The Digital Marketing Revolution

Professors Aric Rindfleisch and Steve Raquel

Module 1: Digital Dominance

Table of Contents
Module 1: Digital Dominance .................................................................................................. 1
Lesson 1-0: Background Information ................................................................................................ 2
Lesson 1-0.1: Digital vs. Analog (Part 1) ............................................................................................................... 2
Lesson 1-0.1: Digital vs. Analog (Part 2) ............................................................................................................. 14

Lesson 1-1: Basic Concept: Domination .......................................................................................... 29

Lesson 1-1.1. Basic Concept: Domination .......................................................................................................... 29

Lesson 1-2: Key Concepts: Efficiency............................................................................................... 40

Lesson 1-2.1. Lecture 1: Efficiency (Part 1) ........................................................................................................ 40

Lesson 1-3: Case Study: Apple AirTags ............................................................................................ 56

Lesson 1-3.1. Case Study: Apple AirTags ............................................................................................................ 56

Lesson 1-4: Key Concepts: Democracy ............................................................................................ 67

Lesson 1-4.1. Lecture 2: Democracy (Part 1) ..................................................................................................... 67
Lesson 1-4.2. Lecture 2: Democracy (Part 2) ..................................................................................................... 83

Lesson 1-5: Exercise: Leaving a Review ......................................................................................... 105

Lesson 1-5.1. Exercise: Online Review ............................................................................................................. 105

Lesson 1-6: Expert Interview: Brooke Elliott ................................................................................. 113

Lesson 1-6.1. Expert Interview: Brooke Elliott ................................................................................................. 113

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Lesson 1-0: Background Information

Lesson 1-0.1: Digital vs. Analog (Part 1)

As you know, this course focuses on the digital world and how it differs from our analog
world. So, let's begin with a brief discussion of what we mean by analog world and how
it differs from the digital world. First of all, those of you who are engineers, electricians,
or musicians probably know that analog and digital are often thought as two different
types of signals.

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In essence, an analog signal is continuous in nature, while a digital signal is discrete,

often expressed as 1s or 0s. So, these two types of signals are quite different.

For example, analog signals produce sine waves.

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While digital signals produce square waves. As an illustration of the difference between
analog and digital signals, let's listen to a portion of the same song using an analog
device, a record player versus a digital device, an MP3 file played on a computer.

Let's take a listen to Crazy Little Thing Called Love by Queen first on this analog
turntable.

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Now let's take a listen to the exact same song on this digital laptop.

Well, what did you think of these two different types of signals? If you're like most
people, you may feel that the song played on the computer had less noise and
distortion. However, you may also feel the song played on the turntable sounded a bit
warmer and more authentic. Well, that's because analog technology captures sound
waves as they naturally occur.

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While digital technology converts these natural sound waves into a set of zeros and
ones. Now, this conversion process helps filter out unwanted noise, but in the process,
we lose some authenticity. In essence, analog technology more accurately portrays a
sound or a video in ways that are both good but also bad.

This is a good analogy for how we think about the digital versus the analog world. The

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analog is a closer representation of reality, while the digital alters this reality in some
way.

So, in essence, the analog world provides a foundation that is amplified by the digital.

Although the Digital Revolution has altered our lives in many ways, we still live in an
analog world.

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This is the world in which we spend most of our time and devote much of our energy.

Just think about your typical day, if you're like most people, most of your daily activities,
like sleeping, eating, brushing your teeth, taking a shower, going to work or school, or
kissing your sweetheart, are still analog in nature.

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Even activities that have been digitized often have at their core, an analog component.

For example, today we can buy almost anything online, but still, 80% of all transactions
are conducted in the analog manner.

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Thus, although the digital world is new and shiny, the analog world is where most things
actually happen. Part of the reason for the continuing importance of the analog world is
due to our history.

According to archaeologists, human civilization is about 10,000 years old, and during
most of this period, almost all our lives have been solely analog in nature.

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The Digital Revolution is a recent blip in human history, began the early 1980s with the
introduction of the personal computer, which allowed for the widespread digitization of
information.

Today, about 99% of the world's information is now digital in nature, before 1980, it was
about 1%.

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Back then, if you needed to know something, some obscure fact, you'd look it up in a
physical encyclopedia, not online on Wikipedia.

Now, over the past four decades or so, the Digital Revolution has altered dramatically,
not just how we access information, but how we get our news, listen to music, watch
movies, and talk to friends and colleagues.

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As time goes by, new digital tools like 3D printing, augmented reality, and artificial
intelligence will alter many other things.

Thus, our analog foundation is being reshaped by the Digital Revolution.

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Lesson 1-0.1: Digital vs. Analog (Part 2)

In brief, this course proposes that the effect of the digital upon the analog can be
understood by examining the relative features of each of these two different worlds.
Based on research in this domain, we suggest that the digital world has four key
features. First, affordability, because of its intangible nature, marketing activities in the
digital world are usually more affordable than those in the analog world.

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For example, online retailers usually have lower cost of inventory, less property, and
fewer employees compared to a physical store. Likewise, sending a promotional
message by email avoids the cost of paper and postage associated with old fashioned
direct mail campaigns.

Second, visibility. At present, about half the world's population, that's about 4 billion
people, have Internet access. Thus, digital activities have the potential for a very, very

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high degree of visibility. As a result, even small firms can attract lots of attention for their
products or services.

