Mark Earls thinks that this is nonsense. In fact “The young are a different species” is Mark Earls’ number 2 nonsense thing in his recent Twitter compilation of top marketing nonsense. The brilliant author of “Herd” has compiled a list of marketing ideas that are doing the rounds that he thinks are rubbish. I agree that his number 1 nonsense that “TV is dead” is patently nonsense. I agree with The Herdmeister that number 2 is a wild overstatement and generalisation. Yet it is worth thinking about as changes in technology do affect us. Maybe, just maybe, the young are a little bit different to the rest of us.
You see we do change because of technology. Human evolution was radicalised by the adoption of cooking food over a fire. This made food more easily digestible which meant that we had more time to do things other than eat. Cooking with fire changed our bodies, our brains and our use of social time. In “Catching Fire; how cooking made us human” Richard Wrangham, professor of biological anthropology at Harvard, argues that cooked food was the turning point in the development of human physiology.
If fire helped us evolve, hand axes changed our hands. Newly discovered bones from 1.4 million years ago show the development of an evolutionary advantage in the third metacarpal. Humans with it could use axes more effectively.
Brian David Johnson, futurist at Intel, explained recently at Wired’s get together at Burberry books changed our capacity for oral memory. Before we had them we had to remember and retell all the stories around the campfire. Subsequently we could write them down and read them, which has meant that our ability to memorise epics is diminished.
Now the internet is changing our ability to remember stuff again. There’s a lot of debate about whether the internet is making us dumber or smarter. What is clear is that it is changing us and changing the role of education. (What do you need to memorise anymore?). The enormous change in the ready availability of information and opinion is already making us challenge long sacrosanct communication conventions.
There is every chance that the young will be a slightly different species. Whilst human drives and motivations are essentially unchanging, human behaviour and expectations will evolve.
Let’s just take one media example. Most of the current mature viewing audience have been trained to wait a week for the next episode of a much loved show. Yet if the series is filmed and finished (not live) will the young be able to tolerate it being doled out to them at the pace that suits the content owner ie over a 22 week season? Or to put up with a delay in viewing a show that has broken earlier in the US ? Perhaps viewing levels will be effected by the loss of the capacity amongst the young for delayed gratification on an evolutionary basis ? There could be implications on media consumption, shopping behaviour and interests that will effect mass markets over the next decade. With the rise of the Millennials in the work place and as consumers, that generation who have never known life without the web, we do need to think differently about problem solving, ways of working and how to communicate.
Alex Ferguson could turn off the hair dryer
Thursday, October 31st, 2013The commentators are buzzing about Ferguson’s new autobiography. Of course most of the comments are about hair dryer treatment, rifts and acrimony. Henry Winter, the Telegraph’s football correspondent says “The main victim of Sir Alex Ferguson’s new book is Roy Keane, who receives far more than the hairdryer treatment. He gets savaged.”
In addition the David Beckham incident is detailed of course. When Beckham reacted badly to criticism Ferguson writes : “As usual, with David at that time, he was dismissive ..
He was around 12 feet from me. David swore. I moved towards him, and as I approached I kicked a boot. It hit him right above the eye. He rose to have a go at me and the players stopped him. ‘Sit down,’ I said. ‘You’ve let your team down. You can argue as much as you like.’ I called him in the next day to go through the video and he still would not accept his mistake. The next day, the story was in the press. It was in those days that I told the board David had to go.”
This black and white treatment is natural from an individual who was schooled in management in the Scottish second division in the eighties. Of course Ferguson could be hard line with those players. They were on about thirty quid a week and couldn’t afford to walk out or have tantrums. Yet as Manchester United became more and more successful Ferguson was managing players earning millions. Under the scrutiny of the media. Of course he had more to him and his management style than the hair dryer.
I believe one essential ingredient to his successful management style was authenticity. Ferguson features in my book “Tell the Truth, honesty is your most powerful marketing tool.” We describe the 2010 Rooney shock news when the story broke that he was intending to leave United, and not just for any team but for Manchester City. The media was aflame and Rooney received death threats from fans. Ferguson’s reaction was sterling. He spoke so authentically to the public and not only defused the situation but turned it to his advantage in a “truth turning point” moment. In a world where powerful players are surrounded by toadies and yes men and women imagine the advantage that speaking authentically would deliver.
You can compare Ferguson’s old style of management, of dealing with less powerful players in the last century, with marketing to consumers in a broad sense. In the old days brands could get away with treating consumers as if all the power was on their side, with impatience, even with contempt. These days when the power has shifted into the hands and pockets of the consumer, when the consumer has the ability to shop around for prices and information at the touch of a few clicks on their tablet or smart phone, brands need to speak authentically. This is where long term competitive advantage lies.
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