Street soccer players. Extreme skiers. Social gamers. All Gen Y niches. All things we keep constant tabs on. That begs two questions: One: Why look at Gen Y? Two: Why look at niche markets?
Jack Trout has been pretty outspoken about his reasons for balking at niche markets, while others are getting huffy about the emphasis on Gen Y. (Thought I saw something by Arianna Huffington on the topic.)
When you live in a think tank, that kind of stuff can hurl you into a frenzy of second guessing and hypothesis testing. So for the record: Here’s our point of view on why it’s critical to look at Gen Y and why niche markets matter.
First off, Gen Y offers a fluid study in how media works, setting the standard for what consumers should expect from the world around them. This is the first generation to be all consumed by technology, yet they’re as off the grid as they are on it. And the closer we look at their dynamics, the more complex it gets.
In the hands of Gen Y, brands get articulated in more ways than the brand itself could ever imagine. Gen Y doesn’t wait for permission to morph a brand. They just engage. It then becomes critical for a brand to recognize the undertext of the consumer’s behavior. Have they engaged the brand to be accepted by their peers? To be revered by their peers? Are they using cell, landline, txt or IM or Skype to communicate?
To look at differentiated niches allows relative personas to evolve. And from there, we can pattern their behaviors and see where they might want or need to go next. And ultimately understand where the brand fits in. Or not.
If you try to speak to everyone, you erode the brand. You can’t just shift the message and make a brand fit where you want it. A brand needs to look at its core values and see how those connect to that of the Gen Y consumer. Or else the brand gets splintered into “meaninglessness.”
So with all said, looking at Gen Y is not about demographics. It’s about what this generation can tell you about the market as a whole and give you insight as to how the others will behave. Gen Y is only the tip of the spear.
That doesn’t mean that Gen Y should be looked at so closely that we overlook the peripherals. For certain, no generation is an island unto itself. Each generation is shaped by both the generation before, as well the generation after. Consider that while Barrack Obama is rallying the youth vote, in turn he’s getting a lot of winks from Grandma. According to an article in Time magazine, “Campaign young — but organize gray: that's the real winning strategy.”
(Image: Pulpolux.)
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