"This is an amazing product. It will change your life," said no marketer ever. If you think marketing is just about saying how great your product is, it might be time for a fresh perspective. Modern marketing is all about connecting with your audience, not just promoting what you offer. Back in the day, marketing was very product-centric, where customers were blindly targeted by suited salesmen and tricked into buying something they didn't need or want. I mean, why would I need a fishing rod? I don't even like fishing. Gradually, over time, we understood the true essence of marketing and today, just like how we've evolved from floppy discs to the cloud, marketing also took a big turn from focusing on bragging about the product to focusing on what consumers want because, after all, "the customer is always right." However, consumer needs are always changing. That's why no marketing strategy will last beyond a given point. Remember the rise and fall of the tech giant Nokia? It's a classic example of how Nokia couldn't keep up with the market because when everyone else in the industry moved to Android technology, Nokia didn't. With the growing technology and digital advancements we've had over the years, marketing trends are constantly changing faster than ever. Let's look at some of the biggest marketing trends in 2020:

A little conversation hurt nobody.

If anybody likes asking questions and wants them resolved instantly, they are Quora customers. Gone are the days when trying to talk to a seller was a tedious task (one that involved far too many steps; just thinking about it makes me want to procrastinate). But let's be practical: how many customers can a seller talk to? That's where AI-integrated chatbots come to the rescue. These intelligent chatbots instantly allow customers to have personalized human-like conversations about a product or service at any given time of the day. For instance, I tried to reschedule my Air Asia flight booking the other day, and all I had to do was talk to AVA (Air Asia's chatbot), and she got the job done in minutes. There was no annoying hold music or the unnecessary "please press 1" for this and that.

Personalization is the new black.

Don't you love it when someone acknowledges you by your name and your interests? This is the crux of personalization as a marketing tactic. I had recently ordered some bath products from Amazon, and along with the delivery, they also sent me a handwritten thank you note with my name. On some level, it felt like the company's CEO was shaking me by the hand. If that's not enough, Amazon uses powerful algorithms to personalize your homepage, tailoring product recommendations based on your search and purchase records. That’s why you suddenly see recommendations to buy a phone case right after you purchase a phone. You're on your phone or computer getting some research work done, and you suddenly see an ad that says the product you were looking at earlier is on sale. These pop-up ads are another fantastic way to grab your customer's attention, even when they're busy browsing something else.

Pictures speak a thousand words.

It's a busy world. Everyone's either working, going to school or stuck in traffic. No one has the time to read a 400-word article or listen to a long speech on why your product stands apart from the rest.
However, what makes visual marketing any better? While people only retain 10% of what they hear and 20% of what they read, they retain 80% of what they see. The math is pretty clear on why companies invest so much in visual marketing. Take Volkswagen, for example: whether you want to learn about the VW history, understand the heritage of the Beetle or find your next car, they have visual content for everything. B2B companies like DropBox, the cloud storage software, use coloured pencil drawings to showcase their playful personality. These visuals make Dropbox seem more humanized and user-friendly than its competitors, all without making use of a single screenshot of the product itself.

Social media is the way to go.

Picture this: It's a lazy Sunday afternoon. You're lying in bed, scrolling through your Instagram feed, and you suddenly see an Instagram-sponsored ad for a cute wallet you like. You click on it, you go to their website, and ka-ching, it's yours. 2020 is the era of social media. It's simple: you have 2.65 billion people using it, so it only makes sense to take advantage of social media platforms to get your products marketed. The amazing thing about these ads is that they use algorithms and track your search history to give you personalized ads of products you've been meaning to buy.

At the end of the day, you get your cute wallet, the seller makes a sale, and everyone's happy on a Sunday :) Many B2B companies are also now resorting to social media marketing. Two famous examples are Google and Salesforce. Salesforce stands out in its use of social media by focusing on appreciating its employees rather than focusing on selling their products and services. A look at the company’s Facebook page will show you just how the company salutes its team. Appreciated employees = happy employees, which means any work they do would be delivered with passion. Why wouldn't anyone want to do business with a company where employees are happy?

Let's talk memes.

Another booming trend is the use of pop culture references. Many food joints like Wendy’s and MoonPie are a big hit among the young crowd because of their hilarious posts and puns.
They add references from everyday things like movies, music, and memes and deftly incorporate them into their social media and content marketing strategies to provide an entertaining context for otherwise dull business information. It's like when your teacher does everything in her power to make a history lesson fun, and who wouldn't want that?

It's all about branding.

Sometimes, even when the quality of a product is mediocre, a company can still be immensely successful because of its brand name. Like, what's the big hype about Kylie Jenner's makeup line? Her cosmetic company isn’t doing anything revolutionary, nor was it founded decades ago, like
Maybelline or Revlon, but people still burn a hole in their pockets stocking up on her products simply because of the brand name. If you thought only B2C companies heavily adopted branding, think again.
Many B2B folks like Microsoft have survived for so long in the market solely because of their brand. Even with the emergence of new, better and cheaper software, Microsoft continues to rule the world of office software. That's why so many companies invest more in building their brand than in their products.

As Paul Mazur once said, "Marketing is the creation and delivery of standard of living." With the growing customer demands and changing preferences, it's safe to say that the demand for higher standards of living will keep increasing in the years to come. And if there's no end to the growing consumer demands, then there's no end to marketing as well. At this rate, the next big thing could be the use of AR and VR to showcase products and services to consumers in the most surreal and immersive of
ways or sample products being brought to our homes by drones or robots or getting the Chef delivered home (the loophole for home-cooked meals)

Let's sit back and prepare for the new marketing era!