Right Here, Right Now
Gen Y wants what we want, when, where, and how we want it!
Sounds bratty, privileged and entitled doesn't it? Well it is! MY generation was born into a culture where we can have anything we want, when we want it. This is fueled by parents and society at large. We have been able to customize anything to our liking and we never had to wait too long for it. We treat everything in our life with this attitude.
The wealth of information available in seconds from the Internet, hundreds of television stations to choose from and a different shopping center every ten miles has given my generation the notion that if we do not get what we want from one source, we can immediately go to another.
We look for a quick fix to everything. Instant gratification comes so easily through instant messages, cell phones and the Internet. We seek newer instead of quality. If something breaks we want to go buy a new one - instead of waiting for it to get fixed. And thanks to credit cards, if we want something - we can get it immediately. With the swipe of the card, our new, shiny product is ours.
Everything has become immediate...or needs to be.
- Losing weight
- Growing hair
- Getting a response
- Watching TV
- Getting news
- Seeing photos
- Grades on tests
- Team selections
- Chat with instant feedback
- Cash back
- Email responses
..."Climbing the ladder" is slowly becoming a dead concept.
And with everything being so immediate, the word "forever" has lost a lot of meaning. Forever means commitment, loyalty and never changing. This is a word and concept that my generation has not learned from our upbringing. It plays into the 'if this doesn't work, we'll figure out something else' mentality. There is no sense of waiting, committing, and believing that something can last forever. Material things have an expiration date - as soon as the newer model comes out, the old product is tossed aside.
Relationships are not always sustainable - my generation has seen our parents get divorced, friends act deceitfully, and partners looking for the next best thing. Vows have lost their meaning. Jobs and careers are definitely disposable - staying at the same job with the same employer for 25 years is ludicrous to my generation. Even tattoos can now be removed.
So how do you market to my generation? You need to give us what we want. Come out with the newest product, or the product that may have been around for a while but yours has the newest features. Make information about your product easily accessible online and on social networking sites. And if we have questions, comments or concerns? We'd appreciate your customer service being readily available to us at any time.
The "Y Award"
Each week the Premise team will be giving out our coveted (hey, we think it's pretty cool) "Y Award" to a brand that has successfully captured the attention of these youngsters. This week's award goes to:
American Apparel!
Whenever I walk into American Apparel the majority of the people I see shopping are around my age - maybe a little younger, maybe a little older - but American Apparel has gotten Gen Y engaged in their brand. For those of you who don't want to walk around with Polo emblems on your shirts or True Religion embellished stitching on your jeans' pockets, American Apparel provides you with basic clothing absent of any brand recognition.
Other ways they engage Gen Y:
- They are clean, simple and hip
- They have happy employees
- Their clothing is American made and sweat shop free
- They are active on social networks - they have over 110,000 Twitter followers and over 230,000 Facebook fans
- They donate hundreds of thousands of garments to local charities each year
- They promote environmentally-friendly practices: using solar power, recycling fabric scraps and utilizing organic cotton
Next time you need some new threads head over to American Apparel, experience friendly service and pick up some basic clothing.
Links
American Apparel Website
Twitter Page
Facebook Page
Make life easy and bookmark this page - so you can follow along for all 10 weeks!
The ABC's of Y and Z
-Jocelyn Fielding, Account Coordinator/Gen Y Contributor
Lunch Today: Chinese Chicken Salad