For example, back in 2012, the Dollar Shape Club used a viral video posted on
YouTube to launch its business.

Today this video has been watched over 25 million times, and the visibility that it

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created was one of the key reasons why Unilever acquired this startup company for the
price of over $1 billion.

Third, conversability. In the analog world, most of our conversations both good and bad,
about a product or service, are typically limited to our friends and family, usually around
the dinner table. However, in the digital world, these conversations often occur across a
much broader range of people.

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For example, consumers with large online followings often post complaints about bad
product experiences on their social media accounts, and these postings are sometimes
read and responded to by the firm they're complaining about.

Fourth and finally, trackability, nearly all the activity in which we engage in within the
digital world leaves some type of trace.

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For example, if we buy something from an online retailer, this company has a record of
our name, our address, and credit card information, as well as our search and purchase
history.

In contrast, if we buy the same product with cash from a physical retailer, this company
would have none of this information.

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Now that we've discussed the features of the digital world, let's talk about the four key
features of the analog world. First, sociability, although the digital world allows us to
participate in conversations across a wide range of people, the analog world allows us
to engage in deeper types of social engagement with others.

For example, having a face-to-face conversation with the owner of a local store is a

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much richer social experience than submitting an email inquiry to an online retailer. In
addition to direct conversations, we also crave being in social settings with others.

That's one of the key reasons why we often like to watch movies in a physical theater or
drink our coffee at a local coffee shop.

Second, tangibility, due to its basic nature, the digital world is intangible and largely

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appeals to just two senses, sight and sound. At present, it's hard to smell, taste, or
touch a digital object. Thus, things in the analog world typically have much greater
tangibility, and this can be leveraged by marketers. For example, a large body of
research suggests that many consumers, perhaps you, have a high need for touch and
are more likely to buy something if they can first touch them prior to purchase.

Third, excitability, for most of us especially those of you born after 1980, the novelty of
the digital world has begun to wear off.

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I remember back in 2007 when I bought my first iPhone, how amazing that was, I could
access the Internet on my phone, today this seems rather routine. The ability of the
digital world to excite us is limited by the size of our screens, the quality of our
speakers, and the speed of our Internet connection. In contrast, the analog world is less
dependent upon electronic technology, it can excite us in many different ways. For
example, attending a live performance of your favorite music star or hometown sports
team is typically more exciting than watching these events on your smartphone, if you
can.

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Fourth and finally, anonymity, one of the major concerns about the digital world is the
lack of privacy. Digital records can be easily stored and retrieved thus, just about
anything that we do in an online setting is hard to hide. This is a problem because
sometimes we don't want others to know what we're doing online, we want anonymity.
It's much easier to be anonymous in the analog world than the digital one due to the
lack of digitization. For example, if I want to surprise my wife with a birthday gift, I prefer
to buy this gift in a physical store using cash to avoid the chance that she may discover
the purchase before her birthday from my online browsing history or credit card
statement.

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Now, the relative value of each of these digital and analog features vary by a number of
factors, such as product type, buyer characteristics, or geographic location. In this
course, we'll examine these various factors, explore their effect in a systematic manner
based on the relative benefits of these digital and analog features.

When the benefits of the digital exceed the benefits of the analog, we see cases of
digital dominance in which things that were formerly analog become digital in nature.

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For example, over the past couple of decades, we've seen a dramatic shift in how
people get their news. We're moving away from analog newspapers and shifting
towards online forms of communication, such as social media. We'll explore digital
dominance in the first module of the course.

In contrast, when the benefits of the analog are still greater than the benefits of the
digital, we see cases of analog resistance in which things appear to be untouched by
the digital revolution. For example, still today most candy bars are bought in physical
stores. We'll take a look at analog resistance in module two.

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In some cases, the benefits of the analog and digital are multiplicative in nature and
result in a form of analog and digital synergy.

For example, online retailers like Amazon are now opening physical stores to benefit
from the synergy between the analog and the digital, this topic is covered in the third
module of our course.

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Finally, there are cases in which adding or subtracting the digital from the analog result
in benefits that are greater than just the analog alone and actually changes the nature of
the analog activity, we call this analog transformation. For example, many schools and
universities are using a technique called blended learning, in which students such as
you obtain course content via online video lectures that engage in hands on activity
when they come to a physical classroom. We'll examine these transformations in the
fourth and final module. So, as you can see in this course, we're carefully examine how
the digital revolution has resulted in these four different types of relation between the
analog and the digital, and we'll discuss what they mean for you as both a consumer
and also as a marketer. Are you ready? Great, let's begin.

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Lesson 1-1: Basic Concept: Domination

Lesson 1-1.1. Basic Concept: Domination

Hi, welcome to Module 1, Digital Dominance. In this module, we'll explore where, why,
and how the digital world nates the analog world. We'll also examine the implications of
this dominance for you as both a consumer and as a marketer. Now, when you think of
digital dominance, what products or services come to mind? If you're like most people,
you probably think of information products such as books, music, and video. In the past,
these products were almost always analog in nature.

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However, the development of new digital tools like the personal computer, smartphone,
and Internet have created a wide variety of digital alternatives.

Let's try a quick experiment. Think of the last song that you listened to. Was this song in
an analog or digital format? Please select one of the options for this question that will
soon appear on your screen.

