Getting the Bubble Generation To Buy From You
Tom Hayes over on TomBomb.com recently had an article titled “Five Reasons the Bubble Generation Won’t Buy From You”. It is a very insightful article that got me about how you would go about successfully marketing to the bubble generation.
So who is the bubble generation? The bubble generation is the group of consumers between the age of 15 and 29 and they are arguable the first global community of consumers, connected by the Internet, social media and mobile telephony. There are about 40 million US members of the Bubble Generation, and about 500 million members worldwide. Armed with disposable incomes, this group is the target demographic for most companies. Reaching them via traditional media is easy. Getting them to buy from you is a lot harder which is where social networks come into play as they are the ideal platform with which to interact with this generation of consumers.
How to successfully market to the bubble generation
I believe that there are three ways that a business could successfully market and interact with the Bubble Generation. They are:
1. Don’t Rely on Traditional Media
The Bubble generation could also be called the “always on” generation. The combination of instant messaging, text messaging, downloadable music and time shifting TV habits means that if you rely on traditional media to reach this audience, that they will not hear you. Passive traditional marketing is innefective. Customized and personalized engagement is in.
2. Use Peers and Celebrities as Spokepeople
As a result of the customized and personalized marketing messages, Bubble Gen consumers rely on peers and influencers for buying decisions. Peers and to some degree celebrities are viewed as trusted sources of information and thus are able to get through the barriers that the Bubble Gen erect to keep out commercial messaging. That is why social networks are so important to marketing to Bubble Gen’s because it allows marketers to appear directly to the influencers in a community.
3. Interact and Engage
There is nothing worse to the member of the Bubble Gen than a drive by transaction. They don’t want to give you money just to buy a widget. They want to engage and feel connected with not only the product but also with the community at large. Price is a secondary consideration to the Bubble Gen compared to the “cause”. The Baby Gen is looking for opportunities to participate with a brand or products. Look at the “green movement” for example of an industry that is engaging successfully with this generation and as a result the green revolution has become a worldwide phenomena.
Clearly winning over the Bubble Generation is a major challenge for marketers. But the green revolution with its renewable, sustainable mantra is a good place to look for examples of how to successfully market to this target market. A lot of companies can learn from the successes of Stonyfield Farms and Whole Foods.
Filed under Brand Marketing, Social Media Marketing, Social Media Optimization : Comments (1) : Nov 29th, 2006
December 19th, 2006 at 5:54 pm
[…] Similar to other Web 2.0 sites, users can tag items that interest them and this list can be shared with others. The most popular tags show an eclectic array of items that defiantly learn towards the under 30 crowd (or Bubble Generation). […]