ImaginativePRO Blog

SHARK TANK WINNER SONNET JAMES ACHIEVES HUGE SUCCESS THROUGH NICHE POSITIONING, CRAFTY STORYTELLING AND PRODUCING DRESSES IN THE USA

On January 23, 2019, Whitney Lundeen, founder of Sonnet James, a maker of dresses for active mothers, appeared on the Shark Tank in hopes of securing a business partner and financial investor to contribute $350,000 in exchange for 25% equity in her company, a $1.4 million business valuation. 

Sara Blakely, a Shark Tank visiting judge and investor who likes to invest in female entrepreneurs, noted that Sonnet James produces dress designs similar to many other producers, but accepted Whitney's deal for $350,000 in exchange for 25% of her company because she liked Whitney very much.       

Kevin O’Leary, a regular Shark Tank judge complimented Whitney on a job well done and said that he felt her presentation was the best clothing presentation they have seen over 10 seasons of Shark Tank. 

Whitney is a single mom of two boys who developed the Sonnet James line of women’s dresses to allow moms to have one outfit for every occasion.  Whether they are in a business meeting, out to dinner, on the playground or riding bikes with their kids, women would have an option for clothing that is comfortable and fashionable for all occasions.  Not only has Sonnet James introduced a high-quality product into the mothers market, but they have also created a network of moms which is very important for brand awareness and advocacy.

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As Whitney explained to the Sharks, the idea for her company came about when she got tired of mom-look staples like yoga pants and wanted to come up with something fashionable, but easy to clean. Lundeen elaborated.

“I was going through a difficult time in my life, and so I had this idea of making a dress that my mom could have worn that could have reminded her to play with me when I was little.  And I said, ‘Alright, this year, I’m going to take the idea, and I’m going to teach myself how to sew, and I’m going to pattern draft.’ And every night, I would pretty much sit on the kitchen floor crying, trying to teach myself how to do two things I didn’t know how to do.”

The Sharks asked Lundeen to explain what she meant by the idea of the dress reminding her mom to play with her. Holding back tears, Lundeen says that she had a challenging childhood that included some abuse.  She explained. 

“My parents did the best they could with what they had.  I found when I became a mom, I couldn’t engage with my kids as much as I wanted to. And I wanted something that could help me be the mother that I had always wanted to be, and something that could remind me every day when I put it on what my priorities were.”

Whitney wanted something fashionable, yet durable enough for rough and tumble play. She made her own dresses out of four-way stretch modal spandex.  On New Year’s Day, 2013, Lundeen resolved to make her own dress line and she designed 12 different styles of what would become Sonnet James dresses.  Next she sourced fabrics and started making dresses for moms.

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She got her business going back in August 2013 with a successful Kickstarter campaign that raised $58,245 and provided proof of product-market fit.  That’s when Sonnet James became a real business. The dresses are playful and durable. They have the classic lines of designer dresses, but they’re safe for “play clothes.” Sonnet James designs cost between $100-$160 and come with a three-day, no hassle try-on guarantee. 

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Whitney developed the Sonnet James "playtime" dress line to remind her to be a mom who is present and plays with their kids while feeling confident and put together.  The dresses in the Sonnet James line are all washable and made of quality spandex fabric that has stretch and compression so that it retains its shape throughout washing cycles.  Whitney has designed all of the dresses in her line as well as taught herself how to sew and how to design and create a website.

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Sonnet James operates a direct-to-consumer (D2C) revenue model through their website (see below) and had $1.2 million in sales at the end of 2018 with a 75% product margin. The average order size is 2 dresses and their rate of return is 23% which is below the retail average of 30%. 

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Sonnet James dresses are made in San Francisco, from fabric produced in New York City and printed in Los Angeles. As part of a community of supportive women, it is important to Whitney that the fabric and the production house work environment are a healthy place for the seamstresses to work. As she told The Hive Magazine, even though she may pay more for the production and thereby make less profit, she wants to maintain a close, one-to-one relationship with the production end of her business. It is “important to me to feel good about where these dresses were being made.” And what is her advice for other mothers who might want to start their own business? Despite all the snags, fears, problems and long, hard hours of work, Whitney says simply: “Just do it!”

So how well has Sonnet James done since the Shark Tank investment by Sara Blakely?  Sonnet James is still in business and still designs out of Whitney's home in Palo Alto.  As of June 2021, Sonnet James is thriving and reported revenues of $6 million.       

COMMENTARY:  Sonnet James is a classic example of an entrepreneurial success story driven by incredible passion and drive and very little capital.  Sara Blakely, the Shark Tank investor who accepted Whitney Lundeen's offer of a 25% share of her young company, noted that Sonnet James dresses were not much different than those made by other garment manufacturers.  So what is the secret to Sonnet James success?  The answer: POSITIONING, STORYTELLING and MADE IN USA

Sonnet James does not owe its success to being first-to-market, product differentiation, lowest cost producer, or even great apparel designs.  Instead, Sonnet James has succeeded where others have failed in a very crowded women's apparel market through crafty storytelling, product positioning and manufacturing in the USA.  Whitney Lundeen has positioned Sonnet James as a designer of "playtime" dresses for moms -- a new women's apparel category.  Whitney's successful appearance on the Shark Tank is a marketing storyteller's dream.  A true "rags-to-riches" story.  Whitney's success post-Shark Tank has produced a lot of "free" publicity which is worth its weight in gold. 

I don't know how much Sonnet James spends on paid advertising, but going from $1.2 million in revenues at the end of 2018 to $6 million by June 2021 can't all be due to positioning, crafty storytelling or manufacturing in the USA.  The "Made in USA" label probably contributes to Sonnet James success for several reasons:

• Job Creation - Made in he USA means creating jobs right here in the good ole USA.
• Quality - Made in the USA has always stood for better quality compared to goods made in China, India or other Asian countries.  Economists at The Boston Consulting group found that 60 percent of Chinese consumers are willing to pay more for products labeled “Made in the USA” than for those labeled “Made in China.”
• Better For Families - Products made in America are better for consumers because they must follow American consumer protection laws and safety standards. Many foreign countries have far less extensive product safety standards than those in the United States, frequently leading to recalls and safety issues.  
• Addressing Poor Conditions - Many countries do not enforce the same worker safety and child protection controls of Western countries. It can be hard for companies to compete on cost with regimes willing to exploit their own people. You’re supporting a higher standard of working conditions when you buy American-made.

S0nnet James has identified or created a new category or "Blue Ocean" as described in the book Blue Ocean Strategy in the women's apparel market:  "playtime" apparel for women.  In 2020, there were 15.6 million single mothers living with young children in he USA.  There are presently 43.5 million mothers (ages 15 to 50) in the USA.  The COVID pandemic, inflation and the Ukraine war with Russia has put a brake on U.S. birth rates. Whether birth rates will continue to decline remains to be seen, but something that Sonnet James needs to keep a careful eye on going forward.               

Courtesy of an article dated February 14, 2019 appearing in Business2Community, a tweet dated January 23, 2019 appearing in Twitter, an article dated February 3, 2019 appearing in Tiny Beans, an article dated May 2019 appearing in the Shark Tank Blog, an article dated January 14, 2019 appearing in Shark Tank Products, an article dated April 21, 2021 appearing in Infoplease and an article dated August 28, 2017 appearing in Made In America Movement

A MANIFESTO ON NEUROMARKETING, OR HOW TO GET INSIDE THE MIND OF TODAY'S CONSUMERS AND WIN THEM OVER

 

It takes more than a fancy logo, fancy catch phrase or brand character to connect with today's consumers.  Today, what counts far more than a puma, a monkey, or a snarling aardvark is the cross-sensory experience your brand offers.  It's not just the emotion, beliefs, personality and desires your brand evokes, but its feeling, touch, view, sound and smell, of which the logo is just one small part. 

When marketing to today's Generation Y (a.k.a. Millennials) and Generation X consumers it's very important for marketer's to use a sensory marketing approach that appeals to the five senses:  sense: hearing, sight, touch, smell, and taste and fulfills their social needs or values.

The sensory marketing approach has given rise to the science of neuromarketing, a new field of marketing that studies consumers' sensorimotor, cognitive, and affective response to marketing stimuli.  In effect, getting inside the head of the consumer.  Neuromarketing has often been equated with brainwashing, an evil concept if there ever was one, which results in the forced modification of human behavior by repeatedly exposing individuals to the same stimuli over-and-over again.  

Neuromarketing has been used very successfuly in the political arena, where candidates for public office use "negative" advertisements that paint their opponent as "soft" on a popular political issue (e.g. national defense, crime enforcement, etal) or "for" an unpopular political issue (e.g. abortion, universal healthcare, etal).  If voter's are continually told that Barack Obama is not a legal American citizen or is a muslim, a lot of people will eventually believe that as true.  Both parties are guilty of using negative ads, but I won't get into political issues.

Without reallly realizing it, marketer's have been using neuromarketing for quite some time. When you come to think about it, a firm's brand equity, is really the sum of all the influences, both sensory, emotinal and social that consumer's connect with a brand.  No where is this more importan5t than when marketing to Generation X and Y.   This is based on my observance of human behaviors especially among Millennials and Gen-X because they are both sensory and social animals.  They are very susceptible to sensory stimulation and place very high value on social interaction and relationships.    In fact, I have developed a manifesto or marketing strategy built on two pillars:  

• Sensory Approach - A marketing approach that involves the five senses: sight, hearing, smell, taste and touch. 
• Social Approach - A marketing approach that involves the social needs of the individual.

It has been my experience that employing only a sensory approach will not prove as successful, and that marketer's must integrate a social approach into the equation.  Trust me, you do not want to get this part wrong.  

In developing my manifesto, I discuss the general marketing principle's I have employed in marketing to Gen-Y and Gen-X,  and the best and least successful advertising and promotions strategy's that should be used for both demographics.         

Marketing To Gen-Y and Gen-X 

GENERATION-Y MARKETING APPROACH
Gen-Y consumers are the most ethnically diverse of all demographics.  Gen-Y’s are interested in pop culture, being part of the latest fad, things or activities that are trendy, hip and cool, experiencing new tastes, listening to the latest music, wearing the trendiest clothes, playing the latest online games, interacting and communicating with their friends, expressing their opinions and showing off.  Their friends are very important and part of their social DNA.  They ignore traditional advertising and rely more on word-of-mouth.  Gen-Y’s are the “we want it now” generation and interested in immediate gratification.  Gen-Y’s work hard until they get bored.  Gen-Y’s are less brand loyal and always looking for a good value.  These qualities require a marketing approach that is both sensory and social.
The Sensory Approach	The Social Approach
The sensory  marketing approach involves the five senses: sight, hearing, smell, taste and touch.	The social  marketing approach involves satisfying a Gen-Y’s need for social interaction and being part of social groups or communities.
Marketers must be aware of the importance of the five senses in reaching Gen-Y’s.  Gen-Y’s must be sold on the great taste, texture, aroma, look and quality of a food product (taste, smell, sight and touch).  By the same token, Gen-Y’s would be attracted to a new electronic music gadget by its overall design, sound quality and features (sight, touch and hearing).  The Internet with its compelling digital imagery, video and sound is a natural media channel for Gen-Y’s as it offers elements of all five senses.  Gen-Y’s are among the heaviest users of the Internet for news, information, entertainment and interacting with others.	Gen-Y’s are social animals so marketers must incorporate social elements into the design of a business whether it is a website, retail or eating establishment.  Businesses are no longer solely for shopping, eating or drinking, but places to meet friends, hangout, read a book, surf the Net, socialize and exchange gossip.  Facebook, MySpace and YouTube are excellent examples of social networking sites that appeal to a Gen-Y’s need to network and interact with others.  Starbucks, Abercrombie & Fitch, Borders, Steve Madden, American Eagle and Best Buy are excellent examples of retail establishments that incorporate social design elements like cool and trendy store interiors, the latest in fashion and electronic gadget’s, piped in music, visual displays, and in-store food and beverage facilities.
In the case of a business establishment, whether brick-and-mortar or digital, Gen-Y’s must be sold on the convenience, product selection, atmosphere and total experience that the business establishment offers (sight, hearing, smell and touch).  The success of eBay, Starbucks, Facebook, Myspace and Borders are excellent examples of brands that have capitalized on the importance of the five senses in developing successful products and services.	Gen-Y’s are notorious multi-taskers who communicate with their friends and relatives by telephone, text messaging, instant messaging (IM) and mobile devices like smartphones and iPhones. They interact by sharing video’s and music, rating products, services and business establishments and posting comments over the Blogosphere. Gen-Y’s have an insatiable desire to interact with others and are the driving force behind online social networks like YouTube, MySpace and Facebook and Starbucks.
GENERATION-X MARKETING APPROACH
Gen-X marketing requires elements of high perceived value, quality, purity, less hype, more facts and a marketing message that is honest and straightforward.  Gen-Xers are cynical about advertising.  Less likely to be taken in by fads or product hype, and more likely to say, “show me”.  Their tastes and preferences overlap with both Gen-Y’s and Boomers, making them an elusive target.  They are less brand loyal that boomers, and more likely to experiment with other brands, new drinks and foods.  Gen-Xers are very technologically savvy.  They tend to be first adopters of the latest electronic gadgets like iPods and iPhones.  Gen-Xers support social causes like the environment and world hunger.  They enjoy social events, leisure activities and get-togethers with family and friends.  They are known as the “family-first” generation because they value their family over their jobs.  Success with Gen-Xers requires a marketing approach with less hype, more facts and a social approach centered around quality of life, social causes and importance of friends and family.
Less Hype, More Facts Approach	The Social Approach
Gen-Xers are interested in less hype and more facts and figures.  They are interested in knowing the nutritional value of a food product: How many calories, how much fat, cholesterol and nutrients a product contains.  Gen-Xers look for products with high perceived value and quality like the fuel-efficiency of Japanese cars and durability of German-made automobiles. Gen-Xers take delight in experiencing new foods, beverages, films and products.  It is best to deal with Gen-Xers in an honest, respectful and straight forward manner.  Gen-Xers seek products and services that are relevant, solve a problem or fill a real need in the marketplace and offer a high value-added component: Superior quality, design, durability, features and convenience.	Gen-X have a social need that is grounded in placing a premium on quality of life, leisure activities, social causes, strong parental and family values and spending time with family and friends. They enjoy family get-togethers, activities and socializing with their friends.    Marketers must incorporate social elements whether they are an online, retail, eating or entertainment establishment.  Businesses that have succeeded in doing this include McDonald’s (children’s playgrounds), Las Vegas Hotels & Casino’s (electronic games, rides and attractions), Disneyland (family-oriented rides and attractions), Gymboree (early childhood development programs), Target (family-oriented merchandise and refreshments), DisneyOnlineForFamily.com (Disney entertainment for the entire family) and BabyCenter.com (Young mothers with infants),    Advertising that works with Gen-Xers include ads depicting the crash safety of Volvo cars and high performance of Michelin tires fit in perfectly with Gen-X’s strong parental values.

