Let them eat…er…have internet!

          In this day and age, we are very concerned with connectivity. People are connected to each other through social media. Consumers are connected to the companies they patronize through mobile marketing and current technology. Ideas are being passed around at an incredible rate that the world has never seen before. Therefore, it is important to take stock in who today’s technology is meant to serve. Since the beginning of time, people have been making advancements in technology. With each advancement there were people who used the technology came up with innovative ways to use the technology that was presented to them. Thomas Edison once said, “I readily absorb ideas from every source, frequently starting from where the last person left off.” Jan Chipchase, in his TED talk, echoed those sentiments. Not for himself but for the general public. He studied how people used the technology they were given and came up with four ideas that take what Edison was saying and expands it to the general public. The idea that we should not only allow access to technology but expand it is because of these four ideas: if you want a big idea, you need to embrace everyone on the planet; the speed of adoption of things is going to be fast; the street will innovate things as long as it meets base needs in ways we cannot anticipate; learn how to listen to the public. This was what he thought the expansion of technology would bring.

If Chipchase is correct, then we are facing an extremely important problem: the Digital Divide. “The “Digital Divide” is defined as the gap between those with regular, effective access and ability to use digital technologies and those without (BOYERA).” If the “street” is where most innovation happens then it is important to get these technologies to those who will benefit most from them. In a previous blog I noted how Clay Shirkey believed that the best way to a good democracy was through open source coding. The idea is that the general public (or “the street” according to Chipchase) is better suited to lead in innovation and provide better ideas than those who come up with the technology.

Mobile marketing seems to work because they allow the users of the social media to generate their own content. By this, they allow the users to use the social media in order to personalize their own discounts. The companies hope to develop long term relationships with their consumers through their participation of the discounts they offer. This idea ties in with the idea from Jan Chipchase’s TED talk in which he said that “the street (consumers in this case) will innovate things as long as it meets base needs.”  This idea is mirrored in the article about mobile marketing by Kaplan in which the four “I’s” of mobile marketing are discussed. Those I’s represent the terms: individualize, initiate, integrate, and involve. All of these pertain to the company’s consumers and their use of the technology they have available to them. The companies have decided to connect with the consumers through social media and technology and allow them to decide how to best use the goods based upon the individuals’ needs.

So the real question becomes though, who is this individualized form of advertising or this individualized consumer based marketing really helping. There are groups who are working hard to get advertising completely out of newspapers. This is because they want to individualize marketing for each person (Mutter, 2013). The idea of mass media is changing rapidly. I think it should no longer be called mass. A better term for it is individual media consumption.  In the Mutter blog (2013), the president of one of the companies that was interviewed said that customer loyalty due to cellular interactions was higher than expected. However, if the main idea of the company is to sell stuff and the consumers do not get any more input other than how and when they buy, then it would seem that the company is still in charge. We associate power with the ability to buy but real power would be able to influence what is sold, how it is sold, and the price at which it is sold.

I know that those who are fans of a free market because of the natural regulation of price cost that competition creates would argue that this is just a business taking advantage of a technology that is available and there is nothing wrong with this. I agree with this in principle but if you take a closer look at the situation it becomes apparent that, in reality, this sort of marketing tends to limit the number of options shown in a particular market. Usually it is the businesses that already have a foothold in technological marketing that benefits the most. This is one of the benefits of paper over the internet. A newspaper or a magazine will usually have several companies advertising similar products throughout. A website or media marketing on the other hand only does one advertisement per page. Yes, in a newspaper or magazine, those who had more money got the premium advertisement spots but people still got multiple sources to choose from. If you wanted groceries there was Wal Mart, Winn Dixie, Publix, and even the Mom and Pop shops downtown that could advertise in the local paper. But if you get media marketing, you normally get whatever company is most well-known for whatever the consumer is looking for.

In 2007, when the British Band Radiohead released its new album, they allowed their fans to download it online for whatever price they (the fans) wanted. This shows true innovation from a group who realized what was really important. Radiohead realized that their real income came, not from the sales of an album, but from the fans who would then buy concert tickets, band merchandise, and even from an expanded album they would release later that year. This shows the evolution of technology and what can happen when “the street” is allowed to take part in technology.  The evolution started with Apple who gave us the Ipod. This piece of technology allowed for the transportation of not just a little bit of music (a la Walkman or portable CD players) but the entirety of a person’s musical consumption. They individualized their marketing but it was for a price. Usually, you could buy music for 99 cents a song. Radiohead took the evolution one step further because they realized that their fans were looking for something even more personalized. They wanted the experience for their fans to be less business, less technical, and more human. This is something that some Fabian Hemmert is working on for cellular devices. He gave a TED talk that showed an understanding of what people are intrinsically looking for but technology has yet to deliver. He is working on making a cell phone that is functional but satisfies the human experience as well.

                People are seeking a human experience from technology. They want to innovate. They want to integrate. They want to input their ideas. But the question remains as to whether consumers of media are actually given these things or are they given the illusion of having these things when it comes to actually important influence. Perhaps if there was an increase in the ideas through the expansion of availability of technology to those who normally do not have it, then we might see what real innovation and real influence are.

All the opportunities for communication...

Actually, this is not half of what we can now use.

TED Talk Videos

Fabian Hemmert

Jan Chipchase

References

Kaplan, A. (2012) If you love something, let it go mobile: Mobile marketing and mobile social media 4x4. Business Horizons. http://www.slideshare.net/mobmarguru/mobile-marketing-and-mobile-social-media

BOYERA, S. The mobile web to bridge the digital divide?. http://www.w3.org/2006/12/digital_divide/IST-africa-final.pdf

Mutter, A. (2013) We're working hard to get out of paper ads. http://newsosaur.blogspot.com/2013/03/were-working-hard-to-get-out-of-paper.html