Our new Digital World is dramatically changing the way in products are created, promoted, distributed, and consumed. Although these changes have been revolutionary, we still live in an Analog (or physical) World. For example, even today, over 90% of all sales are still conducted in Analog stores. Thus, both marketers and consumers must simultaneously navigate both the Analog and Digital Worlds on a daily basis. Although the Digital Revolution has received considerable attention in recent years, the impact of this revolution upon the Analog World has been largely ignored. This course examines this issue by asking, "How has the Digital Revolution impacted Marketing in an Analog World? This course will begin with an exploration of the key differences between the Analog and the Digital and then examine four ways in which the Analog World has been affected by the Digital Revolution: Domination, Resistance, Synergy, and Transformation. This course will contain several examples of each of these concepts and explore their implications for both marketers and consumers. This course will also employ a variety of learning techniques, including video lectures, case studies, hands-on exercises, and interviews with leading marketing scholars. The learning approach will be highly interactive; you will have the opportunity to engage in a variety of hands-on activities and be a member of a rich learning community. I hope you will join us in this educational adventure.
Lecture 1: Embracing (Side 2)
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來自 University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign 的課程
Marketing in an Analog World
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Aric RindfleischJohn M. Jones Professor of Marketing
Department of Business Administration
Now that you've seen some examples and embracing and we defined what this concept means,
here are three key things that you should know.
First of all, the outsider perspective.
In nearly all of the examples of embracing that I
can think of the idea came from an outsider.
Someone who didn't create the initial analog product or service.
For example, Alex Craig the guy who created Potato Parcel wasn't a farmer.
He was a mobile app developer.
Likewise, Uber was created by a Silicon Valley investor named Garrett Camp,
not a taxi driver.
Outsiders often have the benefit of seeing new possibilities because
their vision is less likely to be
constrained by what academics call functional fixedness.
In other words, outsiders are better able to think of new uses for old things.
Second, Low Cost of Entry.
Addressing also typically benefits from low entry cost because in most cases,
the analog product or service already exist.
For example, many Uber drivers usually own
a personal car that they can easily convert into a livery service.
Likewise, universities who are
Coursera partners such as the University of Illinois or they have access to
teaching of their faculty and are usually able to convert
their teaching the Coursera relatively easily.
If you don't want a potato,
you can buy one for only 50 cents.
Third, Easily Copied. In most cases,
the transformations that occur via embracing change
only some of the products or services in different category.
Thus, those are not part of
initial integration strategy can be used by competitors to adopt a copycat strategy.
For example, based on the success of Potato Parcel,
there are now new competitors such as Mystery Potato and Mail-a-Spud as well as
competitors are putting messages on a variety of
other vegetables such as carrots and onions.
Likewise, in response to Coursera's early success in
establishing initial partnerships with leading universities such as Stanford,
Michigan, and Illinois, Harvard and MIT teamed
up to create a competing online learning platform called edX.
You may have heard of it, although Coursera is much better.
Now that you know what embracing is,
here are some tips for successfully leveraging
this concept to enhance your marketing efforts.
First, Form versus Function.
As we discussed earlier,
embracing changes the form and/or function of an analog product or service.
Thus, if you're considering employing,
embracing as a strategy,
you think about what form or function should be transformed.
For example, Uber is really a change of function while Coursera is a change of form.
When considering your various options there are two key questions that keep in mind.
First, how easy would it be to make
this transformation and second what value does this transformation provide.
Ideally, you want to select transformations that are fairly easy to implement,
but that would provide a high degree of value to your potential customers.
Second, Outsource the Content.
One of the challenges of embracing,
much like any digital business model,
is having to come up with fresh content.
In the digital environment content is king and developing this content can
be extremely costly process if you have to do it internally.
Thus, many successful digital businesses such as Apple, Facebook,
and YouTube outsource much or nearly all of
their content to developers outside of the company.
For example, Facebook's content is provided by customers,
you and me, who posts millions of text,
photos, and videos each and every day.
Likewise, all the messages and photos that go
on a Potato Parcel are created by customers.
This outsourcing approach has a dual benefit of both lowering the cost of
creation while also forging closer customer connections to your product offering.
Third, Refresh the Analog.
Because it is being transformed,
the analog product or service that serves as the foundation for it to
embrace your strategy is likely to be used in ways that wasn't intended.
Thus, it may need to be refreshed to make it more suitable for this new purpose.
For example, many of the instructors who teach on Coursera including
me have had little experience teaching on line in their career.
As a result, they have to acquire some new skills.
To assist them in this process,
Coursera has developed an online course on how to teach online courses
and as we are closely with
the university partners to offer on-campus training in online teaching.
Likewise, if Potato Parcel continues to grow,
you may want to consider working with farmers develop
smoother potatoes which be easier to write on.
Fourth and finally, get ready for challengers.
Because the entry barriers are low once
a new business transforms an analog product via embracing,
others are likely to follow.
For example, Coursera was launched in
April 2012 and at edX followed only one month later.
Likewise, it took only a couple of months
after the launch of Potato Parcel for challengers to
start writing messages on onions and carrots so be ready for copycats to follow.
Since it will be hard to stop competitors from entering the market,
the best way of defending your business will be to limit their reach.
You can best do this by trying to scale your business as quickly as possible
and getting as much attention as many initial customers as you can.
Uber employ this strategy by offering new customers a free ride,
they got a friend to sign up for the Uber account.
Likewise, encouraging your customers to broadcast your product or service on
social media is also a good way defend against challengers.
Coursera use this approach by forming alliance with LinkedIn that allows learners who
complete a certificate to broadcast their achievements to potential employers.
Well, I hope you enjoyed this exploration of embracing and that it
gave you some new insights about marketing in an analog world.
