A post does it still make sense to the time of the e-mail and other electronic communications ? A study explored the question.
The firm, Eranos, founded by sociologists, was carried out for The Post a study on the dematerialization of exchanges. One of its authors in summarizing the findings, that challenge a few received ideas.
Can you tell us about the study and its methodology ?
At the start, the question is : what are the issues of dematerialization ? And how should we think about the value of mail in a context where businesses convert more of their communications from paper to digital ? We have interviewed people with average, young and less young, in their report to the mail, paper and digital, how they live this transition, what they think of the on-solicitation digital… Then, we put this in perspective. What are the key trends today ? Where we bring innovations ? We conducted interviews with experts, designers, communication specialists, anthropologists,… not to mention a watch on the technology and the work of artists.
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one of The first conclusions of the study is to say : the dematerialization does not exist. What is this means ?
We wondered about this term, to arrive at a conclusion : there is no dematerialization in itself. The digital seems to be the dematerialization of something, of the paper, but in the end we re-embody something else, we see the emergence of a “new materiality”. We look at these technologies through a certain prism, which makes us think that they are immaterial, they are only of the data… But in everyday use, it is the relationship of people to their technological objects. There is always an action body, a human contact on a materiality. That’s why it works, it is what makes the experience. When Google launches the Google Home, it is a real object that takes a real place in the house, which reconstitutes the human path, etc, It is said that the true orientation of the digital today, it is materialize into anything, to take the physical space, to interact with the sensor. It is, therefore, to deconstruct so that semantics of the talk on this digital economy, and that affects the way of looking at things. A company will say : “I’m going to dematerialize, because it is more simple, it is cheaper, etc” But if you say that there is no dematerialization, this changes the basic premise.
what is it that differentiates, then, a message (print and digital)?
the idea of The dematerialization has suggested that if one sends a message by the digital channel rather than by mail, it is exactly the same thing, cheaper, and more simple. Result : we have sent still more messages, and today we received so much that we do not know what to do… In reality, there is a difference between reading a letter and a numeric message, which is not related to the content, but the medium itself. Paper and digital are two matérialités different uses and different effects. We identified 13 possible effects of a communication. Among those which are characteristic of the mail, for example, there’s the ritualization, which is linked to the mailbox – I’m going to go get my mail, I back home, I open it, etc, and ritualization, has the effect of conviction. To convince, it is not enough to repeat a message a maximum of once, especially when this is done in the middle of a hubbub of digital ! It is more pertinent to find the “bubble of attention”. That moment when you read her mail is one of them. We asked people the question : when you read an e-mail, do you do something else at the same time ? The answer is no. And when you receive a notification on your smartphone ? Yes. Many studies show that when we receive a notification, about every 6 minutes on average, one is often discussing, or restaurant, or in a transport… It is not to say that paper mail is more strong, because, for example, the effect of immediacy of digital is very powerful ; but to say that each medium has different effects because the context of the received message is different.
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to appeal To, and explain, Nespresso relies on the paper [Best-of] re-live the conference “Challenge-think of the dematerialization, re-think the communication” [VIDEO] Interview : Yves Xemard (Post)
In terms of marketing, customer relationship… That is what this implies ?
we must ask the question : what effect does it produce ? What attention does it need, what “context of reception” ? And then, determine what is the best channel for this, the medium is most suitable. The arrival of Internet has made things very fun, very spontaneous, around the image, for example. It is immediate, it can be very impactful with a simple message. But for a message more complex, which demands attention, the paper may be more effective. Today, for me, there are three pitches. Digital, relevant to the info flash, alert, very short, very fleeting. The paper mail, for messages that are large, complex, solemn. And between the two, many hybridizations are possible. In my opinion, the field of innovation for the future is there, in this continuity that exists between paper and digital.