We live in times of change
Change is a feature of life. Sometimes that change process can be in your face, aggressive and challenging. Sometimes they can be quiet, persistent, and gentle. Sometimes it is steady and slow. At others it is rapid and demanding. Sometimes the changes appear transient and temporary. At others permanence adds to the threat.
Many of the recent changes we are familiar with are fast, permanent and more impactful than ever before!
Change fuelled by innovation, technology and people
The modern behemoths such as Amazon, Google, Facebook, Apple, Microsoft and Samsung have all contributed to that change. Technology by way of efficient, effective, fast and affordable mobile connectivity has transformed our lives. Computing has gone mobile. Hardware innovation has traversed us from the desktop to small & light laptops, tablets and smart phones. That has given mobile computing momentum. And individuals have provided a guiding light to what is possible. The likes of Steve Jobs, Jeff Bizos and Bill Gates (amongst other) will be spoken of in awe when history is being recorded.
Human behaviour remains the constant
Underpinning all that change is one unvarying constancy. That is consistency is human behaviour.
Socially, people have always connected, shared, and taken counsel from their friends and peers.
That reality has shifted massively in recent times.
In the past an individual might have a network of friends, colleagues and peers that numbered in dozens. Those small circles were the people from whom he or she might seek conversation, guidance, entertainment and support. In today’s times that number of connections has grown exponentially via Facebook, Instagram or LinkedIn and for many the resulting network can be measured in thousands.
The push economy is dead. Long live the pull economy
The result has been a change in decision making and shopping behaviour. Rather than waiting for marketing messages to be pushed out at them by the big brands, consumers seek out the information they want, when they want it, from those connections they trust. They do seek information from the brands but more significantly they seek information from their offline and online networks; friends, colleagues, connections, peers, influencers and independent experts. The pull economy (Fertik, 2020) has replaced the push economy and is everywhere around us.
Personally, I have recently re-entered the university classroom, both as a student and as lecturer. As a student to add academic formality to my practical experience in the field. As a lecturer to pass the skills learned on to the professionals of tomorrow, those skills being in Marketing, Digital Marketing and Project Management.
The traditional classroom fits a push model
It was interesting to observe that the classroom in December 2019 was familiar to what had been the case so many years ago. The push economy was still true of schools and universities. The tradition of the school setting content curricula and a time table, a timetable that demands what the student must learn, when they must learn it, from whom they must learn it and where they must be when they go about this learning process has been the norm. And assessment was essentially the same time-honoured process.
The Virus forced the pull model on education
And then the shock of the Corona virus arrived.
Technology intervened and although the universities went into shutdown, the fortunate students could continue their studies online. They attended classes from the comfort of their own homes. They read the textbooks and the study guides. And they watched the lessons the lecturers recorded and posted online. Soon they began to appreciate the pull economy opportunity the online methodology offered. They did not have to be in class at the same time the lecture was delivered. They could watch the presentation at a time of their own choice. They could seek out the information the curriculum demanded from many different sources. Most importantly they could do it when they wanted to, not when the school ordained it.
It sounds marvellous?
In many ways it is a perfect way of life. Where else one can get out of bed at 09:45 and still take coffee into the 10:00 classroom? But it is not social perfection!At home locked with siblings and parents for nearly 2 months? And no opportunity to meet friends for coffee and conversation. The virtual world can be stretched only so far!
But the pull education model has arrived.
Campuses will reopen, social life, coffee and conversation will return to the norm. What will the pull education model deliver?
An exciting but vastly different future beckons
That promises to be an exciting and challenging time for all. With the return to class, will things go back to where the were? Will things ever be the same? That is extremely unlikely.
So where will they end up? That unknown is the exciting part of the debate. Only time will tell.
And the challenge promises to be an eventful journey with an exciting destination.
Sounds like a worthwhile journey to undertake?
About Garth Sutherland
Garth Sutherland has an extensive multicultural understanding.
He has worked with local brands (creating independent strategic positions) and international brands (integrating the international brand vision with the local demand to optimize the “on the ground” brand presence). His strengths include bringing a strong strategic focus into all aspects of marketing delivery, working with multi-agency perspectives, independent thinking & implementing with a consistent and practical teamwork focused delivery.
He is currently lecturing Digital Marketing to University students at Vega, the educational brand of The Independent Institute of Education and studying towards a BPhil (Honours) Degree in Marketing Management.
If you are looking to maximize the strategic value of your brand opportunity, Garth is the ideal resource to task.
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