Advertising & Promotions Strategy

Although there is some overlap between Gen-X and Gen-Y, they differ in lifestyle and are difficult to reach through traditional media channels, requiring: 1) commercial messages and content that is relevant to their social and psychological needs, 2) selecting the appropriate media channel for each group and 3) carefully targeting our advertising and promotions to insure we reach them most cost-effectively.   

REACHING GENERATION-Y

MOST EFFECTIVE MARKETING CHANNELS
Internet Advertising - Gen-Y’s spend more time online than watching television, reading publications or newspapers.  62% of Gen-Y’s watch TV programs episodes online. Gen-Y rank the highest in joining social networking communities, viewing and uploading online videos, downloading music, playing online games sending instant and text messages and reading online blogs.  Popular Gen-Y sites include: Online Social Communities:  MySpace , Facebook and Bebo Video Sharing: YouTube, Veoh, Break, ManiaTV, Hulu  and MetaCafe. Online News and Information: Diggs, Technorati and StumbleUpon. And a large broad array of Blogs.  Marketers can achieve success reaching Gen-Y’s by targeting websites where they are likely to congregate and socialize.	Viral Marketing - Gen-Y’s go online and rely on word-of-mouth to obtain product and information, so it is vital that firms have a great website that is fully-optimized for search engines and listed in all the major search engines. Firms should have a promotional page on popular social networking sites like MySpace, Facebook and Twitter and video sharing sites like YouTube. Street Marketing – Gen-Xers enjoy new experiences and street marketing is a great way to create marketing buzz and reach them face-to-face. Street marketing include neighborhood promotional stunts, free product samplings, and rollouts in specific venues (street fairs, music festivals, concerts, college campuses, bars and clubs, etc).  This is also a great way to pass out flyers, free offers and discount coupons.
Contests and Sweepstakes – Gen-Y’s are wild about winning a contest or receiving a gift, especially something meaningful like an iPod, concert tickets, vacations, cell phones and FREE sample servings.  This is a great way to increase store traffic, create brand awareness and get them to try a product.    Flyers and Discount Coupons – These should be incorporated into a firm’s street marketing as a way to create excitement, interest and additional traffic. “ONE FREE PIZZA” and “BUY-ONE, GET ONE FREE” coupons work the best.
Paid Search – Nearly 90% of Gen-Y’s use online search engines like Google, Yahoo and MSN Live Search  to find online information, news and entertainment sites.  Radio Advertising – Radio ranks third for Gen-Y’s in hours per week behind the Internet and TV as their preferred media.  Marketers should incorporate targeted radio into its media mix picking stations with the largest reach and most effective CPM’s.
Mobile Advertising – Gen-Y’s are the biggest users of iPhones, Smartphones and portable multimedia devices like iPods. Gen-Y’s prefer text message over email and this is a great way to reach them through one of their most preferred methods of communication.
LEAST EFFECTIVE MARKETING CHANNELS
Television, Direct Mail, Publications and Newspapers – Gen-Y’s cannot be reached effectively through traditional marketing channels.  Direct mail, magazine ads, newspaper ads and television advertising does not work well with Gen-Y’s.  They do not respond to he marketing messages that appeals to their parents and grandparents.  A Gen-Y’s favorite TV programs  include sitcoms Friends and Seinfeld, reality TV shows Survivor and Project Runway, Animated TV shows The Simpsons, Music contest shows like American Idol, music video programs like MTV and TV comedy shows like The Daily Show With Stewart., just to name a few.

REACHING GENERATION-X

MOST EFFECTIVE MARKETING CHANNELS
Internet Advertising - Gen-Xers are No 2 behind Gen-Y’s in spending time online than watching television and reading publications or newspapers.  57% of Gen-Xers watch TV programs episodes online. Gen-Xers are just behind Gen-Y’s in joining social networking communities, viewing and uploading online videos, downloading music, playing online games sending instant and text messages and reading online blogs. Gen-Xers over forty represent the largest segment online gambling. Popular Gen-X sites include: Online Social Communities:  MySpace , Facebook, Twitter and Bebo Video Sharing: YouTube, Hulu, Veoh, Break, ManiaTV  and MetaCafe. Online News and Information: Diggs, Technorati and StumbleUpon. And a large broad array of Blogs. Viral Marketing - Gen-Xers trust themselves and the opinion of their friends and rely testimonials and word-of-mouth on product and services. It is important that firms have a great website that is fully-optimized and listed in all the major search engines. Firms should have a promotional page on popular social networking sites like MySpace, Facebook and Twitter, and run online ads on popular video sharing sites like YouTube and Hulu.	Street Marketing – Gen-Xers enjoy new experiences and street marketing is a great way to create marketing buzz and reach them face-to-face. Street marketing include neighborhood promotional stunts, free product samplings, and rollouts in specific venues (street fairs, music festivals, concerts, college campuses, etc).  This is also a great way to pass out flyers and discount coupons.
Contests and Sweepstakes – Gen-Xers enjoy winning a contest or receiving a gift, especially something meaningful like an iPod, iPhone, concert tickets and FREE sample servings.  This is a great way to increase store traffic, create brand awareness and get them to try a firm’s products.    Flyers and Discount Coupons – These should be incorporated into a store’s grand opening and street marketing as a way to create excitement, interest and additional store traffic.  Women with children, in particular, are attracted to discount coupons if there is high perceived value in the offer. Offers that work most often include “ONE FREE DESSERT”, “BUY-ONE, GET ONE FREE” and “BUY-ONE-ADULT serving and receive ONE-FREE child serving.
Direct Mail – Direct mail works best for older Gen-X (Over 35) men and women, especially with children.  The offer must be compelling, without a lot of hype, and sold on the basis of high perceived value or in support of a social cause.  Some offers that work best include “FREE AIR FARE” or “10% OF PROFITS GOES TO SAVE-THE-WHALES”.                            Paid Search – Nearly 90% of Gen-Xers use online search engines like Google, Yahoo and MSN Live Search to find information, news and entertainment sites.  Paid search is an effective way to reach Gen-Xers and drive traffic to a firm’s website.
Radio Advertising – Older Gen-Xers (Over 30) rank the highest in listening to the radio for music, news and information.  Marketers should incorporate targeted radio into its media mix, selecting stations with the largest reach and most effective CPM’s. Mobile Advertising – Young Gen-Xers (25-30), like their Gen-Y counterparts, are the biggest users of iPhones, smartphones and portable multimedia devices like iPods. Younger Gen-Xers prefer text message over email and this is a great way to reach them through one of their preferred methods of communication. Marketers should incorporate mobile advertising into its media mix.
LEAST EFFECTIVE MARKETING CHANNELS
Television, Radio, Direct Mail, Publications and Newspapers – Gen-Xers are stuck in the middle between Gen-Y’s and Boomers so there are some overlaps with both generations, making them an elusive target.  Younger Gen-Xers cannot be reached effectively using traditional marketing channels like direct mail, print ads, newspapers, radio and television advertising.  Older Gen-Xers (over 35) can be reached through direct mail, radio and television as their media tastes are similar to Boomers in many respects. Gen-Xers are impervious to the marketing messages that appeals to Boomers, who they treat with some resentment.  Favorite TV shows of Gen-Xers include prime-time shows like ER, CSI, Friends, reality TV shows like Survivor and The Apprentice, animated shows likeThe Simpsons, music video shows like MTV  and TV comedy shows like The Daily Show. With Stewart., and late night talk shows like David Letterman and Conan O’brien just to name a few.

I first developed my manifesto for marketing to Gen-X and Gen-Y in 2006/2007, at about the time that social networking really began to take hold, and I realized then that in order to successfully market to these two generatioins, a social approach was also needed.   So far those observations have proven to be correct.   Although my manifesto is albeit a bit dated, the basic concepts of neuromarketing work for all demographics.     

If you are marketing to Millennials or Gen-Xers you might be interested in reading some of the following blog articles:

• 9/24/10 - "IN ORDER TO ENGAGE WITH TODAY'S GENERATION Y YOU MUST MAKE IT AN EVENT"
• 10/1/10 - "GENERATION-Y IS QUITE LITERALLY A "WIRED" GENERATION OF TECH SAVVY AND SOCIAL NERDS"
• 12/18/10 - "MARKETER'S NEED TO CUT THE CLUTTER TO ACHIEVE SUCCESS WITH TODAY'S COLLEGE STUDENTS"

Courtesy of Tommy Toy, PBT Consulting

CRACKING THE CODE ON MILLENNIAL CONSUMERS AND WHAT THIS MEANS FOR BUSINESSES

Companies that win millennials’ business stand to enjoy robust economic growth for years to come. In 2015, millennials surpassed baby boomers as the largest living generation in the United States. Now more than 75 million strong, this cohort, born between 1981 and 1997, is expected to peak at 81 million in 2036. Millennials already spend $1 trillion, and that spending power will increase as their income reaches $8.3 trillion by 2025 (versus $6.4 trillion for Gen Xers and $1.1 trillion for baby boomers).

Many forward-looking consumer companies and investment firms are wondering about the true marketplace potential of millennials and the appropriate influence of this cohort on their strategies. Because millennials are critical to future growth and value creation for consumer-facing businesses, we investigated this generation to understand their marketplace potential better. We surveyed 11,000 people in May 2016, including 7,000 millennials, 2,000 Gen Xers, and 2,000 baby boomers about their attitudes, buying preferences, and category behaviors. Our research showed that millennials are a complex cohort with diverse preferences. The seemingly conflicting press on these consumers reflects seven distinct segments. Consumer companies and investment firms should take this complexity into account as they shape their strategies, as capturing a meaningful share of millennials’ potential will not be a one-size-fits-all proposition.

Aligning to the right millennial segments

We found that millennials fall into seven distinct segments along a spectrum of three behavioral clusters: value, quality, and image. Within each cluster, we see two or three segments that behave quite differently from one another (Exhibit 1).

Value-driven consumers: 40 percent of millennials

These consumers fall into two segments, both of which are conservative in their purchase decisions and care less than other segments about brands. Economizers are relatively unengaged, budget-conscious consumers who go after deals and are brand agnostic. Risk avoiders rely heavily on recommendations and advice before trying new products or brands. They want to know that they have made good decisions and will emphasize advice and recommendations from others when they make decisions.

Quality-driven consumers: 22 percent of millennials

These consumers have definite preferences and consider brand selection a mark of their ability to make thoughtful decisions. Diligent loyalists show a distinct need for control and routine in many aspects of their lives (for example, diet and finances). They care about being informed and are largely content with their current products. Premium enthusiasts are highly educated consumers who see products and brands as extensions of themselves. They are willing to pay more to obtain the quality they care about. This cluster has the greatest affinity with health and wellness activities and brands.

Image-driven consumers: 38 percent of millennials

This cluster consists of three different segments. Experience-driven “you only live once” millennials (YOLO-ers) focus on enjoying life today, even if that means living beyond their means. Higher-income showcasers follow the latest trends, think newer brands are more innovative, and show off their purchases on social media. Explorers are willing to pay a premium to be the first to try new products or brands in order to set themselves apart.

