumer's awareness of the advertiser's intentions and the advertising conventions used. It knows when to
give pleasure, when to surprise and when to challenge; the biggest risk is complacency.
Similarly with research: probably the most important requirement of today's research is speed. With a
promiscuous 'playful' consumer willing to enjoy their purchasing power to the full, marketing must respond
quickly to new trends and opportunities. The information to help these responses must be timely.

A second requirement of postmodern research is to record and explain behaviour through direct observation;
without the mediation of reported speech. Participant observation, either by researchers or by marketers
themselves, will satisfy the need to understand the spontaneity and complexity of decisionmaking in the
purchasing and consumption environments.

The barriers between consumers and manufacturers will be further broken down by collaborative projects.
Consumers will be 'adopted' by companies for the purposes of greater understanding of the consumer world,
and be sent back out into the market as emissaries of the brand.

Increasingly too, data on consumers will be captured electronically not only at the supermarket checkout but
also via computeraided interviewing and the Internet. Despite the shortcomings of online interviewing, the
indications are that many people enjoy the anonymity, and are prepared to be more open especially in the
context of potentially embarrassing topics.

It seems likely that other forms of technology will be developed that will 'read and explain' consumer behaviour.
Back in 1965 our company experimented with a Galvanic Skin Response machine, similar to the lie detectors
that were used in old spy movies; perhaps it is time to dust it off and see what it can do. See Figure 11.

The evolution of specific aspects of the mix

Looking at how this process takes place within specific ingredients of the marketing mix might help to clarify
what is involved. For example, how does Segmentation, the way marketers identify and describe their customer
base, evolve?

In Stage One marketing (Commodity Selling) the marketer does not need to think about his customers, or how
they are different from noncustomers, nor how they differ amongst themselves. His or her interest is in volume
sales.

At Stage Two (Marketing), consumers are typically described from an external and functional viewpoint, in terms
of demographic descriptors. What attitudes or values they may have,are of little relevance because the marketer
has no mechanism for factoring those emotional components into his operations.

These emotional elements become relevant in Stage Three: Classic Branding, where the Personality of the
Brand is being managed to satisfy the emotional needs of the consumer. The marketer needs to know which
needs should guide the development of his brand. And to make this decision, he must know the prevalence of
the needs that can be satisfied by his brand. As well as external definitions of the target group, there must also
be knowledge of their inner state, their psychology.

When the market becomes too competitive to define the target group in broad motivational terms (i.e. there are
too many brands competing within the same psychological territory) then the search is to find the psychological
dynamics of the different types of usage occasion. In this market situation, the absolute Brand Loyalty that was
sometimes achieved at Stage Three, has often been replaced by Repertoire

Loyalty, with different brands being deployed for different usage occasions. This is at Stage Four:
CustomerDriven Marketing.

Stage Five: PostModern Marketing assumes that the knowing and sometimes cynical consumer 'plays' with
brands and may not have a stable pattern of brand deployment. Thus, the marketer is not able to predict what
kind of brand is going to be chosen for which usage occasion; and even the consumer may not know what they
will choose on any given occasion. This attitude is revealed when respondents in interviews preface their brand
choice by the words 'It depends how I feel'. In postmodern thinking, this supports the belief that there is no such
thing as a personality, fixed and predictable, only preferences and variably reinforced responses to different
situations: predisposition and habits. In this context, marketers have responded by thinking of their consumers
not as discrete personality or user types, but as bundles of needs. And it is these different needs that identify the
target for brand management.

Let us take another example from the mix and see how it evolves: the Role of Brands for example (see figure 2).
At Stage One there is no brand; what is being sold is a product, maybe not even that (for products assume
packaging and some process of manufacture). The consumer's relationship in the selling process is with the
supplier. At Stage Two the brand is a name or mark (or combination of the two) that tells the purchaser who
made the product.

At Stage Three the marketer focuses on the name and/or logo, and starts linking it to human characteristics that
are relevant to consumers' needs of the product sector, building a Brand Personality.

Stage Four brands have evolved their own 'language', often involving symbols, (for example, Nike's tick) or
colours (Marlboro Red, Silk Cut's purple) or a style of advertising (British Airways Monumental, Pepsi Celebrity)
that act as potent shorthand reminders of the brand. The brand at this stage represents big and important
values to the consumer, and is used for outward expression of the user's lifestyle and personality.

At Stage Five, the brand has a complex of identities, which very often include the corporation as well as the
standalone product. The values associated with the new, composite brand are often social and political. The
brand and the corporation have become an institution. Managing brands of this size and power is almost the
equivalent of running a political party. And, given the rise in ethical marketing and the decline in the confidence
in conventional politics, marketing strategists in the megacorporations may find that they become channels for
democratic decisionmaking.

