What is your youth marketing strategy?
Developing a marketing strategy is vital for any business, with those specifically targeting youth being no exception. Without a strong Youth Marketing Strategy, all efforts to attract the lucrative youth consumer are likely to fall short, leaving your brand in the undesirable unknown zone!
In order to help brands avoid this area, BAM have listed 5 key tips when building a Youth Marketing Strategy. These tips are guaranteed to set you on the right track when diving into the youth market.
- Understand your audience
You don’t have to be a student to understand the student consumer.
Through quality research, in-depth insights and quantitative data you can paint an accurate picture of what makes the youth market tick and understand how your message is going to get through. Sound research should always act as a building block for any great strategy, so if the foundations aren’t there, don’t expect your strategy to stick around for long!
2. Speak their language
Technology and the youth consumer go hand in hand (quite literally).
Students and anything digital are always at an arms distance so your targeting needs to be too. Take your communication to the online screen, whether this is through Social Media, Apps or ads, start talking to them in the language they developed and understand.
The youth consumer lives in a world of memes and emojis and this new visual communication gives them the instant connections they crave, so don’t be afraid to join in the conversation and get involved with the GIFs! Your strategy should aim to explore this movement in digital language, helping you connect with these high-speed consumers in the fun and engaging way they want, with visual messaging expressing your words with more feeling and emphasis in a quicker and more efficient way.
3. Don’t be afraid to sell
You may think that cheap and cheerful products are the way to winning the hearts of the youth market, but although students will never say no to a freebie, they also aren’t afraid to spend money when they want something!
The youth market has access to expendable cash and with the average student spending 58% of their annual loan within the first 100 days of university, they are ready and willing to spend! With this figure equating to the average Fresher set to spend £3,300 within just over 3 months of student life. Your products don’t have to be budget, but don’t make them break the bank either!
4. It’s all about the discount!
When marketing to the youth market, it’s not just about the here and now. Marketing to students is about creating life long advocates for your brand, and building your base of loyal consumers. One way to ensure this is through your tailored offering.
Everybody loves a sale, perhaps none more so than the student market! Paying close attention to the latest percentage drops and online offers catered to them, if you can offer the youth market what they want at a price they feel is just for them, then you’re already halfway there to holding on to these lucrative consumers.
5. Be seen and be heard
In 2019 the youth market has started to become accustomed to seeing their favourite brands on the big screen, as well as face to face. Regardless of whether you are an online retailer only or your brand sells a service and not a product, students love to get hands-on with a brand, through meaningful and memorable offline interactions.
Experiential Marketing is all about achieving direct engagement with your consumers and even without a product, a businesses can still be brought to life, creating lasting and positive associations with the brand. At BAM our experiential strategies are bespoke, inventive and most importantly, always catch the eye of the youth market.
If you want to know more or want the help of one of experts for your Youth Market Strategy, get in touch with the team!