“I want to say one word to you, just one word. Are you listening?”
“Yes, I am”
“Plastics.”
In just :58 this scene summarized the angst of a generation. But what if Ben had actually used this insight? Plastics indeed were the future, and it didn’t take a crystal ball to see it.
By now, we all know the rationale:
- Millennials are a bigger cohort than the Boomers. They have massive aggregated spending power that will grow and grow over time.
- Millennials have disproportionate cultural influence, what they like, we all like sooner or later.
- Millennials think differently. They want different things and that means they will spend differently.
My question is, how do we take advantage of these insights right now?
- What are the future needs your business can be planning for today?
- What businesses are worth investing in now?
- What skills will your company need tomorrow?
- If you are a Millennial yourself, which industries will offer the greatest growth opportunities?
I am concerned that many companies are not doing enough to answer these questions. Seeing the future is difficult. Extrapolating current trends is not.
One company that decided to embrace the Millennial future 6 years ago is Chicago caterer, Tom Walter of Tasty Catering. According to Walter, ‘fighting fire with fire’ was one of the wisest decisions he’s made. Here is how he described the situation and results to BNET (“Handing Over My Company to Millennials Helped It Grow” 8.31.10).
Six years ago we did something radical (for us): We decided to skip a generation and hand the reins over to the youngest employees in the office, the Millennials. And we’ve never looked back. Last year, at a time when much of the catering industry was struggling, we turned a profit from annual revenue of $5.3 million. We have better name recognition, better internal communication and we’ve developed a much stronger corporate culture — all because we looked to the next generation.
Boomers don’t make corporate catering decisions anymore — their administrative assistants do, who are more often than not Millennials. Once we figured out that the demographics of our core customers had changed, we did what any self-respecting business owners would do — we went out and found the expertise that we were lacking.
This course may not be for everyone, but Walters is clearly on to something. If the future belongs to Millennials, including them in decisions now can provide a competitive edge. Another, more direct approach, is to invest directly in Millennial talent that’s already in the family. According to this article, “Investing in the Family”, many parents are providing their Gen Y offspring with the backing required to start their own businesses.
If you haven’t taken time to answer these questions, I urge you not to wait. The future has a way of coming faster than we expect.
Millennials have a way of driving older folks crazy. Just this month, two prestigious publications, have featured articles intended to point out what’s wrong with kids today. Both articles have spurred a lot of discussion and debate.
“What Is It About Twenty-Somethings? Why Are So Many People in Their Twenties Taking So Long to Grow Up?” (NYT, 8.18.10)
“Two Common Mistakes of Millennials at Work” (Harvard Business Review, 8.30.10)
These are just two articles of many, but the fact that they are from no less than the New York Times and Harvard Business Review is rather shocking. Something important is amiss here.
Gen X’ers and Baby Boomers find this generation puzzling, and rather than strive to understand the differences, instead are inclined to view them negatively. It’s as if they were visiting a foreign country, and instead of trying to understand the culture, they respond with, ‘Eww, look at them, can you believe it??!’
I’ve written before that Millennials meet the definition of a subculture. Data and experience both show that Millennials look at many things — work, food, religion, politics, fashion and more — differently. And that is likely to turn out to be a good thing rather than a bad one. After all, we need some new ideas!
Rather than rehash ground I’ve covered before, I’d like to feature an alternative view by Gen Y’er, Tyler Mahoney, a Duke University Divinity School Graduate Student, and Co-founder of Churchrater.com. Monday he wrote a post for the Huffington Post titled “How to Manage Me. Millennials and Communication” (8.30.10). Mahoney’s main point is that the gap between the ‘children of Google’ and others is more cultural than technological, and is possibly larger than in the past. The issue of work life balance is just one example he uses to illustrate the gap.
Managing is a two-way relationship. People my age also need to understand our bosses’ worldviews. Peter Brinkerhoff, nonprofit consultant and author of Generations: The Challenge of a Lifetime for Your Nonprofit, says finding an appropriate work/life balance and flextime are two of the main points of tension the millennial generation faces in the workplace. “We [boomers] think of work as being a place,” he says: “If you’re not at work, you’re slacking off.” We millennials however are consistently looking for a better work/life balance than our parents- who by in large were workaholics.
If I’ve finished my work, I want to go home early, play recreational soccer, and watch the Daily Show. Brinkerhoff says this is a source of disconnection between millennials and Boomers. “We [Boomers] take our work home, but we don’t realize that you [millennials] do work at 3 p.m., 9 p.m., or 11 p.m.,” says Brinkerhoff, “You’re always wired so you always have the opportunity to work. We don’t understand your level of connectedness.”
