Welcome to the sixth edition of Marketing Management: An Asian Perspective. Over the past 40 years, we observed changes in the marketing discipline like fundamental topics such as segmentation, targeting, and positioning as well as concepts such as brand equity, customer value analysis, database marketing, e-commerce, value networks, hybrid channels, supply chain management, and integrated marketing communications.
Asian businesses must acknowledge and respond to the new elements in today’s marketplace. Firms now sell goods and services through a variety of direct and indirect channels. Mass advertising is not nearly as effective as it was, so marketers are exploring new forms of communication, such as experiential, entertainment, and viral marketing. Asian consumers are telling companies what types of product or services they want and when, where, and how they want to buy them. They are increasingly reporting to other consumers what they think of specific companies and products—using email, blogs, podcasts, and other digital media to do so. Company messages are becoming a smaller fraction of the total “conversation” about products and services.