Understanding millennial behaviors and preferences

Despite current lower incomes and concerns about the financial future, millennials as a whole spend money. Our research found that millennials are willing to pay premium prices for both goods and services, suggesting that “premiumization” trends will continue. In our survey, just over half of millennials indicate that they don’t mind paying more for quality products that will last for years. Even for value-conscious millennials on a budget, one-third admit that they spend more than they should, compared with 29 percent for Gen Xers and 14 percent for baby boomers.

This willingness to pay (for quality) extends across multiple product categories, especially food and beverages at home, where half of millennials report that they always or often pay premium prices. Other categories where we see greater willingness than other cohorts to pay a premium include tech devices (44 percent), apparel (39 percent), footwear (37 percent), and, surprisingly, automobiles (31 percent). But willingness to pay a premium differs by segment. YOLO-ers are especially willing to pay a premium for exclusive products and services. Explorers will pay more to get exactly what they want, while premium enthusiasts favor products made by companies that share their values. Marketers will need to communicate differently to win each segment’s consideration and loyalty.

Millennials spend on material things, not just experiences. They do spend more than older generations on experiences—for example, millennials report spending $164 per month on average on entertainment versus $101 for Gen Xers and $134 for baby boomers. What they do not do, however, is curb spending on other material goods to afford memorable experiences. Just as millennials are willing to pay a premium for quality, our research showed this cohort is outspending other generations on several major product categories, especially apparel and footwear. Millennials spend $524 per year on apparel versus $355 for Gen Xers and $439 for baby boomers. For footwear, those numbers are $264, $185, and $134, respectively (Exhibit 2).

By and large, millennials are also outspending either or both of the Generation X and baby-boomer cohorts on categories where we expect to see moderate to high growth (Exhibit 3). Consumer-facing companies should ensure they are well positioned to capture growth from categories where millennials outspend others. They may also need to convince their millennial customers to spend in other categories to deliver on their long-term growth aspirations.

Millennial segments differ sharply in their preferences for healthy products. Not every millennial is deeply health conscious. Some segments (diligent loyalists, premium enthusiasts, YOLO-ers, and showcasers) care deeply about health and wellness. In fact, they care more deeply than older consumers in the same segments. These millennials want to know exactly what is in the food they eat and prefer organic, nonprocessed ingredients. But other millennial segments (economizers, risk avoiders, and explorers) find processed foods and nonorganic ingredients quite acceptable. We foresee plenty of growth in better-for-you and healthy categories, but the growth is coming from a portion of millennials and the influence they are having on their parents and children.

Influencing millennials

Millennials are thoughtful buyers. They look (and can find) a lot of information before making purchase decisions. More than half of millennials say that they “almost always research before buying,” which is sharply higher than other cohorts. Yet millennials are less persuaded than older generations by brand-directed marketing. They are more likely to rely on brand and product recommendations obtained via word of mouth, online reviews, and social media. Nearly half get most of their apparel inspiration from social media (versus 28 percent for Gen Xers and 7 percent for baby boomers). Millennials are also far more likely to share their opinions of products and brands, both on- and offline. Once millennials have children, they are far more likely to advocate for products and brands online.

Consumer-facing companies must adapt to having less direct control over the information that consumers get about their products. Leveraging different modes across a customer’s decision journey and tapping into customer advocacy is essential. Hispanic millennials, for instance, identify more with generation than ethnicity. To understand the relative importance of generation and ethnicity in the attitudes and behavior of Hispanic millennials, we compared their survey responses with those of non-Hispanic millennials and Hispanic Gen Xers and baby boomers in the same segments. What we found was that there was a much stronger correlation with generation than ethnicity among Hispanic millennials in all seven segments (Exhibit 4). There was a distinct difference between male and female Hispanic millennials, particularly around where and how they like to splurge. This suggests that there is more upside in targeting older Hispanics with more unique products and considering millennial segments rather than homing in on a narrower demographic-based segment.

Implications for consumer companies and investment firms

As consumer companies and investment firms consider portfolio-growth opportunities and new assets, they would do well to factor millennials into the equation. This cohort already has real marketplace potential, which will increase significantly over a relatively short investment horizon. Many Generation X– and baby-boomer-rooted businesses are struggling. Reaching a meaningful share of the millennial potential requires having different capabilities. Marketers, operators, and merchants need to take the following steps: one, penetrate the right segment; two, unlock what motivates that segment to spend money; and three, act on strategies that build loyalty through ongoing consumer engagement. When vetting organizations that claim to have a millennial opportunity, consumer companies and investment firms should probe and measure the extent to which they have done all three actions.

Courtesy of an article dated March 18, 2017 appearing in McKinsey & Company Blog

 

COMICS AND GRAPHIC NOVEL SALES HIT NEW HIGH IN PANDEMIC YEAR, GROWTH CONTINUES IN 2021

Combined comics and graphic novel sales hit a new high in the pandemic year of 2020, according to a new joint estimate by ICv2’s Milton Griepp and Comichron’s John Jackson Miller. Total comics and graphic novel sales to consumers in the U.S. and Canada were approximately $1.28 billion in 2020, a 6% increase over sales in 2019.  The increase was due to strong sales of graphic novels online and in mass merchants and strong digital sales, which overcame big declines in comic and book store sales.  Click to see the full report and charts.

ICV2' Milton Griepp said of the 2020 estimates. 

“The challenges of retailing in the pandemic had profound impacts on the market, including the acceleration of trends that have been in place for years.  The book channel increased its share dramatically vs. comic stores, and graphic novels increased their share vs. periodical comics, while digital sales were turbocharged.”

Sales of kids’ graphic novels in mass merchants and online drove graphic novel sales early, and as the pandemic went on (and anime streaming grew), manga sales took off. In the comic store channel, the seven-week shutdown by Diamond Comic Distributors and subsequent publisher cutbacks in periodical releases were a drag on sales, even as demand surged in the second half of the year.

John Jackson Miller said.

“The comic periodical market was ahead for the year before the pandemic struck, and the result of production cutbacks was that 30% fewer new comic books were released by the major publishers in 2020.  The fact that new comics sales were down by only 20% suggests that retailers did well with what they were able to get.”

Not only was demand high for new comics and graphic novels, the collectible side of the comics business was also strong.  John Jackson Miller added. 

“The collector market flourished during the year, allowing comics shops to earn significant revenue from their back-issue inventories.  Many new releases also saw significant levels of markup that our charts would not be able to capture, all of which helped stores offset the lack of new product.”

For both independent comic and book stores, healthy consumer demand, strong community support, and help from government programs and the Book Industry Charitable Foundation kept the store attrition rate lower than expected.

Milton Griepp said.

“I’m encouraged by the way independent retailers selling comics and graphic novels are coming out of the pandemic shutdowns.  Combined with the robust growth in other channels, the business is in overall good condition to serve the many new consumers that started enjoying comic-form entertainment over the past year.”

Big changes in comic distribution and reporting required substantial adaptations in the analysts’ methodology for 2020. Diamond Comic Distributors halted its release of sales information in 2020, as the movement of DC Comics to a new distributor made their reports an incomplete picture of the market. Instead, the analysis uses data based on sales tracked at point-of-sale by the ComicHub system at over 100 stores. We have used that data to build a model of sales for the entire comic store channel using comparisons developed during periods in which ComicHub and Diamond reporting overlapped.

We also altered how we use NPD BookScan data; NPD began incorporating ComicHub data into its reports in 2020, so we accounted for the ComicHub portion when estimating the size of the book channel. NPD BookScan collects weekly point-of-sale data on print books from over 16,000 locations including e-tailers, chains, mass merchandisers, independent bookstores, and more. NPD BookScan covers approximately 85% of the overall U.S. trade print book market. Some publishers classify titles that are primarily text, or art books, as graphic novels; those titles are removed from the analysis.

As presented above and in the accompanying infographics, the analysis by Comichron and ICv2 was divided up between periodical comics (what some call “floppies” or “pamphlets”), graphic novels, and digital download-to-own sales. All print figures are calculated based on the full retail price of books sold into the market, and do not account for discounting or markup. Digital sales do not include subscription-based “all you can read” services.

ICv2

ICv2 is the #1 industry source on the business of geek culture, including comics and graphic novels, hobby games, and the media world surrounding them, on its website, www.ICv2.com, and in its magazine, Internal Correspondence. For the people on the front lines of the geek culture business, staying ahead of the trends isn’t something that can be left to chance-it’s a basic necessity for being successful. That’s why ICv2, where trend-watching is a science, is the #1 source of news and information for the buyers, gatekeepers, and tastemakers.

Comichron

Comichron is the world’s largest public repository of comic-book sales figures, featuring data from the 1930s to today about comic book and graphic novel circulation, cover prices, and market shares on its website, www.comichron.com. With data and analysis on the distant past as well as the present, Comichron serves as a trusted resource for academics studying the historical reach of the medium and for collectors seeking accurate information about how many copies of a comic book originally circulated.

The “Other” channel in our channel breakdown includes the Newsstand (periodical sales through specialty retail and mass merchant chains) and crowdfunding (Kickstarter, etc.) channels. Kickstarter was a contributor to growth, with comic funding up 60% in 2020.

This is the eighth joint market size analysis from ICv2 and Comichron; the first was for 2013 sales. Previous years’ reports are at https://www.comichron.com/yearlycomicssales.html

COMMENTARY:  According to Comichron, which collates comic book sales across the direct market, in summer 2021 comic book sales were at one of their highest points in the last 25 years. The top 300 comics sold at least 24.2 million copies in June, July, and August - more than any summer quarter except 1997 and 2016. This success is particularly remarkable, given in 1997 there were literally twice as many comic book stores, while 2016 saw the high-profile "DC Rebirth" initiative that relaunched DC Comics' entire range..

Summer traditionally performs well in terms of comic book sales; that's why most publishers save major events and relaunches for the summer, when footfall and demand are at their highest. But the strength of summer 2021 is particularly remarkable given all publishers are currently releasing fewer books each week as a result of the pandemic. Sales have been bolstered by variant incentives and one-shots, major relaunches including the likes of X-Men and Moon Knight, and events such as the X-Men's Hellfire Gala, War of the Bounty Hunters, and Fear State. Marvel continue to benefit from Star Wars, with both War of the Bounty Hunters and Star Wars: The High Republic - a bold transmedia initiative - flourishing. Image Comics, meanwhile, will be especially pleased with the sales figures for King Spawn #1; including international sales, it will be their first book to break half a million in the 21st century, likely bolstered by variants.

Share of adults who are fans of comic books in the United States as of April 2019, by age group:

Courtesy of an article dated June 29, 2021 appearing in Comichron and an article dated October 14, 2021 appearing in ScreenRant and an aricle dated Dated December 18, 2019 appearing in Statista

THE MILLENNIALS: THE LARGEST AND MOST DIVERSIFIED GENERATION TODAY PRESENTS HUGE MARKETING CHALLENGES FOR COMPANIES

Companies that win millennials’ business stand to enjoy robust economic growth for years to come. In 2015, millennials surpassed baby boomers as the largest living generation in the United States. Now more than 75 million strong, this cohort, born between 1981 and 1997, is expected to peak at 81 million in 2036. Millennials already spend $1 trillion, and that spending power will increase as their income reaches $8.3 trillion by 2025 (versus $6.4 trillion for Gen Xers and $1.1 trillion for baby boomers).

Many forward-looking consumer companies and investment firms are wondering about the true marketplace potential of millennials and the appropriate influence of this cohort on their strategies. Because millennials are critical to future growth and value creation for consumer-facing businesses, we investigated this generation to understand their marketplace potential better.  We surveyed 11,000 people in May 2016, including 7,000 millennials, 2,000 Gen Xers, and 2,000 baby boomers about their attitudes, buying preferences, and category behaviors. Our research showed that millennials are a complex cohort with diverse preferences. The seemingly conflicting press on these consumers reflects seven distinct segments. Consumer companies and investment firms should take this complexity into account as they shape their strategies, as capturing a meaningful share of millennials’ potential will not be a one-size-fits-all proposition.

Aligning to the right millennial segments

We found that millennials fall into seven distinct segments along a spectrum of three behavioral clusters: value, quality, and image. Within each cluster, we see two or three segments that behave quite differently from one another (Exhibit 1).

Exhibit I

Value-driven consumers: 40 percent of millennials

These consumers fall into two segments, both of which are conservative in their purchase decisions and care less than other segments about brands. Economizers are relatively unengaged, budget-conscious consumers who go after deals and are brand agnostic. Risk avoiders rely heavily on recommendations and advice before trying new products or brands. They want to know that they have made good decisions and will emphasize advice and recommendations from others when they make decisions.

Quality-driven consumers: 22 percent of millennials

These consumers have definite preferences and consider brand selection a mark of their ability to make thoughtful decisions. Diligent loyalists show a distinct need for control and routine in many aspects of their lives (for example, diet and finances). They care about being informed and are largely content with their current products. Premium enthusiasts are highly educated consumers who see products and brands as extensions of themselves. They are willing to pay more to obtain the quality they care about. This cluster has the greatest affinity with health and wellness activities and brands.