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Well, as you can see from these results, most people today listen to music in a digital
form. Thus, this category is now dominated by the digital. Why is this the case?

Well, for many people, including both marketers as well as consumers of music, the
benefits of the digital simply exceed the benefits of the analog.

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As you may recall, the digital world has a very distinct set of benefits compared to the
analog world.

Here's a quick review. We have four digital benefits, affordability, visibility,

conversability, and trackability.

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And then we have four different analog benefits, sociability, tangibility, excitability, and
anonymity. By moving from the analog to the digital, music listeners have greatly
benefited from affordability. Let me give you an example. Back in 1985, some of you
may have been around back then, a vinyl album cost around $10, which would be
around $25 in today's money. In contrast, you can purchase an individual song from
iTunes for only 99 cents. And if you're like some of the students here at the University of
Illinois, you can easily find a website that allows you to download this song for free.

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Likewise, musicians have also benefited from the concept of visibility.

If you were a musician back in 1985 and want to get your music shared in analog form,
you had to sign a contract with a large recording company such as CBS Records, RCA,
or Sony. As a result, most musicians never got the chance to market their music to a
mass audience.

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However, with new digital platforms like iTunes and YouTube, almost anyone can now
make their music available to the entire world. As a result, many obscure musicians in
distant corners of our planet have been able to become rich and famous through these
digital platforms.

One of my favorite examples is a fellow named Arnold Pineda. He was playing in a

1980s tribute band in small cafes in the Philippines and was discovered via YouTube by

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the famous American rock band Journey. They liked his voice and ended up hiring him
to be their new lead singer. Also, for many music consumers and marketers, the analog
benefits, such as sociability and anonymity, are not very important when it comes to
music.

Many people, probably including you, like to listen to music on their headphones while
they're walking, studying, or exercising.

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And typically, don't worry very much if someone knows what they're listening to. Thus,
the potential loss of sociability and anonymity are not major concerns for most music
listeners.

Thus, for recorded music, in most cases, the benefits of the digital generally exceed the
benefits of the analog. Hence, this product has become dominated by the digital. As
illustrated by this example, our desire for efficiency and democracy are two important

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concepts for understanding digital dominance. We'll explore these two concepts in more
detail in our video lectures. We'll also reinforce and apply these concepts to a variety of
other learning activities.

For example, our case study explores how Apple airtags have transformed the ability to
track almost anything and anybody through your phone. You'll also have a chance to
engage in a hands-on exercise in which you'll provide an online review.

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We'll then wrap up this week's lessons by hearing some insights from Professor Brooke
Elliott, the Executive Associate Dean for educational offerings, including all our
Coursera offerings, here at the Gies College of Business. Well, I hope this overview
gave you a sense of what we're trying to do here in this first module. If you're ready, let's
begin by examining the concept of digital efficiency.

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Lesson 1-2: Key Concepts: Efficiency

Lesson 1-2.1. Lecture 1: Efficiency (Part 1)

Hi, welcome to our examination of efficiency. This is the first of the two types of digital
dominance; we'll explore in this module. In this lesson, we'll define this concept,
examine how it relates to our set of digital features, provide a few examples, explore
some things you should know about this concept, and discuss some tips for leveraging
this idea as a marketer. Let's begin. First of all, I'd like to show you something. This is a
photo of a toilet that I purchased and installed, in my old house back in Wisconsin
before I moved to Illinois. Actually, I bought and installed three of these toilets
throughout the house. Now, although I've been using toilets for most of my life, I didn't
have any experience installing them. I'm not a plumber or a very handy guy in general,
I'm just a marketing professor. However, I own a computer and have access to the
Internet, just like you.

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So, I went to instructables.com and typed in, how to install a toilet. This quickly gave me
a set of very helpful, detailed, step by step instructions, and lots of photos to help guide
me through this process. As you can see from this photograph, by carefully following
these instructions, I was able to install these toilets.

If I recall correctly, it took me about 3 hours to install each toilet, for a total of about 9

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hours of labor for all three, and I think I did a good job. They worked reliably for many
years.

We flushed them thousands of times, and never once had a leak. In addition to
providing me with a sense of satisfaction and accomplishment, I probably saved at least
$500 by not hiring a plumber. If I didn't have access to this online information provided
by Instructables, I doubt I would have even tried to tackle this job in the first place.
Before the digital revolution, acquiring this knowhow would have been much more
difficult, and would have taken a lot more time.

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For example, I probably would have had to vicariously learn, how to install a toilet by
watching someone else do it. Or buy and read a rather lengthy guidebook, that tried to
explain this process. However, by using Instructables, I didn't have to do any of this. All I
had to do, was bring my laptop into the bathroom, place it on the sink, and access this
free information from instructables.com. It didn't cost me anything, it was fast and easy.
In essence, this was a very efficient process.

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In addition to learning how to install a toilet, Instructables contains digital tutorials to

accomplish a wide variety of useful tasks.

Ranging from how to cook Bulgogi, to how to build a birdhouse. Being able to freely and
easily access this type of information in the comfort of our own homes, was simply not
possible prior to the digital revolution.

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Thus, Instructables is a great example, of the concept of efficiency as a form of digital

dominance.

We defined efficiency as a condition in which a digital product or service is preferred to

its analog alternative, due to its ability to provide a more efficient solution in terms of
money, time, or energy, by leveraging digital tools.