This confusion owes to the fact that the schism between the millennial generation, Gen X, and baby boomers is much larger than in past generations. “It’s not just age difference, it’s a cultural difference,” says Brinkerhoff. I know and grew up around technology that enabled me to speak and communicate in ways my parents could not have imagined. From our smart phones to our Facebook accounts, we are living in a connected world that allows us to work on the bus, on planes with Wi-fi, and at home after dinner — and, for some of us, even during dinner. Work to us is not just one place: it’s any place where there is a CAT-5 cable, Wi-Fi, or a 3G signal
Another difference Mahoney points out is the closer relationship between parents and their Gen Y offspring. He points to the shift in the marketing approach used by U.S. military recruiting as a smart response to this important cultural change.
Gen X recruitment focused on “risk, the individual, and personal conquest,” while millennial recruitment focuses on why we’re fighting in the first place. Millennials, says (Neil) Howe, “are looking to be on team that is more than just the some of it’s parts.” We millenials are looking for meaning in what we are doing. “The drill sergeant won’t yell at millenials when they get off the bus for basic training,” says Howe, “They will thank them for their service in a time of war.” That service, provides meaning. This is most poignantly exemplified in the different military commercials used for Gen X and Gen Y. Whereas years ago Marines commercials featured a lone soldier braving adversity and squaring off against — by today’s standards — a poorly-animated lava dragon, today’s ads show young people explaining to their parents why they want to join up. This trend in inter-generational marketing, according to Howe, rests on the fact that “parents are being brought into the equation” in ways they weren’t twenty years ago.
I love this example because it is values neutral. Marketers (and managers) need to stop complaining about young people and understand how to leverage the differences as potential strengths. Think of yourself as a foreigner in a foreign land and behave accordingly. Get to know the language, customs and the reasons why they are the way they are.
It’s not better or worse, it’s just different.
Guest Post by David Ioanne
I spend quite a bit of time these days riding public transportation. As a result I have the opportunity to “engage” with many people. At the simplest level, others may acknowledge my existence and maybe even read whatever message is on my graphic tee shirt. That I consider an impression.
But beyond the random impressions that may facilitate a conversation, it takes much more to tee up a conversation, let alone an engagement.
That said I enjoy conversing with random people. But what if the people I sit next too are already engaged in a conversation or something other than me? I start to consider the ways I can break into the conversation or at least in to their consideration so I can eventually get into a conversation if that’s my objective.
In the traditional world of marketing I might try using a swift headline or pickup line. Or if the opportunity didn’t present itself, I could just blurt out what it was I wanted to say. And if they still didn’t engage, I’d sit there and repeat my message over and over until I got some sort of reaction. This is the interruptive model. Sure after that reaction, I may become part of a memorable story retold to others later on, but I’m quite sure it wouldn’t be in positive light.
The reality is, that most people we come across are very focused and entrenched in their own worlds. Not until they need something do they look outside of their worlds.
I believe I have a lot to offer others in their worlds. However, if I just blurt out what it is I think, chances are they won’t be overly receptive. This is why I listen to the conversation first, wait for the right moment and then add value to the context.
The other day a group of four Millennials sat next to me in the train. We all a good group laugh about something happening outside of the train, but that superficial rapport was not enough to let me into their deeper conversation. I needed another reason for them to give me the time of day. After me asking a number of questions the guy in the group finally asked what it was that I do?
I told him that like the movie, Inception, I make ideas. He hadn’t seen the movie yet, but asked me to give him an example of an idea as he struggled to open a banana. I replied “certainly”, then asked if I could share with him an alternative idea on how to open the banana. Confused, he answered “sure.” I then took the banana, flipped it upside down, pinched the nub and easily peeled back the skin.
“Wow” he exclaimed. “Thats a crazy idea..and it works better then the one I’ve always used.” After this engagement he actually really wanted to know what it was I did. Prior to that engagement, he was soley asking to be polite since I asked him so many questions. And even then, it took 20 mins of semi-active participation on my part to get any sort of acknowledgement.
Point is that I I had not engaged, and had just thrown my message out there is a good chance that it would not have been received and had any impact.
Imagine if I told him how to peel a banana before he had thought about peeling the banana. By the time he peeled he maybe would have forgotten what I said or just decided to do it his own way instead. From a reach standpoint I would have made an impression, but from an action standpoint my message wouldn’t have been as effective and the good idea would be lost in translation or reception. That’s because the time and place of the message as well the delivery – while interruptive – would have been dissruptive and my new approach to peeling a banana may not have been enough to trigger a future action. It definitely would not have helped my objective in engaging in a conversation beyond peeling bananas when he wasn’t even thinking about bananas.
Marketing ideas are no different. Not only do ideas and messages need to be the right message at the right time, but they need to be delivered in the right way for the right audience if they are going to have an impact and cause action.
While content may be king, and marketing may be queen – context is the joker that can steal the crown. Engagement is key to keeping the crown safe.