Image-driven consumers: 38 percent of millennials

This cluster consists of three different segments. Experience-driven “you only live once” millennials (YOLO-ers) focus on enjoying life today, even if that means living beyond their means. Higher-income showcasers follow the latest trends, think newer brands are more innovative, and show off their purchases on social media. Explorers are willing to pay a premium to be the first to try new products or brands in order to set themselves apart.

Understanding millennial behaviors and preferences

Despite current lower incomes and concerns about the financial future, millennials as a whole spend money. Our research found that millennials are willing to pay premium prices for both goods and services, suggesting that “premiumization” trends will continue. In our survey, just over half of millennials indicate that they don’t mind paying more for quality products that will last for years. Even for value-conscious millennials on a budget, one-third admit that they spend more than they should, compared with 29 percent for Gen Xers and 14 percent for baby boomers.

This willingness to pay (for quality) extends across multiple product categories, especially food and beverages at home, where half of millennials report that they always or often pay premium prices. Other categories where we see greater willingness than other cohorts to pay a premium include tech devices (44 percent), apparel (39 percent), footwear (37 percent), and, surprisingly, automobiles (31 percent). But willingness to pay a premium differs by segment. YOLO-ers are especially willing to pay a premium for exclusive products and services. Explorers will pay more to get exactly what they want, while premium enthusiasts favor products made by companies that share their values. Marketers will need to communicate differently to win each segment’s consideration and loyalty.

Millennials spend on material things, not just experiences. They do spend more than older generations on experiences—for example, millennials report spending $164 per month on average on entertainment versus $101 for Gen Xers and $134 for baby boomers. What they do not do, however, is curb spending on other material goods to afford memorable experiences. Just as millennials are willing to pay a premium for quality, our research showed this cohort is outspending other generations on several major product categories, especially apparel and footwear. Millennials spend $524 per year on apparel versus $355 for Gen Xers and $439 for baby boomers. For footwear, those numbers are $264, $185, and $134, respectively (Exhibit 2).

Exhibit 2

By and large, millennials are also outspending either or both of the Generation X and baby-boomer cohorts on categories where we expect to see moderate to high growth (Exhibit 3). Consumer-facing companies should ensure they are well positioned to capture growth from categories where millennials outspend others. They may also need to convince their millennial customers to spend in other categories to deliver on their long-term growth aspirations.

Exhibit 3

Millennial segments differ sharply in their preferences for healthy products.  Not every millennial is deeply health conscious. Some segments (diligent loyalists, premium enthusiasts, YOLO-ers, and showcasers) care deeply about health and wellness.  In fact, they care more deeply than older consumers in the same segments.  These millennials want to know exactly what is in the food they eat and prefer organic, non-processed ingredients. But other millennial segments (economizers, risk avoiders, and explorers) find processed foods and nonorganic ingredients quite acceptable. We foresee plenty of growth in better-for-you and healthy categories, but the growth is coming from a portion of millennials and the influence they are having on their parents and children.

Influencing millennials

Millennials are thoughtful buyers. They look (and can find) a lot of information before making purchase decisions. More than half of millennials say that they “almost always research before buying,” which is sharply higher than other cohorts. Yet millennials are less persuaded than older generations by brand-directed marketing. They are more likely to rely on brand and product recommendations obtained via word of mouth, online reviews, and social media. Nearly half get most of their apparel inspiration from social media (versus 28 percent for Gen Xers and 7 percent for baby boomers). Millennials are also far more likely to share their opinions of products and brands, both on- and offline. Once millennials have children, they are far more likely to advocate for products and brands online.

Consumer-facing companies must adapt to having less direct control over the information that consumers get about their products. Leveraging different modes across a customer’s decision journey and tapping into customer advocacy is essential. Hispanic millennials, for instance, identify more with generation than ethnicity. To understand the relative importance of generation and ethnicity in the attitudes and behavior of Hispanic millennials, we compared their survey responses with those of non-Hispanic millennials and Hispanic Gen Xers and baby boomers in the same segments. What we found was that there was a much stronger correlation with generation than ethnicity among Hispanic millennials in all seven segments (Exhibit 4). There was a distinct difference between male and female Hispanic millennials, particularly around where and how they like to splurge. This suggests that there is more upside in targeting older Hispanics with more unique products and considering millennial segments rather than homing in on a narrower demographic-based segment.

Exhibit IV

Implications for consumer companies and investment firms

As consumer companies and investment firms consider portfolio-growth opportunities and new assets, they would do well to factor millennials into the equation. This cohort already has real marketplace potential, which will increase significantly over a relatively short investment horizon. Many Generation X– and baby-boomer-rooted businesses are struggling. Reaching a meaningful share of the millennial potential requires having different capabilities. Marketers, operators, and merchants need to take the following steps: one, penetrate the right segment; two, unlock what motivates that segment to spend money; and three, act on strategies that build loyalty through ongoing consumer engagement. When vetting organizations that claim to have a millennial opportunity, consumer companies and investment firms should probe and measure the extent to which they have done all three actions.

COMMENTARY:   As a management consultant I have had numerous opportunities to work with and advise young entrepreneurial millennials.  They gravitate towards live entertainment and sports events, health and fitness, gaming, internet surfing particularly social networks, reading, socializing with close friends, participating in social causes, and early adopters of the latest gadgets and technology.  

Millennials don't watch much TV, and get most of their entertainment, news and information from surfing the internet.  They represent real challenges for marketers wishing to reach them.  They ignore television commercials entirely, referring to their close circle of friends for opinions and recommendations on products.

As explained above, millennials fall into seven distinct consumer segments (economizers, risk avoiders, diligent loyalists, premium enthusiasts, YOLO-ers, showcasers and explorers) within three behavioral clusters: quality, value and image.  Any marketer wishing to reach millennials must personalize their content for each of the seven distinct consumer segments and incorporate the behavioral attributes of quality, value and image to entice the millennial.  There is no one-size-fits-all marketing strategy so don't even try.  Millennials are far too diverse, brand agnostic and complex for any one marketing solution to work.        

Social media is the place to be when it comes to engaging and marketing to millennials. Typical advertising outlets won't grab their attention. Use social media to leverage a real, genuine connection with them. If you do this well, it can lead to better sales and brand impressions, as well as more trust.

Forty seven percent of millennials believe all Americans have the means to start their own business, and 84 percent revealed that they are more satisfied as an entrepreneur than when they worked for someone else.

While older generations generally view going into business for themselves as too risky, millennials are more likely to take the leap of faith.  In fact, 56 percent of millennials reported that entrepreneurship has always been a long-term goal, compared to 43 percent of Gen Xers and 21 percent of baby boomers.

Millennials have grown up with technology and view it as essential to running any business today. Fifty percent percent of millennials believe that growing up with the internet has prepared them to become entrepreneurs. Further, 66 percent of millennials believe that they are able to handle the marketing and social media aspects of growing a business, compared to 28 percent of baby boomers.

A lot of millennials began their businesses from their passions with the most popular sectors being art, music and entertainment (13 percent), followed by food and beverage (12 percent) and retail (10 percent).

While there are a number of factors that influence a person’s choice to become self-employed (such as the state of the economy), 24 percent of millennials revealed that they come from a family of entrepreneurs or small business owners, compared to only 12 percent of baby boomers.

Courtesy of an article titled "Cracking The Code on Millennial Consumers" dated March 18, 2017 appearing in McKinsey & Company Blog

 

 

HOW TO TARGET THE RIGHT AUDIENCE FOR YOUR BRAND

“You can’t be everything to everyone,” is an old marketing adage.  Doing so makes you nothing to no one, or so the saying goes. But how many companies are brave enough to act on this principle?

It is easy to talk behind closed doors about actively choosing to not target specific audiences, and quite another to actually execute campaigns and messaging that may effectively eliminate you from consideration for future business. This is how McDonald’s ended up serving salads no one bought, it's how one of the greatest flops of all time, “new Coke,” happened. Coca-Cola is generally thought of as one of the most successful brands in history, and even they got sucked into the idea that you need to change to find new customers. The question is: at what cost?

Whenever you address a new market or audience, your current customers will ask the question, “Do I still fit with this brand? Do they still serve me and my needs?” When you have built up credibility and strong brand loyalty, this question is a whisper.   Targeting markets and customers requires caution:

• Address too many new markets too quickly, and you’ll feel the effects of slow sales, lower customer loyalty, and decreasing momentum in your business.
• If you try to be everything to everyone from the very beginning, you’ll fail to win any market. You have to pick an audience to target and tailor your marketing message for them. Here’s why.

Targeting everyone creates brand confusion

As we’ve evolved, our brains have learned to lump things we see and interact with into general categories—dangers to be aware of, things that are enjoyable, edible goods, anything and everything you can imagine. This helps prevent us from becoming paralyzed by decision making. Unsurprisingly, brands and products are also affected by this system.

You cause brand confusion by trying to target everyone. To continue the McDonald’s example, when they first introduced salads to the menu, they were working to target an entirely new customer base: those who want healthy food.  The issue here is that McDonald’s has stood for convenience, speed, and consistency forever.  When you go to a McDonald’s, you’re looking for a very quick, portable meal that won’t slow down your road trip or take up much of your work day.  If that’s what you associate with McDonald’s, and then they start offering salads—hard to eat on the go, and not all that fast—why would you even consider buying them?

On top of causing confusion, when you begin targeting an unrelated customer set, your brand feels inauthentic—to both the people already buying from you, and those you’re trying to target now. New Coke was an attempt to appear modern compared to the fresh view of Pepsi. Except Coke didn’t need to do that. Their customers felt betrayed by the change in formula, and anyone who wanted to rebel against the established and storied brand of Coca-Cola was already drinking Pepsi. It wasn’t about the taste, it was about what the brand stood for. Changing that attracted nobody and just upset Coke’s loyal brand followers.

Earn the right to expand your market

A natural question to ask is “If we target one group, can we later grow by targeting more groups?” Consider Amazon as perhaps the best example of expanding from one small offering to, well, the entire world of consumable goods. When Amazon started, they sold books online. That’s it. Then they branched out into consumer electronics, and then added their leading revenue maker, Amazon Web Services.

If Jeff Bezos had launched Amazon as an online bookstore and provider of business networking infrastructure from the start, would that combination have made sense to anyone? Would anyone have trusted that the software was any good? Personally, I would have been entirely lost—and I expect the executive teams who decide to purchase AWS for their business would have felt the same way.

You don’t just get the entire war chest at the beginning—you have to earn the right to expand your target market. A great example of doing this successfully is Lululemon. When Lululemon was founded in 2000, it made only yoga clothing specifically designed for women. Talk about niche. After becoming known for making exceptionally comfortable, durable, and high-performing yoga clothing, Lululemon expanded into other areas of fitness including running, cycling, and weight training with a focus on a CrossFit-loving clientele. It was only after dominating the women’s activewear market that Lululemon moved into men’s clothing. They first became the go-to brand in one segment of one part of the activewear industry and then, slowly but surely, grabbed more and more market share from adjacent segments.

Growth has costs—more so if you overreach

Even a brilliant business mind like Jeff Bezos has had to struggle with the growing pains of rapidly expanding into new markets. As recently as October of 2019, Amazon has conceded profit to fuel growth. Very often, Amazon has entered a market by first offering a product on its platform, and then figuring out how to produce it cheaper themselves at a similar quality, and then offering their own line. This is how AmazonBasics came to be, and it certainly ruffles a few feathers—and clears out a few checkbooks along the way.

Additionally, investing in growth means having less liquid cash readily available. Having cash is an asset, especially during tough economic times, as we are all acutely aware. Access to capital is cheaper due to low interest rates, and typically weaker competition is pushed out of the market—freeing up superior talent you can bring into your organization, not to mention customers suddenly looking for options. Those with cash come out on top as growth and expansion become more readily accessible. If all of your capital is tied up in playing in a few too many sandboxes, you’re in a bad position to take advantage of these opportunities as they present themselves.

Long-term growth and scale requires patience and honesty

We all want to be the next Lululemon, a small business turned public company with massive numbers of loyal fans across various market segments. But is your business truly ready for that? Have you earned that sort of success?

No doubt, success to that degree requires a bit of luck at important moments. But, even more so, it requires smart strategic thinking about who your buyer is, and how you can wow them time and time again. It requires the patience to recognize that just like a human relationship, your brand will not be loved by everyone in a day. It requires the patience and discipline to see your strategy through and to adjust when needed. And it requires the honesty to recognize that you’re simply not capable of being everything to everyone—which is completely okay.

Own your share of the market. Serve the people only you can uniquely serve, and do it with excellence. Make their lives better each and every day, and when the opportunity arises to strategically move into an adjacent market and improve that customer’s life as well, take it with confidence. But earn it first.

COMMENTARY:   In order to target your ideal customers you need to know the following:

• Who they are
• What they do
• Where they are
• What appeals to them
• How connected they are
• What the do online

The following infographic explains each element of what you need to know about your target market.

How to Define Your Target Market

To build a solid foundation for your business, you must first identify your typical customer and tailor your marketing pitch accordingly.

