When I was wee lad, back in the mother country, growing up all we had to listen to was the BBC. The BBC owned both radio stations with Radio 1 playing pop music.
This isn’t the case now, but it was the case in the late 60s/early 70s. With the BBC owning all the radio stations, this meant that there was a tight control of what and what wasn’t played.
Luckily though, there were a few enterprising fellows who, bucking the trend and shaking the fist at The Man, got a ship, got a radio, got a mast and went sailing around the North Sea, blaring contraband music back inland (Radio Caroline).
It’s from one of these pirate radio stations, that I first heard Led Zeppelin. The BBC wouldn’t play Led Zeppelin.
Hearing Led Zeppelin for the first time, was like breaking through my own fourth wall. Suddenly, my paradigm had completely shifted. There was no way I could go back to thinking how I thought before Led Zeppelin; the glass was shattered and I couldn’t paste the ceiling back together.
Their tunes are now played on iPod commercials – or, worse, covered by Puff Daddy – but at the time they were the new devil. Now, they’re just…well, there. They’re a classic band.
From being revolutionary to a classic in what – a lifetime? No. 30, 40 years. And to think of all the music that’s followed from Led Zeppelin, with artists of all stripes influenced by their sound, attitude and dress (thankfully, not many are influenced by their weird symbol phase).
Now, I feel, we’re entering a similar phase when it comes to digital retail. Previously, we had the brick and mortar – brick’n’morta? – classics. If you wanted to go buy something, you had to literally be there to buy whatever you wanted. And if they didn’t stock your size – tough luck.
With digital technology now overflowing into the hands, pockets and handbags of the (Western) world, so too is there a huge change in how people shop. Just how Led Zeppelin changed music forever, digital retail is changing shopping forever.
For B2C relations, the biggest change by far is the logistics of the goods. Now customers aren’t walking in and out of your shop, businesses now have to do that walking for them. Previously the customer moved; now the goods move with the availability of same day delivery.
It’s important to note though, just as Led Zeppelin might have changed music, and the digital revolution is changing/has changed the shopping experience, they haven’t fully taken it over.
All the musical styles that existed before Led Zep – jazz, pop, classical, opera, etc – still all exist. Bricks and mortar stores still exist, and will exist. It’s even easy to predict there’ll be a counter-cultural revolution (big or small) back towards physical retailing, led by the urge for authenticity in an increasingly distant society.
For the most part, retailing has moved to the digital space and won’t return to whence it came. If you’re in the retailing business, it’s vitally important to firmly plant your feet in that world. Because, digital technology is rocking the boat just like Led Zeppelin did back in the day.