Getting New Customers is Child's Play

For the past few weeks I have been a participant in meetings and conference calls with organization leaders who are eager to have college students as customers--especially those who are 20 something and entering the workforce. 

Much of this pressure is coming from facts we have been ignoring for the past 20 years and denial didn't make it go away.  Here's the crunch.  The boomers are retiring now, the scramble is on like never before for a trained and qualified workforce, and there were just not enough humans born 20 years ago to fill the gaps.

Our firm works with many different national certification organizations who seem passionate about attracting this young market; yet, the program manager and executives talk about creating messages and media that they are familiar with, such as ads, mail and getting your name in the paper or on TV.

None of this was making much sense and then I heard a presentation by Leonard Sweet who is a theologian, author and futurist.   If you want to connect with these folks, you had better understand how their minds work and to do that, you need to make sure you have some video game experience. You need to take a close look at where they get and share information.  Essentially, if you understand child's play today, then you have a chance at finding a way to attract and retain college students as customers.

Let's leave the old marketing tools to one side for the moment. Instead, do you understand MySpace which has  built its customer base to 106 million in 3 years?  Have you taken a good look at YouTube  which is about a year old and means we are all movie producers now? How about FaceBook?  Do you have your account active there and is it part of your daily communication habits now?  Have you joined the Duct Tape Marketing group on Facebook?  (That's right, the business community is quickly adapting what their 20 something customers are using.)

Most importantly, look at the video game industry.  It's bigger than all of the entertainment revenue generated by Hollywood.  What experience do you have with Microsoft Xbox 360 or Sony Play Station 3? If that's bigger than Hollywood, what's next?  Both of those video game giants are now being dwarfed by Wii by Nintendo.  It is neither bigger, nor better. It's value is in being vastly different.  It redefines play and makes the participants physically active in the game. Nintendo sold 3 million Wii in the first 6 months.  They can't make them fast enough.  Sweet said the Wii will outsell both the Xbox and Play Station, combined.

What does this mean if you want college students as customers?  For one, it means you have to get in the game and experience what "interactive" and "customer conversations" mean in their world.  It probably means you must learn what Web 2.0 means and that' s easy to get.  If Web 1.0 is one way communication--you pushing information out to the world, then Web 2.0 is a two-way conversation.    And that means the whole idea of "messaging" may not fit at all. 

The customers that those organizations want to attract don't want a message.  They want to get in the game. And they expect to see you in the game with them.

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