If you’re feeling feverish as the new millennium sets in, James Rosenfield, direct marketing guru and chairman and CEO of San Diego-based database marketing consultancy Rosenfield & Associates, has just the antidote…take it easy.

Speaking to delegates at a recent marketing symposium in Toronto, Rosenfield pointed out that the prospect of a new century has always had profound psychological effects on people. At the symposium, hosted by Waterloo, Ont.-based Quarry Integrated Communications, Rosenfield said marketers who can understand and respond to such anxieties have a better chance of building customer loyalty.

Rosenfield diagnosed two of the major symptoms of millennial fever as ‘paradox and oscillation’ and ‘overload and stress’.

Paradoxes, he said, include the current tug-of-war between nostalgia and futurism, virtual reality and material reality, irony and earnestness, and stability and change. He said marketers should respond by emphasizing their heritage and deflecting irony with a light touch.

Stress is the prevailing emotion of consumers in the grip of millennial fever, Rosenfield said. So he advised marketers to keep it simple, be reassuringly specific and give lots of advance warning when introducing changes. Reward the customer with ‘small self-indulgences’.

In such an environment, customer service is all-important, he said, because the human touch balances out the coldness of omnipresent technology. Another way to fight the chilliness of the digital era? Warm up your advertising with pets and sports.

Loyalty programs came under consideration as well. Rosenfield warned of loyalty program fatigue and reminded the audience that you can’t have loyal customers without loyal employees. When companies aren’t willing to commit to their employees, he said, they shouldn’t be surprised if the employees are half-hearted about working to retain the customer.