WHAT VALEDICTORIANS AND MARKETERS HAVE IN COMMON

 

Challenges of a Brave New World

 

A young friend of mine, who is about to graduate from high school and go on to Princeton, is his class valedictorian, and is starting to work on his speech. It got me to thinking about graduation speeches in general, and what I would say, were I asked to give one. It’s not easy to find something to say that’s not trite, a rehash of everything that’s been said before, and that gets the graduates to really listen.

 

            Then I realized that there is something to say to graduates that’s not only appropriate to our times, but that has strong implications for marketing as well. Ultimately, what today’s graduates must face  is precisely what every marketer must deal with as well. Bear with me a moment, and you’ll see why.

 

            The dynamics of the times, in which things constantly change, bring us to the end of each day in a world that’s slightly different, in all aspects, from the world of the day before. The changes, each day, are barely perceptible, until seen in the perspective of, perhaps a generation. And each generation invents itself anew.

 

 The new technology, to which we attribute so much change, knows no borders and communicates at unprecedented speed. It has created a new kind of individual  -- and a new kind of society. The new technology and globalization have brought into the foreground a new equity among disparate groups, and a new need for respect of others not like ourselves. It’s meant new media and the accelerated decline of old media, accelerated internationalization of commerce, and of new ideas and concepts. It’s meant faster  and broader flows of ideas, and a greater perception by one another of  races, cultures, and economic classes other than our own. It has created a commonality of needs, wants and interests that’s broader and more universal than ever before in world history. Divisions by race and color and cultures have begun to erode. Instant communications and new internet independent and unembellished news have reduced the impact of traditional media, which can’t compete with new sources of news. There are even new outlets for advertising – a significant challenge for marketers. 

 

It has created a new science and practice of knowledge management, which, in its earlier days meant the mechanics of storage and retrieval of data but now means better use of that data.

 

The challenge, then, is how to reconcile and adjust to the new community that’s emerging from these seminal events.  As ever, events alter the course of mankind slowly, sometimes imperceptibly. But this time, due to technology, these changes have been accelerated.

 

            For this generation of graduates, it’s meant the heightened challenge of competition.  The colleges are filled to overflowing, and are turning away vast numbers of highly qualified applicants. They are graduating an exploded number of very bright, highly trained individuals. For both graduates and marketers, the competition in the market is going to be keener than ever before. I believe, too, that all the talk of dumbing down America ignores the larger core of very bright people – not only from America but from all nations of the world – of whom more is demanded and more whom will respond  with greater, intelligence, productivity, innovation, and work ethic.

 

For marketers, it has meant new dimensions in competition. Consider, for example, the growth in the number of  law and accounting firm marketers, which has itself led to a growing core of lawyer and accountants who recognize the need for professional quality marketing.

 

If it has generated a new kind of society, it’s created, as well, a new kind of consumer – smarter, better informed, more questioning. A new kind of international individual and business person. And for professionals, it’s bred a new kind of client. It’s broken color  and culture barriers, and it’s generated a new emerging economic, cultural, and educated middle class, with a new font of ideas.

 

            The crux of what both marketers and new graduates are facing, then,  is not merely a matter of technical advance – but rather of content, and how technology and its content has changed the world we both face. What is the effect of this vast array of changes and change agents on our world, and how must we cope with it? What are the challenges and how must we deal with them?.

 

            The message to both recent graduates and marketers, then, is to speak not of technical advances – but to speak rather of content, and its more widely and rapid dissemination. Speak, too, of the effects these new communication structures have on civilization and culture. What word is carried by the new technology and the nature of the society it creates? And speak too of the new challenges the fruits of this technology generate for both bright young graduates and savvy marketers as well.

 

            And again, this is a dynamic – not static – phenomenon. Both socially and economically, all of us must deal with not only change itself, but with the dynamic of change, which will keep happening. Fast.

 

This, in sum, is the lesson of the day.