Boo interruptive marketing. Hooray engagement marketing!!
David Ioanne is a Digital Integration Strategist at Colangelo, a Connecticut-based digital marketing firm. He lives in New York City. David is a member of Brand Amplitude’s Millennial Marketing “Super Consumer” Market Research Community. Follow him on Twitter as @ravin_dave. This post originally appeared as a comment in response to an earlier post, “What Millennial Marketers Can Learn From A Corset Maker” on the importance of adding value through marketing. David has graciously allowed me to reprint his insights as a post.
I love the Vanity Fair/ 60 Minutes poll because it asks questions I wouldn’t think to ask. This month, two questions caught my eye. Both questions are theoretical, and the results by age group surprised me. They underscore how differently Millennials often see the world.
1. Look Back or Look Ahead?
The Question: “If time travel existed, was readily available, and you were guaranteed to return to the present, would you prefer to travel to the past or to the future?”
The Answer: For Millennials (those under 30), the answer is resoundingly the past. Seventy-one percent said they would choose going back rather than into the future. This compares to just 59% for Boomers (45-64). Why the desire to return to another time? I have no idea, but can only guess that they will be around to see the future, while the rest of us will not? At any rate, it’s an interesting window into how they think.
2. Best Thing That Could Happen?
The Question: “If one of the following things could happen to you without any effort on your part, which one would you pick?” Receive $10,000 fax-free, Get a college or advanced degree, become fluent in a ntoher language, be one year younger, lose 10 pounds.
The Answer: Those under 30 elected education over money by a wide margin – 46% vs. 23%. Among Boomers and Gen X, the majority (43% and 45% respectively) would choose the $10,000. This makes a little more sense, but I still would have expected more to opt for the money.
My point? It’s dangerous to project your own preferences on another generation — and especially on Gen Y. They tend to surprise us. That’s why it’s essential to have a listening post.
Does your company make an effort to stay in touch with how under 30 consumers think? I am fortunate to be interacting with students and young marketers nearly every day. Without that connection, I would be in real trouble. If you are looking to plug in, here are some ideas for getting and staying connected with Millennial consumers:
1. Recruit Gen Y brand ambassadors and create an advisory council. Off Campus Media has extensive experience recruiting student brand ambassadors. Or look to your Facebook page for young influentials who have already indicated an affinity for your brand.
2. Start a Gen-Y specific market research community. This is the route Mercedes Benz took with its Gen Benz MROC.
3. Tap an existing Gen Y panel. There are several good panels available to marketers, such as Colangelo’s YTribes community.
Our Millennial Marketing Gen Y ‘Super Consumer’ community is available to any marketer who wants to connect with savvy young marketing professionals.
This group was hand-selected to represent the best of entry level marketers in PR, digital advertising and brand marketing. Josip Petrusa is one of the roughly 100 young marketers who belongs to the community. Josip blogs nearly daily about marketing to Gen Y. He suggests the best way to get to know this generation is to engage with them directly. Since he says it better than I can, here is a portion of his recent blog post, “Are You Crowdsourcing Gen Y? Maybe You Should Be”.
“What better way to understand the elusive, loyal but not loyal, always buying but can’t be reached through advertising, wanting everything, always connected Millennial generation. The combination of having the ability to get useful information quickly and reach has created a great movement towards Gen-Y Crowdsourcing communities.
Mercedes Benz has done it with Generation Benz, IBM has got into the action and as of late,Durex joined the game by creating it’s own Gen-Y initiatives. Crowdsourcing is definitely not a new idea. But at this moment in time, it’s becoming increasingly valuable just like stumbling onto a diamond in the rough. And though this example is only but a few companies that have gone the way of strategically using crowdsourcing, there is also the emergence of online research communities directed at fulfilling the needs of anyone. At a moments notice, you could quite literally receive powerful and profound information.
Gen-Y Crowdsourcing Communities, such as the Millennial Marketing Super Consumer Community, are fascinating areas companies, brands and corporations should be interested in, investigating and using. This is not just an assortment of random individuals. It is a delicate process of hand-picking the right minds for the subject matter. And I would know this, since I am a member of said community.
Crowdsourcing for Gen-Y thoughts is extremely powerful. Not only does it remove the company centric approach many companies painstakingly fail with, it allows the customer to say what they think, ultimately giving those who need the information the right direction to head in. You’d be surprised what Millennials have to say. After all many people are more than surprised and shocked once they realise I’m a twentysomething myself.
So why leave it to the old adage of “from the outside looking in.” Come join us Millennials on the inside. We’ll amaze you more than you think. We’re more capable and useful than you even know.”
