Reshaping the boundaries of marketing communication to bond with consumers

Brands have been traditionally built focusing on continuity and mass media exposure controlled by marketers with the aim of pursuing linear contacts with target markets that could benefit brands. Linearity typically translated into a brand communication approach characterized by a one-to-many message exchange and targeting, which was designed according to a unilateral communication logic (Schultz, Block, and Raman 2012). On that logic rested the classic marketing concept that was built on market control relying on deskdefined market scenario and competitive analysis, segmentation, targeting, positioning and marketing tactics implementation (i.e., the 4Ps). This kind of market approach cannot work anymore. We currently live in a fuzzy world which is always in turmoil and whose pace of innovation and change is increasingly fast and disruptive. Consumers are eager to cocreate and self-produce meaningful contents, whether iconic, audio-visual, textual, to relate to their brands and companies.Hence, marketing communication strategies are currently expected to define a common experiential frame reflecting companies’ and consumers’ sensitivities, consistent with and inspired by their subjectivities, which can be translated into relational touchpoints between brands and consumers that are meaningful to encourage consumer identification, that are lively to host and nurture consumer participation and that provide a context that boosts consumer interaction and sharing with each other and with the brand.