Gen Y and Marketing

Generation Y also called millennial generation includes all born between 1977 and 1998. The way of living of this generation is a bit (read: a lot) different and has began to enter the workforce. It is not only funny to know that members of this 75 million person group were raised and are being raised at the most child-centric time in our history and the impact to marketers is undeniable. :) 

To market your product / service to this generation, it is vital to understand the way they live and what marketing concepts do they accept and what they consider as funny.
 

In general, it is said that this group displays a great deal of confidence. This could be the result of focus they receive from parents and high expectations placed upon them – not to mention their new found independence with the advent of cell phones, the internet, and other electronic forms of communication.

This is truly the first generation to grow up completely online and as a result, the marketing mix used to target them needs to evolve. As you might expect, this group is technically literate like none other.

These sons and daughters of middle and upper middle class families are expected to get best of education as their parents just crossed the threshold of basic education, which always made them force their kids to study and ensure they become smart enough for good earning. This has also brought in special kind of hatred towards traditional education, but thats a different issue altogether. From an academic perspective, they are the group that was able to play a sport, attend school, and engage in social endeavors. Millennial believe in going green and supporting endeavors that are good for the environment.

Socially, Millennials are different as well. They are typically team-oriented, banding together to date and socialize rather than pairing off. They work well in groups, preferring this to individual endeavors. They are also good at multi-tasking and were the ones studying while listening to the radio or watching television - all the more reason to ensure that you utilize cross-media marketing and ensure consistency among your communications.

When it comes to work, Millennials seem to expect structure. They acknowledge and respect positions and titles, and want a relationship with their boss. Millennials are in need of mentoring and they'll respond well to the personal attention. Millennial are fine with live-in and gay relations. When considering the management of Millenials, be mindful that they appreciate structure and stability. Mentoring Millennials can either be completely formal or completely casual.

Are you Millennial?

If you are not born between 1977 and 1998, you may still have these characteristics! To check for yourself, when you sit in front of TV, do you find some adds so stupid that you smile at them and think, "how stupid!". Do you see some adds on TV and you are so impressed that you remember the add but not the product?

Now that we understand a little more about the target, consider the places they go for information and the way they behave. Millennials are logging into their Facebook accounts 3 – 10 times each day, sending instant messages to friends, and uploading their videos to YouTube. More than the number of times they log in is the time they spend socializing. Are you there?

1. Listen to the conversation. Where many businesses are failing today is that they are not listening to the conversations that the Millennials are having about their products or their company. Sign up for Google Alerts, visit Technorati and see what individuals are blogging about.
2. Create accounts in FaceBook and twitter. Put you name out there. Make sure that you company has a space among social media outlets. One thing to keep in mind though is to not be overly commercial. Millennials can see right through it. Rather, be genuine and let your prospective market understand what you’re really about and what you stand for.
3. Communicate on a personal level. Create a two way dialogue with your audience. Give them an opportunity to speak to you. Whether you let them rate your products, share comments, or share their experience with friends, providing a forum to socialize is essential.
4. Focus on consistent messaging. Regardless of which media type you use (email marketing, direct mail, adwords, etc.), keep your messaging consistent. If you say one thing and do another, or change your messaging frequently, you will not be building the trust necessary to ensure lifetime customer value.
5. Be creative. When your marketing is creative, it can very quickly gain momentum. With the advent of YouTube, Flickr, and Delicious, messages are quickly shared and distributed. Don’t force the issue. Rather, create something meaningful, fun, and worth sharing. Before you know it, the Millennials will be sharing and distributing information about your and your brand.

6. Traditional Marketing. Even if you are using traditional marketing efforts, do not forget that millennials value sincere efforts and creativity. The banner ads, billboards, Newspaper/magazine advertisements must be logical but uninterrupting. And do not forget to mention your url, for all to find more information.

Improving the effectiveness of your marketing to Millennials is no small undertaking. To be truly successful, you need to understand the social dependence these individuals have when communicating and the value they place on the opinion of others. Although much of Millennial marketing needs to happen online, don’t lose track of some tradition media like direct mail. As much as marketing has changed, traditional media can still be effective – just make sure it has a social component.