For more information on Brand Amplitude’s Gen Y community contact Carol Phillips. http://twitter.com/carol_phillips
Interactive Mirror Makes Shopping More Social
I spent some time last night with the September Vogue, a guilty pleasure if ever there was one. In these days of frugality, it’s almost unseemly to dream of skinny leg suits, fur trimmed coats, fifties inspired curvy clothes and lace trimmed bodices.
In fact, shopping itself seems to have fallen out of favor as a pastime. It’s fallen victim to an array of forces that include the new minimalism, the economy, the allure of sexy new technology investments like the iPad, and intense competition for our limited time.
Retailers understand this. According to a study by IPG Media lab of 10,000 North American shoppers, satisfaction at retail stores is declining up to 15% a year. Retailers know they have to do something to make shopping exciting again and have been busy developing all sorts of new technology enhancements. Here are just a few of the newest developments designed to make shopping more exciting – and to ring up more sales for retailers.
1) Shopping Apps
According to an article in the September Vogue, “Roaming Charges”, “more fashion houses report that shoppers are cell-phone shopping or are just beginning to.” Most of the app’s are controlled by Apple and form a virtual mall, but are mostly for high end brands. Mobile web sites are also making non-Apple handsets and non-smart phones more cell-phone friendly. According to Vogue, a mobile site is a pared-down web site that makes downloading faster and easier.
2) Giant In-Store Touch Screens
The Wall Street Journal writes this week (“Luring Shoppers to Stores“, 8.26.10) about in-store media delivered via giant interactive displays. At J.C. Penney, a “FindMore” fixture offers a 52-inch touch screen for consumers to find merchandise, email information to themselves or a friend about an item, or get recommendations. Other screens (it doesn’t say where) turn the front window of store into “a giant touch screen” where consumers “can interact with the screen to select outfits for an avatar.”
3) Interactive Mirror
The Journal reports another very cool technology that transforms a mirror to a device for projecting clothing onto the body before going to the dressing room. Wow, that could definitely same some time. You can even send the image to your Facebook profile. Another interactive mirror technology sends a live video feed to a cell phone or email account. Social shopping taken to new heights.
4) Location-based deals and discounts
I’ve gotten frustrated with most retail loyalty programs like the ones at Macy’s, Best Buy and Staples. You have to remember to bring the rewards to the store and I generally find they either don’t apply or have expired. Now technology is making loyalty programs less of a hassle.
A new app called ‘ShopKick’ (Ad Age, “Trying out ShopKick“, 8.23.10) makes racking up points as easy as walking in the door, scanning products or visiting a dressing room. Deals are redeemed at the register by showing the cashier a code. You can earn points from the retailer or in the form of a special currency called ‘KickBucks’ which are not specific to one store and can be redeemed for Facebook credits, products or gift cards or donated to charity (great Gen Y idea there!). The technology apparently requires only a powersource, not an internet connection, so it’s expected to roll out quickly. Other mobile app’s like Loopt Star help you find deals up to 20 miles away. It is being used by Gap Burger King, Steve Madden and others.
Are these enhancements what is needed to get Millennials as well as other shoppers back to stores? Maybe. If stores put some pizzazz into the ‘thrill of the hunt’, I might actually venture back to shopping for fun. Meanwhile, I’m off for a bike ride.
It’s not even a contest….Sales results through July 2010 show that, of the three cars priced and marketed to attract first-time Millennial car buyers, the Kia Soul wins over Toyota’s Scion and Ford’s Fiesta by a wide margin.
So far this year, Kia reports selling 36,657 Souls compared to just 25,660 Toyota Scions (all models). This represents a whopping 229% gain over last year for Kia, but a 22% decline for Toyota’s Scion.
Past month sales tell a similar story. In July 2010, Kia Soul sold 8,020 vehicles (a 66% gain) compared to just 5,753 for Scion’s comparable XD model (a 45% decline).
Nissan’s entry in subcompacts, the Cube, was also down significantly. In fact, the only other subcompact to show gains in July was Kia’s Rio. The newly introduced Ford Fiesta sold just 3349 vehicles in July.
All three cars are sold at a comparable starting price of just over $13,000 and base price of about $15,000 so the difference can’t be explained by price.
What’s the difference? Marketing. According to the Daily Brand Index provided by Civic Science, the Kia Soul has won the hearts of Millennials.
For those of you who aren’t familiar with the unique Daily Brand Indexes created by Civic Science, each and every day Civic Science asks basic brand questions to hundreds of thousands of young adults about over 700 brands. The questions range from simple awareness to questions about popularity and impact. The indexes provide a real time picture of changes in brand perception.
The data for Fiesta, Soul and Scion XD was gathered during the ten-day period August 11 – August 21. According to the research, Kia and Fiesta have both eclipsed the more established Scion in terms of awareness/visibility. Sixty-nine percent of those surveyed are aware of Kia Soul compared to 78% of those who have heard of the Ford Fiesta. In contrast, only 50% have heard of the more established Scion XD.
