"From Lady Gaga to Burberry"

An invitation to submit positive ratings on the Tripadvisor platform. So far so good. In the meantime, two ladies had taken a seat at the neighboring tables and set themselves up digitally with iPads, smartphones, and ear cords. After a short time, both were engrossed in "long-distance conversations". The waiter was to be pitied - he had to fight to be able to take the orders. Yes exactly I sat yes in a stylish restaurant with an attractive menu.at the third table took shortly later father and daughter place. Here, too, the smartphones dominated after a short time. Instead of conversations, text messages were diligently written and read. The daughter had to jump back and forth between two smartphones... I felt a bit medieval with the paper conference program and my ballpoint pen.By the way: Smartphones are only used for phone calls 28% of the time.

The hot topics 2014While cloud, big data, social and mobile were the dominant topics in 2013, this year it was mainly digital strategies, digital marketing, self-service and customer engagement. It is clear that the classic understanding of CRM falls far short of the mark. The originally dominant topic of sales force automation is now a sideshow. Instead, questions of networking, the continuity of channels, and the meaningful integration of social are on the agenda. Here we can speak of the "disruptive power" of mobile and new technologies - the consequence is that business models are shaken up. Business model innovation is the upcoming topic that companies will have to face in the coming months - the work of the marketeers remains exciting and challenging.The example of Lady Gaga was used to show how music and show business has changed since Madonna. Attributing Lady Gaga to the music scene ignores the fact that this young person has built an empire in digital and social that is second to none. A Google search for "Lady Gaga" yields 1,120,000,000 hits, while the same query for Madonna yields 52,700,000 hits, even though this artist has been in the business for 30 years. This dramatic difference in numbers shows that Lady Gaga's success, and her associated brand value, was only possible through virtuoso operation in the digital world. At the same time, this, certainly exotic, example illustrates the opportunities that exist for companies. The revival of the Burberry brand is another, completely different, example. A few years ago, the dusty brand was in danger of being completely sidelined. Then Angela Ahrendts took over as CEO.

With obvious success, Ahrendts is leading the global company into the digital future. What the CEO of Starbucks says about the importance of new media is certainly not insignificant:

Although Starbucks seems to be the epitome of physical business with over 15,000 stores and more than 200,000 employees in about 50 countries, the company started early with free Internet access and was also one of the first stores to introduce mobile payments - analog and digital are increasingly merging.The investment priorities of European CEOsGartner CEO Study 2013: QuestionRank the investment priorities in the various business areas for the coming fiscal year.

Interestingly, the topic of IT jumps to first place. It should be added that IT here refers to investments that are very directly growth-driving, i.e. IT in the front office of companies. It is interesting to note that the budgetary sovereignty of this acquisition is the responsibility of the specialist departments and no longer of IT! Completely out of nowhere, the topic of "digital capabilities" has moved into second place. Perhaps Lady Gaga, Burberry and Starbucks are explanations for this quantum leap.