Think Gen X and Boomers are too close to their kids? Just wait til we’re moms and dads.

Gen Y has learned that normal parental behaviour involves constant checking-in and hand-holding. For better or worse, that’s another article for another time.

Imagine the big-brother-like level of coddling Generation Y will bestow upon its children. Armed with technology, our ability to stay informed about everything our children do will be almost total.

At least Gen X had freedom
I stay in touch with my parents through email regularly. The great majority of my peers do the same. Everyone in my immediate family has a cellphone and we call and text each other almost daily. A smaller slice of my friends have their parents on Facebook and on their instant messenger, also using those channels to stay in touch.

This might seem like too much communication — but the thing is, I want my family to know what’s going on with me, and I want to know what’s going on with them. In conversations with some Gen X peers, the last thing they wanted is for their parents to be able to keep tabs on them. To quote one directly:

If there needs to be a leash of some kind, I want the longest one possible.

When Generation Y has children (and some already do), technology is going to play a massive role in the way they interact with one another.

Gen Z: nowhere to hide
For example, if we ever became the slightest bit worried about where our kids are — we’d just call them on their cell phones (which, in the near future, will likely have GPS-tracking functionality). So I might not even need to call them, I’d just push a button and some kind of interface will show me where my kid is on a street map. A lot of parents add their kids to MySpace/Facebook/IM to monitor their activity, a trend which will continue in the future. This gives us information above and beyond your whereabouts — we’ll know who you’re talking to and what you’re talking about.

Gen Z: don’t even think about lying to your Gen Y parents, we’ll have documented evidence. Of pretty much everything you do.

cute kid at the park courtesy of mikebaird

As advertising continues to get more targeted and specific, it will soon be very scary and creepy to see ads. They will be a reflection of what marketers think of you. Ads will be served to you based on a general consumer profile, tweaked and customized based on your personal buying behaviour.

Check out this technology from …where else…Japan that allows advertisers to customize the content of billboards using cameras. The cameras use face-detection technology to analyze the person walking by, then tells the billboard to serve the appropriate ad (link)

On the surface, this is harmless. Quite innovative and novel, actually. But this could also go really really wrong, really really fast.

This is what Times Square looks like today (click):

Ideally, this would transform into:

Sufficiently targeted items for my interests and the interests of my demographics. This is the ideal situation, everything is relevant and the ads actually intrigue me. It would be depressing to see that the world thinks that all 20-something males need to survive is beer, condoms and slacker movies, but that’s a different post for another time.

However, that’s an ideal situation. What if I deviated a little from the average?

What if I’m walking around with my buddies? They’d find out instantly that I might want the special edition DVD of Hairspray, that I’m addicted to Gossip Girl, that I have erectile dysfunction and that I need butt cream.

Then again, Generation Y is so used to giving away their privacy that this might actually not a big deal…

Boomers had it pretty simple back in their youth. Want to connect with your friends? Write them a letter, give them a call or go and see them.

Gen X-ers had a little more fun. They could’ve emailed each other over 28.8 or used their pagers to send 1-sentence messages back and forth.

Here’s what Generation Y uses to stay in touch.

To an outsider, it can be a confusing to understand how Gen Y uses those channels just to talk to each other. After all, Boomers just had three channels and they made friends just fine.

To put things in context, here’s what my communication habits are like and how I use the above.

Looking at that chart makes me envy my father’s generation. They didn’t have to worry about drunk texts. Or having personal information all over the internet.

Honourable mentions for Blackberry PINs and Twitter.

Thinking back to my experience working on the sales floor of a consumer electronics retailer, I had the opportunity to see firsthand the effects of marketing and advertising. As a Marketing student, this was extremely exciting. Being exposed to consumer behaviour this close made me feel a bit like Jane Goodall, but with much much smarter gorillas who happened to have money.

This experience also confirmed that yes, Gen Y presents an interesting challenge to the marketing and sales teams of the future. There was a distinct difference in the way my transactions with Gen Y-ers went, as opposed to Gen X and Baby Boomers.

Selling to Boomers vs Gen Y

Here’s how a typical interaction with a Boomer would go, let’s say, for a printer.

Me:: “Hi! Welcome to ABC Electronics. How can I help?”
Boomer: “Hi. I need a printer.”
Me: “Alright, that’s something I can help you with. Let’s take a look at the printer aisle.”
Boomer: “You know what, I don’t know anything about printers. Just recommend me something.”
Me: “Sure, but first, let’s find out what you need from the printer. Do you have a printer now?”

This interaction would continue for a while as I probed for information to make an appropriate recommendation. It would take a lot of energy — I’d constantly be asking questions, gathering feedback and leading the interaction. If at any point there is an impasse between similar printers, I would inevitably get this question:

Boomer: “So which one would you buy?”

Depending on the day — sometimes we had certain goals, wanted to move particular units, or whether I just wanted to test my abilities — I would recommend different things. 99.9% of the printers we had could do everything the customer was looking for, so it didn’t really matter which one I recommended. However, a big part of how much they spent that day was dependent on me.

Let’s compare this to a typical experience with a Gen Y customer.

Me: “Hi! Welcome to ABC Electronics. Is there anything I can help you with?”
Gen Yer: “Hey there. Do you have the Canon Pixma 3000?”
Me: “Let’s check the printer aisle.”
Gen Yer: “Alright. And how much are your USB cables?”

Millennials had already done their homework, making their transactions much faster. In many cases, I couldn’t even engage the Gen Y customers, since they typically just walked in, grabbed the product they were after, then walked out before I could do my spiel.

Gen Y Customers: Smart but Unprofitable

As a salesperson, Boomer customers were great for the department. Since they often relinquished control of the interaction, I could persuade them to purchase my recommendations, as long as they were within a reasonable price. It was much easier to sell them high-margin accessories and services.

Gen Y-ers were also great customers, because they took very little time to serve and I didn’t have to spend half the conversation explaining what a gigabyte was. Generally, they knew their stuff and sometimes corrected me if I had my product info mixed up. They’ve looked at reviews online and know everything they need and what to buy, so it was hard to sell them accessories and services.

Google and Gen Y

Boomers can’t be faulted for their lack of preparedness. They don’t have what I call the “Google Reflex“. Gen Y instinctively looks something up online to get informed, where Boomers, in my experience, are much more comfortable hearing it from a “certified” person. This made them much more susceptible to upsells (which, by the way, aren’t always bad…just expensive) and pitches for accessories (which could be bought elsewhere for cheaper).

During a sale, it’s all about who has the information. Whoever has the information has the control. Whoever has the control wins the transaction.