On a recent trip to Barcelona where I was speaking at a marketing conference at the W Hotel on thought leadership marketing and social media, I was reminded of Shakira's epic song 'Whenever, Wherever', because of this sign at the concierge desk, which highlighted the extraordinary levels of service at this very cool hotel.
This sign taps into the underlying generational trend at the moment to expect whatever/whenever. We want music at the push of a button, we expect to be able to Shazam a tune to find out what it's called, we hit the re-fresh button one too many times to see the latest status updates on Facebook, and stopping at a red light is now considered a mini-meditation.
We live in an instant-gratification culture of credit-cards, being connected 24/7/365, and seeing mobile phone services being introduced on aeroplanes. Because of the multiple channels of communications we now have, we are expecting more responses, sooner. For someone who considers himself to be "execution-focussed" (others would call me impatient), this is a challenge, because we no longer give people a chance to take their time.
In the good old days, when one phone call was good enough to secure a meeting place, date and time, the same decision now requires between 10 and 20 phonecalls and SMSs - it has never been easier to cancel, and we consider our moment-to-moment feelings a lot more, and not always in a good way. We crave instant gratification, yet at the same time we have become more unreliable for those around us.
We judge others on the basis of 'whatever/whenever' but how do we live up to this mantra ourselves in our business or personal lives? The rise of on-demand business and collaborative consumption are good examples of this. We no longer want (perhaps intelligently so) the long-term responsibility of owning a car, we just want to get from point A to point B. We no longer want to own a drill, we just want a hole.
What do you think of this instant gratification culture, and where do you think the opportunities lie?
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