Modern marketing, as it responds to the overwhelming tentacles of the exploding

digital economy, now requires the important element of design thinking. With the
rapid growth of content marketing, modern marketing CMO's now have to think about
creating as well as designing the digital interaction experiences surrounding
content.

Digital Transformation
The new digital economy is causing rapid shifts in buying behaviors, concepts of
buying interactions, and business models. Globalization and new technologies are
radically transforming industries and businesses. At the same time, buying
behaviors are being upended every year. Our understanding of the term "buyer", in
the context of B2B, continues to change year after year.

In essence, we are undergoing a digital transformation in industries, business

models, and buying behaviors as the new forces of the digital economy reshape
businesses. The new speed of business is increasing the risks of organizations
being caught flat - footed as digital shifts are made. As a result, businesses are
accelerating their efforts to understand the new modern buyer.

Human - Centered Approach

As attempts are made to understand the new modern buyer, a critical factor is the
understanding of reshaped behaviors driven by the forces of the digital economy.
Understanding how buyers interact with people and businesses has become essential
to modern marketing success. And - this is where a human - centered approach to
modern marketing and content design can have a major impact.

As the name implies, the core element of a human - centered approcah is putting the
human (customer and buyer) at the center of design and modern marketing. It
involves incorporating understanding of human needs, goals, behaviors and
personality towards providing solutions, which help people to fulfill their needs
and goals.

The Five Primary Analysis Tools of A Human - Centered Approach

The analysis tools of a human - centered approach are a resurgence of the essential
tools often applied to human - centered design. These tools and analysis methods,
which I have used throughout the past fifteen years, have been in existence for
nearly twenty years but are now more important than ever. For modern marketing, the
design of content and digital interaction experiences is the underpinnings of
meeting the goals of the modern buyer.

Five primary analysis tools are used to develop a human - centered approach to
modern marketing:
Behavioral Insight Research
With the impact on buying behaviors being significant, organizations today aspiring
modern marketing prowess will need to engage in insight research. The purpose of
this cornerstone to human - centered marketing is to gain deep insight into new
behaviors influencing choices and decisions in a digital world.

Personas
Serving as archetypal representations, personas are designed to serve as common
views of users, customers and buyers. They provide a human - centered face to the
behaviors and goals of key stakeholder groups. Modern marketing must be able to
make a distinction between target buyer profiling and personas conveying deep
understanding of behaviors and goals influencing purchase decisions. While the term
"buyer persona" has become more widespread in marketing. I still see the misfortune
of this term being ill defined as a target profiling exercise fraught with pre-
modern marketing language and terminology.

Scenarios
A scenario is the story of your users, customers and buyers from a "day-in-the-
life" perspective. They represent how your personas face challenges and situations.
Of importance is putting personas as the central characters to portray the
contextual aspects of how they set out to accomplish goals. Scenarios have long
been a staple of persona development since the mid-'90's. They are taking on added
importance in modern marketing due to the need for understanding how the modern
buyer is adopting new behaviors as a result of digital transformation. Users,
customers and buyers can be involved in multiple scenarios at any given time. Thus,
thinking in terms of a singular problem will make your efforts blind to a true
perspective of your buyer's world.

Mental Models
Mental Models are one of the most important concepts in human interaction analysis
and have been essential to the construct of user and buyer personas. Mental models
are attitudes, beliefs, perceptions and imagery, which influence a person's view of
how they see the world. It is of considerable influence on purchase decisions. To
understand the powerful influence of mental models takes qualitative research to
help identify the gasp in the mind of users, customers and buyers from beliefs and
facts. The rise of the new digital economy has undoubtedly reshaped many attitudes,
beliefs, perceptions and mental imagery about how the world works. Organizations
adopting a human - centered approach to modern marketing will need to make this
element an important part of their efforts.

Interaction Scenario Modeling

In the age of digital transformation and its impact on the modern buyer,
interaction scenario modeling becomes critical. This modeling practice helps modern
marketers to understand the activities, interactions and complicated processes
buyers are most likely to perform and desire. Given the rise of content consumption
and new technologies, modeling current and future interaction scenarios provides
direction on how to connect with users, customers and buyers in a modern digital
world.

The Rise of Human - Centered Marketing

As the winds of change continue to accelerate in the new digital economy, B2B
companies are faced with the challenge of how to understand the modern buyer of
today. The question of how to connect with individual users, customers and buyers
will remain the supreme challenge. Gaining insight into this pressing challenge
will require modern marketers to connect on a human level and to incorporate a
human - centered approach.

The concept of Human - Centered Marketing (#HCM) will take root strongly in modern
marketing. Successful adoption of this approach as well as use of the tools and
analysis methods will be the key competitive differentiator in the future. In this
robust and lightning speed digital economy, succeeding will come from connectiong
with one human at a time and empowering users, customers and buyers one fingertip
touch at a time.