“Forget sticks, and stick with carrots instead. So says Brent Schulkin, founder of a fledgling movement of activist consumers employing a kind of reverse boycott that he calls a Carrotmob. The concept is simple: instead of steering clear of environmentally backward stores, why not reward businesses with mass purchases if they promise to use some of the money to get greener?”
Their parents and grandparents may be cutting back but according to a recent report from Alloy Media & Marketing and Harris Interactive college students continue to buy. Researchers found that the 13-plus million college students in the US (aged 18 – 30) will spend more than $230 billion in 2008, a 20% increase year over year.
Big topics from the report: Social Responsibility, Gen Ys are quite influential on their friends, and they want quality but at a great price. They are also quite loyal to certain brands. No surprises here.
I must be asked this question several times a day. Even by some of the best marketers in the business. My answer is always the same ‘talk to Gen Y,’ they don’t bite. And remember the way you learned about products and services is not the way they learn about products and services. So, don’t ask me what is the right type of TV commercial to run? Or what the right direct mail campaign is? Direct mail? The young whipper snappers I work with don’t write checks, don’t receive bank statements. They ‘do it online.’ But don’t take my word for it. Just ask them. Don’t look at them or treat them like they are from another planet.When we wrote our book, we went right to the source and ask Gen Y how they like to be communicated with. To be honest, I hate when I see blogs and online articles that say the best way to market to Gen Y is to have cool and hip products. Those were words I used in high school and I am an old guy. But then again, what do I know. I did a Google Search on ‘Cool and Gen Y’ and ended up with over 600,000 results. Note, however, when I ask a Gen Yer what type of product they like the words ‘cool and hip’ never come up. So there seems to be a disconnect here, eh?
The Pew Internet & American Life Project reports that “two-thirds of internet users under the age of 30 have a social networking profile, and half of these use social networking sites to get or share information about politics or the campaigns.”
May 16th, 2009 by 
beafields 
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