How would you like some new information on marketing strategies for campaign development that will get you ahead of the curve? Campaign development blogs are as many as there are marketing agencies. Some of their marketing strategies start with the macro business mission statements and funnel down to the micro particular campaign. Some are into costs and statistical analysis while others are into more creative endeavors. One thing all marketing strategies have in common is the idea of a targeted market. Just who are you trying get to pay attention to you? How can you be heard above the noise of all the competition?
In the midst of all the marketing strategies campaign development blogs I read, I found one that had the audacity to say “This decade is going to be known as the decade of change and empowerment. Demographic segments are changing driven by a lot of aspects including the economy and consumers and are becoming more and more empowered and choosy about which brands they want in their lives.”
Changes in demographics
Say what? It appears that demographic segments are a-changing. The company bold enough to make a remark like that is none other than NBCUNIVERSAL, who created Curve Films. The thrust of the “ahead of the curve” demographic concept is that there are 76 million millennials, born in 1980 or later who are known as Generation Y.
“This is what the MTV generation, the Abercrombie & Fitch generation, looks like when they become work force newbies and start heading households. They now make up 53 percent of the 18-to-49-year-old buying demo.” (That is the viewer demographic group most highly prized in marketing strategies because its members are forming brand preferences as they form families.) So said John Shea, who joined the NBCUniversal integrated media group in November 2011 in a new post, executive vice president and chief marketing officer.
Instead of serving up another boring marketing strategies and demographics textbook for stodgy professors to explain to bewildered marketers, Shea and his group created a film to show how Gen Y, Americans ages 18-34, behave, what they believe and how they are significantly different from people who were that age in the past. The 22-minute movie called “Y Now” was sent to marketers on Madison Avenue last spring, in case you missed it. The group also created a new edition of their 108-page book called “The Curve Notes” that is pure Madison Avenue chic itself. (They do have a 150 page report that they update bi-yearly for those who want pure facts.)
The Personal Grid
So what makes the Gen Ys so different? You probably can guess that the first thing is their access to smart phones and geo-local technological wonders that have created a new version of local—personal, flexible and transportable. The Curve calls this new kind of space “the personal grid.” It’s shifting the way people navigate space, interact with the people around them, collect memories and basically live, work and play.
Indie Life
Since World War II women have been leaving the home in droves to have careers. What has changed now is that there is a new, powerful demographic of single women without children, known as “Indie Women.” These women live alone and thus have redefined U.S Census data relating to household structures, as well as relationship dynamics and products and services for their wants and needs.
Pop-Upreneaurs
New web-based platforms have made it easier for people to bring their ideas to life. This has created a new breed of instant “pop-up” entrepreneurs who are not dealing with middlemen and are disrupting the status quo by redefining start-up culture. This new class of entrepreneurs are embracing a beta mindset and thriving on messy, quick, democratized creativity doing everything from “task Rabbits” who use peer-to-peer platforms to turn ad hoc errands into full-time gigs to “Kindle Millionaires,” who leverage e-book self-publishing to make millions overnight. In actuality, anyone with a Facebook page and an opinion is a marketer these days.
The Digital Landscape
This year has seen a shift in the digital landscape away from hype about Groupon to a frenzy over Pinterest. Look at all the changes Facebook has made in the last 12 months from timeline, to buying Instagram to becoming a publicly owned corporation. Our demographic Gen Ys spoke out against the congressional passage of SOPA through the medium of the internet and Congress defeated it.
A few other findings included the consumer’s sentiments toward social marketing. Friending brands has definitely changed in that they only do so if there is a deal or something in it for them. They don’t want to spend a lot of time on Fan Pages because they are too busy trying to keep up with their friends. Third, if they do spend time on Fan Pages they want to get to know the “real” person behind the brand because a brand’s real-world presence carries as much clout as its online status.
There is much more to this interesting study about new demographics. In order to develop marketing strategies campaigns effectively, marketers are going to have to scrap what they thought they knew about Gen Ys and check out the movie created by Curve Films, “Y Now,” read the coffee table quality book “The Curve Notes Digital Edition 2013” and the delve into the entire 150- page study as well.
For help with the new demographics, you are welcome to contact us at BroadVision Marketing. How is this information different from what you knew before? Please leave us a word in that box below. Thanks.
Jaco Grobbelaar is the owner of BroadVision Marketing. BroadVision Marketing works with business owners to put in place inbound and outbound marketing strategies that consistently secure new clients. The BroadVision Marketing Training Center is located in Petaluma, CA and primarily serves companies in the San Francisco Bay area.
Jaco can be reached at jaco@broadvisionmarketing.com or 707.766.9778 or connect with Jaco on Facebook - www.facebook.com/broadvisionmarketing - and LinkedIn - www.linkedin.com/in/JacoGrobbelaar.