1. Look at your current customer base.
2. Check out your competition.
3. Analyze your product or service.
4. Choose specific demographics to target.
5. Consider the psychographics of your target.
6. Implement target marketing.
7. Evaluate your decision.
8. Use additional resources as needed.

Target marketing does not mean that you are excluding markets that do not fit your criteria. Rather, target marketing allows you to focus your marketing dollars and brand message on a specific market that is more likely to buy from you than other markets.  This is a much more affordable, efficient, and effective way to reach potential clients and generate business.

With a clearly defined target audience, it is much easier to determine where and how to market your company. Here are some tips to help you define your target market.

• Look at your current customer base - Who are your current customers, and why do they buy from you? Look for common characteristics and interests. Which ones bring in the most business? It is very likely that other people like them could also benefit from your product or service.
• Check out your competition - Who are your competitors targeting? Who are their current customers? Don't go after the same market. You may find a niche market that they are overlooking.
• Analyze your product or service - Write out a list of each feature of your product or service. Next to each feature, list the benefits it provides (and the benefits of those benefits). For example, a graphic designer offers high-quality design services. The benefit is a professional company image. A professional image will attract more customers because they see the company as professional and trustworthy. So ultimately, the benefit of high-quality design is gaining more customers and making more money.
• Choose specific demographics to target - Figure out not only who has a need for your product or service, but also who is most likely to buy it. Think about the following factors:
  • Age 
  • Location
  • Gender
  • Income level
  • Education level
  • Marital or family status
  • Occupation
  • Ethnic background
• Consider the psychographics of your target - Psychographics are the more personal characteristics of a person, including  how your product or service will fit into your target's lifestyle:
  • Personality
  • Attitudes
  • Values
  • Interests/hobbies
  • Lifestyles
  • Behavior
• Evaluate your decision - Once you've decided on a target market, be sure to consider these questions:
  • Are there enough people who fit my criteria?
  • Will my target really benefit from my product/service? Will they see a need for it?
  • Do I understand what drives my target to make decisions?
  • Can they afford my product/service?
  • Can I reach them with my message? Are they easily accessible?

Courtesy of an article dated August 31, 2021 by Joe Mills for Element Three

MARKETING TO MILLENIALS: SUCCESSFUL STRATEGIES AND TACTICS

Why should you market to Millennials?

If you are asking yoursef why should I care about the Millennial generation and why should I consider spending my marketing dollars, time and effort targeting Millennials.

I have the answers for you….

The millennial generation represents the largest generation consisting of approximately 80 million people with over $170 billion in purchasing power.

The millennial generation with its large influence is shaping the way that brands send messages, forcing businesses to change or suffer the consequences.

Millennials marketing and an understanding of how to reach the millennial generation is critical and will enhance your organization’s brand and integrated marketing communications strategies. Implementing these millennial elements will help your organization reach its business and marketing objectives.

Millennial Characteristics

Let’s start out by giving the definition. The Millennial Generation is typically defined as individuals born between 1980 and 2000.  According to the U.S. Censur Burean, as of April 2015, Millennials now number 92 million or 20% of the total U.S. population, and are now the largest generation, even bigger than Baby Boomers. 

Click Image To Enlarge

A comprehensive understanding of millennial characteristics is critical in creating an integrated marketing communications (IMC) plan.

There are concepts, values, and characteristics unique to all millennials that include:

Concepts

• The use of a variety of media
• They view brands as a partnership and form of self-expression

Values

• Honesty
• Authenticity
• Value

Characteristics

• More technologically advanced than previous generations
• More educated than previous generations
• The most racially and ethnically diverse
• Encumbered with student loan debt, which continues to grow each year
• Have different priorities like putting off marriage, buying a house or automobile

Millennials also take action on behalf of brands based on loyalty and give significant brand loyalty to brands and products of preference. In addition, the millennial generation likes music and events and requires authenticity, two-way communication, social responsibility, and connection with a personal touch.

Click Image To Enlarge

Other important concepts of millennials marketing involve the millennial generation’s value systems that include altruism and a predisposition to support social and environmental causes they care about. As a result, millennials purchase and support companies with environmentally and socially responsible products (brands).

Click Image To Enlarge

Millennials Marketing Strategy and Tactics

A two-pronged generic millennial strategy and a subculture marketing strategy are critical to an organization seeking to achieve its objectives. Using a homogeneous millennial culture and subculture marketing strategy based on addressing the different ethnic subcultures provide a method to reach the target audience effectively.

The combination of the two marketing strategies will be used in the areas including logo design usage (affect), events, social and digital media, television, radio, and sponsorship (cognition).

The other elements included in marketing to millennials should also consider product or service content options and pricing (environment).

A combination of promotional strategies is required when marketing to millennials. Think in terms of the sum of the parts when influencing the millennial.

The marketing mix (product, place, promotion, and price) also heavily influences the millennial consumer stimulating trial and creating brand loyalty based on leveraging the brand assets.

Marketers are challenged with addressing two diametrically opposite considerations to reach millennials effectively. On one hand, millennials communicate asynchronously (i.e., via text). Conversely, the millennial market segment wants face-to-face interactions and a personal touch.

The key takeaway is for marketers to address the millennial generation using an IMC approach.

Market Research Drives Strategy and Tactics

Market research was the most important step in the approach used by Mercedes-Benz and Amazon. The essential driving force behind the development and launch of the CLA from Mercedes-Benz and the Fire TV from Amazon is market research.

Market research was the basis that determined product development and the corresponding marketing strategy and tactics resulting in both organizations reaching and exceeding organizational objectives.

The list included is not an exhaustive list of marketing elements used in strategy and tactical development, but a representation of the most important and how they fit together to address a diverse generation. The elements listed provide an organization with a framework from an IMC perspective to take into consideration when forming strategies and tactics to reach the millennial consumer.

Event Marketing

IMC messaging strategies with a millennial target audience must use a dual approach. The IMC strategy must incorporate event or experiential marketing offering a personal one-to-one relationship required by the millennial generation based on the statistic that 78% of millennials prefer a brand experience that is relevant and gives them information.

An example of a relevant and simple marketing tactic to reach this audience is Federal Express providing South by Southwest festival attendees charging stations to charge mobile devices. The charging station example demonstrates a marketing tactic that builds an emotional connection with a brand, especially with the millennial generation that does not like to be without the use of its mobile devices.

Digital and Social Media 

Another critical element in an IMC strategy focused on millennials requires a company to use Internet marketing and social media which is in stark contrast to the face-to-face interaction desired by this generation. Event marketing provides the ability to begin a conversation with the millennial consumer supported by the internet and social media.

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The internet and social media allow a company to continue to engage this generation to gain brand awareness, stimulate trial usage, repeat usage, and ultimately  loyalty. The social media channel must consider the product or service offered by the company and target where this generation spends most of its social media time (Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Pinterest, Instagram, Snapchat).

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For example, using Facebook and Twitter to engage craft beer consumers would be a good social media choice and LinkedIn would be a poor media choice. Training consulting services or customer relationship software provides examples of a product and service that offer a better fit with LinkedIn’s target audience and purpose.

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Millennials are early adopters of different social media channels, and marketers must keep track of the social media consumption patterns and trends adapting marketing tactics to reach this generation.

Millennials Seek Lower Prices, Loyalty and Reward Programs and Discounting and less on product quality

Millennials are forcing brands to become more participative by subtly engaging by offering discounted prices and loyalty and reward programs while relying less on product quality.  77% of the millennial generation reported participating in loyalty and reward Programs

Millennials thrive online, researching product choices online, then placing orders online.

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In addition, 78% of millennials reported to being more likely to buy from a brand with a rewards program than one without.

Millennials have the highest percentage of word-of-mouth marketing, electing to share feedback about a product or service both on-line and off-line.  The implications of these millennial statistics support the social media tactic of engaging using online channels to support the event marketing high-touch required by this generation.

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)

A critical statistic for marketers is the fact 75% of millennials donate to charity and 60% volunteer for a worthy cause.

The millennial generation coming of age is one of the most important components influencing marketing and the messages brands send. The millennial generation with its demonstration of purchasing power and brand support for companies that are environmentally conscious has caused a seismic shift in business.

Here is a quote from Simon Sinek that provides a paradigm shift for marketers and how they communicate:

“PEOPLE DON’T BUY WHAT YOU DO, THEY BUY WHY YOU DO IT.”  – SIMON SINEK

Companies must infuse environmentally responsible practices into the core of their business strategy using an IMC approach. As a result, marketing strategy provides a core element in business strategy to promote a company as an ethical entity with genuine concern for social issues and the environment. Marketers must create authentic messages that can be supported with actions regarding the environment and social issues or risk suffering the consequences of the millennial consumer.

CSR Examples from the Automotive Industry

Companies such as General Motors and Ford have had to change significantly over the last six years. It is not enough to provide vehicles that are environmentally conscious, but the millennial generation demands a more significant effort from a brand. GM and Ford have implemented programs across their entire supply chain supporting environmental and social initiatives. GM and Ford now use a sustainability report a common marketing tool in business to provide information regarding the environmental and social practices of the company.

The sustainability report used by many companies across all industries provides evidence of the changing nature of business and marketing influenced by the millennial generation. However, if companies do not provide the millennial generation with authentic evidence of support for the environment, they could face significant brand and company damage.

The key takeaway is to include corporate social responsibility into your business and marketing strategy in an authentic manner.

Benchmarks for Millennial Marketing

There are a few companies out there that I think are really getting it right and setting the bar for marketing. The companies that are in the best position to take advantage of the largest generation include:

• TOMS donate a pair of shoes to someone for every pair of shoes sold. Giving and aligning the millennial generation with a cause allowing them to participate in the story. Blake Mycoskie, the founder, has found a way for philanthropy and profit to coexist in perfect harmony.
• Netflix continuously keeps pulse with the millennial generation exceptionally well and uses social media with shareable content to attract and engage.
• Uber with its unique app focused on convenience and the needs and wants of the millennial generation. Uber provided a disruptive business model that simply works with marketing campaigns focused on the millennials and shareable social media content.
• Dollar Shave Club has disrupted the personal grooming market with a business model that is uniquely suited to millennials. The two critical things marketers can takeaway from Dollar Shave Club is their unique, disruptive pricing model and creative marketing. Dollar Shave uses multiple media specifically targeting millennials with relevant, shareable, and entertaining content.

COMMENTARY:

The focus of this post is dedicated to targeting millennials using an integrated marketing communications (IMC) framework. In other posts, I discuss brand building that must take place before developing the IMC plan.

The millennial generation is an important generation for marketers to target for almost every industry. Forming strategies and tactics to reach the millennial consumer based on solid market research provides the best opportunity to target them effectively and achieve success.

Omnichannel Experiences: Creating Online And In-Store Moments That Matter To Millennials

Mobile marketers, take note: Millennials already live in an omnichannel shopping mindset. In fact, they were living in this mindset years before most businesses realized they needed to adjust operating models accordingly. These young shoppers carry with them the central expectation that a spectrum of seamless and consistent online and offline engagements will be the norm across their shopping journey. 

The goal of omnichannel marketing is not to create multiple experiences across multiple channels — that’s multichannel marketing — it is to build a unified brand-to-consumer interaction across all channels. Omnichannel experiences are not simply coordinated, and not simply integrated, they become continuous. A consumer can begin an experience in one channel and complete that interaction somewhere else. And, with the Millennial demographic set to spend some $200 billion in coming years, theimperative for brick-and-mortar to focus on omnichannel to reach them is more critical than ever. 

Success begins — and begins only, as there are many ways to inspire Millennials in the omnichannel space — with close attention to social-media interactions, live support, and real-time surprise and delight.

• The Social Experience: Based on our recent research, more than 1 in 4 young consumers, aged 14 - 29 (including both Millennials and Gen Z), said they use a mobile phone while browsing in a physical store, seeking guidance, input, and validation from friends and family on their screens. Engaging organically with Millennials as they share these experiences requires nuance and a sense for strategic delicacy, adapting to the distinctive “dialect” of each platform in positive and relevant ways. Taco Bell has earned notice by using Snapchat, for example, challenging young consumers to “Doodle Wars” that can be shared and saved for later, piping more attention to the brand-related drawings via Twitter, and all the while steering diners toward fresh brand-focused engagements. 

• Mobile-to-Live Support: Some 60% of Millennials recently told Radial that they want online chat and communications as part of their in-store shopping segment. A key opportunity for brick-and-mortar, then, is to seamlessly match a conversation that starts on mobile to a moment when an expert in-store representative can pick it up, further prompting the anticipatory inspiration that Millennials say they crave. The hospitality industry has become a superb example of this kind of handoff, with staff having all the immediately preceding information available on desktop and/or mobile device at the moment of the switch.

• In-the-Moment Inspiration: Brands that commit to omnichannel experiences can plug into Millennials’ openness to new ideas in the moment — specifically the kind that arise during otherwise-occupied segments of their shopping journey. Advertisers can prompt or seal the deal around restaurant visits, for example, giving users a chance to skip a seating line by donating to a social cause on their smartphone. This aligns with Millennials’ affinity for purchases that leverage philanthropic outcomes — 70% of them will spend more on brands supporting what they perceive to be worthy causes. It’s an omnichannel solution with in-the-moment meaning, driving sales and loyalty.

