These past few months I took a course called ‘Digital and Interactive Marketing’. It was one of my favourite courses to date as I was able to see how fast-paced and innovative Digital Marketing can be. It truly cemented my desire to be a part of an exponentially evolving industry in an even faster evolving world. There were multiple things I learnt but in particular the most fascinating was the concept of Digital as a disruptor.
Digital Disrupts Businesses
In the first module I learnt that digital is a disruptor. Be it a disruptor of business models, industries or even behaviours. The idea that something intangible can dismantle decades old established industries such as Taxi’s (Uber), Hotels (AirBnb) or even Banks (Cryptocurrency). The concept that businesses can be overthrown by a simple app or blockchain would have boggled my mind 10 years ago but it is now commonplace. There are billions upon billions of dollars to be made on mobile devices alone – but with disruption comes competition. New industry means current low barriers to entry and maintaining a competitive advantage becomes more important than ever as seen with Uber’s disruption of the Taxi industry and subsequent competitors such as Didi, Lyft and Ola (Yip, 2019). With any newly found disruptor we have more disruptors trying to poach as much market share as possible, but the first mover advantage is not always lasting – for example, there were many search engines before Google, (e.g. Yahoo, MSN, Altavista or even AskJeeves) but now Google is synonymous with searching and dominates the world of search with near 93% of total searches done via Google (Statcounter, 2019).
The exponential factor of disruption as seen in the chess board example in Module 1 resonated with me as I can see the rapid changes not just in products I purchase but how the world works entirely. For companies to keep up they should invest and adapt to new technologies/platforms to ensure they don’t get left behind and fade away. A friend of mine is heavily into blockchain networks and the peer-to-peer/decentralised aspect of this technology is absolutely fascinating – it still in its infancy but I can completely see blockchain technology’s disrupting international bank transfers, as seen in Bitcoin’s investments spiking during the Venezuelan recession and the Hong Kong Protests (Suberg, 2019; Lanz, 2019). Cryptocurrencies may become storages for wealth and, with eventual mass adoption, payment methods for goods/services (further disrupting Visa/Mastercard/AmEx). Additionally, Facebook’s Libra will be the opposite, stable and highly centralised – the potential disruption means Facebook could even become a centralised financial hub, an international bank (Lopp, 2019).
Personal Takeaways
I find the effects of disruption interesting. The idea that digital can completely dissemble titans of industry so fast means that the world of marketing is also opening up rapidly. When going forward into the industry I can see I will have to keep up with technological innovations meticulously. With technology evolving it is best for marketers to be aware and dabble with new technology’s to prevent becoma laggard. Coming into Assessment 2 for Adairs, my entire goal was to improve their digital marketing and ensure they do not fall behind their competitors. Through my research I even gained insights into how digital has entirely disrupted the home décor industry and the potential future of further disruption – such as through VR/AR. Adaptation is necessary and marketers must always be aware of evolving mediums and platforms to spread your brands message.
Digital has even disrupted my learning. In my undergraduate degree everything was done traditionally: I had to print out my assignments; use printed textbooks and communicate with my group via e-mail. Nowadays, I hand assignments in digitally, use e-books and communicate via online classrooms. It was interesting to listen to my classmates opinions on Teams regarding the video of a baby trying to ‘pinch’ a magazine.
Some classmates mentioned they have ceased reading traditional forms of media in favour of digital as it can provide a far more personalised experience – evidence of disruption of print media as it is not interactive and tailored to consumer preferences. Consumers now desire a personalised experience and brand interactions, perhaps in the future all media will be digital and tailored for us.
References
Lanz, J. (2019). Bitcoin trading spikes in Hong Kong as political crisis worsens. Retrieved 3 October 2019, from https://finance.yahoo.com/news/bitcoin-trading-spikes-hong-kong-223944095.html
Suberg, W. (2019). Venezuela: New Bitcoin Trading Record as Biggest Bank Embraces Petro. Retrieved 3 October 2019, from https://cointelegraph.com/news/venezuela-new-bitcoin-trading-record-as-biggest-bank-embraces-petro
Yip, S. (2019). 6 apps like Uber you should take for a ride | finder.com.au. Retrieved 2 October 2019, from https://www.finder.com.au/apps-like-uber
Lars-Erik Casper Ferm 