Issue #45

In this issue:

Word to the Whys

"The aim of marketing is to know and understand the customer so well the product or service fits him and sells itself."
Peter F. Drucker - famed business management guru

"The problem is never how to get new, innovative thoughts
into your mind, but how to get the old ones out."
Dee Hock - founder of Visa

"If everything seems under control, you're just not going fast enough."
Mario Andretti

Scarecrow: I haven't got a brain...only straw.
Dorothy: How can you talk if you haven't got a brain?
Scarecrow: I don't know...But some people without brains do an awful lot of talking...don't they?
Dorothy: Yes, I guess you're right.

"The arrogance of age must submit to be taught by youth."
Edmund Burke

"UNDERSTANDING does not necessarily mean AGREEMENT."
Unknown

"If you don't understand them, how can you possibly lead them?"
Eric Chester

"Why do people in ship mutinies always ask for 'better treatment'? I'd ask for a pinball machine, because with all that rocking back and forth, you'd probably get a lot of free games."
Jack Handey - Author of Deep Thoughts

See Eric in Action! Click for a video preview of Eric's
dynamic, insightful presentation style.

Links of Note...

The answers are just a few clicks away...

Getting Them to Give a Damn: How to Get Your Front Line to Care About Your Bottom Line
the new book by Eric Chester reveals the management techniques that leading-edge employers are using to get these quirky, book-smart, and streetwise employees—Eric calls them 'kidployees'—to contribute in innovative and entrepreneurial ways.

Available now. Order your copy today!
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Assume Nothing: The Marketer's Approach to Connecting Gen Why

Buy my new book, Getting Them to Give a Damn-How to Get Your Front Line to Care About Your Bottom Line (Dearborn 2005)!

Drop everything you are doing and buy it immediately. While you're at it, buy one for everyone you know. Makes a great gift.

Text-message your friends about it! This book is "Extreme!" Link to it on your blog. Coming soon: down-loadable "Give a Damn" Ring Tones! Click here to "Buy it Now!"

Okay, I know what you're thinking. "That's a pretty blatant promotional message to start out with, Chester! Aren't you even going to romance me by giving me some entertaining prose and meaty content before subtly suggesting that your new book would be a good resource for me?"

You and I want to be schmoozed before we are pitched and we are put off by a blunt in-your-face message. In general, advertising directed at boomers and X'ers tends to use a softer, more conventional approach. So, if you've been taken aback by the tawdry, brash, and crude nature of the ads you've been seeing of late, realize that advertisers don't care what you think. They're not aimed at you anyway. Those ads are targeted at your kids.

Generation Why is easily the most affluent young generation in history, pumping billions into the economy each year. On average, American teens have more than $90 per week in disposable income, and they are seen as the new gold rush for marketing opportunists. By spending an average of seven hours per day in 'screen time', these young mediavores are pitched and pulled every-which-way.

According to Juliet B. Schor, author of Born to Buy, this is a dramatic departure from the way marketers used to operate, and it has far-reaching implications. When we were young, advertisers had to go through "Mom" to reach us. Mom stood at the gateway and decided what was good enough for us to eat, watch, wear, and do—even up into our late teen years. In today's world, marketers have created a direct connection to kids and the only rule they play by is there are no rules.

Marketers have coined the term KAGOY, which stands for Kids Are Getting Older Younger. Twenty years ago, Seventeen magazine was targeted for a 17-year-old girl; now it's aimed at a 12-year-old. The GI Joe action figure was originally created for 11-to-14-year-old boys. Now it's dismissed by 8-year-olds as being too boring and babyish.

If you're slapping your forehead in disbelief, keep slapping. You see, the point of telling you all this is that when it comes to understanding and connecting with Generation Why, marketers have it all over educators.

Marketers for youth-oriented products are relentless. They make no assumptions about young buyers, no rush judgments, and they never rest on their laurels. They know that what may have worked yesterday is obsolete today, so they are ever-evolving and consistently reinventing their strategies to form an alliance with each new crop of young buyers.

Strangely, most teachers, coaches, counselors, administrators, board members, and even parents are not nearly as relentless in their attempt to understand and connect with Generation Why. They rely on the status quo and the old school rules that were in place when they were a kid. As a result, there is an ever-widening generation gap between students and the schools that seek to reach and teach them.

The educators that 'get it' are vigilant about keeping in-sync with their current student's attitudes, values, and beliefs. This doesn't mean they abandon proven instructional methods and downplay time-honored rules and regulations. What it does mean, however, is that these professionals first seek to understand the ever-changing mindset of their students so they are able to site examples and use teaching techniques that are fresh and relevant to a digital-thinking Gen Why learner.

Oh, and did I mention my new book: Getting Them to Give a Damn? It is written for managers and business owners, but the principles are easily transferable to the classroom. So, in the spirit of instant gratification and blunt messaging familiar to your students, buy the damn thing—Now!

Whys Cracks

Tweentronics. This summer, Mattel will introduce the Vidster—a "$99 digital video camera that allows kids to record up to 15 minutes of video, about 30 digital photos or some combination of both," reports Stephanie Kang in The Wall Street Journal (4/25/05). The Vidster, which includes "on-camera editing and, accessory kits that allow kids to use special effects or add a music track," is "just one in a line of items geared to kids that want to emulate older teens and adults." Mattel also has "doubled the number of entertainment, sports and music cartridges that it sells for its portable media player, dubbed Juice Box," a $50 gadget that "allows kids to watch video cartridges of sporting events like the Vans Triple Crown skateboarding competition or music videos from Avril Lavigne and Ruben Studdard."

Hasbro, meanwhile, has introduced ChatNow, a $75 gizmo that looks like a cellphone but is actually a 2-way radio that "allows users to talk with each other within a two mile range." ChatNow comes with "10 different ringtones, and kids can also use the device's digital camera to create a buddy list with up to 30 different digital photos or images that crop up when a specific caller gets in touch." Then there's LeapFrog Enterprises, which is "making a play for the tween market with a $99 talking digital pen that translates words into Spanish, solves math problems and plays fantasy baseball games ... it uses a small camera under its tip to scan a user's handwriting or drawings and respond through speakers in the body of the pen." These products—and more—are a nod to the reality that traditional toys just don't cut it anymore with tweens, or kids 8-12.

According to NPD Funworld, npdfunworld.com, "traditional toy-industry sales fell 3 percent to $20.1 billion in 2004 from the year earlier, with sales in categories like dolls, plush toys and toy vehicles each down 9 percent." However "sales in the youth-electronics category grew 46 percent in 2004 from the year earlier." Says Mattel's Phil Jackson: "It's the kid who doesn't want kid stuff anymore but isn't necessarily getting the adult version ... They're really fully functioning electronic devices and gadgets." Not much surprise there: "In a recent NPD study, kids on average are playing with consumer-electronics products like personal computers at age 5 or 6, CD and DVD players by age 7 or 8 and with MP3s and digital cameras by 10 and 11. The MP3 market may be tough to crack among tweens, though, mainly because "iPod is so cool," says Nickelodeon's Steve Youngwood. Naturally, Toys R Us is now "negotiating with Apple to carry its iPod products." iYiYi

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