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from the maybe-they-can-play-on-my-lawn dept.
The Harvard Business Review has an assessment of how three companies (MassMutual, Starwood Hotels and Mariott) are using a new set of tools to connect with the younger generation of consumers:
[...] as MassMutual looked at ways to connect with Millennials, they learned something else: between the ages of 25 and 45 people make a lot of hard, grown-up life decisions, and they want and need help. Consequently, MassMutual made the risky decision to pivot from trying to sell products to Millennials (which they hate) to having conversations with them. MassMutual opened a storefront in the Boston suburb of Brookline called Society of Grownups. Reminiscent of a Starbucks, the storefront includes a coffee bar, a conference table in an open area, and a couple of meeting rooms. The company offered financial literacy classes, with topics such as "How to Buy a Home," and integrated them with classes on travel and wine.
[...] to keep up with these expectations for the latest and greatest in high tech services, Starwood Hotels and Resorts Worldwide has launched two new services in certain hotels: smartphone-enabled room entry and a robotic butler. "SPG Keyless" allows one to bypass the front desk by placing a digital key on one's smartphone. The robotic butler delivers guest requests via the ubiquitous smartphone for items they may have forgotten, such as a toothbrush or cell phone charger.
Starwood CIO Martha Poulter told me that Starwood's strategy is to try to amaze their guests so they will share their experiences through their social channels.
[...] Food and beverages are relatively easy to change, but buildings and atmosphere are a bigger challenge. Marriott took underutilized hotel spaces and instead of standardizing a concept across their whole chain, created a food and beverage incubator ("CANVAS") that identified local food and beverage stars, gave them those spaces to do their thing, and even provided expertise to back their new ventures.
Originally spotted on The Eponymous Pickle.
(Score: 5, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 27 2015, @07:08AM
Translation:
The usual marketing strategies have failed because the targets have developed psychological immunity.
The new strategy (for big players who can afford it) is to pretend being a "good friend" and from that position try to give "advice".
Words are not sufficient to tell how sick I am getting of this stuff :-(
(Score: 3, Funny) by aristarchus on Tuesday October 27 2015, @07:34AM
The new strategy (for big players who can afford it) is to pretend being a "good friend" and from that position try to give "advice".
Guerrilla marketing? Astroturfing? Hiring your friends to lie to you because they are being paid to do so. Nothing wrong here, except that it seems to be a complete capitalist copy of the East German Stasi Security System! In Communist East Germany, fully half of the population were paid informants on the other half. What a great "make work" program. So now corporations have found a way to do the same thing, substituting advertising for informing. Of course, Google is already doing all the informing. So I just want to tell you about this new shampoo I found! It's called "HeadWash", and it actually washes your head! Leaves my hair bouncy and managable and falling on the floor. Falling, on .. .. floor. My God. . . . It's full of stars. Daisy, Daisy, give me your answer do. I'm half crazy . . .. . ..+++CARRIER LOST
(Score: 3, Insightful) by dyingtolive on Tuesday October 27 2015, @09:40AM
Really, it's a testament to the capabilities of the brain that more of us DON'T have dangerous mental disorders from dealing with this shit day-in day-out.
Don't blame me, I voted for moose wang!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 27 2015, @10:21AM
Really, it's a testament to the capabilities of the brain that more of us DON'T have dangerous mental disorders from dealing with this shit day-in day-out.
How can you be so sure that you're not the only one who doesn't... and then how can you be sure that even you don't?
Maybe MDC is the only one who's NOT crazy! ¯\(°_o)/¯
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 27 2015, @06:17PM
Yes, if you can't convince them with lies in the short term, then pretend to be their friend so you can mislead them for a lifetime!
Why weren't they doing this before? Oh right the big box store thing happened, then the internet.