Another example: Advertising is one of the best guidelines for identifying the evolving nature of the relationship
between manufacturer and consumer (see Figures 3 and 4). Straight Sell, Hard Sell and Endorsement, all
rational in their approach, belong to Stage One and Stage Two Marketing. The emphasis is on telling the
consumer about the functional benefits of the brand. The content is information and the message is processed
semantically by the brain. This type of advertising has also given rise to all sorts of research techniques, which
rely on the logical recall of a rational message and which can be demonstrably linked by the consumer to the
brand.

When Metaphors are used, and the consumer is being told a fable about the brand, then the marketing process
has entered Classic Branding. 'As if' has replaced 'is'; the advertiser invites the consumer to enter the world of
feelings and desires. The appeal is to the emotions, and it is within this territory that consumers respond to the
communication. They do not ask, can this be true of the brand? But, are these emotions being truthfully
communicated, do they feel right? Then, as the focus shifts to the consumer rather than the brand, the fable,
increasingly, becomes a story of which the consumer is the hero or heroine, with the brand merely an agent:
lifestyle advertising, which sets out to encourage identification with the brand's world.
The researcher's task, in this context, is to evaluate if the feelings are right, for the consumer and for the brand.
Logical questioning, asked of a group discussion becomes inappropriate. New research methods become
desirable, based on episodic information processing, and on what consumers do to the advertising, rather than
on what the ads do to them.

Stage Four Marketing can afford to deal with symbols, because of the Icon Brand's powerful equity amongst
consumers. Tobacco companies, such as Benson and Hedges and Silk Cut were the first to really exploit their
symbolism, in their case because of adverse legislation that constrained what they could say to their customers
more directly. Symbols are usually, but not always, visual. Radio and TV station use Identification sounds as
well as visual logos. And InTel computer processing chips have created strong branding almost entirely by a
fournote futuristic jingle.

The advertising in Postmodern marketing must inform, entertain, shock and conspire with cynical and totally
literate consumers. At this stage of the marketing game, consumers are sometimes prepared to listen to a story,
or learn what a brand has to offer (especially if it is a new product). But they are also capable of deconstructing
and evaluating the advertising in isolation of the product, and of judging the marketer's understanding of, and
respect for, the intelligent audience. The advertising, and the attitude behind it (which is the real brand
relationship for this target) becomes the criterion for brand affiliation. Consumers have passed through the Age
of Enlightenment; they decide whether or not they want to be Believers.

How does this affect researchers?

Research is inevitably linked to this evolutionary process. After all, its only value is to help marketers and others
make decisions. And the decisions that those marketers will make are determined by which stage of marketing
they and their company and their product sector are at. Research that delivers Stage Two data for Stage Three
marketers (common amongst postCommunist companies servicing MNC clients) is as unwanted as Stage Three
Researchers giving functionallyminded Stage Two Marketers lots of information about their consumers' feelings.
The information might be interesting but cannot be integrated into the Brand Management system. So, if the
client says that they really do no want to know about the added values (as an agrochemical company told us
recently), but the research reveals that consumer emotions play an important role, then this indicates a need to
raise, discreetly, the issue of marketing evolution.

Figure 7 sets out the differences in the qualitative approach of Stage Two (Cognitive Demonstration) and Stage
Three (Affective Exploration) marketing cultures. Older researchers will recognise the Cognitive Approach as
very much the style of the 1960s and 1970s in Western Europe. Affective research, focused on consumer
emotions, was greatly strengthened by the Account Planning movement, which had as its mission the job of
bringing the consumer into the agency.

The arguments about these two schools of research often played out in discussion of the difference between
American mainstream and Western European research have been replaced by the demands of Postmodern
marketing. The concern now is how to get the information as close as possible in time to the purchasing
decision, and with a minimum of mediation by either the researcher or the consumer.

Observation, consumerdriven data collection and electronic mediation are the areas where much of research
innovation is taking place today.

However, it is important to realise that older methods from earlier stages are not to be considered out of date
and no longer relevant. The Evolutionary process provides a range of windows through which to view the
marketing problem. There are times when, say a product reformulation will drive a brand from, say Stage Three
to Stage Two. The new superior product performance may have taken the brand out of its old competitive
context and into a new less crowded space. Now is the time for some factual information and some hard sell, in
effect a return to a less sophisticated world, where the marketer can hope to create an impression through a
unique proposition that does not need the contrivance of elaborate pullthrough advertising support. (I once set
out a strategy for how Classic Branding could gradually take market share from the main competitor, only to
have the client say 'I guess if we threw enough money at it, we could blow them out of the water.' Sometimes
simplicity has appeal.)

THE FUTURE OF MARKETING

The disadvantage of specialisation in any discipline is that it can lead to a reductionist and overly narrow
viewpoint. The Marketing Evolution Theory has been an attempt to provide a broadbased and unified framework
for understanding some of the diversities of international marketing.

A more ambitious and much more important attempt would be to look at the survival value of marketing itself. Is
marketing a species of human activity that will survive? After all, in its current form it is promulgating behaviour
and attitudes that encourage exponentially increasing consumption.

