A New Generation Marketer

(Photo courtesy of Flickr Creative Commons)

50% of Generation Y consumers have mobile phones. They also have much more disposable income than would be expected, and are very willing to spend it. Generation Y provides a great opportunity for marketers today, as they are reshaping they way consumers search for information and buy products. So what is a marketer to do??

Studies have found that the more mediums a customer is involved in with an organization, the more engaged and likely to respond they become. This provides a great opportunity for both social media and mobile engagement with this age group. Gen Y is hugely dominant on social networking sites, and also have access to mobile phones and text messaging. Therefore, if the two are combined, think of the buying power they will then have! Although SMS marketing is not big yet, it will be during the age of smart phones and increased Gen Y spending.

SMS can be used like Facebook and Twitter, but it is better because it results in a quicker response to a promotion. Chad Hallert, Director at Ecommerce stated, “We tried stand alone offers with mobile, social and email…when you break them up to pieces, nothing really competes with e-mail, and the other two don’t look as valuable as they are”.

When SMS and social marketing are combined in a campaign, results are improved by 5-8%. This is because the SMS alert or Facebook update is added to an already existing campaign with a website, paid search and e-mail. The increased response rate is due to higher customer engagement (Sutton).

So how has Generation Y reshaped mobile marketing? They provide companies the opportunity to reach them in a new medium that other generations may not respond to. And since they are consuming many different types of media each day, there is a high potential of reaching them in various ways, generating interest, and making a purchase.

What do you think?