Generational Theories: The Role of Age

When I took the ACT in high school, I anxiously awaited my test results along with the rest of the nation's juniors. When I finally got my scores, I knew I could do better, but I was happy with it--I had scored in the 99th percentile nation-wide. Immediately after the scores came in, my friends and I all compared scores, and each of us scored 98th or higher. We all congratulated each other and complained about how Spencer could have gotten a 33 when he was so lacking in common sense. But after a while, we started wondering how in the world we could all be a part of this "upper eschelon"--who would be in the 50th percentile? 25th? 5th? It came as a shock to many of us to realize that our reality was not the reality of many of our peers in other states, in other communities, in other schools. Ultimately, we only knew the people we knew, never being aware of the rest of what was out there.

In my time as a young planner, I've been approached a number of times for help on speaking and selling to my age demographic. My peers and I are considered experts on our demographic, and while I see the truth to the statements, its like my friends and I celebrating our ACT scores--we only know the people we know, and that can be a very limiting sample. I STILL don't know anything about Friendster, because thats not where my friends are--we're on Facebook. But Friendster still has 90 million registered users, none of which I'm connecting with. Much like my older counterparts, I have to study my own generation. And all of it can get a bit overwhelming...

Enter generational theories. They boil down a nation's worth of teenagers or baby boomers or gen x'ers into easy to digest, easy to support profiles. At the speed of business, the safety of an understood title like "millennials" can be a huge relief, not to mention a money and time saver. 

But are we getting enough out of these titles? How much trust can we put into these profiles? Are they working? Is there a better way to learn?

I say we need more than these profiles to guide our communication. Of course they can help start us down the right path for our own research, but it seems generational theories are increasingly taking the place of primary research, and in my opinion, compromising our results. 

In trying to differentiate your brand, in trying to create innovative communication, I urge you to keep this in mind:

"A city book can only direct you to known places." - Cretien Van Campen in "The Hidden Sense: Synesthesia in Art and Science"

Think on it. More discussion to come.

Comcast lives out its digital media relationships

After my slight tirade Tuesday night and a whole 'lotta back and forth on Twitter with ComcastCares, I popped into bed crossing my fingers that something would come from all of it. The next morning I got a call from Rebecca at Customer Service who I just called back today. She was extremely forthcoming and kind, empathized with my frustration, and gave me 50% off my bill for the month when I asked. Heck of a lot better than the woman who reluctantly offered me a pay-per-view coupon. Shortly after she called yesterday I also got a call from George, who will be coming out on Saturday to get things fixed up. Pleased by the follow-through.

So the question remains. Are they making changes in their traditional communication lines or did I only get a call from the team dedicated to social/digital media? I would love to see Comcast take this online so as to avoid sitting on hold completely, and while I did try to do a live chat, it did not prove as easily as I had hoped it would be. I gotta say though, I won't be calling Comcast if I can help it. I'll be tweeting.

A quick note on treating your consumers with respect

Though this ties into a larger topic I'd like to discuss another time about meaningful brand communication, I noticed a strange instance of a brand missing the mark with their consumers.

Today I called Comcast for the 5th time in 2 weeks because my On Demand wasn't working. Again. Anyway, that's neither here nor there. But I immediately explained my frustration at having gone through this so many times and that "On Demand" doesn't really count if it's "On Demand in an hour after you call us and we send signals and you unplug your box and lose all the channel information." Ok, end rant. I am just surprised and disappointed that there's validity to everyone hating Comcast. 

Anyhow, the calls always included a fair bit of hold time, and today after I got a rep, I ended up on hold for another 20 minutes. Not a big deal because all I had to do tonight was clean, but as soon as they put me on hold, I got a message saying something to the effect of "Want to pay less for your home phone line? (Insert here a hard sell for Comcast Digital Voice) Ask your customer representative today!" Ok, I understand using a phone call as an opportunity to sell, seeing as people use that same line to set up new accounts, change accounts, etc. But for those of us who were calling because the service is consistently failing, the hard sell is sure to bring a grimace. Because it came after my specific choices of equipment or service not working for my cable account, I expected them to be a bit more humble and not use the fact that I'm frustrated on hold as an opportunity to get me to invest more in Comcast.

On the flip side, I reached out to ComcastCares on Twitter and got an immediate response, and he realized I needed a technician, not to just unplug and replug my box. He then went on to set up an appointment for me. 

That's how you do it, folks. Not hard-selling me when I'm stuck wasting my minutes on hold with you. 

EDIT: I got a call this morning from Comcast saying that they had seen my blog and that they'd like me to give them a call. Why is it that Comcast is doing GREAT on the digital media front but not in their traditional infrastructure??