Where does marketing fit into the scheme of things? What role should it play in a world where natural resources
are running short? How should it mutate to deal with problems that are more vitally important than the role of
brands?

'No one wished it so, but we are the first species to become a geophysical force, altering Earth's climate(and)
through overpopulation we have put ourselves in danger of running out of food and water. So a very Faustian
choice is upon us: whether to accept our corrosive and risky behaviour as the unavoidable price of population
and economic growth, or to take stock of ourselves and search for a new environmental ethic.' Edward O.
Wilson

The future evolution of marketing seems destined to expand beyond the confines of the selling of goods and
services. The energies and skills used to manage the abstractions of added values will probably be extended to
encompass social and ethical issues. There has been focus recently amongst politicians upon whether or not
there are capitalist market mechanisms that will automatically correct some of the imbalances of the present
system, particularly with regard to issues where apolitical cooperation is required. The power of the
discriminating consumer may prove to be one such mechanism, working through their choice of brands.

It seems likely that corporations as well as governments will play a role in correcting these imbalances through
an increase in ethical or responsible marketing. New companies have been established (Kahan 1997) and old
companies modified to take into account the premise that business should improve the quality of life as well as
make money.

The assumption is not that such companies will have lower levels of profitability, on the contrary. It is anticipated
that consumers will work with (i.e. buy from) those companies that invest in the quality of life by funding support
for social issues. In effect, these companies will provide channels for democratic action on such issues as the
environment, genetic engineering, racism, human rights, etc. See Figure 12.
'I believe that business has a leadership role to play in creating a sustainable future. To do so is in its own
interestThat is why, in spite of the current harsh economic climate, we remain totally committed to a strategy that
generates profits while contributing to the wellbeing of the planet and its people.' Mark MoodyStuart, CMD,
Royal Dutch/Shell Group of Companies.

Stage Six in Marketing Evolution, then, may well be some form of Responsible Marketing, where brands are
rallying points for consumer action on overarching social issues, where the new paradigm is not just partnership
but collaboration, and where marketers are the new heroes.

BIBLIOGRAPHY
The following list of books and papers has provided input for this paper. Some are directly referred to in the text;
others have been incorporated into my own thinking and are not directly attributed. They are all listed here as
relevant source material.

Alcock, G. (1987). Positioning Brands Profitably.

Dawkins, R. (1976). The Selfish Gene. Oxford University Press.

Dennett, D. C. (1995). Darwin's Dangerous Idea: Evolution and the Meanings of Life. Allen Lane.

Deutsch, D. (1997). The Fabric of Reality. Penguin Science.

Goodyear, M. (1994). The Super Consumer and Post Modern Marketing. Paper given at the Australian Market
Research Society Annual Conference.

Goodyear, M. (1997). Divided by a Common Language: Diversity and Deception in the World of Global
Marketing. Paper given at the British Market Research Association Annual Conference.

Kahan, H. (1997) Business, Spirituality and the New Millennium. Proceedings of the ESOMAR Congress.

King, S. (1991). Tomorrow's Research. Admap, September.

Kuhn, T. (1971). The Structure of Scientific Revolutions. University of Chicago Press.

Lannon, J. (1993). Branding Essentials and the New Environment. Admap, June.

Levitt, T. (1986). Marketing Myopia.

McDonald, C. and P. Vangelder, Eds. (1999). ESOMAR Handbook of Market and Opinion Research, th
4 Edition.
Amsterdam: ESOMAR.

Morello, G. (1993). The Hidden Dimensions of Marketing. Journal of the Market Research Society, October.

Popcorn, F. (1992). The Popcorn Report: The Battle for your Mind. New York: Arrow Books.

Sengupta, Subroto. (1994). Brand Positioning: Strategies for Competitive Advantage. New Delhi: Tata
McGrawHill.

Wilson, E.O. (1998). Consilience: The Unity of Knowledge. United Kingdom: Little, Brown and Company.
NOTES & EXHIBITS

FIGURE 1: THE FACTORS DRIVING CONSUMERISM

FIGURE 2: ROLE OF BRANDS
FIGURE 3: ADVERTISING LITERACY
FIGURE 4: ADVERTISING LITERACY STAGES OF DEVELOPMENT
FIGURE 5: FIVE STAGES OF MARKETING EVOLUTION
FIGURE 6: STAGE 1 � COMMODITY SELLING
FIGURE 7: RATIONAL AND AFFECTIVE APPROACHES TO
QUALITATIVE RESEARCH FOCUS GROUPS
FIGURE 8: STAGE TWO � MARKETING
 FIGURE 9: STAGE THREE � CLASSIC BRANDING

FIGURE 10: STAGE FOUR � CUSTOMER�DRIVEN MARKETING

FIGURE 11: STAGE FIVE � POST�MODERN MARKETING
FIGURE 12: COMPETITION AND INFORMATION PRODUCE A
MARKETING HIERARCHY AND A 'SUPER�CONSUMER'
© Copyright ESOMAR 1999
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