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For example, Instructables offers an extremely efficient way to obtain detailed knowhow,
across a wide range of subjects for free, in an easy to understand format.

In contrast, traditional analog guidebooks, are more expensive and typically very narrow
in scope. Thus, the book that you buy to learn how to install a toilet, is probably not
going to be the same book that you buy, to learn how to build a birdhouse. In most
cases, efficiency leverages the digital features of affordability and trackability. For

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example, web-based knowledge sources like Instructables, usually provide information
for free. In addition, by installing cookies on our computer, they have knowledge of our
browsing behavior and can direct us to information by offering our needs and wants.
Now, here's Steve to show you a couple of additional examples of the concept of
efficiency.

Thanks, Eric, hi everybody, it's Professor Steve, and I'll be helping Eric with the lectures
by providing two additional examples for each topic. So, you'll be seeing more of me
throughout this course.

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Now, as Eric noted earlier, a digital product or service can be preferred over its analog
alternatives, because it's more efficient.

One a great example of efficiency is the I-PASS.

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Now, an I-PASS is a prepaid electronic toll system, that allows you to automatically pay
tolls as you drive. In Illinois, nearly 90% of tollway customers use the I-PASS, I know I
do.

Instead of stopping it as a toll and rummaging through your pockets for spare change,
the I-PASS is more efficient and can cut an estimated ten minutes per trip. It's also
cheaper. By using the I-PASS, you can save more than 50% on tolls.

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Now, with the I-PASS, you no longer have to worry about forgetting to pay tolls online,
because the radio antenna sends a signal to your transponder, which triggers the
deduction from a toll from your account.

Thus, I-PASS is a great example of efficiency as a form of digital dominance.

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Because the benefits of affordability and trackability.

For the second example, remember the great Arnold Schwarzenegger movie called the
Terminator?

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In it, there was a concept called Skynet, which was an AI network of robots, out to kill
humans. Fortunately, AI is not yet that advanced or evil, but this technology is a great
example of efficiency.

In particular, generative artificial intelligent platforms

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such as Chat GPT, Bard, and Midjourney, are able to mimic or exceed human
intelligence to amazing degree.

The core idea behind it, is the ability for computers to be able to replace or mimic
human intelligence, when interacting with it.

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In this latest iteration of AI, you and I can not only get simple answers to questions, but
we can have AI create content in such a way that it mimics, how a real person could
respond.

For example, students can use Chat GPT to answer their test questions or write their
term papers. These tasks, which used to take hours or days to complete, can now be
done by AI in just mere seconds. Thus, AI is a great example of digital efficiency by

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leveraging the digital benefits of affordability, in terms of saving your time, and
trackability by being able to track down massive amounts of digital information.

Well, back to you, Eric, but don't worry, I'll be back.

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Lesson 1-3: Case Study: Apple AirTags

Lesson 1-3.1. Case Study: Apple AirTags

Hey, it's Professor Steve, and welcome to this week's case study. Now, hold on, I forgot
my keys. Where are my keys? Okay, I have my keys, this is great. I don't know about
you, but as you get older, do you find you're losing stuff? because I know I do, and I
lose everything from my keys to my wallet, to my kids, actually. Well, a couple years
ago, I decided to do something about it, and that's why we're here.

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Hey, everybody, I am near the Chicago River, right next to the Chicago Tribune and the
Chicago Wrigley Building, part of this beautiful day in downtown Chicago. And I'm here
to talk about digital domination. Now, welcome to the Chicago Apple Store. Now, this is
a great, iconic place to get Apple stuff.

And we're going to talk about something specific. Well, when we walk through, you'll
see a whole bunch of things that we normally see.

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A laptop, iPads, iWatches, Apple phones, all of these things. But we're here for what's
called an Apple AirTag. Now, you're wondering, what is an Apple AirTag?

It's a small, circular device that's embeddable in almost everything and allows you to
track digitally where something that is analog is. So, it's a great example of digital
domination.

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And remember when I told you about how I lost my keys? Well, guess what, I put an air
tag on my keychain. And remember when I told you about how I lost my wallet? Well, I
embedded an AirTag in it, too. As you can see, AirTags are amazing products. They're
quite small, about two inches in diameter, and can be stuck to just about anything. Most
people place these Tags on valuable items that may be misplaced or stolen, such as a
bike, laptop, or even their pets.

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All you need to do is put the AirTag on the item you want to track and then remotely
connect it to your iPhone or smartphone via Bluetooth. Once you do this, your AirTag
will provide a general location of where it is. And if you're close enough, you can have it
make a sound so you can easily find it. Although the price is a bit high, about $30 each,
many people feel that the value these Tags provide is worth the cost.

Since its launch in 2021, Apple has sold more than 55 million AirTags, and this number

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keeps growing. Like some of you, I also have my AirTag, and I've placed it in my wallet
to help me locate it in case I lose it, which I often do. Speaking of losing things, a
woman named Sandra Schuster placed an AirTag to her daughter's luggage on a
United Airlines flight from Baltimore to Denver through Chicago.

When her daughter arrived in Denver, Sandra could see that her bag was still sitting in
Chicago and used her phone to show United Customer Service its location. And they
were able to locate and secure the bag within 30 seconds. Without this digital device, a
lost wallet or a lost bag would be difficult or even impossible to find. Thus, AirTags are a
great example of digital dominance in general and efficiency in particular.

