services provide similar types of advantages to both corporate users and individual users: 24/7 access to services, cheap subscription prices (such as Netflix’s monthly video service), higher security (cloud-based online bank encryption algorithm) and lower hardware input costs. Users no longer need to set up their own local servers to store pictures, videos and other data. They can store the data in the network hard disk provided by cloud service companies, such as Google, Amazon, Baidu Cloud and so on.
1.1.3.3 Internet of things
The Internet of Things is probably the most influential technological trend of the era. It means all the objects in the world, including people, upload all the data continuously to the Internet for circulation through the one or more microcomputers or smart sensors everywhere. In the Internet of Things, a network IP can be assigned to any object to exchange information with the Internet. Almost everything including car tires, coffee pots, human body parts and undergarments can be connected to the network. So far, the Internet of Things has realized machine-to-machine (M2M) information linkage in larger industries such as manufacturing and public utilities. Massive data processing is based on the maturity of cloud computing and computing infrastructure.
At the business level, the world of interconnected devices is an important opportunity for companies to extend their business to every corner of the world. To embrace the Internet of Things, the key challenge for corporate marketing executives is that they need to not only create compelling marketing content and social interactions for each potential customer but also interact with the smart devices of those customers. Wearable devices are regarded as an integral part of the IoT ecosystem. From Google Glass to Apple Watch, wearable technology covers everything that humans can wear.
Evrythng, an IoT startup, plans to deploy a large number of sensors to collect data to serve consumers and businesses. Evrythng’s co-founder Andy Hobbsbaum summed up the value of their company in an interview: “Evrythng is a new type of service. We provide a digital identity for products or other items. Through this digital identity, we can help companies or consumers manage everything in the world.”
In order to cope with the new digital environment and better use digital tools, companies need to establish a digital-first paradigm as follows:
• Digital marketing is the first: Enterprises should consider digital marketing first, and then employ traditional marketing with digital marketing methods, in order to adapt to the current digital-first consumption era and output proper marketing information to influence consumers in decision-making process at the right place and at the right time.
• Build a digital marketing path: Enterprises must build a digital-first marketing path to form a digital network-based marketing network. Digital consumers are always online and interact with the digital world through these devices since digital devices such as smartphones and tablets have become popular on a large scale. If companies cannot build a digital marketing path, they cannot attract the attention of the digital consumers.
• Create attractive digital marketing content: Companies also need to build dedicated teams and invest in professional resources to create a compelling digital marketing content. These contents must be practical, gain consumer attention, engage consumers in the online community and encourage them to share their social networks to form a consumer-centric communication network.
1.1.4 Social business model in the 21st century
The United States has made a rough calculation of the productivity effect brought by the information wave. In the personal computer era, IT contributed 40% to the US GDP. In the Internet and Web 1.0 era, the overall productivity of the United States increased by 2.75%. The contribution of technology to GDP has increased to around 50%. In the era of Web 2.0 and mobile Internet, the total value of production will be up to 60%. How did the business model under this new social wave come about?
Professor John Dayton of Harvard Business School attributed the 20th century business model to three forces, which together shaped consumer purchases in 20th century: transportation, shopping centers and television networks. The growth of the American railways in the late 19th century helped in connecting many cities and villages. The smooth flow of transportation brought about the possibility of boom for shopping malls, which effectively gathered a large number of dispersed people at one point. In 1892, a train agent in Minnesota, Richard Sears, saw the capacity of the North American railway and its commercial potential and began to provide goods to farmers and other people who could not easily reach the city; ultimately, his vision helped him create the famous Sears Retail.
The increase in the number of TV commercials has stimulated and shaped people’s shopping behavior. In China alone, note how many enterprises, 20 years ago, made a fortune through TV advertisements and sold their products across the nation overnight. Transportation, TV networks and shopping centers is a three-in-one working model. The TV network stimulates the desires and the group behavior of branding. The wide layout of the shopping center enables massive purchases. In essence, all three are to eliminate the distance between goods and consumers through connections and to facilitate the completion of transactions.
What is the difference in the business model of the 21st century? John Dayton also attributed it to three other forces: mobile search, social networking and e-commerce. Mobile search solves the consumer’s initiative to capture information, accessing resources that were previously unavailable and comparable at any time and place; social networks enable consumers to evaluate goods and services and consumers no longer rely on original TV ads. More from word-of-mouth effect, community effect and more accurate information from connected groups; e-commerce realizes the separation between goods and people. People can compare prices, read comments and read the opinions posted online. The three power restructures the business model of the 21st century (Figure 1.5).
Figure 1.5. Two business models.
Source: Professor John Dayton.
1.2 Digital Consumer Behavior
Consumer study is the basis for marketing strategy. However, in the digital era, what obvious changes have happened in consumer behavior and how do these changes influence each other? We can interpret the issues by the customer decision journey (CDJ). The route above was first proposed by David C. Edelman and Marc Singer in 2007 for replacing traditional sales funnel first, suggesting enterprises place marketing resources to customer decision processes rather than terminal marketing. However, in the present-day digital era, this 9–year-old model also needs upgrading. In 2015, they upgraded CDJ to the digital customer decision process under which traditional CDJ speeds up its earlier thinking process and the evaluation was influenced by digitalization; brands no longer exert influence on the customer decision process in a passive way, but reshape CDJ proactively with the help of digital marketing tools, shorten customers’ time of thinking and evaluating and enable customers to repurchase just out of the preference of brands. This automatic process of digitalization can improve clients’ loyalty and achieve balance between scale of production and customization. Enterprises need to master the key capabilities in four areas: automation, forward-looking customization, scene interactions and innovation in CDJ (Figure 1.6).
Figure 1.6. Decision journey bit-consumer.
Source: Shaping Digital Customer Journey, D.C. Edelman and M. Singer, Harvard Business Review, 93(11), 2015.
