For years traditional, product-centric marketing ruled the roost. But in 1998, the Harvard Business Review noted a shift toward a more customer-centric model, welcoming us all to ‘the experience economy’.
This shift fundamentally changed how brands go to market, engage with their audiences and spend their budgets. Marketers gradually began to consider the total customer experience in their promotional efforts.
The change was so extreme that tried and tested marketing concepts were warped to fit the experience sphere. In the experience economy, the 4Ps of marketing become the 4Es:
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Within this model, brands aim to concoct a personality that aligns with their consumer’s values and showcases how their products and services can elevate experiences, as well as meeting their wants, needs and quality standards.
And boy did it work, in the 21 years since the experience economy was first birthed, this shift in marketing focus, coupled with intense digital transformation, has seen experience-based spending skyrocket. In fact, experts suggest that the experience economy will be worth $12 billion by 2023.