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The digital tracking ability of these devices make locating lost or stolen items much
easier to find compared to analog tracking methods such as writing your name and a
phone number on an item that you own. At this point, you're probably thinking, this is
great, we can track just about anything. This is true, and for some people, this presents
a problem.

Since AirTags are small and can be placed on just about anything or anyone, this digital

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tool may have some unintended consequences, and may be used to harm us rather
than help us. For example, in June 2022, a man in Indianapolis, Indiana was tracked,
stalked, and killed by his ex-girlfriend who placed an AirTag on his clothing in order to
track him down. Since its introduction, there have been dozens of similar stories about
people who've been tracked, harassed, or harmed by others who've used AirTags to
identify their location. So, while AirTags are a great example of efficiency in terms of
finding lost and stolen objects, their trackability can lead to unintended and harmful
consequences. Apple is aware of these concerns and has responded in several ways.

First, they work with law enforcement to identify perpetrators and help bring them to
justice. In addition, they've added privacy warnings that users can read when setting up
their AirTags. Finally, Apple has enhanced the ability of users to quickly locate any
unauthorized AirTags.

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So, Apple AirTags are a great example of digital dominance in terms of efficiently
finding lost or stolen items through its enhanced trackability.

However, this trackability may also be a negative feature that may dissuade potential
customers. Now that you know a little bit about Apple AirTags, I'd like you to answer the
following questions as you complete this case study.

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One, do you think Apple's response is adequate, or do you think they need to do
something more?

Two, what other products are digitally dominant that have similar types of unintended
consequences?

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Three, what did you learn about the concept of Domination from this case study? That's
it, I hope you learned a little bit more about digital domination and that you have never
have anything lost or stolen.

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Lesson 1-4: Key Concepts: Democracy

Lesson 1-4.1. Lecture 2: Democracy (Part 1)

Hi, welcome to our examination of democracy, this is the second of the two types of
digital dominance that we'll explore in this module. In this lesson, we'll define this
concept, examine how it relates to our set of digital features, take a look at a few
examples, explore some things you should know about this concept, and provide some
tips for successfully using this idea as a marketer.

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Let's begin. First of all, I like to show you something. This is a tomato, a beautiful, ripe,
red and delicious tomato.

Mm, doesn't that look good? Tastes great too, fantastic.

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This is another tomato.

As you can see, this tomato is no longer round or beautiful and probably doesn't taste
very good at this point, basically, it's a rotten tomato.

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Not good at all, really bad, yuck.

In addition to describing the nature of this vegetable or fruit, Rotten Tomatoes is also
the name of a popular website where you can find movie reviews. This website contains
reviews and ratings from both a variety of professional film critics as well as from the
general public.

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Before Rotten Tomatoes, evaluations of movies were the exclusive domain of a small
set of professional movie critics that had a public platform like a newspaper, magazine,
or television show.

Prior to the digital revolution, the opinions that most Americans formed of upcoming
movies were strongly shaped by two guys: Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert. These two
fellows were professional movie critics who lived in Chicago and hosted a popular

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weekly television show called, At the Movies, in which they would review upcoming
movies and tell Americans what they should think about them.

By the way, Roger Ebert was born and raised in Urbana, Illinois, and attended the
University of Illinois, which he often mentioned in his show.

And there's a great statue of him sitting outside the Virginia Theater here in downtown

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Champaign. Now, Siskel and Ebert was a great show and provided entertaining and
insightful reviews. However, they were just two guys who lived in Chicago, thus, their
thoughts of a particular movie may not be shared by the broader American public. In
fact, in terms of gender, ethnicity, age, and education, they represented a very narrow
slice of all movie viewers. Back in those days before the digital revolution, only
professional movie critics like Siskel and Ebert had a platform like a television show that
allowed them to share their opinions with others.

Although many others also had opinions about movies and were happy to share them,
they lacked a platform that enabled them to make these opinions visible to others, in
essence, movie reviews were not a democracy.

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The Digital Revolution changed all of this, and movie reviews were democratized in
1998 with the launch of Rotten Tomatoes.

In contrast to traditional analog reviews such as Siskel and Ebert, Rotten Tomatoes
offers movie fans the opportunity to read hundreds of reviews from both professional
critics as well as everyday people like you and me. And thus gain a large and diverse
set of opinions that can be aggregated into an overall rating.

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Since then, this website has become America's leading source of movie reviews.

And is so powerful that actually affects how movie studios create and market their films.
Thus, this is a great example of democracy as a form of digital dominance.

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We define democracy as condition in which a digital product or service is preferred to its

analog alternatives due to its ability to provide greater access and inclusion by
leveraging digital tools.

For example, Rotten Tomatoes offers moviegoers greater access and a wider range of
thoughts and opinions before they see a movie, as well as a chance to provide their
own reviews after watching a movie. In contrast, traditional movie review services such

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as film critics reviews in a newspaper or television show, provides only one person's
opinion and limits moviegoers to the role of being consumers rather than creators of
these reviews.

In most cases, democracy leverages the digital features of visibility and conversability.
For example, Rotten Tomatoes allows not just professional movie critics, but also
regular folks like you and me to take part in a broader conversation about what we like,
or we don't like about any given movie. In addition, this website makes these
conversations visible to just about anybody across the world. Now here's Steve to
provide two additional examples of digital democracy.