What makes this even more remarkable is that many Gen Y’ers are not really into buying a car in the first place. (See earlier post, “Millennials Not Romantic About Their Wheels”)
How did Kia do it? By portraying a quirky personality designed to appeal to first-time car buyers.
“Designed to offer consumers a ‘new way to roll’ with a distinct style and a number of personalization options, Soul is aimed at the young and young-at-heart looking for a vehicle perfectly suited to their personalities,” said Michael Sprague, vice president, marketing, Kia Motors America. “The hamsters’ immediate popularity helped position Soul as Kia’s halo vehicle and showcased the brand’s emerging signature design direction, which, along with quality, safety and value, has propelled Kia to tier-one status.” –The Street
Kia’s launch commercial, featuring the unforgettable hipster hamsters, was named Nielsen’s “Automotive Ad of the Year.,” It also won a Silver Effie for advertising effectiveness. In my opinion this spot rivals the Apple Guy vs. PC Guy ads in suggesting this is a brand for people who are smart and non-conforming.
The Soul ad depicts city and suburban streets inhabited exclusively by hamsters who mindlessly run in place inside theirexercise wheels until a Molten Red Kia Soul pulls up to a stoplight and the passenger window rolls down to reveal a trio of paw-tapping, music-loving hamsters who have discovered “A New Way to Roll.”
Portraying Soul as a lounge on wheels with its highly specified audio system that includes speaker lights that pulse to the beat of the music, the hamsters bob their heads to four different music tracks that appear in slightly different versions of the spot to keep each viewing fresh. Viewers with a sharp eye can identify song and artist information on the hamsters’ iPod® screen, and the campaign extended online with each track available for download at www.kiasoul.com.– The Street
In follow up ads, called the “This or That” campaign, the hamsters are shown driving through city streets to the tune of the hip-hop song “The Choice is Yours” by The Black Sheep, highlighting the choice between “This,” the funky and unique Soul, or “That,” boring and mundane appliances on wheels, cardboard boxes or hamster wheels. Of course it helps that the cars also deliver many ways to personalize the ride.
The data from Civic Science suggests the Kia should expect to face some fierce competition later this year as the Fiesta ramps up in the U.S.
In addition to its greater visibility, the Fiesta enjoys greater popularity. When asked which car they would purchase if they could, consumers said they would prefer a Fiesta over either a Kia or a Scion xD by a factor of 2:1!
Fiesta has only been available in the U.S. for two months. With those kind of ratings, the subcompact category could get pretty interesting in the next few months as these skilled Millennial marketing firms go head to head.
It should also be noted that Kia Soul is being investigated for some serious safety complaints which could complicate its otherwise flawless marketing to date.
A big thank you to John Clifford at Civic Science for providing me access to the data. For more information on Civic Sciences, its Brand Index or Quick Response Survey see www.civicscience.com
Yesterday the New York Times published an online article that will also appear in its Sunday magazine titled, “What Is It About 20-Somethings?” The article has already provoked controversy for itemizing the ways that today’s ‘emerging adults’ are more immature than the generations that preceded them. (See “The 10 most infuriating quotes from the Times’ latest 20-something takedown” for a sample.)
While the facts speak for themselves, I believe the Times has it wrong on the interpretation.
Some young adults figure it out their identity and life path more quickly than others, but collectively it is taking longer than ever before.Over the past few decades, there has been a dramatic shift in the onset of what have traditionally been regarded as the markers of adulthood –marriage, job, children:
One-third of people in their 20s move to a new residence every year. Forty percent move back home with their parents at least once. They go through an average of seven jobs in their 20s, more job changes than in any other stretch. Two-thirds spend at least some time living with a romantic partner without being married. And marriage occurs later than ever. The median age at first marriage in the early 1970s, when the baby boomers were young, was 21 for women and 23 for men; by 2009 it had climbed to 26 for women and 28 for men, five years in a little more than a generation.
We’re in the thick of what one sociologist calls “the changing timetable for adulthood.” Sociologists traditionally define the “transition to adulthood” as marked by five milestones: completing school, leaving home, becoming financially independent, marrying and having a child. In 1960, 77 percent of women and 65 percent of men had, by the time they reached 30, passed all five milestones. Among 30-year-olds in 2000, according to data from the United States Census Bureau, fewer than half of the women and one-third of the men had done so.
While the facts are compelling, they don’t necessarily imply that Gen Y is any less well-equipped, lazier or incompetent, entitled or emotionally dependent. In fact, delayed adulthood may be a reasonable adaptation to increased complexity and risk.
Life may not be any more difficult for this generation, but there is little question that it presents more options, and greater ambiguity. The Recession has made matters even more difficult by making meaningful entry level jobs much more difficult to find. Why rush into decisions you may later regret? What does five years matter in the scheme of things if it reduces risk of divorce or an unhappy career choice?
