Marketing has become one of the cornerstones for growing a successful business. Long ago, during the industrial age—when the core technology was industrial machinery—marketing was about selling the factory’s output of products to all who would buy them. The products were fairly basic and were designed to serve a mass market. The goal was to standardize and scale up to bring about the lowest possible costs of production so that these goods could be priced lower and made more affordable to more buyers. Henry Ford’s Model T automobile epitomized this strategy; said Ford: “Any customer can have a car painted any color that he wants so long as it is black.” This was Marketing 1.0 - the product-centric era followed by Marketing 2.0 - customer-oriented era; Marketing 3.0 - emotional marketing with human spirit marketing; and Marketing 4.0 - the world of mobile technology and global social interaction that can reach a customer anytime, anywhere. The benefit goes both ways: brands have unprecedented access to customer data and insights to guide their efforts, while customers have the power of choice and can use social media to amplify their voices. However, the future holds more promise. Customers want a new level of satisfaction — products and services that not only meet their basic needs, but also complement their creativity and values by offering something more. The result is Marketing 5.0, which has the potential to deliver personalized experiences.

Marketing 5.0, by definition, is the application of human-mimicking technologies to create, communicate, deliver, and enhance value across the customer journey. One of the critical themes in Marketing 5.0 is what is called the next tech: a group of technologies that aim to emulate the capabilities of human marketers. It includes AI, NLP, sensors, robotics, augmented reality (AR), virtual reality (VR), IoT, and blockchain. A combination of these technologies is the enabler of Marketing 5.0. Despite the in-depth discussion on technology, it is important to note that humanity should remain the central focus of Marketing 5.0. The next tech is applied to help marketers to create, communicate, deliver, and enhance value across the customer journey. The conference will cover the upcoming and important topics in the marketing 5.0.

Conference Objective

The conference is aimed at deliberations and presentation of research work and management practices in the areas of Marketing and Business Strategy in line with the conference theme, i.e., Marketing 5.0: Opportunities and Challenges.

Broad Plan of the Conference

The conference is spread over two days. Day 1 will feature the two highly interactive sessions: (i) Editors Meet and (ii) Proposed workshop on PLS SEM. The second half of Day 1 will also have few paper presentations. Day 2 of the conference will be dedicated to presentation of papers and knowledge sharing among the participants. The Valedictory will be around 4 pm.