My six year old daughter just asked me “were you born in the old days, Mom?”
I stared at her for a moment, then asked her to better define “old days.”
“Before cars.”
“No” I stated succinctly.
Then I got to thinking. I bet my kids wouldn’t know how to use a rotary wall phone. Have they ever seen a turntable? Can they imagine a long car trip without a DSi or iPad in the car? Not texting their friends, or Skyping with their granny?
These technology advances are great. Don’t get me wrong. But they’re changing the way we interact with each other. Not a good or bad, just different.
Before, if you had a message to post or something to sell, you pinned it up on a community board. And chances are you stopped to chat with someone along the way. Now you use social media, craigslist, or eBay.
Remember family game night? We played dominos, cards, monopoly, crazy 8, etc. We talked, we laughed. It was great.
Now the family may be together physically, but each doing their own thing. iPad, iPod, smart phones, texting, Kindle, laptop, etc. All exciting windows to the world outside. Yet very individual.
Despite the digitally available access to the outside world, we still only have so much bandwidth to connect.
Because of that, we spend more time online and less time in face-to-face interaction.
I’m sure this has societal implications that redefine the psychology of relationships. I leave that analysis to the experts.
But savvy marketers who are customer-centric get it. If you want to reach your target market, you have to reach them where they are. And that’s a moving target.
That’s not a bad thing at all. It’s a win-win. With the digital data available to companies, consumers are more likely to be targeted with information relevant to them. And companies are finding smarter (and more measureable) uses of their marketing dollars.
It’s not enough just to have a Facebook page or Twitter account. That’s so early 2011. Keep your eyes on the horizon to see what’s next. For example, watch what the opinion leaders are doing on their mobile devices.
Ok, so maybe I was born in the old days. But one day my daughter will get the same question from her kids. It will be interesting to see what stories she tells.
I’m just thrilled to be a marketer in today’s digital times. Even if our eventual grandkids one day look back and laugh.