76 Trends in Marketing
76.1 A Changing Marketing Landscape
Marketing has changed more in the past two decades than in the previous century (kotler2021?). The drivers: digitisation, mobile, social media, AI, big data, sustainability concerns, the gig economy and the COVID-19 pandemic. Modern marketing fuses traditional principles with new tools and channels.
76.2 Digital Marketing
Digital marketing uses digital channels and technologies to reach customers. Major channels:
| Channel | Working content |
|---|---|
| Search Engine Optimization (SEO) | Improve organic search ranking |
| Search Engine Marketing (SEM) | Paid search ads (Google Ads) |
| Social Media Marketing (SMM) | Facebook, Instagram, X, LinkedIn, YouTube |
| Email marketing | Newsletters, drip campaigns |
| Content marketing | Blogs, videos, podcasts |
| Influencer marketing | Endorsements by social-media personalities |
| Affiliate marketing | Commissions to referrers |
| Mobile marketing | SMS, app push, in-app, location-based |
| Display advertising | Banner, video, native ads |
| Programmatic advertising | Algorithm-driven, real-time bidding |
76.3 Social-Media Marketing
Social media has become a primary marketing channel. Key concepts:
| Concept | Working content |
|---|---|
| User-generated content (UGC) | Customer-created posts |
| Hashtag marketing | Topical aggregation |
| Viral marketing | Content that spreads exponentially |
| Engagement metrics | Likes, shares, comments, saves |
| Community management | Building and nurturing online community |
| Influencer tiers | Mega (>1M), Macro (100k–1M), Micro (10k–100k), Nano (<10k) |
:————————————:::
76.4 Green / Sustainable Marketing
Green marketing — also called sustainable marketing — designs and promotes products and services that are environmentally friendly throughout their lifecycle.
| Pillar | Working content |
|---|---|
| Green product design | Eco-friendly materials, recyclable, biodegradable |
| Green packaging | Reduced packaging, recyclable materials |
| Green supply chain | Sustainable sourcing, transport, end-of-life |
| Green communication | Honest claims; avoid greenwashing |
| Green pricing | Reflect true environmental cost |
Greenwashing — false or misleading claims of environmental responsibility — is a growing regulatory concern; the ASCI and CCPA in India have issued guidelines on green claims.
76.5 Relationship Marketing and CRM
Relationship Marketing (Berry 1983) shifts focus from one-time transactions to long-term customer relationships. CRM technology operationalises relationship marketing through customer-data systems and personalisation.
| Benefit | Working content |
|---|---|
| Higher retention | Lower churn |
| Higher CLV | Greater profit per customer |
| Better targeting | Cross-sell and up-sell |
| Personalisation | Tailored offers |
| Lower acquisition need | Existing customers cheaper to retain |
76.6 Experiential and Sensory Marketing
Experiential marketing (Pine & Gilmore 1998) creates memorable customer experiences — IKEA stores, Disney parks, Apple Stores. Sensory marketing engages multiple senses — sight, sound, smell, touch, taste — to deepen brand association.
76.7 Influencer Marketing
Influencer marketing taps social-media personalities to recommend products to their followers. The Indian market has grown rapidly, with platforms like Instagram and YouTube hosting major influencer ecosystems. ASCI has issued Guidelines for Influencer Advertising in Digital Media (2021), requiring clear disclosure of paid partnerships using #ad or #sponsored.
76.8 Gamification
Gamification applies game-design elements — points, badges, levels, leaderboards, challenges — to non-game contexts, including marketing. Examples: Starbucks Rewards, Duolingo, fitness apps.
76.9 Marketing 4.0 / 5.0 — Kotler
Philip Kotler’s Marketing 4.0 (2017) and Marketing 5.0 (2021):
| Era | Focus |
|---|---|
| Marketing 4.0 | Online-offline integration; from segmentation-targeting-positioning to community |
| Marketing 5.0 | “Technology for humanity” — AI, AR/VR, IoT, blockchain serving humans |
76.10 AI and Big Data in Marketing
| Application | Working content |
|---|---|
| Recommendation engines | “Customers who bought X also bought Y” |
| Personalisation | Tailored content, offers, prices |
| Chatbots | 24/7 customer support |
| Predictive analytics | Churn, CLV, demand forecasting |
| Customer-segmentation clustering | K-means, hierarchical, RFM |
| Sentiment analysis | Mining social media for brand health |
| Generative AI | Content creation, ad copy, images |
| Programmatic advertising | Real-time bidding |
76.11 Other Modern Concepts
| Concept | Working content |
|---|---|
| Permission marketing | Customer consent first (Seth Godin 1999) |
| Inbound marketing | Attract through valuable content |
| Buzz marketing | Word-of-mouth amplification |
| Guerrilla marketing | Low-cost unconventional campaigns (Levinson) |
| Cause-related marketing | Linking sales to a social cause |
| Stealth / Undercover marketing | Promotion not disclosed as such (ethically risky) |
| Neuromarketing | Brain-imaging in marketing research |
| Account-based marketing (ABM) | B2B targeting of specific accounts |
| Customer experience (CX) | End-to-end experience optimisation |
| Conversational commerce | Buying via chat / voice |
76.12 Marketing Analytics
| Family | Metrics |
|---|---|
| Acquisition | CAC, conversion rate, click-through rate (CTR) |
| Engagement | Bounce rate, time on site, pages per session |
| Retention | Repeat-purchase rate, churn, NPS |
| Profitability | CLV, ROAS (Return on Ad Spend), ROI |
| Brand | Awareness, consideration, top-of-mind, brand equity |
| Social | Share of voice, engagement rate, sentiment |
76.13 Privacy and Regulation
Modern marketing’s data-driven model has triggered regulation. India’s Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023 (DPDPA) governs personal-data processing. Globally, the EU’s GDPR (2018) and California’s CCPA (2018) set the standard. The cookie-pocalypse — phasing out of third-party cookies in browsers — is reshaping digital advertising.
