[Insight & Opinion] 2023 Marketing for Resilient Growth

[Asia Economy] One of the people to refer to when curious about important events happening around the world is Jeremy Rifkin. In 2022, he published "The Age of Resilience." The subtitle is "Reimagining Survival on a Rewilding Earth." Rewilding is a concept that considers ecological strategies to restore self-sustainability, but it is not limited to ecology alone.

His motivation for writing the book and the solution are as follows: "If the age of progress marched in step with efficiency, the emerging age of resilience aligns with adaptability. It involves a comprehensive transformation of the economy and society, including shifts from productivity to regeneration, growth to prosperity, ownership to open-source access, linear processes to artificial intelligence processes, centralized value chains to decentralized value chains, giant conglomerates to fluid sharing forming blockchains and agile advanced technology SMEs, from Gross Domestic Product (GDP) to Quality of Life Index (QLI), from negative externalities to circularity, and from geopolitics to biopolitical rights."

Clearly, the world is changing, and major issues are evolving. The books on my bookshelf are changing too. Topics such as marketing, branding, culture, sharing are increasingly accompanied by books on climate, uninhabitable Earth, Degrowth, rewilding, and transition. This reflects the marketer’s instinct that markets and battlefields are shifting. Growth has been the sacred goal for companies, and until now, the aim was UN-led sustainable growth, but now there is a call to shift to resilient growth. Of course, ESG management is part of this. However, 90% still do not take these issues seriously. From 2023 onward, life will become tougher, and changing perceptions will not be easy. Most ESG management remains at a declarative 'version 1.0.' As COVID-19 restrictions ease, corporate marketing and local governments seem to be returning to old marketing issues like design, data, conventions, festivals, and travel. Viewing blockchain as a trusted means of ownership should be seen from the broader perspective of a decentralized society, and the metaverse should be considered more from an ESG perspective rather than just a revenue or promotional tool, but this does not seem to be the case, which is regrettable. The MZ generation, who should be the watchdogs of the era, are losing direction. Despite this situation, Korea is missing these issues due to political gridlock. However, marketers cannot just stand by and watch. They must make the transition to resilience flexible.

The term "Resilience" means more than simply returning to the original state ("Recovery"). It means bouncing back more elastically (Jump Back). Having learned from COVID-19, we must shed past methods and perspectives and aim for values, authenticity, novelty, and a greater collective to bounce back higher. In the past, we were competent and fast but narrow, functional, and selfish. Korea, having become a developed country, cannot recover to that past. Otherwise, we return empty-handed. We must bounce forward to a new future to survive. Marketing is the weapon to open that escape route. Marketing is powerful. In 2023, a new hell gate is predicted, and marketing must seriously consider what it will do for resilient growth. This gate is a door yet unopened. I hope you break through fear and open that door. Wishing you success in 2023!

Hwang Inseon, Marketer and Writer

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.