5 keys to marketing to Generation Y

Ok, we all know that when it comes to business, marketing will make or break you. You can have great everything: great salespeople, great managers, a great product, great uniforms, great attitudes; but if you don't have a great marketing department you're sunk. Marketing is the key to sales, the key to connecting to the right people and getting those people to trust you. Today we want to consider how you should go about marketing to Generation Y. We want to consider five brief marketing approaches to Generation Y. First, though, what is Generation Y?
Generation Y, actually, is a pretty loose and controversial term. Academics have been arguing about what it constitutes exactly for years. Generation Y, in general, has been used to describe the generation born after Generation X-that is, anyone born around the start of the 1980's. Now, that's a pretty big target! There have got to be lots and lots and lots of keys to targeting Generation Y, right? Right-but let's just focus on five of them. Let's simplify. Let's look at five specific things that do apply to marketing and Generation Y, no matter how controversial the definition is.

1. Generation Y is typically seen as a computer and Internet-savvy generation. Generation Y is used to getting news from a dozen different sources; Generation Y is used to getting a hundred different cable stations; and so forth. Therefore, one key to marketing to Generation Y is technology. You've got to be familiar with the latest stuff. You've got to know what a blog is, how to start one and use one. You've got to know what web sites are popular, what news stations are popular, what the really popular cable stations are. If you can tap into technology, you've already gone a long way toward marketing to Generation Y.
2. Generation Y has seen a lot of world conflict. Generation Y has been witness to several wars already and to controversies such as terrorism. How is this a key to marketing to Generation Y? How can something so negative be a key to marketing to Generation Y? Well, a good marketer knows that everything, positive and negative, that's important to a certain generation is important when it comes to marketing. You've got to be aware of Generation Y's concerns, their worries, the things that trouble them. This is just as important as learning what they enjoy and so forth.
3. Given the fact that Generation Y is so immersed in technology, you might want to try a marketing approach that alludes to simpler, more earthy, more "natural" times. A key to marketing to Generation Y, then, is the outdoors, and what are sometimes considered outdoor values. Concern for the environment, a desire to get away from the city and from computers, these are things that are really on Generation Y's mind. Generation Y wants a break from these things at times. When marketing to Generation Y try to take, so to speak, an old-fashioned approach.
4. Remember that vanity and flattery are always important things to keep in mind when it comes to marketing. When marketing to Generation Y, tell them they're cool. Tell them that their way of looking at life is pretty darn enlightened, and so you're going to honor it by constructing your business in such-and-such away, by advertising in such-and-such a way.
5. That brings us right to our next point: the environment. We mentioned it above, but we want to hit it again and a little harder this time. Generation Y is immersed in manmade things. Generation Y is immersed in smog and traffic and the Internet and so forth. When marketing to Generation Y you've got to show that you're sensitive to this. You're concerned about the environment; you're concerned about the air. You want to help the world, not add to its problems by clogging it up even more. This is a great marketing key to Generation Y, and one that has implications in many different areas.