These shifts are difficult for many Boomers and Gen X’ers to understand. We couldn’t wait to get away from home and get on with our lives. It would have been an admission of failure to return home at any point. Only losers did that. Today’s Gen Y’er sees moving home as a practical solution to their problems. Why not save money by living at home while to pursue your dreams rather than settle for less?
While it is difficult to prove, I tend to agree that young adulthood is emerging as a distinct lifestage with its own challenges, distinct from those of adolescents or older adults. I also think this may be a good thing.
There is a strong argument (and much longitudinal data to support it) that young adults are actually more responsible than earlier generations, not less. More are opting for higher education. They are frugal spenders and careful money managers. They value relationships, family and giving back. They want to make sure that what they are spending their money and their time on is worthwhile, not just part of a plan. And if they like their parents well enough to live with them into their twenties, is that such a terrible thing?
Furthermore, as the article points out, society has sent mixed signals as to what we expect of someone 18, 21 or 26.
People can vote at 18, but in some states they don’t age out of foster care until 21.
They can join the military at 18, but they can’t drink until 21.
They can drive at 16, but they can’t rent a car until 25 without some hefty surcharges.
If they are full-time students, the Internal Revenue Service considers them dependents until 24; those without health insurance will soon be able to stay on their parents’ plans even if they’re not in school until age 26, or up to 30 in some states.
Parents have no access to their child’s college records if the child is over 18, but parents’ income is taken into account when the child applies for financial aid up to age 24.
In the end, I think the challenge is for the culture to catch up with Millennials, not for Gen Y to conform to cultural expectations.
Articles like this one in the New York Times suggest the culture has a ways to go if they continue to equate delaying ‘markers of adulthood‘ with ‘ immaturity‘. In fact, it may be just the opposite, a sign of extra-maturity.
Hogwarts at Universal Theme Park
I just returned from three days in Orlando with my Millennial age kids, 16 and 19 years old. We specifically went to see Universal’s new Wizarding World of Harry Potter theme park which just opened June 18. Our package included four nights in a hotel so we also visited Sea World and the Magic Kingdom.
The shocking news is that segmentation works – they LOVED Harry Potter land and were bored by Shamu and Disney World. Both kids agreed that the Harry Potter park was by far the best and worthy of the better part of the day we spent there.
What made Harry Potter, which represents just one section of Universal’s Island’s of Adventure theme park, so riveting?
The answers provide some clues for marketers wishing to engage this demographic:
1. Technology is used subtly, as a means — not an end.
Unlike other rides and adventures we experienced, the technology at HP was nearly invisible, it served the magic rather than called attention to itself. In fact, the charm of the place was that state of the art technology enabled an ‘enchanted’ almost 19th century experience. The SpiderMan ride, with its in your face 3-D effects, was more impressive to me. They preferred the Journey in Hogwarts with the simulated flight which was probably more technologically advanced but less obtrusively so.
2. Authenticity and careful attention to details.
Universal deserves great admiration for carefully studying the JK Rowling playbooks (volumes 1-7). My kids noticed every detail from the taste of the Butter Beer ($9.99 each including souvenir mug) to the shrunken heads behind the bar which played a key role in one of the stories. Our ride on the enchanted bench at Hogwarts started with a puff of ‘floo powder‘. The themed merchandise was especially well-considered. We actually purchased five ‘wands’ at $28 apiece as each reflected the personality of its fictional owner – Snape, Dumbledore, Hermione, etc.
3. Immersive and involving.
Visually the place captivates you from the moment you walk in. Music from the movie sound tracks enhanced the sense that we had been transported to another place and time. It should have been hard to believe there were pine trees and snow in the middle of Florida in August, yet the fiction that we were actually at Hogsmeade visiting the shops in an ‘enchanted’ winter was profound. Other than the crowds, it really felt like Hermione and Ron were going to appear any minute. At Ollivanders Wand shop, the salesperson (I’m sure my kids would know his name) actually helped a young man select his wand, or should I say, helped his wand select him. Eating ’cauldron cakes‘ while watching the moon rise over Hogwarts is a memory we will carry for a long time.
4. Employees looked like they were having a good time.
Despite enduring oppressive heat and humidity while wearing costumes that featured capes and wool vests, the young workers — many who are actually from England — seemed to be enjoying the fun. There was a dignity to their jobs that was missing at the other parks. They didn’t look ridiculous, liked they’d checked their dignity at the door. Many spoke of the place with pride.
5. Diverse, multi-generational appeal.
Unlike the other parks which were populated almost entirely with U.S. families with young children, Universal’s Harry Potter theme park was more demographically diverse. There were more different ethnic groups represented and we heard more different languages. There were also more teens and unaccompanied adults at Harry Potter.