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In an omnichannel world, opportunities are free to emerge in seamless and consistent ways at any time, in any space … if these moments match the expectations and values of the Millennial consumer. Each of the above approaches fosters increasingly meaningful moments and, when it comes to Millennials, each instance represents a prime way to tap into the generation’s spending power as it reaches its peak.

Courtesy of an article dated December 3, 2014 appearing in Stephen Zoeller blog, a blog post by Goldman Sachs, and an article dated May 9, 2017 appearing in MediaPost Engage:Millennials

 

MARKETING TO BABY BOOMERS REQUIRES ENDING STEREOTYPES AND UNDERSTANDING THEIR BEHAVIORAL TRAITS

Our Understanding of the Baby Boomer Consumer

Mark Twain wrote, “The problem isn’t the things that we don’t know; it’s the things we ‘know’ that ain’t so.” His comment is simply a reflection of a common-sense reality. Today, marketing and selling draw on a lot of things “we ‘know’ that ain’t so.” 

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For instance: Marketers once “knew” (and many still do) that people 50 and older rarely change brands. Everybody “knew” that once consumers settled in on a brand or a company, they became more resistant to switching to another brand or business as they got older. Research shows that to be wrong. We also learned that consumer behavior is pertinent to the subtleties of marketing, advertising, and sales practices. Here is some of what we’ve learned:

1. As we age, our individualism increases - Baby Boomers are less subject to peer influence than are younger consumers. Marketing Implication: Keeping up with the Joneses is not as important as it once was; thus, advertising that invokes social status benefits does not play as well in Baby Boomer markets as it does in younger ones. Largely freed from worrying about reactions of others, Baby Boomers tend toward greater practicality in buying decisions than younger consumers. 
2. We develop an Increased demand for facts - Baby Boomers tend to be less responsive to sweeping claims in marketing messages as they age.  Marketing Implication: Hyperbole turns them off. If Baby Boomers are interested in considering a purchase, they want unadorned facts. Years of buying equip them with knowledge of what to look for and what information they need for an intelligent purchase. However, they often don’t get to the point of asking for facts until a product has emotionally intrigued them.
3. Our response to emotional stimuli increases - Baby Boomers tend to be quicker than younger consumers to reflect a lack of interest in or negative reaction to an offered product that doesn’t make an emotional connection.  Marketing Implication: Such “first impressions” are more likely to be permanent than among younger people, who are more apt to give a marketer a second chance. On the other hand, you can embed a positive first impression especially deep in the emotions of the Baby Boomer — so much so that he or she is often more disposed to be a loyal customer than the younger consumer.
4. We become less self-oriented, more altruistic - Baby Boomers tend to show increased response to marketing appeals reflecting altruistic values.  Marketing Implication: This tracks with shared middle-age shifts toward stronger spiritual values in which concern for others increases. As their altruistic motivations grow and become more powerful, narcissistic and materialistic values wane in influence. Marketers to Baby Boomers must rethink their traditional egocentric appeals in marketing communications.
5. As we age, we spend more time in making purchase decisions - People experience changes in their perceptions of time, and also the meaning and role of time in their lives as they grow older.  Marketing Implication: For example, Baby Boomers often ignore time-urgency strategies in marketing — such as: “Offer good until —,” “Only three left in stock.” Generally, “time is not of the essence” is a common attitude among Baby Boomers, especially those who have retired.
6. We often project what seems to be contradictory behavior - Sometimes we characterize Baby Boomers as selfish and selfless, penurious and profligate, spontaneous and deliberate, and so on. These different attributes lead some to describe Baby Boomers as contradictory — or at least, confusing in their behavior.  Marketing Implication: Baby Boomers are not different in their conduct; they are sensitive to the context in their behavior. For example, a Baby Boomer may use coupons in a grocery store, after which she drives off in a Mercedes.

This activity is not evidence of conflicting behavior, but an example of the rules of thriftiness applied to basics, and the rules of full value applied to discretionary expenditures. In the first case, the price is the common denominator in consumers’ interest, in the second, there is no common denominator because each person calculates the whole value in a unique manner.

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How the human brain processes information and consumer behavior is very relevant to the dynamics of marketing practices.  

Here's what we've learned:

1. There are material differences between males and females in the architecture and functioning of their brains - This difference often leads to different responses to the same experiences. Women make greater use of right-brain functions in thinking processes, making them more subject to emotional arousal than males. However, research indicates that in later life, the gap between men and women in emotional sensitivity narrows. Men become more sensitive and depend on emotional reads of a situation to determine if it warrants further attention.  Marketing Implication: Logic in product messages works better with males than females. However, this doesn’t mean qualitative differences in accuracy of perceptions because women make more efficient use of intuition, a right brain, and emotionally based function. However, once a woman experiences a favorable insight, she may become as rational in further processing a matter as a male. It’s just that her right brain is a more formidable gatekeeper to the left-brain than male brains are.
2. Our motivations do not originate in the conscious mind. - The conscious mind is the executive officer that, like a corporate CEO, makes decisions on needs that have been framed at lower levels. Neurologist Richard Restak states in The Brain Has a Mind of Its Own, “We have reason to doubt that full awareness of our motives may be possible.” Adds brain researcher Bernard Baars in In the Theater of the Brain, “Our inability to report intentions and expectations just reflect the fact that they are not qualitatively conscious.”  Marketing Implication: Answers consumers give researchers about their motivations are often incomplete or off the mark just because people can only speculate about their motives at deepest levels of the psyche. Creators of product messages need to become more intimately familiar, than is typical, with the “hidden drivers” of consumers’ behavior that consumers, about which they have little explicit knowledge.  These drivers tend to be stage-of-life specific. For example, young people have stronger outer-directed motivations relating to social status than older people. Older people’s motivations tend to be qualitatively more experiential and less materialistic than younger people’s motivations.
3. We use different brain sites and mental processes in answering researchers’ hypothetical questions than they use in real life situations - Research respondents tend to draw more heavily on the objective sequential reasoning of the left-brain than on the subjective emotional right brain in answering researchers’ questions. This left-brain bias is reversed in reacting to product messages and making buying decisions.  Marketing Implication: We can improve research results by techniques that are more useful in defining consumers’ implicit testimonies that have not been distorted by undue influence from left-brain processing. The recent trend toward studying consumers in their natural living and shopping environments is justified by the finding that people process hypothetical information differently than they do real life information. Researchers need to make more use of indirect techniques to get behind the curtains of consciousness.
4. Brain development is lifelong, and how we mentally process information changes from one decade of life to the next - This finding alters how people view and connect with the external world (worldview). Language style preferences also change over time. For example, youth and young adults have a more aggressive language style than older people.  Marketing Implication: Product messages will be more efficient and effective when expressed in the stage-of-life language style of the core market to which you primarily address the message.
5. Adolescent brains are significantly inferior to adult brains in reading facial expressions - The older people are, the more skilled they are at reading facial expressions. Marketing Implication: Product messages depicting people should reflect awareness the core audience’s ability to read facial expressions. For instance, older people’s greater sensitivity to facial expressions means that facial expressions should bear an authentic connection to the product and product message in Baby Boomer and older markets. Younger consumers will typically be more concerned with what people are doing than with what their faces are saying.

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We believe we can roughly divide Baby Boomer behavior perspectives into two approaches. The first emphasizes the objectivity of science and that the customer is considered a rational decision maker. In contrast, the subjective or emotional approach stresses the customer’s individual experience and the idea that Baby Boomer behavior is subject to multiple interpretations rather than one explanation only. 

1. When making discretionary-purchase decisions, Baby Boomers tend to have:  1) A decreased sensitivity to price; 2) Increased sensitivity to affordability; 3) Sharply increased sensitivity to value. Marketing Implication: Older consumers have more sophisticated ways of determining value than younger consumers. Value determination by older consumers tends to be an existentialist exercise whereby they combine soul (spiritual) values as well as mind (intellect) and body (tangible) values into the value determination process.  Not only does an item purchased symbolize some aspect of the consumer’s being, but the entire purchase experience can also be a projection of the consumer’s whole being.  For example, a person with a passionate concern for the homeless may more likely buy a product from a company with a program benefiting the homeless. To that consumer, the product has a high Meta values index, which is, an element of value unrelated to the product performance. 
2. As we approach midlife (40+), we increasingly draw on right brain functions -They begin relying less on left-brain sequential and rational reasoning and more on emotions — a.k.a. “gut feelings” or intuition.  Marketing Implication: Product messages for Baby Boomers should have more affect (emotional toning) than product messages for younger people. Younger people tend to have a stronger reasoning bias. Thus product messages generally should implicitly or explicitly promote concrete reasons for purchase.
3. Information entering the brain’s cortex (outer layers) is first processed mostly in the right brain - The right brain processes information as sensory images rather than as words and numbers. The left-brain focuses on figures and words.  Marketing Implication: Product messages should be rich in sensory stimuli to increase customer attention. Even though the right brain can’t process words, words can create sensory images, as every storyteller knows. The older a market, the more important it is to present a product in story form.
4. Emotion, not reason, is the final arbiter in decision-making. - Initial responses to information entering the brain are visceral. Changes in body states (e.g., pulse, hormonal flow, saliva flow, body temperature, etc.) generate emotions. When a matter fails to create emotions, a person will not take action on it. (Brain patients who have lost their emotional abilities while retaining full powers of comprehension and reasoning cannot make advantageous decisions in which they have a personal stake in the outcome.) Marketing Implication: A cardinal rule for developing effective product messages is go with the grain of the brain or “Lead with the right; follow with the left.” The only way to get into a person’s conscious mind is via the right brain. Again, the use of sensory images is a key to getting into the right brain.
5. Gender tends to predispose responses to voice-overs in broadcast advertising - For example, research tells us that male voices are more knowledgeable when describing technical attributes of a product, while female voices are more knowledgeable when describing a product with references to love, relationships, and caring.  Marketing Implication: Choose the voice to match the content and delivery style of a product message.
6. Pictures of people in motion arouse the brain more quickly than posed pictures. Marketing Implication: Avoid posed pictures like the plague. Motion conveys vitality. Posed pictures convey lifelessness. We should mostly avoid posed pictures in marketing to Baby Boomers, although when they do market to them, marketers commonly use posed photos.
7. Our sensitivity to price in nondiscretionary spending typically increases - As they age, many consumers develop higher economic “literacy” and skillfully apply it to get the best price — an objective not to be confused with “getting the best value.” Marketing Implication: Bargains primarily reflect cost factors while implicit in the term “value” are all attributes of the product, the purchase experience, and the expected ownership experience. In purchasing “need” items, older consumers tend to be more bargain-minded, whereas in purchasing “desire” items, they tend to be more value-minded in a holistic sense.

Research has shown that customers' final decisions are not the direct product of the reasoning process; in fact, emotions drive Baby Boomers in their purchase decisions. The reasoning process will confirm their decision, but it doesn't start there. 

Your messages should resonate with the values and motivators of Baby Boomers. Although we all have core defining attributes and motivators that drive us, we manifest them differently as we move through the spring, summer, fall and winter of life. Selling to Baby Boomers is different primarily because of this shift in the manifestation of human values. Our need for autonomy, relationships, purpose, gaining knowledge/growth, rejuvenation and recreation are always with us. However, as we age, we manifest our values differently.

1. Each experience we have prompts the brain to create clusters of neurons (brain cells) with predisposed responses to new but similar experiences. - As the population of these dispositional clusters or Defining Attributes increases, a person becomes more habituated and reflexive in his or her responses. This activity decreases sensitivity to external influences, like advertising, making a person more autonomous.  Marketing Implication: Defining Attributes are the marketer’s equivalent of “hot buttons.” The older we are, the more hot buttons we have. This change is good news and bad news for marketers.  First the bad news: It’s harder to change people’s patterns after the early adult years. Now, the good news: When a marketer hits a consumer’s hot buttons, the deal is almost done. The challenge is learning what those hot buttons are. Fortunately, there is remarkable consistency in the general nature of hot buttons among people in the same season of life. Knowledge of the Defining Attributes of consumers in the fall and winter of life will guide you to connect with their hot buttons.
2. The initial determination of information relevance occurs unconsciously. - When a person sees an ad or a TV spot, the right brain initially determines if it has personal significance. The subsequent reasoning processes of the left-brain-only go to work on the ad after it has reached consciousness. The right brain conducts a process called information triage to reduce data flow to levels the conscious mind, with limited working memory (RAM) can handle. The primary criterion is relevance to a person’s interests.  Marketing Implication: Imagine having a conversation in your office or at a social gathering when you hear your name come up in another conversation not far from you. Your brain was hearing the other conversation all along, but only when you heard your name did it see fit to alert your conscious mind to the other conversation.  That’s what information triage is all about. Creating product messages that survive information triage is the biggest challenge in marketing. It has become fashionable to complain about advertising clutter. However, the clutter problem is in the brain, not on a television screen or in a magazine. When a message has relevance to a person’s interest, the right brain will take note. When we talk about having a “double take,” we acknowledge the right brain’s ability to pick up in a nanosecond something that has relevance to our interests.

