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posted by cmn32480 on Tuesday October 27 2015, @05:21AM   Printer-friendly
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.


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  • (Score: 2) by VLM on Tuesday October 27 2015, @11:11AM

    by VLM (445) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday October 27 2015, @11:11AM (#255049)

    Two things to note: Its for rich kids. If you're a 1%er child and need financial counseling, they have classes on wine and travel for you. The rest of you can eat cake.

    The other thing to note is they avoid mentioning anything like hiring them. We have way too many people for way to few jobs and they're taking the brunt of it.

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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 27 2015, @01:47PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 27 2015, @01:47PM (#255084)

    The MassMutual thing is a sales job, only with decaf served for the "closers" [youtube.com].

  • (Score: 2) by fliptop on Tuesday October 27 2015, @03:07PM

    by fliptop (1666) on Tuesday October 27 2015, @03:07PM (#255121) Journal

    Its for rich kids

    I guess they couldn't find an example of a company that targeted consumers w/o money.

    --
    Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.