Secrets of Advertising to Gen Y Consumers. Aiden Livingston

of saturated markets and they are quite used to, if not expectant, of the limitless choices. We don’t mind spending the extra time learning about and comparing all the features, since we have been doing this all of our lives.

      I remember being only eight years old and having to weigh the pros and cons of a Super Nintendo or a Sega Genesis. I considered the graphics of the systems, plus the caliber and number of games for each system. Many of the younger video game consumers have had even tougher decisions as new systems have emerged. Now the options are the Wii, the Xbox, or the PlayStation. I pity the poor eight-year-old who is left with that decision! Deciding between only two caused me many sleepless nights and took years off my adolescent life!

      6. You Must Show Gen Y You Are the Best

      As opposed to our Baby Boomer parents, Gen Y doesn’t want some unknown advertiser giving them a sensationalized pitch on why its product is the best fit for them without backing it up with facts. If you want Gen Y to purchase your product, you must understand how important

      it is for them to feel they have done their due diligence in researching

      the product. At the end of the day they need to know why this was the best product for them. Simply stating that it is the “best” without substantiating the claim is far more likely to irk Gen Y than to influence them.

      Speaking as a person from Gen Y, we like making up our minds for ourselves. We want retailers to give the information needed to make the decision; we don’t want them to make it for us. This is where the Internet can be very useful for companies. Things such as online interactive guides, forums, and user reviews allow Gen Y consumers to feel like we have made the best decision. Ultimately, we might not always make the best decision, but we just need to have consulted enough information to feel like we are making an informed decision.

      If a retailer can give us the feeling that we have made the informed decision after having visited its site, read all the user-generated forums and reviews, then used an interactive guide to help us decide which features are best suited to our needs, we will undoubtedly buy the product. Why? Because we can rest easy thinking we had really looked into it and picked the “best” product.

      Many companies don’t like the idea of user-generated reviews on their sites because of the inevitability of negative reviews. Yet this is a mistake; in fact, the reviews humanize the opinions, and give us the feeling we have gathered all the information; good and bad. The reviews will actually positively influence Gen Y, unless the majority of the reviews are bad, at which point you should probably take a look at improving your product to better suit your customers’ needs.

      At the end of the day, over-the-top sensationalized marketing may have worked on previous generations who were more eager to have someone help them navigate through the limitless choices. However, Gen Y has grown up in a world where picking a toothbrush offers no less than a hundred different options, from flexible necks, gum massagers, battery power, or sonic cleaning power. I personally use anything that bears the likeness of SpongeBob, but only because I trust his integrity!

      As a generation we don’t view too many choices as a problem; in fact, we enjoy the opportunity to be able to take the time and pick the best product. If you are trying to reach Gen Y consumers, forget all the flair and focus on the facts.