Marketing & Innovation

To be published in Caru, A. and Cova, B., eds. (forthcoming) Consuming Experiences London, Routledge

Preface

Marketing theory and practice have been marked since the early 2000s by the rise of so-called called experiential approaches, whose roots go back more than 20 years. These approaches have provided a timely response to the major changes affecting consumption in our Western societies and forcing companies in turn to revisit their marketing efforts. In reaction to this evolution, some observers have started to espouse the idea of a new marketing panacea they call experiential marketing, or the marketing of experiences. Unfortunately, and as has far too often been the case in the field of marketing, this new panacea tends to reduce the notion of experience to something that is simple and can be readily managed by firms. This is because it focuses more on the modalities by which companies create experiences, and less on trying to understand complex nature of consumers’ actual consumption experiences and/or how they interact with the corporate product offers generating such experiences.

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People-powered search engines are not really new. Internet old timers like me can remember pre-bubble attempts such as Webhelp (turned into an “old-economy” service provider now). Now and then, another firm is having a go at that concept. I suspect that it will end up working eventually … who knows? This time, it’s Yahoo’s turn to launch its beta Yahoo! Answers service.And of course, Google could not be outdone and they created (guess what name they chose?) … Google answers!

God only knows who fired first. But maybe it doesn’t matter at all after all?

We already knew about the ability of sci-fi authors to suggest changes way before they happen. Now is the time to witness the same process the other way round, with BT which is predicting us a brave new future. Cars will be fully automated by 2011 and viruses will pass from machines to humans by 2030. In 2021 we will witness the launch of the first Hal look-alike machine dictator. Blimey! What is the point BT is trying to make here? Is the future bound to be so cruel and despicable? A wee bit off-putting but quite funny anyway.

Google Labs is showing what's new at Google. If you open that page, you will take a sneak peek at Google's new project: Google Spreadsheets. Google spreadsheets is not yet another Google project that may be added to the already long list of Lab projects (actually, Google's CEO announced that Google was to refocus on its core search engine business at its latest conference with analysts). Google Spreadsheets is a new way of using software online and besides, it is collaborative software with a capital C. As a matter of fact, Google spreadsheets is also a complement to the firm's ealiest acquisition of Writely, a network-based collaborative spreadsheet programme based on Ajax technology (refer to our previous articles on that technology). Now the question is, besides the compelling novelty of that technology (still to be tested though; click here to sign up) and the fact that it's slowly but surely becoming mainstream, can that new opportunity clinch it for Google who seem to struggle – according to UK's Times online dated June 6, 2006 – outside of their core search engine business. Last but not least, the firm now seems to get entangled in several lawsuits not only in the UK but also in France with a suit filed by leading French publishing company La Martinière (owner of Le Seuil) against the regional and international representatives of Google. Let us hope that all these people get to agree on common terms without stifling all this exciting innovation in the fields of collaborative and office software platforms.

Check this issue of BusinessWeek
for a list of the best innovative companies listed by BusinessWeek and the Boston Consulting Group in 2006. Ranking available here. Business week's top 10 list (see picture on the left) includes just one European company (Nokia). It is difficult to evaluate such a list. Should we Europeans be really worried or should we be angry that we are being overlooked?

Or is this list a mere reflection of domestic market sizes and subsequent media attention?

As Reuters pointed out recently in a new article relayed by French daily La tribune on June 5th, 2006, the state of pollution in China is becoming critical. The news was also relayed by other newspapers around the world today, like the Los Angeles Times, China Daily and the Globe and mail.

Not only are 60% of the Chinese territory (these are official figures quoted by Reuters; being official, they might also be under estimated) is said to be ecologically fragile, 90% of Chinese meadows are undergoing serious desertification and degradation conditions due to the staggering rate of increase in intensive agriculture and manufacturing industries.

Now there is hope too because the cost of such degradations to the Chinese natural environment are estimated at approx. $ 200 billion per annum i.e. around 10% of the China GDP. Hopefully, this could trigger new thoughts about a system which is deadly for both our planet and its inhabitants. At the end of the day, our economy is also relying on natural resources and is highly dependent on them. Maybe Al Gore’s Hollywood-style scary movie entitled The Inconvenient truth could also put sustainable development on the agenda, and force us to be really serious about it.

Other article on the same subject click here: Climate Change: Should Marketers Go on Working as if Nothing Happened