I stumbled across Seth Godin’s short blog post about his perspective on digital assets. Here is an excerpt from his post that stuck with me.

“Easy come, easy go.

The digital asset that matters is trust. Awareness first, then interaction, and maybe a habit, but all three mean nothing if they don’t lead to permission and trust. The privilege of connection.

Everything else is slippery.”

He is saying that physical assets are more valuable than digital assets as the former has longevity and is tangible. I do agree with his reasoning about physical assets, however it is equally valuable to develop digital assets in order to maintain point of parity.

It is inevitable that firms start digitalizing certain aspects of their company. Not only is it the current trend, but at this day in age where everyone has computers and smartphones, it is easily accessible to a large audience. As Godin mentions, it is not that easy to go digital. How do you make your product stand out, especially when a consumer is bombarded with all sorts of information? This relates to the product positioning class that we had where we learned the techniques necessary to grab the consumer’s attention from other competitors.

Permission, trust, and privilege of connection. Godin sees these as the three final key ingredients that mold together the digital experience. My question is how does a firm develop and maintain these qualities? I’m going to take trust as an example. So what makes a firm trustworthy? Digitally, this may be hard because the interaction is not at a physical level where the consumer can use their five senses to evaluate the product. However, I believe that it comes from the company’s ability to market and show their core values in their digital products and services. A consumer will see if their own personal values align with a firm’s core values before trusting the company and its products.