June 2019

shutterstock_image-2019-06-28T145144.472

Fashion and the youth market

Just as fashion trends are always changing, so are the opinions held on the industry by the youth market.

As a brand or business in what can often seem like an overly saturated market, understanding youth consumers motivations to buy is now crucial. You want your brand to stand out from the crowd and really connect with this lucrative market. But before you can draw in the younger crowds, you must first understand them.

Over recent years it’s been clear to see greater focus placed on e-commerce and a departure from the belief that in-store is the only way to successfully market your brand. But does the youth market really want this shift online?

For 2019 BAM conducted a youth survey centered around their relationship with fashion, uncovering trends, insights, and buying habits, helping to gain a deeper understanding of the psyche of this generation.

The survey uncovered that the majority of youth preferred to shop in-store, favouring the tactile nature of the in-store shopping experience. The survey further discovered that youth do not like to buy what they can’t touch, they enjoy the in-store option of feeling the product, assessing its quality and the ability to immediately try it on, proving that instant gratification is now a firm necessity of today’s youth as well as a key motivator to buy.

That being said the online world of e-commerce fashion is still a dominant player in the youth market and likely always will be. Although it wasn’t that long ago that shopping centres were at the center of retail success. If you’re a fashion brand today with the youth market at your core, you’re missing out if you’re not online.

With the knowledge that the youth market desires to assess a product, you now need to give these consumers as much information on the product as they could gather from seeing it in store.

Fashion and the youth market

This generation is more environmentally and socially invested than any generation before them, therefore if you’re producing sustainable fashion, you need to showcase this.

Our survey identified that the majority of youth would like brands to share with them their ethical values and production processes, with brands that fall short of a 5-star eco-rating now being pushed to invest in their ethical policies and efforts in sustainability in order to meet the expectations of this generation.

With their high spending power combined with a growing desire to know exactly what they’re getting and where it’s coming from, the youth market is a key demographic for any brand in the fashion sphere who are proud of what they deliver.

Brands need to step out of the box and into the minds of this generation if they are to effectively engage with them in the retail space, creating an emotional connection and stimulating their needs and desires in a bid to win their loyalty.

So if you are looking to effectively market your fashion brand to the youth market, please get in touch today and let BAM help you tap into this lucrative demographic.

shutterstock_image-2019-06-20T151644.239

Creating experiential concepts for the youth market

Experiential marketing is broadly defined as “an advertising strategy that focuses on helping consumers experience a brand”, but at BAM we like to take this one step further, striving to make our experiential marketing campaigns, innovative, creative and always more than memorable!

Experiential marketing with BAM is all about achieving direct engagement with consumers. Whether this is the youth market or beyond, our strategies are always bespoke, inventive and most importantly, draw in the crowds.

When creating bespoke experiential ideas for the youth market we always consider a number of key factors;

Product/Service
Relevance
Impact

Youth Market Ideas

Firstly, we take into account whether we have a product to work with. According to a Marketing Week report “48% of people say they are more likely to buy a new product if they can try it first” (Ratcliff, 2014). For this very reason, if we have a product to work with, we’re going to want to show it off!

From food product sampling to trying out new technologies, if showcasing a physical product is possible it is a must for any experiential campaign. Although something physical is great to work with, brands that sell services or businesses that simply just want to promote themselves to the youth market also reap the benefits of working with BAM.

Even without a product we still need to bring businesses to life, interact directly with the target audience, keep it relevant and create lasting and positive associations with the brand. We do this through creative concept creation.

Youth Market Ideas

After years of developing successful brand campaign concepts, we have found the best ideas sit at the intersection of what consumers already enjoy and a unique experiential offering. Take our Greggs 2018 Freshers campaign for example.

We know students always enjoy a freebie, but we wanted to deliver this to them in a way they weren’t expecting. Taking things to the next level BAM created, branded and produced the Greggs ‘Lucky Lockers’, an interactive experiential game where every student was a guaranteed winner. With students queuing out the door to get their hands on some amazing freebies, our experiential concept with Greggs drew the crowds more than ever before.

Youth Market Ideas

Impact is the final factor we always consider in the concept creation process. Regardless of the size of the experiential, maximum impact is something we always strive for. Even if a one-off installation may only last for a matter of hours, we aim to create a closer bond between youth consumers and the brand by immersing them in a fun and memorable experience.

From chill out zones to pop up shops and even the occasional human hamster wheel (yes you read that right), every experiential is thought of, designed and produced with the brands look, feel and needs in mind. From safely gathering consumer data, to distributing product stock across the UK, every experiential we run is 100% unique and 100% guaranteed to engage with consumers.

So if you’re looking for experiential ideas that are a far cry away from traditional marketing then get in touch with the amazing team at BAM and let us show you ideas you didn’t know you needed until now.

Ratcliff, C. (2015). What is experiential marketing and why do you need it?. Available: https://econsultancy.com/experiential-marketing/. Last accessed 18th June 2019.