The Chinese version of the 16th edition of Marketing Management by Philip Kotler, widely recognized as the originator of modern marketing, has been published lately. At the invitation of the CITIC Publishing Group, the author is involved in an in-depth dialogue on marketing in the web 3.0 era with Professor Lu Xiongwen, Dean of Fudan University School of Management and head of the translation team of the book.
Professor Kotler emphasized：the best strategy is never to assume your customers will remain loyal forever. Smart enterprises are always updating their products and services, developing new distribution channels, and innovating in every possible way. And although marketing is becoming more and more automatic and involves more artificial intelligent, the best and most essential marketing remains interpersonal communication. Therefore, both the CEO and the CMO have the responsibility to win over talents, because the employees are actually the most loyal and most innovative suppliers and distributors.
Professor Lu Xiongwen pointed out that consumer behavior is changing faster and becoming all the more unpredictable. Great marketing must start from the precise insight of consumer needs. The enterprise must be able to gain a competitive advantage through continuously devoting to R&D in the sci-tech field, and with social responsibility and sustainable development in mind.
“The web 3.0 era poses greater challenges to marketing,” Professor Lu stressed. “It demands the enterprise to embrace the sci-tech innovation more generously, where marketing must be combined with the development trend of technology, and the marketing team must cooperate with product engineers and R&D engineers to predict future consumer needs.”
