My Digital Footprint: A Two-sided Digital Business Model Where Your Privacy Will be Someone Else's Business!

Technology devices once severed a single purpose, convergence has enabled one device to perform several tasks, but such a device is still focused on the unification of similar tasks and more often than not; to enable a user to consume more of what businesses have developed. Devices now perform multiple tasks including the creation and consumption of information, data, entertainment, music, movies, video, audio, text and social stuff.

These same devices that once prevailed for the consumption of content have evolved to enable the capturing of data on HOW and WHAT you consume. This concept (collection of user consumption) has helped with the improvement, measurement and accuracy of marketing for the last 15 years but there is a subtle, almost unnoticeable change happening which is advancing the assimilation and value from the collection of user data. This change is moving the orientation to WHO you are consuming with in addition to WHAT you are consuming, the measurement and new value is being created from understanding the PROCESS of creation and consumption.

Business strategy is predicated on the NPV [Net Present Value] of future spend. By this I mean; win a customer, keep them loyal and I can depend on their future spend to create value. Advertising and marketing has focused on this principal and through the improvements in measurement and metrics can now demonstrate how successful this approach is. However, I believe and suggest that this fundamental ethos is changing, evolving, morphing developing or being re-written depending on your view, at worst you may see it as obvious and still based on NPV of future spend, but there is a twist.

The original ethos focused on products and services and embedded in this approach was great works such as Kotler’s 5 P’s of marketing, Porters 5 forces, the Long tail, crossing the chasm, and the Boston Matrix these still stand and will continue to do so. Therefore, what will change and why could it be radical?

I propose, based on two dot zero (2.0) thinking, that there is a move from Product to PROCESS, from Service to MEHOD. Marketing metrics pick up data on product/ service/ channel/ marketing performance and this data is used to hone the product and channel and its appeal. This classic data collection for CRM is important and will continue, what I am suggesting is that a new class of data will become available on WHO you consumed the product/ service with, WHERE you consumed it, WHICH channel influenced your decision, WHO you influenced and the most incredible aspect is that you will not even know that you have provided, given, contributed the underlying data. No user interaction! An outcome from the Digital FootPrint and subsequent generation of your behavioral DNA is that as a consumer, your entire “Six Screens of Life” e.g. Cinema, TV, PC, shared screen, mobile & iPod, the screen that form the ways you consumer digital media will be uniquely controlled and designed for you and your social media crowd.

The data that is collected will form your Digital Footprint and provides one side of the business model. This side includes the analysis of the data to generate your behavioral DNA, from which value can be extracted. This side of the business model will be governed by user control, trust and hiding/ preventing true identity from being discovered and exploited.

The second side of the business model is the extraction of value which will come from many different avenues, some direct eg. Selling a service for cash and some indirect, recommendation, context or the ability to barter. Digital businesses will become dependent on locating itself between the user as the provider of data and the consumer of data! However, there are a number of possible controllers of the Digital FootPrint including: the user, a trusted friend, a commercial locked platform, a commercial open platform, government or a quango!
The book explains the unique role of the mobile in the collection of data for your digital footprint. It explains that original value is changing from WHAT you are doing to WHO you are doing it with; from product/ service KNOWLEDGE to PROCESS and METHOD insight.
The book explores the value of your history and the length of your footprint tail, reviews the legal position and sets out current thinking on frameworks and implementation, drawing out some definite issues regarding data storage and centralization. The book brings together the value of My Digital Footprint into a matrix and segmentation framework based on this two sided digital consumer approach based on collection and consumption of data and highlights the implications for businesses, especially Branding and TRUST and adds a new P to the marketing mix “PROCESS”