“These two fundamentals, knowledge-based and experience-based marketing, will increasingly define the capabilities of successful marketing organization.”
Back in 1991, Harvard Business Review published an article by Regis McKenna on the power of marketing and the impact of the two fundamentals of knowledge and experience-based marketing on the success of an organization in this fast and ever-changing marketing marketplace. So what does that all mean in Layman’s terms?
Knowledge-based marketing plays off of an organization’s ability to adapt to each client’s knowledge needs and design a slew of options that cater to a client’s needs, understanding individualized markets for each audience and partnering with vendors that can bring those visions to life.
Experience-based marketing uses cutting-edge creativity to help connect clients with their audiences. Curating engagement with the audience helps develop an analysis of the feedback that can help gauge the systems and solutions innovations the clients are putting forth into the market.
“It’s fun to step into the Wayback Machine and look how the industry has changed. This article is a great look back at what was the beginning of modern branding. Back then, HBR called it ‘experience-based marketing.’ Today we call it ‘branding.’ They were beginning to understand that in an age of nearly limitless, similar choices, the products and organizations that will be most successful are those that have the strongest emotional connection with their customers. As marketing professionals, we’re beyond sales pitches. It’s all about building and nurturing relationships.”
The market has become increasingly less driven by the push effect of selling something and more about how well a marketer can communicate and share knowledge about a product or service with an audience. Successful brands are built off of valued and credible relationships with their clients- the perfect example of such a campaign that has prevailed the test of time are the Publix holiday commercial campaigns.
Using marketing fundamentals, Publix took the time to build a bond with its audience from childhood and continues to do so into adulthood. Through the years, they built upon this relationship, using knowledge and experience-based marketing transactions and tactics to keep their customer base sound. Bravo, Publix!