There’s a generational fire but no one has any idea where to get water
Playing with a new design for the site. Be patient as I put up all the new wallpaper.
In the meantime, check out this little article from ZDnet: Businesses Struggle to Serve Gen Y.
It’s a standard article on Generation Y and businesses’ total inability to rationalize how things are changing and what they need to do to meet those changes:
Although 75 percent of respondents said the Gen Yers will impact their organization as consumers in the next three years, 54 percent have yet to establish business or marketing strategies for this generation, despite wide recognition that such steps are needed.
That’s not surprising data, though I do love uncovering stats like this, especially in the face of those who still have trouble admitting anything is changing with Generation Y coming into maturity. The flip side of that, of course, is the crushingly depressing reality that, despite struggling with generational differences, no one has any idea what they are going to do about it.
Even of the 46% that say they have have developed a strategy for Gen Y, I’m not sure many of them are getting it. Take Nokia, who seem to think they have it figured out. From the same article:
Nokia, for example, has added “Gen Y-friendly” features to its products, McCallum said. “Gen Yers want more features like music, imaging, games and Wi-Fi [capability] in their mobile devices, because they may not be able to afford multiple gadgets,” he said. “Acknowledging this, Nokia offers a wide range of convergent devices to suit the different needs and preferences of various Gen Y consumers.”
If that’s all Nokia has, they’ve got nothing. Marketing to my generation is about more than just ‘adding features’. It’s about way more than Wi-Fi capabilities. We do like those things. Hell, we even NEED those things. But they’re not what’s going to push a brand to success with a Gen Y audience.
I’m not arguing that Gen Y is somehow above long lists of features and standard marketing tactics. What sets us apart is that we’re the first generation that is in a position to think about products in a more contextual sense. Instead of simply asking “What does this do?”, we tend to ask “How does this fit into my life and my world?”
We demand more from our products, whether they be mp3 players or t-shirts. Some questions Gen Y might ask about a product they’re buying: how does this work with other products I own? Do too few of my friends have this product? Do too MANY of my friends have this product? Where is this product made? How is this product made? Does it look good? Does it look good next to the other products I own? Can I feel good about buying this? Do I understand this product and everything it does? Is this product artistic? Is the company that produces this product lying to me?
These questions are the difference between brands that I think are working with a younger generation and those that aren’t. It’s why a Nokia cell phone has less appeal than an iPhone. Why a T-shirt from Wal-Mart has less appeal than something from threadless. Why Microsoft keeps losing to google. Why people want to drive the Toyota Prius despite being entirely unable to tell you how a hybrid engine works.
We’re very image-driven as a generation. We’ve been criticized for it a lot, but I’m not sure it’s particularly a bad thing. It’s neither good nor bad — it just is. And it’s new, so it’s taking companies a long time to figure it out.
The thing is that, as we get older and get jobs and start to generate income, we’re very much looking for companies who create products that will fit into our lives.
P.S: Just to hammer home how international this generational shift really is, check out these stats from the aforementioned article:
According to Genesys, the research was designed to help enterprises identify key challenges and enable them to improve the overall customer experience.
Of the 164 executives who took part in the survey, 29 percent were from North America, 31 percent from Europe, 30 percent from the Asia-Pacific region, and 10 percent from the rest of the world. Participants represented 19 industry segments, and one-third of respondents’ organizations had annual revenue greater than US$1 billion.
This entry was posted on Monday, October 6th, 2008 at 12:25 am and is filed under Culture, Global, News, Technology. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.