Some Final Thoughts

The differences in consumer motivations and decision processes between consumers in the first and second half of life perplex many marketers who have yet to figure out how to market to older customers. The young are easier to analyze and sell. Now, with adults over the age of 45 in the majority, marketers are being compelled to figure out their values and behavior.

We’ve learned that it’s about new rules, new mindsets, and new processes. In short, it is a new, authentically customer-centric paradigm. New models challenge the mind because the mind has a natural bias toward preserving the old ways; even when old ways cease working as they once did. But when pain caused by an old paradigm’s breakdown exceeds peoples’ threshold of tolerance, they begin warming to new alternatives.

Finally, we’ve learned that today’s marketplace is unlike any before faced before. Most of its adult members are in the years when the influences of what Maslow called self-actualization begin to show up in behavior. Until the growth of 50+ customers, these forces had a little noticeable impact on the marketplace at-large. Now, however, such attributes of self-actualization oriented behavior are widely evidenced in your markets:

• Perceptions – more conditional, less absolutist (shades of gray vs. black and white). Experiential Segmentation/Conditional Positioning approaches are effective in branding
• Relationships– more autonomous, less dependent on sources (such as advertising) in making decisions. Honesty and authenticity leading to trust are essential.
• Social behavior – more individuated, less subject to “herd behavior,” less easy to pigeonhole into segments
• Decision making – more emotional (as in “gut feelings” or intuition), less “rational” in decision processes.

COMMENTARY:  Information on marketing to Millennials can be found virtually anywhere these days, but what about Baby Boomers? Once a prime focus of marketers’ advertising strategies, Boomers are now being overshadowed by the newer, younger, and more technologically-savvy generations like Millennials and Gen Zers. In fact, according to Nielsen, less than five percent of advertising budgets are put toward Baby Boomers nowadays. Yes, this audience may be older, but they’re also massive in size and have significant spending power, which means you shouldn’t count the Boomers out of your media plans just yet. Born between 1946 and 1964, this generation (comprised of Americans ages 50 and older) account for nearly a quarter of the total U.S. population, with 76.4 million currently existing in the United States. That’s a lot of Boomers – and potential benefit for your brand.

But that’s not the only reason why you should put Baby Boomers at the top of your media plans. They’re also:

• Affluent
• Have substantial buying power
• Spend a good portion of their time online

In fact, digital marketing firm, Immersion Active, reports that Boomers have an annual disposable income of $2.4 trillion (or 70 percent of the nation’s disposable income) and account for $230 billion in sales of consumer packaged goods like coffee, diet soda and magazines (Nielsen). Additionally, Baby Boomers are becoming increasingly tech and internet savvy. Surprisingly, younger Boomers (ages 47 to 55) spent an average of 39.3 hours online per month in 2010, according to the Pew Internet & American Life Project. Older Boomers (ages 56 to 65) averaged only slightly less, at 36.5 hours. More significantly, over one-third of all tablet owners in the U.S. are over the age of 45, while 66 percent regularly purchase from online retailers. For marketers, this means the Baby Boomer market is very lucrative – increasing sales or gaining share with the right set of tactics.

That being said, marketing to this older and more brand loyal generation can be tricky. Getting to know and understand what drives their attitudes and behavior is the first step toward efficiently reaching and targeting them. Here is some insight to help get you started:

BOOMERS USE SOCIAL MEDIA, BUT IN A DIFFERENT WAY

Despite stereotypes, Baby Boomers aren’t living in the Stone Age when it comes to social media. Yes, the average age of a user may be young, but a large percentage of social media profiles belong to people over the age of 55 – 27 million active users to be exact! (Immersion Active). In fact, Boomers are among the fastest growing groups on social media. Younger generations prefer Instagram or Snapchat to post photos of their nights out and weekend trips, whereas Boomers are more likely to use Facebook to engage with family and friends. Other common activities Boomers partake in on social sites include following groups/organizations (55 percent), posting/watching videos (40 percent), supporting causes (26 percent), and joining groups (23 percent). Diving even deeper into the numbers, Boomers strongly prefer Facebook over Twitter: 49 percent of online Boomers have a Facebook account, while only 18 percent use Twitter. As older Boomers become less active and moveable, social media is the ideal way for them to keep in touch with family and friends. This means that developing the right social marketing strategy is crucial if you want to reach Boomers during the moments that matter to them.

OFFER REAL, RELEVANT, AND RELATABLE CONTENT

Here’s the bad news: Baby Boomers don’t trust marketers. And as this generation continues to age, their skepticism toward advertising grows. A recent study conducted by Insights in Marketing revealed that Boomer men (26 percent) and women (21 percent) are the least likely of any generation to believe what advertisers and marketers say about their products and services. But their skepticism is warranted. This generation grew up during the nascency of television, watching advertising grow from its inception to where it is today. In fact, Boomers have spent pretty much their entire lives inundated with advertisements, so they’re used to seeing marketers use tactics without strong content plans to back them up. Many Boomers have bought products in the past that didn’t live up to their own expectations or the marketing hype in terms of messaging as well as in quality. To gain Boomers’ trust, marketers must focus on offering them information that will resonate based on significance and candor, which means ads should reflect relevant, real-life situations so that consumers can relate. Communicating with Boomer consumers in a simple manner, with compelling, clear and concise content is also crucial. This will help marketers attract and retain loyal Boomers today and in the years to come.

SLOT SEARCH INTO YOUR MEDIA PLANS

Search Engine Marketing (SEM) is a Baby Boomer’s best friend. In fact, a study conducted by the DMN3 Institute, a digital and direct marketing agency, found that the top online activity of Boomers was utilizing search engines (96 percent). Likewise, the top online destination for Boomers is Google Search. When respondents in the DMN3 study were asked about actions taken as a result of performing online activities, search drastically outperformed social media and viewing online videos in getting Boomers to take action, including making a purchase. The top referral result of search engine use? Boomers looked for additional information online 82.4 percent of the time, with visits to a company website coming in at a close second (77.5 percent). More significantly, over half of Boomers who use social networking sites will visit a company website or continue their search on a search engine as a result of seeing something on social media. This just goes to show how interconnected and vital search and social are in successfully reaching the Baby Boomer audience.

No matter which marketing tactic you choose, providing content that meets Boomers’ needs for information in a thought-provoking, strategic, and timely manner is critical. Because the fact of the matter is, you’re not going to get the eyeballs, action, call, or purchase if your audience isn’t interested in you or what you have to offer. To learn even more about Baby Boomers, check out the infographic below.

Courtesy of an article dated January 3, 2017 appearing in MediaPost Engage:Boomers and an article dated February 6, 2017 appearing in MediaPost Engage:Boomers and an article dated March 6, 2017 appearing in MediaPost Engage:Boomers and an article dated April 2, 2017 appearing in MediaPost Engage:Boomers

To view my PBT Consulting blog click HERE

HOW A DATA-DRIVEN APPROACH CAN ENGAGE CUSTOMERS AND BOOST MARKETING RETURNS

Digitally savvy consumers know there’s an abundance of choices when it comes to purchases. With high expectations, most will seek out appealing items with little regard to brand loyalty. Churn and attrition are at an all-time high.

The response for organizations sounds simple enough: Provide a consistently good, engaging customer experience, optimize it on a variety of devices and deliver it when customers want it. Why has it been so hard for organizations to do this?

The answer starts with the way companies operate on the back end. With multiple organizational silos, no online/offline data synthesis, rigid customer databases and other inflexible legacy systems, organizations only have a piecemeal view of the customer. It’s hard to take advantage of all the existing corporate customer data that’s available, much less the rich variety of external data. As a result, marketing efforts are fragmented. Communications are inconsistent and ineffective. And revenue growth is hindered.

By taking a technological approach that synchronizes marketing processes with the customer journey across multiple channels, organizations can achieve great results – in terms of revenue, customer advocacy and loyalty. First, they need to get a panoramic view of each customer. Then they can understand and anticipate customer behavior; orchestrate the next best action across any channel; and accurately measure results to inform future actions.

SAS recommends that you connect your marketing efforts with all the relevant data from customer interactions as well as back-end operations.  Then, through advanced customer and marketing analytics, you can deliver an integrated, omnichannel experience and truly compelling content. By responding to your customers on their terms – right content, right time, right device – you can keep them coming back for more and raise their value to your business.

Step 1: Synchronize Marketing Processes Based on a Comprehensive Understanding of the Customer

When marketing departments, call centers, service operations and merchandisers operate independently based on their own distinct views of the customer, both customer engagement and marketing efforts suffer.

Consider a scenario where a customer’s browsing history (showing his preferences or inferred interests) is in one database while offline point-of-sale data about the customer is in another database. If these databases are not connected, there’s a good chance you will have less relevant interactions with that customer than what the customer expects. Or you may see the “echo effect,” where you reach the customer through one channel but he responds through a different one – leaving you unsure how to attribute the response or plan your next offer.

Many organizations don’t use their existing corporate data to the fullest extent. They overlook opportunities to enrich customer data with information from service records, operations or contact centers. Many also fail to use external data sufficiently, missing chances to broaden their understanding of the customer with data from social media, open data, third-party data, etc. In an ad sales scenario, these proprietary data sets can present a unique differentiator in the marketplace and enable you to create highly targeted campaigns for your advertisers.

SAS Customer Intelligence solutions provide a panoramic view of the customer by consolidating all first-, second- and third-party data. From digital data to CRM information and call center records, SAS captures, integrates and transforms disparate data sources, breaking down multiple customer data silos. Built-in data management capabilities ensure that you can use your data effectively to engage customers, and boost ad sales. Use SAS to:

• Improve data quality where the data resides, regardless of whether it’s in a marketing or operational system. SAS profiles, standardizes, monitors and verifies data without moving it, which creates significantly faster, more secure processes. So you can speed up many marketing processes to run in real time and near-real time instead of weeks and months.
• Access the data you need, no matter where it’s stored – from legacy systems to Hadoop. You can create data management rules once and reuse them, for a standard, repeatable method of improving and integrating data – without additional costs.
• Be confident that your data is reliable and ready to use for analytics, whether you’re doing segmentation, content recommendations, next best offer, retention or lifetime value scores.
• Create a panoramic view of the subscriber that connects all touch points, contact history and online/offline interactions.

Step 2: Understand Customer Behavior and Fuel Content Engagement

Content is core to enticing and keeping consumers. You can attract the right customers by optimizing your content. But it’s just as important to optimize the customer’s overall experience. Using advanced techniques like text and predictive analytics, you can improve search engine optimization (SEO) for digital content, quickly categorizing content and text mining words, phrases and topics for customers.

Beyond SEO, you can profile and segment customers based on their historical behavior, profitability and lifetime value. Through a range of predictive analytic models, including affinity analysis, response modeling and churn analysis, you’ll know whether it’s a good move to combine digital and print subscriptions. You’ll recognize which content merits a fee versus which content you can monetize without a paywall.

To keep your marketing efforts fresh, you’ll need to continually supply models with updated data as you interact with customers and prospects. For example, your models should include purchase transaction data, online data from website users, direct marketing response data and more.

Figure 1 - Decision Tree to quickly idenify variables that can best predict iPad usage and high versus low user populations (Click Image To Enlarge)

Through advanced analytics, you can use these models to predict behavior and: 

• Identify how different customer segments are most likely to respond to specific content, campaigns or marketing actions. Your approach will be based on analytically driven, granular segmentation of both known and unknown customers.
• Reach the target population that’s most likely to respond positively to certain content, campaigns and other marketing activities. With predictive modeling, you can understand and predict the behavior of each targeted group.
• Improve economic outcomes using optimization to make the most of each individual customer communication. Take into account resource and budget constraints, contact policies, the likelihood of customers responding, and more.

Step 3: Automate and Synchronize Customer Engagement Across Channels

Once you’ve determined which analytics approach is best, you’ll need to automate your engagement activities with customers. SAS Marketing Automation helps you to quickly define target segments, prioritize selection rules, choose appropriate communication channels, schedule and execute campaigns, analyze results, and make adjustments to improve future campaign performance.

Use SAS to orchestrate data-driven marketing activities across all of your channels. So you’ll be able to present customers with the best, most profitable offers to keep them engaged or to win them back from competitors. Analyze – in real time – how people get to your site and what they do while there. Then present them with engaging content at precisely the right moment. Use SAS to:

• Build an omnichannel marketing environment so you can align outbound and inbound marketing tactics across all channels.
• Develop event-triggered campaign tactics to ensure timely, relevant marketing strategies.
• Know the next best action to take for each customer by incorporating analytics into your marketing execution efforts.
• Track the effectiveness of all marketing activities and monitor campaign results in real time.
• Reduce your reliance on IT for campaign creation and deployment with an easy-to-use interface. 

