FMCG to FCCG to FSCG to FECE?

Those of us in marketing remember the times when “packaged goods” like soaps, toothpastes, shampoos, biscuits, soft drinks, cigarettes, beverages etcetera were where the best brains in marketing went. The somewhat wishful term for these sorts of categories was Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG).

The guys who marketed stuff like consumer electronics, household goods and even automobiles: stuff that people bought once in a while did not really, or so the “brand gurus” felt, get the whole thing about brands and how one built them to get people coming back to buy your product again and again, more and more often.

The consumer durable (that was what these sort of products where then called) guys just faked brand-building and so were viewed as at best second-class!

Over the last fifteen years or so things began to change. The FMCG categories became more and more consumer staples and the consumer electronics and the world of microchip-driven categories exploded.

Consequently the world of cutting-edge marketing passed to acolytes of Steve Jobs who were basically showmen who hyped something new every quarter if not every year.

The brand was a totem pole under which a circus of ever changing ‘items’ played. I like calling this category FCCG: Fast Changing Consumer Goods.

Over the last decade once again the mantle of leading marketing practice,as leaps and bounds in the access of high quality manufacturing technolgy dissolved the brand differentials based on quality and features, passed on to those who create differentials through service.

Once again it was Apple that seized the initiative. Without Apple Apps the sale of iPod and iPhones would have tapered off. This decade I like to call this age of marketing the age of Full Service Consumer Goods: FSCG

And, over the past couple of years, I believe, is emerging the world of Formal Ecosystems of Consumer Experience (FECE).

As data mining, data analysis, communication technology and consumer sophistication climbs to new levels, individuals will stop buying products or services.

Instead they will pay for life experiences and states.

And these expectations can be met only through formal coordination of a whole host of products and services.

For example tomorrow’s consumer will buy a health service that monitors his health every second wherever he is and seamlessly delivers the care he needs. A experience which only a worldwide ecosystem of monitoring device manufacturers, drug and drug delivery systems, paramedics, logistic providers, nutritionist, food suppliers, personal care suppliers and of course doctors and hospitals can supply.

Imagine what could happen as this paradigm is applied to all the major life needs: education, security, relationships, entertainment and so on.

This post is just a surface level analysis of these trends.

I believe these trends have implications for the marketer of every product and service.

For a deeper analysis of what it means for your brand and category and how you can take advantage of it, contact Aqumena, the marketing consultancy I have set up with two partners Vinay Hegde and ND Badrinath (www.aqumena.com).

I am allowed the occasional plug for my business, am I not?