6. Connect with their childhoods.
Harry Potter was a big part of Millennials’ young lives (See earlier post, “Growing up with Harry Potter“. Being at the theme park allowed them to relive some of the fun. As we strolled the park, each detail seemed to unlock a pleasurable memory. I was stunned to learn that both kids insisted that when they were 11, they were convinced they’d be receiving an Owl Post informing them that they were really wizards and inviting them to Hogwarts. They each report experiencing crushing disappointment when it never arrived. On the back to the hotel they sang songs from Harry Potter Puppet pals.
Our only complaint is that the Wizarding World of Harry Potter wasn’t a little bigger. Perhaps that will come in time? When it does, we’ll be sure to go back.
Guest blog post by Josip Petrusa
This post originally appeared August 9 in Josip’s excellent Gen Y marketing blog, It’sJosipNotJoseph.com.
From Apple to Old Spice, use and functionality have taken a back seat to lifestyle. Values that once were held towards products no longer exist in the same sense. Millennials don’t look at products in the same respect as those of older consumers. Old mentalities that focused on price, use and luxury are gone. New mentalities – and the ones Milllennials highly value – are based on investment, community and being part of the story.
Millennials resonate with lifestyle brands for a variety of reasons. They highly believe in personal extension through brands. Each purchase itself is a statement. Each purchase is strategically calculated. Each purchase is based on the products invested value, what that product brings in terms of being “in” particular communities and where we, the Millennials, fit into the story.
Values Behind the Brand
When we talk about brand investment, we’re not talking about dollars gained. Rather we’re looking at a valued-based return on investment (ROI). This value-based ROI is imperative for Millennials. If the product is known for great longevity, outstanding quality and helps us establish who we are, we’re getting the necessary return and will gladly invest into buying that product. No matter what the actual cost is and if we can truly afford it.
While we continue to extend who we are, we look to others to relate to. Brand communities are becoming more prevalent and continue to grow. It’s not just a matter of enjoying something and having it. It’s about being that Facebook fan. It’s about being part of the “club”. Two products can serve the exact same purpose. However our growing societal perceptions can clearly crave out two different niches.
This can be easily understood with an iPhone and BlackBerry comparison. Just sit there for a minute and think of all the differences you can come up. It’s pretty amazing actually. Two products that do essentially the same thing exemplify two completely different lifestyles. Although BlackBerrys have a greater market share, the iPhone has a distinct and visible club membership that would make you think otherwise.
Being A Part of…
The idea of community can also be extended to other brands. Certain brand communities say certain things and allow you to fulfill certain lifestyles. If you dress like this or if you drive in that, your part a particular community. It has Millennials thinking of their dreams now. Ironically though, it really has nothing to do with prestige or brand hierarchy. And I say that because the majority of Millennials can hardly be considered prestigious or truly afford brands that the upper echelons of society purchase. However, this doesn’t stop for purchasing these brands.
And although the Millennials don’t look at prestige and brand hierarchy, they value the story behind the brand. They value the nostalgia that the brand itself seems to instil within us. And the more the brand is able to incorporate our story into their process, the more it becomes a part of our life. The story, but more importantly being part of it, has a profound effect. So profound that Millennials will in fact purchase the smart phones, the designer jeans, the handbags and anything else that falls into their dream lifestyle. The values of lifestyle brands justify the costs.
As Millennials continually pursue their dream-life, lifestyle brands will keep their prominence and continue to emerge. No matter what the cost and no matter if this young generation can actually afford these products, Millennials will purchase these brands as long as they fulfill their lifestyle conditions. Just remember, it’s not about the product. It’s about the invested value, the community and the story that a brand delivers.
Josip Petrusa is an advertising and marketing professional living in Toronto. He is a member of Brand Amplitude’s Millennial Marketing Gen Y “Super Consumer” Community where he is a regular contributor and blogs almost daily at It’sJosipNotJospeh.com. Josip is currently seeking new opportunities in consulting or marketing. Josip will be speaking with me on the topic “Researching the Millennial Mind” at the Digital Behaviour Conference in Toronto on November 2, 2010.
‘Conversation marketing’ (do we even have a name for it yet?) is enabling unprecedented levels of customer intimacy. It touches every marketing discipline from customer service to corporate PR. It is going beyond marketing to have impact in areas such as productivity, cost control and HR. Social media has special resonance among young consumers, every brand’s future market. Social media has brought a resurgence of creativity in integrated marketing that hasn’t been seen since Burger King featured a funky chicken, BMW offered free 7-minute feature films and Audi stole its own car.
It is an exciting time to be a brand marketer. But it’s also a challenging one.
The rate of change is dizzying. An article in Forbes.com by David Edelman of McKinsey suggests there’s more going on than just a shift in budgets from paid to earned media, it’s also a ‘massive shift in perspective’.
