Social Media Implications for Gen X and Gen Y Marketing

5 Critical Trends to Grasp How Your Market Is Shifting

Do you really know how the 18 to 49 year old market, better known as Gen X and Gen Y, is changing and what this means for your marketing, especially where social media and mobile are concerned?

If not, this research is crucial to your marketing since these two market segments live and communicate via social media and they research, connect and purchase with their mobile devices.Therefore you must move from being present on social media to integrating social media into every aspect of your business to be where your customers are when they want to engage with you.

5 Critical Gen X and Gen Y trends

Here are five critical Gen X and Gen Y trends that emerged from NBC Universal’s The Curve Report 2013, an in-depth bi-annual research project to highlight trends and insights of this critical, high purchasing segment.  (Note: The names of these segments were created by NBC Universal.)

1. Indie Women. These are a growing segment of single women who don’t have children and have chosen a solo living alternative to having a traditional family. Actionable Marketing Implications: Indie women need a variety of different support systems to fulfill needs and supplement services traditionally provided by family members. The autonomous mindset of these independent women is redefining household structures, relationship dynamics and products and services for the life of one person. Marketers must get rid of their old stereotypes to win over this segment!
2. Personal grid. Gen X and Gen Y view local as personal, flexible and transportable. Actionable Marketing Implications: There’s been a fundamental shift in how people navigate through their lives and interactions with others across their work and personal lives. Marketers must be able to connect via smartphones and tablets to be part of the purchase process.
3. Pop-Upreneurs. A new breed of instant entrepreneurs enabled by new platforms that facilitate transforming their ideas into reality, is disrupting the status quo. Technology is allowing them to find new, easier and cheaper ways to accomplish their goals. Actionable Marketing Implications: Embracing a beta-test mindset, this segment thrives on fast, democratized creativity. They’re creating solutions to problems and finding more profitable ways to circumvent established hierarchies and ways of doing business. Marketers have a difficult time competing with them since they’ve got less overhead and other costs. With this segment, some businesses may do better to hire them and work with them rather than compete.
4. Popular “Click”. These are the hyper-connected tastemakers and curators encompassing influencers, stylists, bloggers and celebrities who are taste and cultural arbitrators. Actionable Marketing Implications: They’ve become an integral part of the social commerce ecosystem connecting marketers and customers. Consider how you can leverage the power of your brand’s influencers.
5. Group Think. This segment puts a new positive spin on an old negative business concept. Gen X and Gen Y use a collective intelligence model focused on getting as much top talent together to find the best idea.Actionable Marketing Implications:  This is a shift from mass crowd sourcing to seeking specialized skills to provide solutions for specificproblems and needs