Digital transformation

But ultimately, their ‘value creation’ needs to outweigh the ‘value erosion’. There’s a multiple of indices to this value – with wealth/prosperity, employment, competitiveness, innovation, sustainability and wellbeing at the more esoteric and philosophical level. For the more everyday marketer there’s market-share, customer sentiment, revenue streams and lifetime customer spend. The list across the two levels is extensive.

However, these two levels are not quite as disparate as they seem. For the disruption to fully succeed, the marketing function has to combine the attributes and qualities of both levels to vision, lobby, evangelise and trade their way to success. This is crucial as the key influencer group often includes commentators, media opinion formers, industry leaders and practitioners of the ‘current normal’ – as well as the ‘next normal’.

Take automated vehicles and transport as an interesting example. Whist there’s definitely a provocative user story there, it’s easy to ignore the impact on other stakeholders – town planners, insurance companies, driving schools, safety bodies, regulators/policy makers. For this disruption to be realised, it’s crucial that these stakeholders get on-board for the journey (excuse the pun!). If not, they will dissent, distract and deflect the evolution to death.

Marketing leaders need to articulate and quantify the two levels of value using an exciting and ever-expanding range of digital, social, experience and content tools. But, many marketers go into execution mode too quickly, without establishing robust stories and stakeholder visions at the outset. It’s essential that they’re developed in the early days – even though they can be recalibrated over time.

Let’s explore the pathway to Map, Message and Migrate to Disruption:

It takes tech experience, marketing dexterity and a Jackanory-mindset to tackle the two levels. The pioneers of Disruptive Technology will typically demonstrate rapid change in terms of price/performance/choice relative to alternative approaches. Or they experience breakthroughs and improvements in capability that were previously unachievable. Dramatising this for the whole influencing and decision making group is arguably marketing’s most important task.

A daydream involving cloud computing, automated transportation, Internet of Things and mobile internet leaves you thinking wistfully about the innovation possibilities. This is just a snapshot of Disruptive Tech – but you still have outcomes and probabilities that will change how we live, work and play for decades to come.

However, not all Disruptors are created equal. There’s a relativity to their ‘trouble-making’ that can be captured broadly by the ‘3 Degrees of Disruption’.  Each degree has a consequential effect on markets, technology and the broader society – with the most dramatic and impactful of innovations having a seismic effect on all three.

Let’s explore the ‘3 Degrees of Disruption’ in more detail.

Each of the 3 Degrees of Disruption fuels rapid innovation in products, services, business processes and go-to-market strategies. Consequently, each degree needs a different approach to addressing marketing challenges – with a unique mix of activities and programmes to meet the idiosyncrasies’, embedded agendas and opportunity creation of the marketplace and value chain.

It can be a complex exercise understanding how much disruption and innovation to let loose on a workforce, distributor/reseller network and partner community. It needs a client/agency relationship that understands the new dawn of disruption – but understands the value and legacy of ‘that’s how it’s always been done’. It’s a relationship that requires a number of marketing skillsets and success blueprints to instigate and deliver the transformation, including thought leadership, channel development, social community development, market development and proposition development/message mapping.

In later blogs we’ll explore each of the degrees and characteristics in more detail, together with exercises around some of the successful technology and digital brands that have navigated the 3 Degrees of Disruption.