76.14 Indian Trends
- Digital advertising now exceeds traditional advertising spend in India.
- UPI-led commerce and low-data-cost mobile.
- Tier-2 / Tier-3 city growth — Bharat consumers.
- Vernacular content — Hindi, regional languages dominate online.
- D2C brands and quick commerce (Blinkit, Zepto, Swiggy Instamart).
- Live commerce — selling via live video.
- Creator economy — millions of Indian content creators.
76.15 Exam-Pattern MCQs
Q1. Which of the following is not a typical category of digital marketing?
A. SEO B. SEM C. SMM D. CRR
Answer: D. CRR is the Cash Reserve Ratio, a monetary tool — not a marketing channel.
Q2. Match each modern concept with its proponent / origin:
| Concept | Proponent / Origin | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| (i) | Permission marketing | (a) | Berry 1983 |
| (ii) | Relationship marketing | (b) | Pine and Gilmore 1998 |
| (iii) | Experience economy | (c) | Seth Godin 1999 |
| (iv) | Marketing 5.0 | (d) | Philip Kotler 2021 |
A. (i)-(c), (ii)-(a), (iii)-(b), (iv)-(d) B. (i)-(a), (ii)-(b), (iii)-(c), (iv)-(d) C. (i)-(b), (ii)-(c), (iii)-(d), (iv)-(a) D. (i)-(d), (ii)-(c), (iii)-(a), (iv)-(b)
Answer: A.
Q3. Greenwashing refers to:
A. Cleaning out polluted facilities B. False or misleading environmental-friendly claims by a firm C. Recycling waste water D. Painting the brand logo green
Answer: B. Greenwashing — misleading environmental claims.
Q4. Match each AI / data application in marketing with its content:
| Application | Content | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| (i) | Recommendation engine | (a) | Brain imaging in research |
| (ii) | Sentiment analysis | (b) | “Customers who bought X also bought Y” |
| (iii) | Neuromarketing | (c) | Mining social media for brand health |
| (iv) | RFM analysis | (d) | Recency, Frequency, Monetary segmentation |
A. (i)-(b), (ii)-(c), (iii)-(a), (iv)-(d) B. (i)-(a), (ii)-(b), (iii)-(c), (iv)-(d) C. (i)-(c), (ii)-(d), (iii)-(b), (iv)-(a) D. (i)-(d), (ii)-(a), (iii)-(c), (iv)-(b)
Answer: A.
Q5. Match each influencer tier with its follower range:
| Tier | Followers | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| (i) | Mega | (a) | 10k–100k |
| (ii) | Macro | (b) | < 10k |
| (iii) | Micro | (c) | > 1M |
| (iv) | Nano | (d) | 100k–1M |
A. (i)-(c), (ii)-(d), (iii)-(a), (iv)-(b) B. (i)-(a), (ii)-(b), (iii)-(c), (iv)-(d) C. (i)-(b), (ii)-(c), (iii)-(d), (iv)-(a) D. (i)-(d), (ii)-(a), (iii)-(b), (iv)-(c)
Answer: A.
Q6. Marketing 4.0 (Kotler) emphasises:
A. Industrial-age product features B. Online-offline integration and community C. Mass advertising on TV and print D. Sales-force aggression
Answer: B. Marketing 4.0 = online + offline integration; segmentation-targeting-positioning evolves to community.
Q7. Guerrilla marketing is associated with:
A. Philip Kotler B. Jay Conrad Levinson C. Seth Godin D. Theodore Levitt
Answer: B. Jay Conrad Levinson popularised guerrilla marketing (1984) — low-cost, unconventional, surprise tactics.
Q8. Match each metric family with the metric:
| Family | Metric | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| (i) | Acquisition | (a) | NPS |
| (ii) | Retention | (b) | CAC |
| (iii) | Profitability | (c) | Sentiment score |
| (iv) | Social | (d) | ROAS |
A. (i)-(b), (ii)-(a), (iii)-(d), (iv)-(c) B. (i)-(a), (ii)-(b), (iii)-(c), (iv)-(d) C. (i)-(c), (ii)-(d), (iii)-(b), (iv)-(a) D. (i)-(d), (ii)-(c), (iii)-(a), (iv)-(b)
Answer: A.
- Modern marketing fuses digitisation, mobile, social media, AI, big data, sustainability, gig economy with traditional principles.
- Digital channels: SEO, SEM, SMM, email, content, influencer, affiliate, mobile, display, programmatic.
- Influencer tiers: mega (>1M), macro (100k–1M), micro (10k–100k), nano (<10k).
- Green marketing — eco-friendly product, packaging, supply chain, communication, pricing. Greenwashing = false green claims.
- Relationship marketing (Berry 1983) → CRM.
- Experience economy — Pine and Gilmore (1998).
- Influencer guidelines — ASCI 2021 disclosure norms (#ad, #sponsored).
- Kotler’s Marketing 4.0 (2017) — online-offline integration; 5.0 (2021) — technology for humanity.
- AI applications: recommendation engines, personalisation, chatbots, predictive analytics, segmentation, sentiment, generative AI, programmatic ads.
- Other concepts: Permission marketing (Godin 1999), inbound, buzz, guerrilla (Levinson 1984), cause-related, neuromarketing, ABM, CX, conversational commerce.
- DPDPA 2023 is India’s data-protection law; cookie-pocalypse reshaping digital ads.