In the age where it seems that everything is digital, apparently so is my coffee now! In Starbucks Launches Digital Network, Exclusive Content with Your Free WiFi (and Oh Yeah, Coffee), Audrey Watters details how Starbucks is offering a new way of branding itself by offering Starbucks Digital Network. “Powered by the free Starbucks WiFi, the digital network offers exclusive content to its in-store customers.” (Watters, 2010)
Competitive gone digital – in these tough economic times, companies are pursuing all avenues to remain competitive and to reach out to their customer bases. Using technology, social networking and digital networks are just a few avenues that are increasingly replacing paper media and advertising of yester-year. Consumers today require, even demand, that companies stay on-top of the digital age forcing companies like Starbucks to reinvent how they market and brand themselves. Hence, my coffee just became digitized!
Everywhere you look, company websites can be linked to FaceBook, followed on Twitter or offer their own RSS feeds and organizational bloggers. No longer are cute jingles seen during our favorite soap opera the magic marketing tool. (In fact, soap operas themselves are a dying brand themselves – but that is a topic for another day.)
For companies to survive the competition of today, do they need to become digitized? That is a good question. I know myself, I don’t go anywhere without my Droid X, checking my email, my Facebook and connecting to the Internet. I always “need to be connected.” I am lost without it. I am sure I am not the only one! Therefore, companies are capitalizing on this new social need and if they are not, they might want to consider it to remain competitive.
Kimberly, I agree with your posting.
ReplyDeleteJust last year I walked into a Starbucks and everyone was on a laptop. Then, at a visit to a McDonald's a customer walked in and "demanded" a seat in a location where he would have access to WiFi! As I watched the man, I thought to myself, "this is a restaurant that provides food and your demands are outrageous!"
But recently, I entered the world of "Droid" and I am hooked. Before, I only used my phone to make calls, now I seem to get upset if my phone is not able to pick-up the 3G network. I guess, I too have become one of 'those people'.
What a great article review Kimberly! If you have been a hospital recently - you will notice that even the nurses and doctors all are 'linked' in some way for more effective and instant communication. I first purchased a blackberry in order to help ease my students tensions when they were taking a weekly online quiz. Now that I am teaching a hybrid course - my students really notice and appreciate my responsiveness to their concerns. It doesn't take much time and I have prioritized emails for them to utilize if something can wait (then it doesn't come to me immediately - they have to wait until I log in) or if some concern is urgent (it comes to my phone immediately). It also helps me time manage. And yes, one day when I didn't have my present phone (Droid), was on vacation and had trouble with internet access - I drove 9 miles and parked in a McDonald's parking lot to access it - I was thankful for the opportunity (and so were my students).
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