The marketing function will face a number of challenges in the 21st century. One only needs to consider the dramatic changes that occurred in the 20th century to imagine what might occur in this century. For example, the 20th century saw the first powered flight, a rapid increase in world population, great leaps forward in the area of medicine and healthcare, the introduction of electricity into most households in developed countries, the invention of radio and television, the rise of technology combined with the birth of service oriented post industrial economies, and the globalization of business. The last century saw the return of Hong Kong to China, and the end of colonial rule for Great Britain, Germany, and France among other nations. It saw the collapse of the Soviet Union suggesting that communism, while an powerful political ideology, is not a viable model for managing a large, complex, modern economy.
One of the defining qualities of a 21st century marketer is that he or she must be a visionary. A marketing manager must be able to look ahead and see changes in consumer preferences in order to help his or her company stay ahead of demand.
Marketers will need a higher degree of precision in identifying target customers, understanding their needs, determining the appropriate media for reaching them, and evaluating the effectiveness of advertising and promotional campaigns and expenditures. Marketers will need better and more precise demographic and psychographics data in order to target marketing programs to specific market niches that can be exploited.
Mass media is a 20th century concept that will become increasingly less relevant in the 21st century. The number of communication channels has already exploded in many developed countries. There are households that have a choice of close to 100 channels of television, and an equal or greater number of radio stations. The audience is not getting smaller; it simply ...