Digital meets CRM: recognizing the signs of the times

Digital evangelist Karl-Heinz Land called out to the participants: "Recommendation is the new search - everything else is spam."FROM CHRISTOPH OGGENFUSS*The founder and head of the German CRM Forum, Helmut Blocher, had the good fortune to invite Karl-Heinz Land, the most prominent expert on the topic of digital transformation, as keynote speaker. Not only was his explanation of the somewhat cryptic concept of "digital Darwinism" helpful, but also his explanation of how digitalization will change the behaviour of customers and providers - and therefore also marketing. And anyone who believed before the presentation that the development would be linear and gradual was wrong. Everything will happen faster and more violently, Land argued - Moor's Law still applies 50 years after it was formulated.

These figures show how fast digitalization is progressing. Image: K.H. Land, neuland.Land compares the disruptive power of digitalization with the invention of the steam engine and later electricity. The main difference is that the digital revolution will take place, or is already taking place, at an incomparably faster pace - in other words, everything is happening in fast motion. The example of dematerialization makes it clear that physical objects such as keys, plastic cards and banknotes are (or will be) disappearing from our everyday lives and can be found in digitalized form on smartphones. This clearly makes the smartphone the so-called "first screen", as evidenced by the fact that more than 50% of Google queries are already made from cell phones.

Things like flight tickets, cash, keys, passports and credit cards will be available as apps on our smartphones in the future. Image: K.H. Land, neuland.The undivided attention of traditional media, such as television, is history - very often an iPad or smartphone is used in parallel with television consumption. This certainly doesn't make expensive TV advertising any more effective! In the past, you had to zap away - today you simply turn to another screen.I had the opportunity to ask digital expert Karl-Heinz Land a few questions at the CRM Forum.MK Where do you see the connection between digital and CRM?KARL-HEINZ LAND "Digital means omnipresent on the one hand and a fusion of analog and digital on the other. Both have a considerable influence on customer behavior and so it will be important to master the three "C's": Contact, Content and Context. Marketing must become a value-added service - otherwise it will become obsolete".MK What are the biggest risks when companies ignore or simply underestimate the digital transformation?KARL-HEINZ LAND "When omnichannel customer behavior becomes a reality, companies run the risk of losing sight of the buyer. Although channel hopping is controlled by the customer, it must be made transparent for the company. And social media are naturally part of this. So there is no way around a digital strategy in which the relevant ambition is formulated. The Hilton Hotel Group can be mentioned as an example. In 2013, the young company AirBnB managed more overnight stays than the global Hilton Group and achieved a market capitalization of USD 30 billion in its four years of existence. And it did this with 140 employees, compared to Hilton's 810,000, and without owning any physical hotels".MK Will the digital transformation end well?KARL-HEINZ LAND "Yes, it will turn out well, although many things are being called into question. I am convinced that people are not made to work. In my opinion, a life with less work is a better life. What's more, a new economy based heavily on sharing is much more resource-efficient. In this world, we can do without at least two thirds of our private vehicles! Against such a backdrop, growth can no longer be the ultimate goal. "Dog sharing may seem exotic at first glance, but it can make a lot of sense." Whatever we think about the digital transformation - it is coming faster and more violently than we assume and CRM is also being hit by this force. Active shaping or passive shaping - that is currently the open question.