Competition is ever-present in today's business, and all the companies spend billions to address the mounting competition of consumers. It is imperative to understand that each company focuses to identify, target, and reach the set of consumers which it believes would buy its product/service.

It is a practice in all companies in various industries i.e. producing/generating and selling similar products/services; and the competition also varies, depending on the nature of the industry. Each consumer is targeted by numerous companies, thus, creating constant pressure on consumers to buy the products/services. To attract the target consumers, the companies create high price offers and sales promotions, thus, blocking competitors to reach their consumers. However, other competing companies will use different conventional and non-conventional promotional communications to reach target consumers. This strategy of the companies creates constant noise and confusion in the minds of consumers when it comes to selecting the best products/services that they believe provide value. So, most of the consumers end up selecting the wrong products/services, thus, developing aversion towards the company and what they sell in particular; and, many companies exert such practices. Consumers would slowly lose confidence in the companies, disconnecting them from the buying involvement process. Such disconnection would block the consumers’ perception of even the genuine and valuable products/services offered in the market.

To avoid such disconnection from the consumers, the companies need to be compassionate in understanding the requirements of the target consumers, create and offer the products/services they believe they would get value. The companies also need to use compassionate marketing practices to listen to their target consumers, their tastes, preferences, reasons, and requirements of acquiring specific products/services. Instead of forcing the target consumers to buy products/services through using price and promotion offers, the companies need to find the reasons behind the purchase of consumers, guide, and facilitate the buying process that leads to appropriate products/services suitable to their requirements. But, how would the companies listen and find the reasons leading the consumers to purchase a product/service? The companies need to set up listening posts through social media websites and blogs to interact with the target consumers and find their reasons behind the purchase.

The companies need to develop online digital crowd listening pods to acquire the necessary information. Such information could be collected from customer reviews/referrals blogs, social media postings, etc. Furthermore, the companies need to design an artificial intelligence system for online purchases and guide the target consumers through sets of processes that lead to finding appropriate products/services that provide value. The companies need to use the purchase history of the target consumers which should have been stored in a database (big data) and use appropriate analytical tools to analyze and predict, estimate and guide the target consumers towards the best product/service. The artificial intelligence system supported by machine learning would help the companies find the appropriate products/services for the target consumers, even modulate the pricing suitable to attract the target consumers, added with appropriate motivation through personalized promotions.

This exercise would attract and motivate the target consumers to select the suitable products/services that they believe create value along with personalized pricing and promotions. Hence, the compassionate marketing is a futuristic strategic marketing tool for the companies to use, target, attract, and guide the target consumers through a set of the purchase process to choose the products/services which they believe have value. Leading universities in the UAE offering BBA, BSIT, and MBA would also help the prospective students to go through a guided process to select their prospective programs.