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As Eric mentioned earlier, democracy is a condition in which a digital product or service

is preferred to its analog alternatives due to the enhanced accessibility.

Now, a good example of this is the internationally popular platform called TikTok,
created in 2016, TikTok allows anyone to create amateur videos that can be shared with
the world. Now, before TikTok, creating an amateur video was expensive and a time-
consuming task.

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TikTok changed the game by integrating a simple phone-based video capture and
editing tool with a platform upon which these videos can be easily shared. As a result,
everyday people from all walks of life have skyrocketed to fame through TikTok.

For example, Nathan Apodaca was a potato farmer living in Idaho who became world
famous by posting a short TikTok video himself drinking ocean spray cranberry juice

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while skateboarding to the tune of the song Dreams by Fleetwood Mac back in 2020.
This short video changed his life forever and catapulted him from a humble potato
farmer to an actor that has appeared in the popular television show Reservation Dogs.

Now, in essence, TikTok has leveraged the digital features of visibility and the
conversability to democratize amateur videos.

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Studio Neat is another great example of a democracy. Studio Neat was founded in 2010
by Tom Gerhardt and Dan Provost, and to this day, they are the only employees at this
company. The company began by launching a Kickstarter to create and sell iPhone
tripod mounts called the Glyph. They now sell a variety of different products that they
create, manufacture, and market out of their garage in Austin, Texas.

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In addition to the glyph, their product lines includes an iPad case, a wooden stand for an
Apple TV remote, and a kit for making homemade syrup. Studio Neat is a great
example of how manufacturing can be democratized through digital tools such as the
Internet, desktop 3D printing, and video capabilities contained in your smartphone. In
particular, Studio Neat is a great example of digital benefits of visibility and
conversability, as all of their marketing efforts center around the information provided on
their web page and the spread of this information through social media.

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Lesson 1-4.2. Lecture 2: Democracy (Part 2)

Now that you've seen some examples of digital democracy and we've defined what this
concept means, here are three key things you should know about this concept.
First, higher trust.

One of the benefits of shifting from the analog to the digital via democracy is a
possibility of gaining a higher degree of trust from our potential customers.

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A large body of research suggests that online reviews posted by regular folks are more
trustworthy than firm sponsored messages and claims.

A democracy approach also offers this promise of higher trust because its offerings
come from real people that seem more like us.

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For example, Studio Neat proudly proclaims that their company is basically two guys,
Tom and Dan, who work out of a simple garage in Austin, Texas.

And they're not interested in attaining venture funding or being acquired. In fact, one of
their main goals is to never hire an employee.

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Likewise, many moviegoers trust Rotten Tomatoes because the audience reviews are
not connected to the movie industry in any way, thus, the reviews should be unbiased.
The fact that democratic offerings come from real people like us make them easy to
relate to, and things we can easily trust.

Second, economies of scope.

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If you've had some lessons in economics, you probably heard about the concept of
economies of scale. In essence, this concept says that the quantity of something goes
up, its costs go down. This is one of the most important concepts in traditional
neoclassical economics and is a key foundation of our modern business world.

There is a related but less well-known concept called economies of scope. This concept
says that costs go down not by offering a larger quantity of one thing, but by offering a

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larger number of different things. A democracy approach is more closely connected to
economies of scope than economies of scale because it offers customers the benefit of
having lots of different things.

For example, Rotten Tomatoes offers moviegoers the benefits of both reviews of
hundreds of movies. As well as a large diversity of different opinions about these
movies.

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Likewise, although Studio Neat is just two guys in the garage, they offer lots of different
products.

This is a broader pattern that we see with goods and services that become digitally
dominated.

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Because the incremental cost of a digital offering is often lower than the cost of an
analog offering.

Third, customers are more than customers.

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In the analog world, customers typically have a singular focus. They're people who buy
and use products and services.

However, when the product or service is marketed via democracy approach, customers
often take on a more complex set of roles. In essence, customers are more than
customers. For example, some of the folks who read Rotten Tomato reviews also write
them, and vice versa. Likewise, many of the fans of both TikTok and Studio Neat also

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help promote the offerings from both of these enterprises by sharing their enthusiasm
on social media. As a result, both of these highly successful initiatives have spent nearly
no money on traditional promotional techniques, such as advertising or sales promotion.

Now that you know what digital democracy is, here are some tips for successfully
leveraging this concept to enhance your marketing efforts.

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First, keep it fresh. In the digital world, content must be constantly updated in order to
stay fresh. For example, most university websites provide fresh content each and every
day.

So, the University of Illinois homepage offers something new today that didn't have
yesterday. Digital offerings that employ a democracy strategy also need to remain fresh.
For example, Rotten Tomatoes adds a new set of reviews each and every day.

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Likewise, although Studio Neat has a relatively small set of products, it keeps things
fresh by hosting a monthly podcast that provides customers with insights about its
current activities.

So, if you employ a democracy approach, make sure that your content stays fresh.

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Second, peak behind the stage.

In addition to staying fresh, successful democracy initiatives typically exhibit a high

degree of authenticity. These initiatives often have real people who live real lives. This
authenticity validates the concept of democracy and gives customers the idea that these
people are just like them.