“The shift in mix from “paid media” to “owned” and “earned” media that occurs with digital marketing is more than a budgeting exercise. It is–or should be–the manifestation of a massive shift in perspective, from being a brand that pushes ads and promotions to one that publishes content and applications that help consumers buy and bond with the brand. This may sound like semantics, but the reality is substantive: This new perspective determines how we invest in content, how we manage that content, and finally, how we harvest the information that is generated when customers use our content.”
It’s time to rethink our tools and frameworks for planning brand and marketing strategies in light of social media.
Fundamentals, of course, don’t change. Brand strategies explain how the brand will support business and marketing objectives and are a critical step in managing brands as valuable assets. Marketing strategies explain how a firm will grow revenue and share by acquiring new customers and by increasing the value of the customers they already have. But consider for a moment the complexity social media introduces when answering these basic brand and marketing strategy questions:
1. Who is the target?
With social media, the target may well extend far beyond typical category users. Many of those interested in Pepsi Refresh’s social action agenda are certainly not Pepsi drinkers and I would venture to say many of those who passed along Johnny Walker’s Man Who Walked Around the World video have little interest in Scotch.
Griffin Farley in its ‘brand propagation brief’ calls for planners to make a distinction between a brands’ “aspirational audience” and its “inspirational audience”. The aspirational audience is defined as those who will actually deliver your business objectives. The inspirational audience is defined as those who are more likely to engage with your creative assets or act on the creative to influence the aspirational audience.
2. What are our points of difference?
With social media, points of difference range well beyond unique selling propositions and what Leo Burnett called the brand’s ‘inherent drama’. The point of difference increasingly lies in shared interests or passion points, not in a single-minded, consistent message. A conversation is pretty short if you can only talk about one thing. A community that is all about products or services is pretty dull.
To stay relevant, brands need to develop a bigger cognitive ‘foot print’, identifying themes where the brand has credibility, and the consumer gives it permission to talk. Quality of content is now the point of difference. Tide can talk about water quality, Van’s shoes can talk about music, Dove can talk about young women’s self-image, and Dawn can talk about saving wildlife — provided their motivation is authentic and they back up their commitment with action. Pampers went from having a value of $3.5 Billion to a brand worth $19 Billion in three years according to Millward Brown’s BrandZ study by changing its focus to ‘helping moms develop healthy, happy babies’ rather than a strict category focus on ‘dry bottoms’.
3. What is the brand personality?
At a time when brands are people and people are brands, a well-defined and consistent personality is essential. Despite the excellent work of Jennifer Aaker in this area, defining brand personality has often been an afterthought, secondary to determining identity and positioning. It has sometimes been reduced to a set of adjectives meant to inform creative ‘voice’ or connect creative to consumer lifestyle.
Social media makes personality – how the brand’s content is uniquely expressed and brought to life — nearly as important as the message itself. Brands are becoming humanized at a rapid pace. If consumers are going to ‘talk’ to a brand or be part of a brand community, it’s only natural they would want to know who is behind the brand and what are the company’s values and motives.
4. How are we defining success?
Traditional marketing metrics still matter. Revenue and market share as well as brand metrics such as the ability of the brand to contribute to the bottom line through customer acquisition, loyalty and ability to command price premiums are not going away anytime soon. But new measures are popping up every day it seems.
Number of “FFF’s” (friends, fans and followers), Edelman’s ‘Trust Index’ and new metrics for evaluating ‘Social Currency’are revealing new dimensions of brand equity. These aspects of brand value are likely to become more important over time. Starbucks and Apple have both been shown to have high Brand Social Currency scores, no doubt a result of their social media initiatives.
5. What message is most relevant?
Agency planners and market researchers use to labor long and hard to discover a polished diamond or two of ‘insights’ which could be translated into a brand platform and compelling message. Insights about how consumers relate to the category or the brand are no longer enough. Relevance is now more about connecting consumers more solidly with their community or culture than a brand pyramid or onion. Relevance comes from meaningful solutions to problems, access to information, branded utility, entertainment, gifts, thank you’s, well-timed help or connections to likeminded people.
Context also matters for relevance. What is the message of the Old Spice videos and does it even matter? These videos are fun and entertaining and gain relevance from interaction rather than content. Mobility will make context even more important in the future. Where you are when the message is received will matter as much as the message itself. I will care more about a reminder to use suntan lotion at the beach or drugstore than when watching TV.
Brand strategy needs to evolve to fit the times.
Does your brand strategy address these questions? If not it may be time for a second look. Social media is more than just a new medium, it may well represent an inflection point in the way we think about building and maintaining brands.
It’s no longer enough to articulate what the brand should stand for and who it should appeal to in broad terms. It’s not enough to define your niche and point of difference. We need to answer more than the question ‘what do we have to say?’
