The Ubiquity of Knowledge and Its Loss of Exclusivity

A couple of years ago, Starbucks was called under fire for the rapid expansion of its coffee houses. Pictures of the iconic Starbucks Siren swallowing boats flooded magazine covers and many consumers started complaining about there being a Starbucks on every corner. Why the protest? McDonalds, Wal-Mart, and Walgreens were never met with such aggressive resistance to expansion. After all, consumers loved Starbucks. Why would they not want more locations to satisfy their caffeinated cravings. Well, the problem with expansion for Starbucks was that consumers recognized it as a premium brand. Its exclusivity was what gave it its competitive edge. Saying, "I'm going to Starbucks to get a cup of coffee," was the equivalent of saying, "I'm going to Tiffany's to pick up a necklace." Starbucks coffee, at one point, was considered high-end but now it seems that anyone anywhere at any time can be seen with a Starbucks cup in hand.

I'm actually not intending on talking about Starbucks for this article, as much as I left the topic. The scenario above about Starbucks expansion and susequent loss of exclusivity, however, highlights another industry in which the same thing is happening. I recently read a rant from one of my favorite bloggers bemoaning the fact that a great percentage of Americans who purchased less than one book per year had seen every episode of American Idol, the average Internet user spends less than 70 seconds per day on the Internet reading online news, and the people he often sees in airports are staring blankly into space instead of spending the waiting time reading magazines. This rant is not the first such article I've seen. Many people are disgusted with the deliberate resistance to acquiring knowledge--to learning new things--in our society. And yet, I would venture to say, many of those same people would prefer American Idol to CSPAN.

My guess that the problem with knowledge acquisition in our society is the same problem with expansion for Starbucks--information is so readily attainable that it is becoming ubiquitous. It's losing its exclusivity. It no longer comes at a premium. Knowledge is cheap. We don't want to miss the next episode of American Idol, but who cares about the news? There's always something to read on the environment, the economy, or the election. Newspapers, magazines, blogs, and books flood the marketplace, but there is only one American Idol. The Internet made knowledge too easy to acquire. Controlled content is easier to market at a premium whereas free content becomes nothing more than the pens and magnets you get from the county fair local business Expos. Sure, you'll take it and you might even use it, but you won't really care about it.