With a complete view of the customer, a deep understanding of behavior and automated engagement efforts, you’ll be able to make decisions that resonate for customers and invigorate your marketing efforts. For example, if you know a customer checks email every Friday, you’ll send her an email on Friday – because you’ll know that’s the best way to reach her. You’ll also be able to decipher between premium content versus content that should be free. You’ll know what will hook your customers, whether they’re using your services for the second time or the hundredth time.

Today’s customers demand value and expect a consistent experience regardless of the channel or device they’re using. SAS positions you to meet these ultra-high customer expectations at every touch point.

Figure 2 - A marketing campaign response measurement dashboard (Click Image To Enlarge)

Step 4: Effectively Measure Campaign Performance and Attribution

It’s hard to understate the importance of accurate, useful measurement. Combining SAS Reporting capabilities with SAS Visual Analytics – a visualization and exploration suite built to handle big data – it’s easy to examine the effectiveness of your marketing campaigns and tactics based on your budget and success metrics. Use response attribution modeling to understand the customer’s conversion path, and to know where to assign marketing credit. Then you can create future marketing mix optimization models, test/control strategies, predictive models and marketing campaigns.

With adaptive, agile marketing, you can test your offers and content quickly, on a small scale, and nurture continually richer customer interactions. Then get rapid feedback to show you when and how to modify the customer’s experience to get the most impact. Plus, you’ll have easy access to campaign reports and dashboards so you can track and manage campaigns across all of your channels.

Figure 3 - Campaign and offer performance reports are integrated with revenue metrics and demographic indicators (Click Image To Enlarge)

COMMENTARY:  

A New Definition of Data-Driven Marketing

What is data-driven marketing, how can event marketers effectively use it to drive conversions, and why does it matter? For decades marketers were forced to launch campaigns while blindly relying on gut instinct and hoping for the best. That all changed with the digitization of business and an increasingly demanding and digitally connected consumer. Now more than ever, there is a greater urgency to develop data-driven marketing campaigns as organizations have come under increasing pressure to deliver results or ROI for their marketing spend. To be successful in this landscape, a modern marketing campaign must integrate a range of intelligent approaches to identify customers, segment, measure results, analyze data and build upon feedback in real time.

While almost every area in marketing has been folded into the digital marketing ecosystem, in-person events have remained elusive to today’s modern marketer. In fact, when it comes to tracking your marketing efforts and determining which channels provide the best return on investment (ROI), most marketers will agree that results from in-person events are still difficult to track:

• 69% of marketers say that tracking ROI for events is their primary challenge. (Aberdeen Group)
• Only 48% of marketers report having any event ROI metric in place (Regalix)
• 82% of marketers cannot quantify the data received from attendee interactions at their corporate events (Kissmetrics)

Indeed, events often lag behind other marketing methods by a significant gap, with the success or failure of many events based solely on anecdotal evidence instead of quantitative measurement and logic.

Furthermore, because data-driven marketing produces highly personalized, engagement-focused campaigns for everything from enterprise servers to event apps, consumers are now beginning to expect a high level of personalization with each transaction.

What is data-driven marketing?

Let’s start out by trying to develop a simple definition for a relatively complex concept and practice. Data-driven marketing captures insights and data from a prospect, analyzes and scores the prospect’s data and behavior, and then subsequently triggers marketing actions and campaigns based upon marketing analysis. An appropriate analogy is to think of data-driven marketing from the consumer side in the average online shopping experience. When you purchase an item online, data-driven marketing strategies provide recommendations of complementary products to provide a better overall experience. If you’re looking at airfare rates for your next vacation to Hawaii, a data-driven marketing approach will focus on restaurants around the island with cuisine you regularly Google, potential places to stay based on positive reviews on Facebook, visitor’s guides that reflect your online budget-hunting practices and local activities such as scuba diving, listed on your LinkedIn profile.

By comparison, when you look at data-driven marketing from the marketer’s side, you’ll find a much more complex process. As you are able to obtain and update information on the customer from secondary sources, such as social media sites and web search data, you can create an approach that is customized to their buying behavior, interests, past purchases, web searches, social media posts and similar information. In other words, this approach allows you to optimize your funnel and customize your buyer journey to that particular prospect’s needs. You can also survey prospects to obtain primary sources of data, but be aware that there is often a bias between what individuals or groups claim versus their actual behavior. For example, an event attendee who was ranting about poor service at the luncheon one day may be raving about the closing keynote, leaving you with plenty of praise on the keynote but failing to mention the luncheon on the exit survey. Once you’ve obtained the data you need to make a comprehensive group, you can divide your prospects up into the personas they fit into best. This allows you to customize and personalize your approach, timing, channel and subject matter to optimize the results for each persona group.

The problem many marketers run into at in-person events is that they often don’t have the information they need to determine how to best engage each prospect. The closest option currently available are scans that provide contact information and basic registration information. But scans don’t provide the data you need to track that prospect’s engagement before, during, and after the event to prove the event ROI that particular group of prospects has generated for your company. As an example, at a recent conference, my badge was scanned by a gentleman from a company that prints promotional items. I was looking through the items in his booth to determine if there was anything I could use for our company’s next event. Though the exhibitor could have collected further data from me at the time, it would have been at the cost of other prospects that he could not help while gathering my information. When I returned home from the event, I had several recommendations for items that didn’t meet our needs because the minimum quantity was much too high, the quality wasn’t good enough and the prices were too expensive. The company had my contact information, but didn’t know enough about me or my organization to make appropriate recommendations. A data-driven marketing approach to this in-person event would have drastically improved my experience while increasing the marketer’s Event ROI.

How does data-driven marketing improve your ROI?

If you’re still wondering how data-driven marketing can make a difference to your company, you’re not alone. Though there was a 14% increase in confidence in putting big data to work in marketing departments from 2013 to 2014, with expectations for additional growth, many marketers still don’t know how the additional data provides a solid improvement in ROI or how to use the data to their company’s best advantage. In fact, companies that have implemented data-driven marketing into their marketing toolbox and recorded the results have often seen a 10-20% improvement on their ROI. Like any tool, it must be used correctly and implemented with other tools in your kit, such as using social media data, search analytics, SEO, content targeting and developing better buyer personas.

Why does data-driven marketing make such a big difference? Using the marketing convention example above, if the company had used data-driven marketing techniques to track my information, they would have known my organization was operating on a modest budget. All these factors made their special offer on a tri-fold brochure with a minimum order of 5,000 a very bad fit. Instead of learning more about the client, the company made a suggestion based on what was popular with their clients in general, few of whom had the needs of our organization, and lost a prospective sale. A targeted campaign based on data-driven marketing would have recommended a small-minimum product order that was inexpensive, while offering additional items that would have fit well with our company’s mission.

Click Image To Enlarge

Courtesy of an article titled "How a Data-Driven Approach Can Engage Customers and Boost Marketing Returns" appearing in SAS blog and an article dated May 26, 2016 appearing in Certain

THE ZENO GROUP'S THE HUMAN PROJECT™ 2016, SAYS MILLENNIALS HAVE A LOVE/HATE RELATIONSHIP WITH TECH

Surprisingly, Millennials have a love/hate relationship with technology, according to a study from Zeno Group and research firm CEB Iconoculture.

Teens and 20-somethings have a more balanced relationship versus the dependency that generations before them have, says Therese Caruso, managing director, global strategy + insights for Zeno Group. 

Therese Caruso says.

“There has never been a youth generation that looks and acts like this one, and that wields more influence. They are shaping the global conversation and workplace of the future. The only way for brands to connect is to act like a best friend – the values young people assign to their deepest relationships are the same values they want to see in brands. The Human Projectconnects brands through shared values and beliefs and tells the story about what compels this audience to become advocates and evangelizers.”

 

Caruso continues.  

“They acknowledge that technology can support their goals, but also that it can work against them.  Since youth are hyper-aware of health/wellness and the connection between health and tech overuse, they do put their tech down in a less ceremonious, more practical way than Millennials.” 

Barby K. Siegel, CEO of Zeno Group said.

“The goal of The Human Project is to challenge marketers to view key audiences not as targets or even consumers, but as real human beings.  It is no longer enough for marketers to understand category-specific behavior, but must now tap into a deeper set of core values.”

Kate Muhl, Research Director, CEB Iconoculture Consumer Insights, said.

“It’s urgent that marketers understand today’s global youth. Not just because they’re important consumers in their own right, but because youth are reshaping the culture in which brands are operating. It’s time for brands to take the level of research focus and priority they’ve given to Millennials and apply it to this new generation of consumers.” 

The Human Project Infographic - Zeno Group from Zeno Group

According to the global study, "The Human Project," Millennials feel particularly bullish about their future:

• 60% are optimistic about their personal finances, compared to only 40% of the general population.
• 67% are optimistic about their jobs compared to 40 % of the general population, according to the global study, “The Human Project.”

The biggest takeaway for marketers is how influential and different global youth are from past youth generations, Caruso tellsMarketing Daily.

Caruso says.  

“They are leading change through a different conversation around education, lifestyle and entertainment, purpose and politics.  Their influence and vast differences in values and behaviors are two aspects that feed into other key insights.”

It’s really important that marketers understand global youth now, she says.

“Not only are they influencing everyone, including the purchase decisions of their own parents and siblings, but they’re reshaping the culture in which brands are operating,”

Caruso continues.

“And it’s not enough to study what they’re reading or purchasing because simple demographics are not a reliable measure. The only way for brands to really connect is to act like a best friend — the values young people assign to their deepest relationships are the same values they want to see in brands.”

Youth are extremely health aware and guided by a life of balance. They know how to indulge and practice prudence/integrate foods and habits that can live together in a healthy body and mind, she says.

Caruso says.  

“Today’s youth views happiness differently — there must be a mix of success, balance and purpose.  Happiness is more practical and personal: being informed/connected, achieving goals, feeling good mind + body, indulging and practicing prudence, choosing to live their own life of purpose.”

Ultimately, their favorite brand is themselves — they use brands to build their own personal brand, she adds.

The report also lays out what Zeno Group has branded as the “7 Global Truths” about this generation -- what brands and businesses believe to be the most important consumer constituency, from the influence they will wield in the upcoming election, to their relationship with technology, to how they are redefining the role of leader, and how they are connecting with the world's top companies; and maybe most importantly, how the world’s most successful companies are connecting to them.

1. Youth Wield Powerful Influence. There has never been a generation with more influence both inside and outside the family and this has changed the dynamic of the modern family. Seventy-eight percent of parents with children in this group feel that their kids are more involved in their family’s decisions than they themselves were as children.

2. The New Leadership Paradigm. Global Youth do not view leadership by the traditional, top-down mode. Rather, they prefer a lead-by-example, collaborative model – “leaders bring people together to get things done.” On a scale of 92 values, leadership is ranked extremely low at 65 or high, while equality is ranked number two by the U.S., the U.K., Canada and Australia.

3. Friendship Built on Values vs. Shared Interests. Global Youth build friendships not on proximity or convenience, but on shared values, like morals, ethics and beliefs, and priorities. Thanks to this group’s strong sense of identity, peer pressure is also starting to fade.

4. Technology + The Love/Hate Paradox. Global Youth work to maintain a balanced relationship – not a dependency – on technology. They are keenly aware that technology can support their larger goals, but also know it can work against them.

5. Youth Are Health Aware, Guided by Balance. Global Youth research and educate themselves on all-around health and wellness, and they aren’t interested in “traditional diets.” Out of 92 values, health was ranked number one among Chinese youth – differing greatly from the values of their parents.

6. Happiness Re-Defined: The New WE/Z Happiness Equation. Global Youth view “happiness” as equal-parts balance, success and purpose. Success tops the list as the highest-ranking value among Global Youth in the U.S., Canada, U.K., India and Australia. Purpose is overall a high-ranking value among Global Youth with parents in Canada, Australia, the U.S. and the U.K. ranking purpose significantly lower than youth.

7. A Brand Called “Me”: Youth vs. Brand as Status Symbol. Global Youth are passionate about brands that help to enhance and build upon their own, personal brand. In order to earn this group’s trust and loyalty, brands must understand their mindset and personal goals.

The study gathered data from more than 5,000 individuals in the United States, Canada, China, India, Australia and the United Kingdom. The study defines “Global Youth” as those born between 1991 and 2001 and divides them into two distinct groups:

• “Gen WE” (14-20)
• “Gen Z” (21-25)

Examining the nuances into how Youth think, act and behave is imperative for companies and brands as they look to maintain relevance with today’s most digitally intuitive generation, Caruso says. Gen WE and Gen Z are masters of platform, more self-aware, success-driven, socially responsible and more global-minded than any generation before them.

About Zeno Group

Zeno Group is a global, integrated communications agency, born from PR. The award-winning agency is committed to work that delivers true business value for clients across consumer, corporate, health and technology industries. Zeno is the unprecedented three-time PRWeek US Mid-Size Agency of the Year winner (2011 – 2013), winner of PRWeek Malaysia New Consultancy of the Year (2015), recipient of the SABRE Silver Anvil (2015) and most recently recognized at PR Cannes Lions (2015). Zeno Group is a DJE Holdings Company.

Courtesy of an article dated March 3, 2016 appearing in MediaPost Marketing Daily and an article dated March 2, 2016 appearing in Zeno Group