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This engenders a high degree of empathy and makes their marketing efforts more
credible and less commercial in nature. One way that many democracy initiatives try to
cultivate this authenticity is to provide a peek behind the stage.

As noted by the famous sociologist Erving Goffman, we often seek to present ourselves
in a favorable manner.

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Goffman calls this the front stage, which he contrasts with the backstage, which we
often keep hidden from public view. For example, the videos in this course portray the
front stage me as professor relaying knowledge.

But don't show my backstage life when I'm lying on the couch binge watching Netflix
with a bag of Cheetos on my chest. Now, when we hide the backstage, we don't allow

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others to see how we actually are. Thus, at times, a peek behind the stage can actually
be a good thing because it presents a chance to see our authentic selves.

A successful democracy initiative should also do this from time to time. For example,
Studio Neat offers a set of homemade videos that show how his products are actually
made back in Tom's garage in Austin, Texas.

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Third, cult of personality.

Look into my eyes, what do you see?

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The cult of personality. Does that sound familiar?

You may recognize those words as the opening lyrics to the song cult of personality by
Living Color, which was a popular rock band back in the 1980s. The cult of personality
is also a tool that can be employed to enhance the success of a democracy approach.

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Now, this presents a rather interesting paradox. Although the basic idea of democracy is
that it gives people a chance to be visible and take part of the conversation. It also
allows these people to become digital celebrities who may enjoy the cult of personality.
This prospect of celebrity can also be an important factor in terms of attracting both
participants and customers to a democratic initiative. For example, Rotten Tomatoes
provides the opportunity for an average movie fan to become a mini celebrity. By
allowing millions of other movie fans to see their photo and read their witty impressions.
Likewise, TikTok has allowed many ordinary people to gain the status of celebrities
through the massive visibility of this platform. Thus, if you employ democracy approach,
please make sure that you provide a means for people that participate in your initiative
to create a cult of personality.

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Fourth and finally, splendid isolation.

In the words of the great songwriter Warren Zevon

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“Splendid isolation, I don't need no one.”

These words also capture an interesting aspect of democracy. These initiatives are
typically consumed in relative social isolation. For example, when we read a review on
Rotten Tomatoes on our computer. We're probably by ourselves and not likely to
discuss the details of this review with other people. Likewise, most of us watch TikTok
videos when we're alone rather than in the presence of others.

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If you recall from our introduction, sociability is one of the benefits of the analog world
and something that is not easily digitized. Thus, if you're trying to employ democracy
approach, you should focus your marketing efforts on products and services that can be
consumed in splendid isolation. Well, I hope you enjoyed this exploration of democracy
and that gave you some new insights about our digital marketing revolution.

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Lesson 1-5: Exercise: Leaving a Review

Lesson 1-5.1. Exercise: Online Review

Welcome to the first exercise. The goal of this exercise is to provide you with an
understanding of how individuals can contribute to digital democracy by submitting an
online review. When I was growing up, I remember a new champagne restaurant that I'd
opened up. I thought it was good, but once I tried it, it was just awful. I wish somebody
would have told me to go, and it took about six months for the restaurant, months to
finally go under.

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In those days, I relied on people like Cisco and Ebert, a restaurant review in the
newspaper, or an annual best of list to provide a reputable recommendation.

But today we use online review sites such as Yelp, Google, Amazon, where the
contribution of the masses, not elitists, give recommendations we find valuable. While
most people have read online reviews, only a small percentage of customers post
online reviews. So, I'd like to take a couple of minutes to walk you through this process.

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For illustration purposes, I'll show you how I post a review of a local Mexican restaurant
in my town called Guzman in Gomez.

First, I open up Yelp, where I have an account, and I log in.

Second, I type the name of the restaurant in the search bar to locate it.

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Third, I select Review.

Fourth, I start typing in my review.

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Fifth, I hit submit. That's it, pretty easy. Now, here's what I want you to do. Please go
online and provide a review, preferably a positive one, on any review platform of your
choice. In addition to Yelp, you could go to Amazon, leave a review on something you
bought or TripAdvisor, and review a recent trip, or maybe even review on Facebook. It
really doesn't matter. The basic process I just showed you should work for all of them.
Because your review is important, please take some time to think about something that
you liked about the product or service that you're reviewing. Please try to be as specific
as possible and try to provide insights that others may find helpful.

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We recommend that you review at least 25 words in length. Finally, please check the
spelling before you hit submit. After you submit your review, please do the following.

One, please provide the link to your review, cut and paste it in.

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Two, explain how you have shared your opinion. If digital review sites such as Yelp
didn't exist basically before the digital revolution, now, how would this have impacted
the impact of your review?

Third, provide your thoughts on what you learned about the digital democracy from this
exercise. That's it. I look forward to seeing your review, and I bet the recipient will too.

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Hey, are you still there? I was about to check in to see what Professor Aric is up to. Why
don't you come along as I have a look?

I'll be right there. I'm just finishing a review.

Wait a minute.

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Lesson 1-6: Expert Interview: Brooke Elliott

Lesson 1-6.1. Expert Interview: Brooke Elliott

Hi, everybody. In this expert interview we'll explore the topic of domination with Brooke
Elliott. Brooke is the Associate Dean and EY Professor in the Gies College of Business
at the University of Illinois. She oversees all of our online programs, including those
available through Coursera, such as this course. In this interview, Brooke will discuss
how online education has democratized the ability for people around the world, such as
you, to get a quality education at an efficient price in the comfort of your own home. I
think you'll find it fascinating. Let's take a look.

