Five Steps to Improve Your Marketing to Generation-Y
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Five Steps to Improve Your Marketing to Generation-Y
Generation-Y, also known as the millenials or millenial generation, It is the generation following generation-X. Thereâs no agreed start to generation Y but it generally refers to people born after 1982.
Generation Y was the first generation to grow up with the internet. The internet rose exponentially in popularity during the lives of this generation. During the 1990s, it was estimated that the Internet grew by 100% per year!
With technologogy growing faster than ever. Information is available anywhere and is shared with ease.
This entire generation are used to modern technology and are used to consuming media and information when and where they want.
Generation-Y are used to having everything at their fingertips. They are pragmatic, connected, bold, and eclectic.
Generation-Y are the consumers of now and the leaders of the future,
Marketing, therefore, will never be the same again. Merely pushing advertising doesnât work anymore. One-way communication simply doesnât do the trick.
Based on interviews with 21 global marketing executives from various industries (including from Converse, Heineken, Abercrombie & Fitch, BBC, Microsoft, and Reckitt & Benckiser), we defined a five-step plan for marketers to improve their marketing toward demanding Gen-Y customers.
Everything Starts With the Product
If your product isnât doing what it promises, you may as well close the books. Youngsters can find information anywhere, and they are asking feedback from peers all the time. For them, it is all about price/quality: Are you offering something valuable? Are you merely selling products⊠or facilitating and endorsing Gen-Yâs life?
Donât Forget About the Company
Being true to who you are is key. Itâs about wearing the company value glasses in everything you do. Storytelling, authenticity, and uniqueness add more than you would expect: They reflect Gen-Yâs core values and sustain your corporate identity.
Stories stay stories, and the product should give your consumers what theyâre expecting. Creating an actual experience around it, online and offline, is something intangible that elevates your product and brand experience.
To stay relevant for Millennials, marketers should endorse INCLUSIVE brands with EXCLUSIVE experiences and surprising products that are both worth sharing with friends.
Step 2: Be where they are
Look at your (Web) shop as if itâs your own home: If you invite people to your home, you want everything to be in order. You want people to have a nice impression of you and you want to make them feel comfortable. Hopefully, they will spread the word, and they will be eager to come back.
Donât forget about social shopping, either: Itâs an important trend that will grow.
Also, offline and online go hand in hand: Gen-Yâers have a tendency to ask feedback from a friend when shopping offline or online.
What about good old fashioned above-the-line campaigns? Of course theyâre not dead. Itâs just necessary to know that you wonât make it with a single TV spot. Actually, campaigns are great to create global awareness. But itâs not enough to just leave it at that. Integration with social media is a must. The campaign should trigger some kind of interaction with your consumer.
A website is more than just an information stall about your product. It is what you are: You can share your past, your present, and your future and get feedback from your consumers.
You can engage and connect on a deeper level than, for instance, on your Facebook page (which is obviously linked to your website and vice versa). Contests, games, or advertising often refer to the website. Make sure you keep your new visitors by making them more curious: hide a riddle, reveal a secret, or show exclusive footage! Donât make it overcomplicated, though: Your website should be a portal where everything your consumer needs to know is presented in an intuitive and engaging way.
Of course, social media is a must. Facebook, for example, should be integrated in all communication actions. Donât think of it as a one-way communication platform, though: The most valuable feature of Facebook is that it enables interaction and inspiration (by brands, celebrities, and friends)âand not only with the brand, but also with peers.
It is a great platform for trying new things and for innovating. Playing with trending topics, asking them about the latest news, and using humor are successful ways to connect with your Gen-Y audience.
Visual (image, video footage) posts on your Facebook page will work much better than text-based status updates.
Use mobile efforts to connect with your consumers and connect them with each other. Donât create just another app; make it relevant:
Take location-based marketing to the next level: Itâs not about knowing where your customer is, itâs about customizing your communication in the right context. If you know you customer is in the gym working out, you might as well communicate about your energy drink.
When are your customers the most active? Maybe during lunch? Maybe just before or after school? Link certain actions to those times!
Itâs not about culture, but about services: Where are the good restaurants? Where are the other people around here who have the same product as me? How can I connect with them as fast as possible?
Donât make a rip-off of your website, but do something unique. An app is a perfect platform for branded utility.
Being relevant is defined on three levels: product level, company level, and experience level. Events are the way to go when you want to create an ultimate customer experience: You connect with your consumers, and your consumers can connect with each other. The result is word-of-mouthâsharing stories online and long-lasting memories.
Managing touchpoints nowadays means having a well-balanced mix of online and offline channels.
Step 3: Activate conversations
Surprising your consumers is the best way to shake them awake and make sure they stay focused. A surprise can be anything: Send them a birthday card, post a video that no one has ever seen, show up unexpectedly at an event⊠As long as it is relevant and you donât stalk them, they will love it.
Do not underestimate the power of stories. Tell a story about yourself, let your consumers share stories about their personal life, or, even better, combine both. People want something to talk about. What kind of stories? Cool, real, unique, personal, and emotional stories!
Games are engaging; no question about that. The problem is, everyone is doing it already. So how can you stay relevant and stand out in the crowd?
First of all, link it to your product and try to make it cool, real, unique, and relevant.
Second, donât make it too difficult, so your consumers can still feel good about themselves. Most of the time, they are playing for attention and achievement.
And, third, donât forget social: Your target group probably has a wide social network. Try to engage your gamers to activate that network as well!
Step 4: Enhance loyalty, be FAIR
Great: you managed to create a good campaign that receives a lot of positive reactions. But it doesnât end there. A frequent mistake is to take a break whenever something goes well. Wrong: you have to keep your young consumers involved. If you donât⊠you just had your 15 minutes of fame.
Do you instead want to be legend? Follow the FAIR model: FAst, Innovative, and Rewarding.
The faster you react toward your consumers, the more likely you are to have a bond with them. Itâs all about conversations: The more you communicate with each other, the better you will understand each other. Fast action shows them that you actually listen and care.
And itâs not only about acting fast on Facebook or Twitter. Itâs also about monitoring their behavior and continuing to learn more about them. So go out and talk to them! Their world is so rapidly changing that an ongoing approach is the most successful way for keeping up with them and their views.
Innovate (or Let Them Innovate)
Standing still means going backwards. By innovating, you are showing interest, creativity, and initiative. Always question your product with the end-user in mind. And, very important, involve your users in the innovation process. They will feel heard and appreciated, and they will stay loyal to the brand that they helped build.
Reward Them for Their Loyalty
The pragmatic Gen-Yer wonât do something for nothing. Showing them your appreciation for having chosen you is key.
Compare it with a personal relationship: You like appreciation for being committed, no? Some nice words, a little surprise, a gift⊠It makes you feel appreciated and motivates you to go on!
Going beyond the obvious could make your consumers even happier: A random act of kindness is an instant satisfier.
Go out there and create a daring but relevant appeal.
âKeeping the Heineken brand cool and staying hot⊠in the end itâs a couple of people who had the imagination and the guts and thought âokay, letâs do it.â Because this is typically how cool stuff happens, not by endless business meetings and calculations on return of investments. That will come later, you know. If youâre cool, people will buy it. I think that in the end itâs about having guts. Itâs daring to do stuff thatâs never been done before. This Milan club of the future is a brilliant example. We didnât know at all what this was going to bring; my boss and his boss thought: Okay, wow, this sounds like a great adventure, itâs probably going to cost quite a lot of money⊠we cannot calculate the return of investment up front but somehow it fits the brand, itâs a territory in which we must start experimenting.â âMark Vaniterson, Global Head of Design Heineke
