“Molecular Gastronomy should not be considered a style of
cooking but a new scientific discipline” argues Professor Pete Barham, from the
University of Bristol, who has worked extensively with celebrity chef Heston
Blumenthal. Why?
Because it involves chemical sciences: agrochemicals are involved in the way food is produced; chemical changes occur during harvesting, packaging and transport to market, and subsequently during processing and cooking and finally, an understanding of neurochemistry when the brain reacts to the presentation and taste of the food.
“Taken to its extreme”, Barham argues, “It should be
possible to quantify just how delicious a particular dish will be to a
particular individual. Thus, in the future, it may be possible to serve
different variations of the same dish to your dinner party guests so that each
has their own uniquely enjoyable experience”.
Molecular personalization? Isn't that we want to do in marketing- create a unique customer experience.
With that thought let me list out a few in-season
ingredients which will help you whip up your marketing dish make it delectable
in 2018 !
Mobile at the core :
There’s no doubt mobile has become core to the digital
marketing ecosystem – as a communications
channel, support and service mechanism, purchasing tool and more. But according
to Forrester’s 2018 mobile predictions, marketers need to put even more emphasis
on understanding how next-generation consumers are interacting with brands via
these devices in the New Year. Mobile strategy goes way beyond a responsive
website, even if it is designed mobile-first. The caveat of this is that the
screen size for these mobile devices are tiny compared to laptops or desktops.
It is much more difficult to convey all desired content into a website while
still maintaining readability and clarity for such small screen sizes. Having
mobile UX in mind, web designers and developers can collaborate and create
products that should potentially be very clear and easy to digest in terms of
their content, layout, and style
AI at the fore :
“With AI at the forefront, marketers will be better able to
understand the likes and dislikes of a customer, determine what specific
branded content should be served to that consumer, and track all their
interactions through the customer's journey.
“AI will also be imperative to provide customers with a
seamless personalized digital experience in the future, for brands to get cut
through, and for marketing to help deliver ROI.”
Future-facing CMOs will adopt a challenger-centric approach
in 2018, investing money where they see most value.
Millenials drive your purpose:
You are going to need to have a very clear brand purpose at
the centre of everything to pull this off. Millennials, if they actually
existed as a segment, would demand a clear and transparent brand purpose or
they would simply not buy from you.
They don’t really care about ‘what’ the product is, they
just care about ‘why’ you made it. That makes the millennial segment incredibly
hard to market to; partly because they might go into the supermarket to buy
bananas and bag of flour but come out with a unicycle and a bottle of brandy,
but also because they demand a brand purpose. Who cares how your beer tastes?
Why did you make it? And what are you doing about orangutans in Borneo?
Storify it through :
Can you imagine the power of a marketing department
exclusively staffed with storytellers? Who needs strategy when you can weave a
magical story? Does gross margin really matter when I can tell an impressive
tale to explain it all away? And who wants brand managers when fairytales are
an everyday aspect of operations?
Gather the advocates:
The strategy of paying a celebrity to syndicate brand
content out to millions of followers has left many marketers disenchanted in
the last few years. Finding the right partner who can co-create content up to
brand standards can be equally difficult. Where brands should invest their time
is reengaging customers who already love to talk about their products,
developing new ways to build armies that feel less promotional or gamified and
more rewarding, focused on building a culture of gratitude within the brand’s
social community.
And there you have it, the story to unfold in 2018. Using AI
to drive the millenials through a good story in their mobiles augmented by
trusted advocacy. Let us check back in 2019 of how all of these shaped up!