Transparent Technology and The New World of Consumerism

Posted on January 24, 2008
Filed Under Gregg Gallagher, Innovation, Marketing |

There was an interesting posting over on FutureLab’s Marketing & Strategy Innovation Blog on the impact of technology on consumerism, particularly within the youth culture.
The gist of the posting was on how young people in particular are aggressively using technology to seamlessly move back and forth between the worlds of bytes and atoms as they make their buying decisions. One of the examples cited was of a teenage girl who went into a store and tried on various outfits at a department store, having one of her friends taking pictures of each ensemble. They then went home, uploaded the pictures to her FaceBook page and solicited opinions from all her friends as to which one they liked best. Based on their feedback, the young lady went out and bought the dress online for considerably less than what she would have paid in the department store.

The potential implications for brick & mortar retail firms are obvious. Less obvious, and of equal or greater impact, is the underlying, enabling technologies used (digital camera, cellphones, internet, social media, etc.) in a manner that likely was never envisaged - nevermind specifically designed - by the multiple technology providers involved. Such is the nature of open systems - and the creative ways in which it is being applied by the generations who take these technologies for granted and are transparently applying them in all facets of their lives.

The old closed/proprietary technological model would have this application conceived of, designed and technically implemented by one firm, providing complete beginning-to-end enablement. The flipside of this coin is that there was little to any ability for the user to customize and adapt the application to the way she wanted it to work. Now with open systems, users are free to adapt and integrate multiple technologies and services to create their own, highly personal solutions that transcend the capabilities (and the business objectives) of any one firm.

How is your own firm impacted by this dynamic? Better still - how do you intend to take advantage of it?

Gregg Gallagher
Director, Strategic Marketing & Innovation Practice
Quantum Leaders, Inc.

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