The members of the “twentysomethings” of today were born sometime between the mid-1970s and the mid-1980s. As a marketing target they’re unlike any previous generation and so geared to new ideas that just getting their attention can be a real challenge.Perhaps the biggest single factor about them is that they don’t really want to grow up. They gear their lifestyles around change and excitement so they don’t have to.
They’re a segment of what’s often called “Gen-Y” and have created what researchers, sociologists and psychologists say is a new phase of life between adolescence and adulthood. They stay in school longer, delay things like getting married and having children, and change jobs as often as they change their addresses.
They’re the children of the baby boomers and haven’t been pressured into making big decisions about their futures, so they travel a lot while they work out what they want to be as adults, which seems to their parents to be a long way off. Over half expect to live with their parents after finishing their college educations.
There was a time not too long ago when people looked forward to adulthood. The age of twenty-one was the start of the rest of their lives. Now if there is an age that defines that point it’s probably close to thirty. Twenty-one year olds don’t want lawns, commuting, parenting or jobs that tie them down.
The four year college education is just about over. TIME magazine conducted a poll of people ages 18 to 29, and found that only 32% of those who attended college had left school by age 21. The average college student takes five years to finish their undergraduate education and even after graduation spend additional time “learning about life” through travel and other forms of experiential learning.
U.S. Census data reveals a sharp decline in the percentage of young adults who have finished school, left home, gotten married, had a child and reached financial independence. There is a cause for every effect and much of the underlying factors for the behavior of the twentysomethings rests squarely on the shoulders of the baby boomers.
Look at some of the differences faced by these young adults in today’s world. Instead of getting by with a bachelor’s degree, post-graduate qualifications are almost essential to getting a good job. Housing costs have skyrocketed as baby boomers increased their wealth in the real estate market and it’s now considered almost impossible by twentysomethings to save enough for a deposit on a house.
Twentysomethings are society-savvy. They’ve seen their parents’ marriages end in divorce and understand that any job they might get can be terminated overnight by corporate restructuring or downsizing. They know that advances in healthcare means they’ll still be able to enjoy a pleasurable lifestyle with the chance for some adventures in what their parents considered the beginnings of “old age”. Might as well just put things off and enjoy today, knowing that nothing’s permanent and there’ll always be a tomorrow.
They are skeptical and inured to media hype, making them one of the toughest groups marketers have ever chased. Many traditional marketers have tried to penetrate this market and been rebuffed. But now “new” companies such as Boost Mobile and fellow Virgin Mobile USA have begun to find a successful formula for marketing airtime to twentysomethings.
They do it by selling from retail outlets that cater to the lifestyles of twentysomethings — surf shops, music stores and retailers of funky clothing. They know that twentysomethings have no credit histories so they market prepaid plans that don’t require credit checks or contracts with fine print.
They understand twentysomethings and create offerings that demonstrate this, gaining sales at the expense of other marketers that still have their sights focused on larger but declining targets. Here’s some of the twentysomethings’ broad characteristics that marketers need to recognize:
1. They are Team-Orientated
They like working in teams. They like socializing in teams. They enjoy sharing and doing things in groups.
2. They Share Information
Because their lives are so intertwined with their friends’ lives they share information within their friendship circles. Sell one and you can sell them all. But disappoint one and the rest will stay away as well.
3. Viral Marketing Spreads the News
Forget traditional channels of marketing communication; twentysomethings aren’t watching. You should look instead to viral marketing, guerrilla marketing and other forms that translate to word-of-mouth where your message will be received and hopefully understood.
4. They are Optimistic
Knowing they have long lives ahead and knowing they can postpone making decisions about the rest of their lives they are incredibly positive. Their lives are spent “accentuating the positive” so your marketing has to start there.
5. They Appreciate Facilitators
If you can help them do more, live better, achieve something you’ll be popular with twentysomethings. They want to do things and those who make it possible are the ones they turn to when spending their money.
6. They’re Savvy About Lots of Things
Not only are they well-educated, twentysomethings are also well-informed and likely to know about you or at least what you’re selling. They’re technologically-aware and won’t be surprised by much.
A permanent shift has taken place in the way twentysomethings live their lives. Where previous generations transited in a fairly predictable way from childhood to adolescence and from adolescence to adulthood, this generation has created a waystation between adolescence and adulthood that allows them to delay moving forward yet enjoy where they are. Unless you grasp just how “different” from previous generations this makes them your marketing will never reach them.
Copyright 2005, RAN ONE Inc. All rights reserved. Reprinted with permission from www.ranone.com.