Consider the relationship that a consumer has with different digital delivery channels:
Digital TV
- no relationship with the TV set (unless you're particularly attached to your 40" plasma screen)
- no relationship with whoever actually broadcasts the content
- an ongoing relationship of sorts with the TV license people...
- increasingly little relationship with the TV Channel as a brand as channels proliferate and fragment
- a strong relationship with specific programs
Web (and Palm)
- no relationship with the internet itself
- some relationship with the ISP, but very little brand bonding
- very little relationship with your PC (unless you are particularly proud of your paper-thin laptop)
- a strong relationship with each individual web site and the experience it delivers
Mobile Phones
- much stronger relationship with the handset itself
- strong relationship with the network operator
- less strong relationship with the content and the brand that provides it (relative to TV and web)
What is my point?
There is increasing competition for 'share of customer mind' i.e. the ability of any brand to own some salience in a customer's conscious and unscious thinking in order, ultimately, to influence their decision making e.g. purchase.
Bearing in mind that customers increasingly demand to be able to interact with a brand through the channel of their choice, and that this means most companies that can afford it are pursuing an integrated multi-channel strategy, it is clear from the above that a battle is brewing.
On the web it is a fairly level playing field with every brand competing on the same terms against any other directly with the end consumer. Look at mobile though, and that brand is also competing with the handset and network operator. And are they willing to let go of this? Look at interactive TV walled gardens, look at the emerging home entertainment platforms, Sony's PlayStation 2, Microsoft's Xbox etc., and you see companies jostling to own the customer touch point in ways that are far less possible on the web (AOL's huge and captive user base perhaps an exception).
However, it seems unlikely that big brands won't get their way in the end, not least because their money talks. The walls of walled gardens will surely be breached, network operators will surely have to open their gateways? You've got to recoup your 3G licence costs somehow after all.
A step in this direction has already been taken with the FT's recent announcement that they are to be releasing an FT-branded mobile phone. A step towards owning the entire mobile experience "brand chain"...
CEO at Econsultancy
07 March 2001 09:20am
Consider the relationship that a consumer has with different digital delivery channels:
Digital TV
- no relationship with the TV set (unless you're particularly attached to your 40" plasma screen)
- no relationship with whoever actually broadcasts the content
- an ongoing relationship of sorts with the TV license people...
- increasingly little relationship with the TV Channel as a brand as channels proliferate and fragment
- a strong relationship with specific programs
Web (and Palm)
- no relationship with the internet itself
- some relationship with the ISP, but very little brand bonding
- very little relationship with your PC (unless you are particularly proud of your paper-thin laptop)
- a strong relationship with each individual web site and the experience it delivers
Mobile Phones
- much stronger relationship with the handset itself
- strong relationship with the network operator
- less strong relationship with the content and the brand that provides it (relative to TV and web)
What is my point?
There is increasing competition for 'share of customer mind' i.e. the ability of any brand to own some salience in a customer's conscious and unscious thinking in order, ultimately, to influence their decision making e.g. purchase.
Bearing in mind that customers increasingly demand to be able to interact with a brand through the channel of their choice, and that this means most companies that can afford it are pursuing an integrated multi-channel strategy, it is clear from the above that a battle is brewing.
On the web it is a fairly level playing field with every brand competing on the same terms against any other directly with the end consumer. Look at mobile though, and that brand is also competing with the handset and network operator. And are they willing to let go of this? Look at interactive TV walled gardens, look at the emerging home entertainment platforms, Sony's PlayStation 2, Microsoft's Xbox etc., and you see companies jostling to own the customer touch point in ways that are far less possible on the web (AOL's huge and captive user base perhaps an exception).
However, it seems unlikely that big brands won't get their way in the end, not least because their money talks. The walls of walled gardens will surely be breached, network operators will surely have to open their gateways? You've got to recoup your 3G licence costs somehow after all.
A step in this direction has already been taken with the FT's recent announcement that they are to be releasing an FT-branded mobile phone. A step towards owning the entire mobile experience "brand chain"...