Marketing to Generation Y: The Experience Culture

Posted by Craig on June 30th, 2008 filed in Demographics

posted by Bea Fields at Fast Company

Generation Y. You’ve heard that they don’t watch TV, and you’ve probably been told that they don’t read that much. Your research tells you that you can’t target them through MTV anymore, and you certainly can’t tell Gen Y what is cool. So how do you reach these 71 million “Millennials” that spend over 200 billion dollars annually and will soon replace the baby boomer generation as the largest percentage of the workforce? The answer is simple—you STOP marketing to them. Let me explain.

First, let’s look at who they are. As a baby boomer, I can tell you that this generation—sometimes called the “Connecteds”—are our own invention. We raised Gen Y on a strong dose of praise to believe that they could do anything or be anything. We made their lives easy enough that they now believe they deserve to live first and work comes after living. (How dare them!) So the first thing we have to do is to stop being pissed off at our own creation and embrace the brilliance of the Gen Y community. If you don’t first respect them, you can’t expect them to want to do business with you.

This is the most optimistic generation to ever walk the face of the planet. They absolutely believe that miracles are possible. They refuse to work a job that does not bring them a sense of joy. They care about the earth and servicing their community. In Gen Y, we have created the possibility for everything that we wanted for the world. So we must stop whining about them being entitled and embrace the power of this generation. Once we do that, we can then begin to take a closer look at who they are, what makes them tick, and what they want from our businesses.

Let’s look at bit closer at who has been successful at marketing to Gen Y: Apple, Jet Blue, Trader Joes, Jones Soda, Mountain Dew, and Red Bull, just to name a few. How do these companies speak to this demographic? To answer that, we first have to understand the four areas Gen Y considers before purchasing a product or service.

1. Cheap cost

2.Good quality

3.Fast service

4. An “experience” and

5. A little bit on the quirky side

When Apple created the 99-cent download that took eight seconds to transact, they hit the nail on the head with Gen Y. Music is an experience, the quality is stellar, the cost is low, and the purchase happens instantly. What did Apple do right? They spoke directly to Gen Y and asked the question: What do you want?

So who gets Gen Y’s attention? Living in an age where information is everywhere ans wehre everyone can reach them, the Gen Y community is VERY selective about who they listen to. Just look at their MySpace and Facebook accounts, and you’ll see that they get their information from each other—not from us, and certainly not from the media. The information they get from each other comes by text or online social networks, not from e-mails. Most Gen Y’s don’t use e-mail unless it’s for business or academic reasons (I know you probably thought you were hip with your 100 emails per day.) They text one another. They IM. They watch each other on YouTube. And sometimes they do all three at one time (they are master multi-taskers!) Most importantly, Gen Y does NOT care about looking a second time at your business unless you have been endorsed by their friends. They care about what their community has to say, and they take each other and their network’s recommendations VERY seriously.

Taking all of this into account, what do you do to reach this growing demographic of new consumers? Understand first of all that Gen Y is an “experience” culture. They don’t like being told what to like or what to do. They want to “experience” the world for themselves and pass their own judgment. Even when it comes to charitable giving, they don’t want to give just to throw money into an organization—they want to get in there and get their hands dirty, doing the grunt work so that they can “experience” the work. They love being in the trenches of life and out on the fringe of business, and they want to be there with their friends. If you want to meet Gen Y, you have to go to them, take them seriously and gain their respect by first respecting them. Here is where they congregate:

· Concerts (Gen Y LOVES live music.)

· Extreme sporting events (skateboarding, snowboarding, BMX)

· Movies (mainstream as well as art-house)

· Hiking events (They love the outdoors)

· Video games and video game competitions (Cyber Athlete Professional League, GameCaster, Global Gaming League)

· Mashups (Weather Bonk, Where’s Tim Hibbard, Y! Mash, Sims on Stage)

· Social networking sites (Facebook, MySpace, Second Life, del.icio.us, DIGG)

· Tattoo parlors (36 percent of them have at least one tattoo)

Before I wrap this up, there is one more point to address, and that is how to earn Gen Y’s respect in the markeplace: AUTHENTICITY. The twenty-something consumer does not waste time on people or companies that are not being real with them. Authentic is cool. Authentic is a bit dorky. Authentic is hip. Authentic is truthful. This generation has seen it all, and it takes them all of three seconds to pass judgment on you as to whether or not you are the real thing.

What does this all mean for you? It means that you cannot directly market to Gen Y until you buy into them (and that does not mean calling them names.) You have to be willing to get to know them and value their world view. So while other experts are out there giving you “tricks” on how to market to Gen Y, I’m here to say STOP marketing to them and START listening to them. Spend time with them. Experience life with them. Respect them as consumers and leaders. If you do, their outlook on life will change and so will yours. You’ll begin to behave differently, take on new values and begin to live more as yourself. When you do that, you’ll find your place within this generation.

For more information on the topic of Marketing to Generation Y, visit Learn About Gen Y.com.