TMCnet News
Up close and personal with the customers of the near future [Grimsby Telegraph (UK)](Grimsby Telegraph (UK) Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) A NEW era of puritans who expect change, enjoy the functionality of technology, but love tradition and are happy to trust a big corporation. They are the clients that will make northern Lincolnshire businesses successful and happy over the next ten or 20 years, according to trends expert William Higham. The author and acknowledged authority on shifts in society gave a fantastic overview of the consumers coming to a till, or placing an order, near you. Speaking at E-Factor's Tomorrow's World event, from the Social Enterprise Centre in Grimsby's Wellington Street, he imparted vital information that could help businesses set strategies to capture the emerging market. Following a whistle-stop tour of the latest gadgetry from flexible information screens to 3D printing and vaccine-carrying robotic mosquitos, Mr Higham put it all into context. You can have all the fantastic technology in the world, but what really matters is how your customers use that technology and what it means to you. Will it mean more are likely to buy from you or less? Change is something that scares a lot of people, but change is good. The challenge is understanding what is going to happen to get ahead of your competition. He said the secret was understanding the external drivers, which change attitudes and behaviours, pointing to the importance of prosperity, in planting hope and optimism, which in turn leads to spending. Looking at the next few decades' customers, millennials, people born between 1983 and 1997, and the recessionals 1998 to 2013, were brought together. It is a generation that is risk averse, traditionalist and to an extent, enclosed, said Mr Higham, surprising many due to the social media age of sharing. The owner of Next Big Thing consultancy, who has advised mega- brands from Levis to BT, and organised marketing and communications campaigns for the likes of Michael Jackson, The Rolling Stones and The Cure, he said: This is very bizarre. On one side they have all the influences and technology, then they are closed and fixed. This is a generation all about balance. It needs to stay safe, yet embraces new things easily. This is a generation that is aware that everything is changing, and expects change. From businesses it expects new products, expects you to keep changing, with new versions of products and new advertising campaigns. Reinvention is exciting to them. This is a generation that wants to know about things, and is willing to pay if it thinks it is getting the best. Music, food and literary festivals matter a lot, with home cooking back in vogue too. Compatibility with e-commerce was said to be vital. You can run your life on a smartphone, he said. From a business perspective, make sure there aren't things that get in the way. 50 per cent of people have bought something via a mobile, but only one third of retailers have that capability. Show them innovation, but show you have security and heritage. They are very happy to try new things, but like the traditional. People love their technology, but it is getting a bit much. They love it for what it can do, so if you are working with that, humanise it. Possessions may be less important. It could be the generation who care less about ownership. What matters is access, said Mr Higham. It will be, in many ways, one of the most traditionalist generations we will have. Very open, very new, very mobile, but very traditional. A less hedonistic generation. The amount of alcohol consumption is down, recreational drug taking is down, teenage pregnancy is going down, they are the new puritans. He added that the throw-away society will change, with an emerging generation of mend or make-do. Risk aversity was leading to more people staying at home, with economic factors leading to people going to university locally and grandparents returning to the family unit in later life. Friends are also being brought into that equation, creating framilies. Anything we can do to help interact with friends is very important, he said. We are also seeing a social downsizing. When Facebook first came up it was all about having 400 friends. Increasingly it is becoming more selective. This generation also cares more about their town, their city, their country. More and more nationalism is coming through. Being a big brand wasn't an issue, either. They don't mind if you are corporate. They want knowledge, support and inspiration. Offer 'brand aid'. Try and create it. Make your brand a family. If you can, they will trust you. Underlining the pace of change, Simon Moores - a government technology adviser - told how giving a speech in Grimsby 100 years ago would have seen him arrive horse-drawn, over a period of days, at three per cent the speed of sound. Flying up, texting for a taxi as he made his final approach into Humberside while at the controls of his own plane - with all the details he needed on an iPad on the instrument panel - he was at 20 per cent, using a mobile phone that was more powerful than Apollo 11's computers, with a credit card in his wallet with a chip on it with 30 times the memory of the moon- conquering craft's systems. The growth in the internet is staggering, he said. In 2002 there were three million websites, last year there were 550 million. The raw speed and processes we have make a real difference. We are opening a modern day equivalent of Pandora's Box. For some it will bring tremendous benefits, but for those who don't react, challenges, fears and real problems. Digital thought leader Jonathan MacDonald urged anyone uncomfortable with change to try and address that. Today is he slowest step of change you will ever experience, the only thing we can guarantee is it will get faster, he said. Underlining the importance of business representation, Mr MacDonald told how earned media, the social spread of a brand out of the control of a managing director, had just eclipsed that which is owned or bought by companies. The need to be transparent, trustworthy and credible has never been more apparent, he said, before leaving a brain-busting thought... You should work out how able you are to stretch your business model into an area you cannot imagine. You should work out how able you are to stretch your business model into an area you cannot imagine Jonathan MacDonald (c) 2013 ProQuest Information and Learning Company; All Rights Reserved. |