CRM - January 2009 - (Page 21)

Insight REQUIRED READING The Ne(x)t Generation n a follow-up to his 1998 best seller Growing Up Digital, author Don Tapscott revisits the kids who grew up on technology and the Internet as they become the most influential generation in history. Ten years later, Tapscott’s new book, Grown Up Digital, explores characteristics of these digitized “prosumers,” who expect to be involved in the products they consume. This generation is fundamentally different from all others before it, but Tapscott doesn’t treat it like an insulated anomaly. This generation has already shaken up traditional institutions and will inevitably shape the future. In a conversation with CRM’s Assistant Editor Jessica Tsai, Tapscott explains why we should forget the myths that technology is rotting their brains, or depriving them of social skills—in fact, it’s doing just the opposite. CRM magazine: You speak to two different audiences, those in the “Net Generation” and those on the outside. Did you have this dual audience in mind? Don Tapscott: I started off writing to people who are not in the generation because I wanted them to understand how today’s youth is different. They work, learn, collaborate, play, shop, and think differently than Gen X or the Baby Boomers, their parents. But as I got into it I found myself speaking to young people as well because the great historical challenge that we’re going to have over the next period is overcoming the generation firewall that exists in our institutions and in society. That’s going to require thoughtful behavior on the part of both generations. CRM: Today’s youth may be techsavvy, and yet I’ve heard from high school teachers that their students know how to www.destinationCRM.com I lot less television and they watch it differently. [They] may have the TV on in the room but it’s kind of like music— background information—and [they’re] doing seven different things at once on blog but don’t know how to change the the [computer] screen. So viral marketing campaigns, for exmargins in Word. Tapscott: Our old institutions die ample, must be authentic. You’ve got to hard. A young lad [I met] just dropped say who you are. You can’t [fake] a grafout of a college course where he was fiti campaign for Sony PlayStation bestudying communications. He said that cause the real graffiti artists are going to the program wasn’t rele- know that it’s fake. I was in a store called TopShop in vant to him because they didn’t view the Internet as London…. I saw these young women’s part of communication. It flats. They were all the same, except they was all focused on print, were in about 200 different colors. I radio, [and] television. looked at that and I couldn’t tell one Young people today— from the other, but all these young girls typically, they don’t watch are feasting over it, “Oh, look at that one, a lot of television and look at the yellow, and that and that.” they don’t read newspa- That’s the choice norm that’s kicking in. All of our marketing is oriented to a pers. They get their news and entertainment from broadcast, one-way world, where you [were able] to control the message. But other sources. My experience is that they learn it now this is a whole new world we’ve when they have to. You don’t go study entered into. For CRM this is great, the Internet, you don’t study Microsoft because it’s all about the relationship. CRM: Will the market shift occur natuWord. When you have to use it, then you learn it—and learning it is a lot easier rally as this generation rises up or will they for them than it is for older generations. revert back to traditional practices as well? Tapscott: [The Net GenCRM: You go in-depth to eration] is not going to describe eight key values that change. The opposite will shape this generation: choice, “All of our marketing happen: Our institutions customization, scrutiny, in- is oriented to a will change to meet them. tegrity, collaboration, speed, broadcast, one-way The reason they’re not goentertainment, and innovation. How are these different world, where you [were ing to change is that their brain is different. The than the values of other gen- able] to control the structure of [their] brain is erations? Does Gen X not message. But now this different than my brain. value integrity? [Their] synaptic connecTapscott: Not the same is a whole new world.” tions and the way [they] way. Let’s take scrutiny— when I was a kid, I saw a picture and it process information [are] different. In [this generation’s] culture, in their was a picture. I’m looking at a picture today and I [still] see a picture…. A behavior, is the new consumer, the new woman in a fashion magazine, for brand, the new model of marketing. example: I look at her and I see a We need to listen to young people and woman; my daughter looks at her and learn from them. [Then] you’ll underwonders how she’d been Photoshopped. stand how marketing and customer reHer neck is longer, her cheeks are bigger. lationships need to change. When I grew up, my generation— Check out our bonus selection of Required Reading— Baby Boomers—we watched 24 hours a Other Page-Turners—online at www.destinationCRM.com. week of television. These kids watch a CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT | JANUARY 2009 21 http://www.destinationCRM.com http://www.destinationCRM.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of CRM - January 2009

CRM - January 2009 Contents Front Office Feedback Reality Check Customer Centricity The Tipping Point The Shots Heard ’Round the World 30,000-Foot Views Of the Cloud Stuffing the Ballot Box— With Complaints The Marketing Line for ’09 CRM on Twitter Technology Helps Insurance Weather the Storm Required Reading The Google-ization of CRM The Feedback Funnel Email: What’s Inside? Shake Your Moneymakers Lead Sweet Lead Incentives at the Speed of Lightpath Sales Contentment for Content Management A Worthwhile Excursion Into Call Recording Secret of My Success Re:Tooling Connect Pint of View

CRM - January 2009

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