SAN DIEGO–Are mobile devices the “cigarettes of the 21st century?”
Yes, says one analyst, who believes the devices will go through much the same lifecycle, including eventually being seen as “bad for you” due to too much exposure—as well as their eventual replacement by something that is now coming into the market.
That was just one of the observations offered on the future for which credit unions should prepare by Uwe Hook, the principal behind the consulting firm Gretchenfrage.
“I believe we are at the peak of the mobile revolution,” Hook told CO-OP Financial Services’ THINK 16 meeting. “If you think about what people did 50 years ago, people smoked everywhere. Doctors said it was good for people. I think we are beginning to understand that being on that device all day is not good for us, but we’re not sure what to do with it. People 50 years from now will look back and say these people were crazy for being on these devices all the time.”
Ewe Hook speaking to CO-OP THINK 16 Conference.
Fresh off a year-long trip around the world, Hook said one of the things that was readily apparent, “is how message apps are taking over outside the U.S. Everybody outside the U.S. is on WhatsApp, or other chat message apps. In U.S., it’s mostly Snapchat, which is mostly focused on younger people. The reason message apps take over the global market is based on pricing. In Korea and elsewhere, people have to pay for each message. But WhatsApp is free. Your telephone number is your ID. There are one-billion monthly active users who send an average of 42 messages per day and who share 1.6 billion photos per day.”
Yet in all of that, said Hook, he has also seen something else: “The other trend we are seeing is that people actually want to get away from the mobile interaction and they want to have real interaction. I’ve seen this in Europe and Asia and now in the U.S. the mindfulness movement, where people want to be in places where there is no phone allowed. So the phone has to be taken away, just like cigarettes.”
Until those mobile devices go away—or at least are used less often—they will remain a robust and necessary delivery channel for credit unions. Hook noted that Google calls interaction with devices “Mobile Moments,” which it breaks down into “I-want-to-know moments,” “I want to go moments. I want to do moments. I-want-to-buy moments.”
'Little Snacks'
“For companies, you have to respond to those Mobile Moments with something of value,” said Hook. “Two or three years ago it was OK to have a mobile site. If you don’t have a mobile site today, good luck. And you have to have more. You have to have content. You have to be able to connect with someone when they are looking for you. It shouldn’t be advertising, it should be something that creates value for people.”
But those “mobile moments” mean moment-sized pieces of content, Hook stressed. “People must get value from you. Give them little snacks of information, but don’t give them too much. People are ADD. They want a few sentences and want to move on.”
In keeping with that theme, Hook said credit unions are now operating in what he called the “Delete” world.
“We now disqualify before we qualify,” said Hook. “We now delete information before sorting through information. It’s something we learned because we couldn’t deal with this mass amount of information coming in. We also now ‘batch research,’ because we find it so hard to deal with all that information.”
Hook noted that Google no longer refers to the “path to purchase,” but instead to the “path to purpose.”
“The purpose has to feel like it’s really in the DNA in the company, and in credit unions it really is ‘people helping people,’” he said. “People are really looking for purpose. People want to work with purposeful companies. Tom’s shoes are not the greatest shoes in the world. There are better shoes out there. But people want to work with Tom’s shoes because they like the purpose (of donating a pair of shoes for every pair purchased). I encourage you to see that ‘purpose’ is your brand and you should communicate it to the world and not hide it."
Sharing Economy? No
While numerous speakers to credit union groups have called the current environment a “sharing economy,” Hook believes the label is wrong, as in many cases nothing is being “shared.” Instead, said Hook, “It’s the ‘On-Demand’ economy. People expect things very, very quickly. This is a real challenge for credit unions. If it takes two hours to open an account, well, people don’t live in that world anymore.”
That On-Demand Economy has also created the related “Expectation Economy,” with “expectations increasing every day. It is changing the ways people are expecting service from you.”
And what of those cigarettes of the 21st century? What will become of them? Hook said they will eventually be replaced—likely sooner rather than later—by new personal assistant devices such as Amazon Echo.
“These are the first devices that will be your personal robot,” said Hook. “It can seem creepy that it is listening to everything we say, but I think we will get used to it as we seem them as personal assistants. Do not underestimate the power of conversational commerce in the years to come.”