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The New Rules of Growth
Rule #5 - Keep Up With the Kids

November 2005 (Cover Story)

Understanding young people has never been easy, but marketing to today's under-25s is vital to your business. Seriously, dude.

"It's important to keep an eye on this age group because if it's not a viable market now, it's going to be in the future, says David Morrison, author of Marketing to the Campus Crowd. That's because it forms the largest generational cohort since the Baby Boomers. Even more important than the oodles of money Canadian kids have to spend -- $20 billion a year in disposable income -- is Gen Y's long-term potential. This will take an appreciation of Gen Y's unique point of view. They're more skeptical of big brands and big marketing campaigns, and are increasingly sophisticated consumers because they've grown up with a huge amount of choice while having more control over their purchases than their predecessors.

"Generation Y is radically different in terms of language, needs, mindset, goals and in the ways they need to be communicated with," says Morrison. he suggests supplementing conventional marketing by subtly selling to Gen Y where they are: the Internet, campuses and concerts, for example. "If you can create an environment, through clever placement, where the market feels as if they're discovering the brand on their own," says Morrison, "you can get an underground buzz going that can be highly effective."

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