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My name is Brooke Elliott. I'm Executive Associate Dean of Academic Programs here in
the Gies College Business at the University of Illinois. I've been on faculty here for 20
years. I'm Executive Associate Dean of Academic Programs, meaning I have strategic
and operational oversight for all academic programs in Gies.

Education's being disrupted just like every other industry right now and Gies has really
been a leader in that disruption in thinking about digital as opposed to analog education.

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We were one of the first movers in the graduate space and we took our residential
graduate programs, particularly the MBA programs, and we reenvisioned what a
graduate degree could be.

We launched an entirely new degree. It was designed to be online, so it wasn't just

taking what we've done in an analog sense and moving it to a digital world, but it was
really thinking about how to design a degree that would be in a digital world. We
launched that degree in January of 2016. It's fully flexible, fully online, it also is very
affordable, and so it's a 72-credit hour degree under $23,000. Because of the
affordability, because of the flexibility, there's no on-campus requirement, and so we
transform graduate business education.

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We had 116 students in that first cohort in January of 2016 and now we serve nearly
7,400 learners and all around the globe. Now some of our courses, it's a 1,400, lead
faculty member to student ratio. Our online courses are some of our highest quality
courses and the most engaging courses that we have on this campus. But it's really just
ensuring that we're taking advantage of those technological tools to enable an engaging
high-quality experience. While also in the most efficient way possible utilizing the assets
that we have.

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Our greatest resource, both in this college and on this campus, is our faculty and faculty
are a very limited constrained resource, and we want to ensure that those faculty can
touch learners all around the world. Without this type of move to a digital world, those
faculty members would have never had the opportunity to touch the number of learners
that they have. Coursera with the University of Illinois developed the first stackable
degree program, and so every single one of our courses has a MOOC based
component. It's a massive open online course, it's the foundational component, or the
high end digital textbook portion of every single one of our credit bearing courses. But
then that MOOC sits on the Coursera platform and is available at no cost to learners all
around the world.

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There are different technology tools. Originally, we use Google Hangouts to host group
meetings on the back end. Zoom actually has evolved over time and facilitated that.

We use a lot of different AI based tools now, and so Yellow Dig is one and Yellow Dig
facilitates and encourages really high level discussions in an online environment, which
is important because we have learners again around the globe. The ability for learners
to contribute, receive feedback on the quality of the discussion and for that discussion to

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be fed in a very positive way without constant intervention is quite important. We have a
lot of different tools which really strive to maintain the engagement of our programs. Not
just in class, but outside of class, we have a social media community that is restricted
just to our learners and that's been a huge asset for our programs and all the way to
technology tools we use from an academic integrity perspective. There's a brand-new
tool called Examined, where it creates unique exams for every single learner in your
course no matter how many learners you have.

The market has become very competitive, and so almost every major business school,
if you looked at business schools by undergraduate rankings, graduate rankings, any
way you cut it, almost every one of those programs has an online degree program, and
many of them have online MBA programs. The market has become very competitive.
Our space, though, we still have a really stronghold on the space of high quality, low
cost, and so if you were looking at it from a product mix perspective, I think there's at
least one other competitor in our space that competes from a price perspective. But
many of our other competitors still operate at that high price point, and so the
differentiation strategy is just not the same for those programs. We, though, know that
we have to continue to make investments, so we're always making investments from an
innovation perspective, from a content perspective to try to differentiate ourselves in the
market, and we're very committed to maintaining a very affordable degree. I think you'll
continue to see more and more graduate programs and undergraduate programs in the
online space, and from some major institutions, research one institutions are moving
into this space. I think for some institutions, it's still very difficult to think about how it fits

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with their strategy. We're a land-grant institution and so we are charged with providing
access to high quality, affordable education. I think for us, it's an easy decision.

If you look at the global market, there are a couple macro trends that you see. One,
there's a decline in the number of high school graduates and there are around 35 million
adult learners who have some college education, but not an undergraduate degree. If
you think about those two things combined, I really see, institutions like the University of
Illinois, our peer competitors said, and other institutions as well, you're basically being
forced to move into that space, and we want to do it again because it's mission
consistent and I feel like it's what we should do and we're very drawn to doing it. I think
the other big changing trend in education, other than just the number of learners, that
seek that type of education, is there's going to be a new need to continually upskill your
knowledge and your skills.

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To reinvest. It will, I think, really become a game of you have to continually reinvent
yourself in a very persistent way. The skills that you have now are likely to not be
relevant in 24 months, and maybe even a shorter time period depending on the skill set
that you're talking about. I really believe that traditional academic institutions will have to
think about how do we leverage capabilities that we have to serve that market. Those
are two macro trends that I see that really will affect education in the next 5-10 years.

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A couple of ways to learn more about us. You can always go to our website. We're all
over social media and on social media you can learn a lot about our programs, not just
the length and price point and flexibility, but we have great ambassadors, both student
and alumni ambassadors that share their stories out on social media. A lot of times
you'll see different opportunities for information sessions for coffee chats and we have
coffee chats that are targeted towards certain learner groups like active-duty military,
like women in business. There's a lot of information out there about us and I just
encourage any potential learners to seek us out.

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