If you are a marketer who is still using newspaper and television as primary vehicles to reach Gen-Y, it may be time to reevaluate your overall strategy because the “traditional marketing formula” will not work for this generation.
Gen-Y grew up with the Internet and it has always been their main source of news, information, and entertainment. A majority of Gen-Y has had mobile phones since their pre-teen years. They prefer texting over voice calls and Instant Messaging (IM) over e-mail. Gen-Y stays in daily contact with friends through social networking sites and through online gaming communities. They are extremely knowledgeable about news and current events because they use RSS feeds to pull in filtered information from global sources. They get breaking news, offers, and event invitations texted directly to their phones, and they even keep in touch with presidential candidates through text. For those of you feeling a bit overwhelmed at the prospect of having to learn these new-media and marketing channels, the following tips are designed to help you effectively communicate with the ever-elusive Gen-Y market:
UNDERSTAND YOUR GEN-Y CUSTOMERS:
Gen-Y does not respond well to blanket mass-marketing messages. You have to reach them in their preferred media and speak their language. A Customer Relationship Management System (CRM) can help you accomplish this. A CRM is a database that gathers detailed demographic, psychographic, and generational information on your customers. Studying this data over time allows you to spot key trends, know your customers on a deeper level, and discover what most influences their purchase decisions.
THINK BEYOND TRADITIONAL MARKETING:
Beyond the traditional staples, Gen-Y marketing programs should include strategies such as social-networking site promotions, viral-marketing strategies, organic search–engine optimization and online marketing, participation in product reviews and comparison Web sites, online and mobile surveys, video-game advertising, television product placements, mobile push/pull campaigns, and promotions with mobile tie-ins.
CREATE GEN-Y SPECIFIC MESSAGING:
A Gen-Y couple researching Hawaii vacation resorts should not land on a homepage showing gray-haired sixty-year olds on sightseeing tours. Half-naked twenty-somethings sipping mai tais on the beach would be a more appropriate image, along with navigational options for nightlife, ecoadventures, and trendy restaurants. Use this same gen-specific messaging strategy in all of your media.
EMBRACE MOBILE:
Gen-Y is the Mobile Generation. Smart marketers will purchase a common short code (mobile equivalent to a domain name) right away and publish it in all marketing materials alongside your Web URL. This will allow your Gen-Y customers to text into your CRM to receive exclusive offers and customer-specific information sent directly to their phones.
If u r tinkng it may b 2 L8 4 u 2 catch on 2 all dis, den u may jus b rite. My advice is to sign up for a MySpace, Facebook, or Flickr account today. Start using the text feature on your phone immediately. Google RSS Feeds and Common Short Codes and learn all you can. And if all that seems too daunting, hire a generational marketing expert (lol).
Mr Carapelho founded Team Vision, a leading full-service marketing and technology agency, in 1997. He is also a partner in Genergraphics, a generational marketing company, and in Kanvys, a mobile marketing company.
