Towards Consumer 4.0 Insights and Opportunities under the Marketing 4.0 Scenario

This Research Topic is a sequel to our previous Research Topic “From Consumer Experience to Affective Loyalty: Challenges and Prospects in the Psychology of Consumer Behavior 3.0”. This first article collection was devoted to analyze the changes that appeared in different industries and companies, fostered by factors mainly related to the development of technologies.

The evolution from consumer 3.0 to consumer 4.0 represents an opportunity to feature the changes that have been occurring lately as well as to gain an insight into the future of consumer behavior. Nowadays, the markets are experiencing several transformations in consumer behavior. These changes have been fueled by several trends: processes of globalization that produced an extraordinary assortment of diverse products and brand alternatives, new business models based on the intensive use of technology advances in communication and mobile technologies that allow customers’ capacity to easily participating in co-creation processes with companies; and big data developments.

In this scenario, customers acquired more power than ever before due to their availability of information required to choose among the better priced alternatives product-brand options, as well as the technological means to access to such alternatives. Thus, customers evolved from a position to simply receiving the offer proposed by companies, to a position of power where they had the last word in the decision process, that is, the position of consumer 3.0. These consumers were characterized by their ability to adopt and use new technologies to meet their individual needs. What is more, these types of consumers did not longer easily respond to traditional mass marketing techniques. Instead, this generation of consumers demanded a highly customized approach across all facets of businesses including new product development, communication and customer service, among others.

Nevertheless, in the advent of Marketing 4.0, a new type of consumer is observed, namely the customer 4.0. The transition from consumer 3.0 to consumer 4.0 is becoming evident, not only in consumers’ behavior but also in companies’ behavior. Related to the first one, consumers 4.0 are hyper-connected through different technologies, including not only the well-known mobile or digital technologies, but also other type of technologies, such as IoT, nanotech or artificial intelligence. Hence, their behavior is characterized by the demand of technology that have integrated the facets of Marketing 4.0 such as geolocation, marketing virtual and augmented reality facets. Regarding the second one, companies should face a digital transformation affecting not only value areas, but also, the way business interact with the environment. In particular, companies need to incorporate systems and applications that allow them to collect and analyze information, while helping decision making, since in the long run these issues constitute the cornerstone on which to start building a successful marketing strategy 4.0.

This Research Topic welcomes scientific papers that covers the following topics (but not limited exclusively):
- Consumers’ 4.0. behavior in different countries, industries, products, brands, etc.;
- Digital transformations of industries and companies due to new consumption patterns;
- New devices launched by companies work to meet the demands of consumer 4.0 (e.g., IoT), as well as the use consumers make of such devices;
- The latest technology trends in business areas that make easier the consumer-companies relationships (processing, communication or any other digital technologies).