Marketing your brand or product to Generation Y (also referred to as “Millennials” or “Echo Boomers”) presents unique challenges. However, there are also unique opportunities to reach them.
Who are the Millennials?
This opinionated and technologically savvy generation encompasses over 25% of the U.S. population—those born anywhere from 1977 to 1994. They are a generation of e-commerce, Britney Spears, the OJ Simpson and Monica Lewinsky scandals, and the Columbine and September 11 tragedies.
Millennials average $100 a week in disposable income—a staggering $150 billion or more a year! “For sheer spending power and cultural hegemony, this consumer group is unrivaled in American history,” says small business and marketing author Joanna L. Krotz1.
The Internet Generation
Perhaps most importantly, Millennials and the Internet have grown up together. They’ve embraced the comparatively recent wave of social media tools, including Facebook, YouTube, MySpace and Twitter. Research shows Millennials get more of their information from each other via social networking than they do from businesses or traditional media. According to Scott Monty, a social media blogger, Millennials utilize social media to2:
Get news or product updates (67%)
Have access to promotions (64%)
View or downloading music or videos (41%)
Submit opinions (36%)
Connect with other consumers (33%)
A Millennial Opportunity
Successful marketers are finding ways to win over the Millennials. Attractive and informative Web sites, the utilization of social media tools and e-mail marketing campaigns provide big opportunities to reach this generation:
Engage with appealing, information or benefit-rich Web sites.
This group can see through dramatic presentations that are an attempt to hide the truth. They’re notorious for their short attention spans. If they become uninterested in a presentation, they will simply forget about it.
As with any market segment, engage them or lose them! An appealing Web site is the first step to reaching Millennials. Skip the fluff though. A whopping 91% of this generation sees the value in companies or products that support good causes1. A majority of Millennials would even switch brands to the one associated with the good cause3. A company’s charitable support should be displayed proudly, like Yoplait’s dedicated section on their Web site to the “Save Lids to Save Lives” campaign for the Susan G. Komen foundation and breast cancer.
Get the social media advantage.
Marketing through text messaging (also known as SMS, or short messaging service) is a perfect fit for Millennials. It’s inexpensive and allows marketers to create customer databases for future announcements or advertisements. Many large companies like McDonalds and Dunkin’ Donuts have deployed successful text message campaigns4, and the opportunity is large for small business, too.
A great opportunity to reach this generation lies in having a social networking presence like a Facebook or Twitter page. With Facebook, a company can have a page where “fans” will be updated with any announcements. Microblogging site Twitter allows for simple company updates to “followers” in 140 characters or less. Innovative companies like Whole Foods, Jet Blue and GAP provide their loyal followers with frequent company updates through “tweets.”
Embrace e-mail marketing.
E-mail marketing is a natural for reaching this audience when specifically targeted to this group’s interests. For example, when Arista Records was releasing a new album, they sent an e-mail to 10,000 fans (600 were Millennials) of the artist to allow them to pre-order the record. Sixty-two percent of recipients then forwarded this e-mail to friends, growing their Gen Y recipients to over 20,0005.
Works Cited
1 Krotz, Joanna L. “Tough customers: how to reach Gen Y.” Microsoft Small Business Center.
2 Monty, Scott. “Advertising to Gen Y on Social Media networks.” Social Media Marketing Blog.
3 Northcott, Geoff. “Cause marketing driving sales growth.” Supercollider.
4 “Small Businesses Marketing with Text Messaging” All Business.
5 Horovitz, Bruce. “Gen Y: A tough crowd to sell.” USA Today.
