Here’s what I’ve learned from 2 weeks spent connecting with 5 focus groups.
Teenagers already don’t give a damn about your brand.
The next generation are pre-disposed to have absolutely zero interest in what you’re selling. Why? Because they’ve been sold to through an ever-increasing number of apps since they were old enough to lift a rectangular slab of glass.
They’re not just being sold to by you. They’re being sold to by their friends, who want their reactions and their time and their attention. They’re being sold to by their own generational cultural leaders.
So what does that mean for you? It means that when you communicate with the next generation, you’re going to be dealing with a hostile audience. And you’re going to have to try a hell of a lot harder.
Change The Way You Communicate
The way they communicate is always going to be ahead of the way you communicate.
They’re native to this. They design the way the products we design are used.
If you’re not finding ways to actually engage them in a conversation through which you can learn more than how to squeeze them for a dime, you’re old news.
I don’t have a message from God about this. The heavens haven’t opened up to teach me exactly how to communicate with every generation. But what I can tell you is simple.
You need to let go of your assumptions. You need to let go of what you’re 100% certain about. The chances are, you’re wrong. And you can’t afford to wait until someone proves that.
MJ is a good friend of mine (in real life not Internet life) who helps people ranging from the A-type who just wants more money, no mental blocks and maximum performance, to those stuck in the mundanity of being chained to their desk and wanting out, right through to trauma survivors trying to find themselves again. He jumped at the idea to gift every reader of my work an hour of his time. All you have to do is email him.
[This post by Jon Westenberg first appeared on Medium and has been reproduced with permission.]
