CHAPTER 3

[MEET THE NEW GENERATION OF CUSTOMERS . . . GENERATION C]

TOTAL RECALL

SORRY, WE’RE CLOSED

THE JOURNEY OF BUSINESS TRANSFORMATION

[MEET THE NEW GENERATION OF CUSTOMERS . . . GENERATION C]

THE NEW CUSTOMER HIERARCHY

THE DIM LIGHT AT THE END OF THE FUNNEL

THE ZERO MOMENT OF TRUTH

THE ULTIMATE MOMENT OF TRUTH

OPENING A WINDOW INTO NEW CONSUMERISM

THE DYNAMIC CUSTOMER JOURNEY

INSIDE THE ELLIPSE: EMBARKING ON THE DCJ

IMPROVING THE UMOT TO OPTIMIZE THE ZMOT

THE SIX PILLARS OF SOCIAL COMMERCE

THE IMPORTANCE OF BRAND IN AN ERA OF DIGITAL DARWINISM

WHY USER EXPERIENCE IS CRITICAL TO CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIPS

INNOVATE OR DIE

THE DILEMMA’S INNOVATOR

THE HERO’S JOURNEY

We live in a time where brands are people and people are brands.

With every day that passes, Generation Y, also known as the Millennials, become far more important to the economy than we can realize. Generation Y is considered to be those individuals born in the early 1980s to 2000s. They’re important because a gap exists between how Gen Y communicates and connects and how businesses, educators, and governments approach them, and it’s widening. In this era of Digital Darwinism, a time when society and technology are evolving faster than many organizations can adapt, we must realize that customer landscapes are not only changing, they’re evolving beyond our grasp today.

Do leaders realize that although they act like they’re talking to customers they already know, they are in fact talking to strangers?

Without understanding what matters to customers and why, without learning their behavior or decision-making cycles, and without empathy, we cannot create a meaningful and engaging customer experience. And, because this emerging class of connected consumers is so critical to the future of economics, this is a time when decision makers should stop looking at people through a lens of demographics and instead start designing experiences and outcomes based on interests and behavior. We cannot create experiences based on where they are to us nor can we expect them to use them.

So, how well do you know Gen Y? Let’s find out . . .

Here are some interesting data points that will help turn these would-be strangers into potential partners and customers:1

• Gen Y will form 75 percent of the work force by 2025 and are actively shaping corporate culture and expectations.2 Only 11 percent define having a lot of money as a definition of success.
• Only 7 percent of Gen Y works for a Fortune 500 company as start-ups dominate the work force for this demographic. Gen Y’ers expect larger organizations to hear their voice and recognize their contributions . . . increasing the need for an “intrapreneurial” culture.
• Millennials watch TV with two or more electronic devices.3
• Millennials trust strangers over friends and family. They lean on user-generated experiences (UGE) for purchase decisions.
• They are three times as likely to follow a brand over a family member in social networks.
• Sixty-six percent will look up a store if they see a friend check in.
• Seventy-three percent have earned and used virtual currency.
• Gen Y’ers believe that other consumers care more about their opinions than companies do—that’s why they share their opinions online.
• Gen Y’ers are more connected on Facebook than average users, managing a social graph of 696 Facebook friends versus the 140 maintained by everyday people.
• Twenty-nine percent find love through Facebook while 33 percent are dumped via TXT or Wall posts (SRS)—abbreviation for seriously.

[WIDENING THE VIEW FROM GENERATION Y TO GENERATION C]

We often think about social media or mobile devices as the conduits to successful customer engagement. After all, that’s where attention is focused.

It takes more than technology to reach Generation Y. It takes understanding and empathy. That’s why these times are so significant: A growing number of your customers influence and are influenced in ways unfamiliar to us. How they communicate and connect, how they learn, discover, and share, how they make decisions, and how they take action are different from the generations before them.

So why wouldn’t a presence on any one of the most important social networks or mobile platforms clinch our future relevance in business?

The answer lies in how we view their worth in the customer ecosystem. We assume to extremes: These networks will either make us or they are completely irrelevant. The problem, though, is in our perspective. You are a small business owner. You are an executive or a manager within a small-to-medium sized business. You are an executive with a global enterprise. You are an entrepreneur. You have a responsibility to not only your business, but your employees, vendors, and also your customers equally. To see them through one lens is, well, too clouded. But to see people for who they are and what defines them, that’s where the future of business and relevance begins.

How is this different from the consumers whom you’ve known over the years? For starters, they’re connected. Yes, they’re on Facebook and Twitter. But, it’s more than that. Smart phones, tablets, ultraportable laptops, and whatever’s next . . . technology is becoming an extension of humanity. But it’s not the case for everyone and that’s part of the challenge. Having multiple consumer behaviors to cater to forces organizations to think differently about this group of connected consumers than the traditional consumers they’ve gotten to know over the years. However, we have to look beyond Millennials or the younger Generation Z that follows them.

I refer to this new group of connected consumers as Generation C.4 It covers Gen Y, Generation Z, as well as anyone else among Generation X, Boomers, and Matures who’s crossed over to the digital lifestyle. This new consumer category that our businesses must serve is something altogether bigger than any demographic. This is the dawn of Generation C,5 where “C” represents a connected society based on interests and behavior. Gen C is not an age group—it is a way of life.

Gen C’ers are not bound by age; they’re not defined by income, ethnicity, or education, either. These consumers do not surf the web like other customers. They live and breathe in social networks and use mobile devices as their windows to the world. They don’t learn or make decisions like their traditional counterparts. Gen C lives the digital lifestyle and unites demographics around interests and behavior.

Gen C’ers are different from any segment you’ve addressed in the past. What you think they want and what they truly value are worlds apart. Whether we get it or not, they’re always on and to reach them takes an altogether different approach. And, when you compare the size of the market for traditional consumers versus Generation C over the next few years, one of the two segments is growing while the other is shrinking.

If markets are shifting, think about how strategies are affected for a moment. Over time, but increasingly on a daily basis, greater emphasis will be placed on connected consumerism and the technology and channels they embrace over traditional marketing programs. As a result, new skill sets will be, and already are, required to engage Gen C. As a result, budgets are moving from traditional to new digital initiatives. So, which side of the dollar or investment do you want to be on? The side where budgets are dwindling or the side where demand and resulting budgets are growing?

[DIFFERENT TIMES CALL FOR DIFFERENT MEASURES]

For some, Gen C is a small but not insignificant share over your current opportunity. For others, Gen C’ers are a dominant source of influence and revenue. What’s consistent is that they’re growing as a market segment. And, they rely on the shared experiences of like-minded strangers to guide their actions.

To Gen C, experience is everything. What they feel about your products and services now and over time is shared through these connected networks. They know that other Gen C’ers rely on their shared experiences to find resolution. If you’re not proactively designing the experience they have or defining the journey that they will embark on, you cannot influence the experience that’s shared about your brand.

As you align your business objectives and strategies over the next year, start with the experience that you want your connected customer, and all customers for that matter, to embrace.