Wednesday, July 22, 2009

Net Generation…Digital Borg

borg

Remember the Borg?  It was a race on Star Trek that assimilated worlds into a collective intelligence to conquer the universe.  It used the thoughts of billions to outsmart the thoughts of millions.  They collaborated throught telepathy.  Well, substitute digitally for telepathy and you can start to wrap your brain around the collective intelligence of the Net Generation.

The Net Generation lives in a world where it can collaborate with its members spontaneously.  Want to know about life at a university, find a FaceBook page on the university.  Go to Youtube.  Look for student produced videos.

Insert any product that the Net Generation is interested in and you’ll find a collective intelligence about that product.  You’ll find ideas to make the product better.  And you’ll find members feeding off one another to brainstorm and develop better products.

If two heads are better than one, are two million heads better?  Maybe when it comes to creativity.  If you believe one creative thought leads to another, potentially better creative thought than maybe two million brains working on a problems is better than two.  Regardless, marketers can use this drive to collaborate to their advantage.

We’re doing market research using social networking sites as a platform to involve respondents and it’s working very well.  The involvement of our respondents is deeper than typical focus groups, we’re not bound by a 90 minute time frame and we don’t have to sit behind a mirror eating Peanut M&Ms.  We’re exploring brand identities, testing strategies and learning better ways to engage this audience.

If you’re selling to the Digital Borg, otherwise known as the net generation, they will gladly help you improve your product, communications or service delivery.  All you have to do is tap into the collective intelligence.  You may not immediately know what they’re thinking, but you can beam yourself in digitally.  But remember, Captain Picard always won.

Live long and prosper.

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Posted By Louis Laurent at 15:22  

Comments

Comment from Jennifer Bowlen
Time: July 24, 2009, 12:06 pm

You know, I get a little mixed up in the whole segmentation jargon, what with Generation Y, the Me Generation, Generation Me, Boomers, etc. I’m not sure what to believe about the “Net Generation,” which I think has also been called Generation Me. I found this excerpt on Generation Me and I think it’s true:

“Generation Me has never known a world that put duty before self, and believes that the needs of the individual should come first. This is not the same thing as being selfish – it is captured, instead, in the phrases we so often hear: “Be yourself,” “Believe in yourself,” “You must love yourself before you can love someone else.” These are some of our culture’s most deeply entrenched beliefs, and Generation Me has grown up hearing them whispered in our ears.”

So I struggle with the idea of individualism versus group think with this generation. In some ways they seem a contradiction.

And maybe it’s from years of witnessing corporate clients dilute compelling creative and turn it to pablum, but I’m never sure group think is the path to creativity. I do agree (and think it’s wonderful) that they can help improve products, communication and delivery. I think the creative insight must come from a combination of collective thinking (which spurs more thinking), but also their willingness to believe that what they say matters. They’ve been told that they should believe in themselves, so they offer up their thoughts without fear of ridicule or criticism. Also the new digital environment makes it easier and faster to offer up ideas with relative anonymity.
Obviously you got me thinking on this one…
Live Long and Prosper, Captain

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