After several years of revising and adding new material, Almost Famous 2.0: How to Market Yourself for Success now needs a cover design. Help us pick which one you think fits the energy of being “almost famous” and confident in your personal brand!

Vote now until February 29th, 2012!

For more about Almost Famous 2.0, click here.

Click on the cover image to enlarge.

Cover 1	Cover 2	Cover 3

Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll.

Now, while I always understood as a marketer that Gen X was smaller, the Baby Boomer years of supporting the growing economy masked the shift.

That is until I read Age Curve by Ken Gronbach.

Gen Y is about 10 years from revving up the economy with their purchasing power.

From Ken’s blog, “For the record Generation Y was born 1985 to 2004.  There are about eighty-two million of them, three million more than the Baby Boomers.”  As Ken  continued, “The future is very bright for the United States and Generation Y is why….I tell banks to get Generation Y representation on their boards of directors or they risk having their industry become a buggy whip.  Generation Y banks on their iPhones.  Generation Y will make the arrangements when their Boomer parents die.  What will they do?  Don’t count on anything traditional.”

What to do?

First, as a marketer, I have to find leads for my clients that have jobs, money and credit. The market is the 30-45 age group that is typically in a spending cycle.  (See the financial services example in the chart “Profitability by Age Group”) However, there are 11% less of them than what we were all used to selling to, so offers have to be more compelling, content has to be more helpful and the brand has to be protected by an amazing service experience every time.  Really, it means stealing the business by having a better value, better offer and better service because every one of your competitors wants their business, too.

Second, I don’t want to be left behind in the huge changes of the Gen Y crowd.  With what streamlined dollars are available, it is important to start “talking” to Gen Y about how your older brand can really benefit them financially.  The difficulty is that this group will not be as profitable for quite a while.  (See the negative profitability in financial services for youth in the chart “Profitability by Age Group”)  Yet, we have to invest in capturing a position in their minds of being the only place to do their business when they are ready!

What are you doing to transform your marketing, your thinking, your business and your career to adjust to this generational train wreck?

]]> http://www.mymarketinginsights.com/2012/01/17/marketing-impact-the-generation-train-wreck/feed/ 2 http://www.mymarketinginsights.com/2012/01/17/marketing-impact-the-generation-train-wreck/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MyMarketingInsights/~3/EwRTuJ6-v64/ http://www.mymarketinginsights.com/2011/12/08/unplugged-marketing-an-oxymoron/#comments Thu, 08 Dec 2011 17:59:33 +0000 Nicolette Lemmon http://www.mymarketinginsights.com/?p=1670 It’s the holidays and in thinking how nice it would be to “unplug” from technology, my marketing side knows it can’t happen!

The advertising is in high gear from Facebook specials to retailers sending email offers every day to online ads.  There are even cell phone solicitations and text offers. Our consumer world is deluged with tech-based marketing

As Pew Research Center noted in a recent study, 58% of all adults (or 74% of all online adults) say they use the internet for no particular reason other than to pass the time or have fun. In addition, a May 2011 Pew Internet survey found that among online adults, 92% use email, with 61% using it on an average day.

In essence, the internet is a key part of our lives. So marketers have tried to find as many ways as possible to tap that addiction to the online experience.

Heck, I’m guilty! We developed website design starting in the late 1990’s, then a proprietary e-marketing system for clients back in 2003, then expanded into social media in 2009. The direct mail or media ads have special URLs to landing pages.

And, it is obvious that businesses today have to be plugged in with their marketing including a quality website, e-marketing, and social media because consumers will jump online to shop or research.

Can you even unplug yourself for the holidays?  Maybe, after you check on the lowest price for a Kinect or send that Gift Food Tower to your aunt through Costco online?

So, how can you make it a “Happy” Holiday?

• Push more marketing activities!  Offering a holiday loan?  Reduced rate on credit card purchases? Maybe no payments for 90 days for an auto loan?  Think that no one does anything during the holidays?  Well, for busy, stressed-out consumers, the holidays offers a little more time to get things done.  Have specials ready to give customers/members a reason to do business with you!
• Keep communicating to your customers/members. Investing in protecting your position in the mind of consumers is critical in this economy because to be “out of sight” means you will be “out of mind.”  There is too much competition popping into email inboxes, advertising on TV and online, and in the mailbox. Cutting expenses is necessary in a down economy, but to disappear from consumer view may mean you are considered out of business!  Plus, you may never recover market share that is lost during a “dark” marketing period.
• Buy into the “Happy” in Happy Holidays!  Play holiday music, have Santa visit or give out candy canes, decorate the outside of your offices/branches and interior bright lights and holiday decorations.  Why?  If consumers are stressed out, create the ambiance of the safe haven place to do business.  Appeal to the consumer’s hopefulness by avoiding the austerity of denying extra costs for holiday lights or fun touches like candy canes.

What are you going to do to create the “happy” holiday for your customers/members?

So, is there hope in the wings?

Change is in the air!  Have you noticed the protesting going on? Reminiscent of the late 60’s and 70’s when the young Boomers were spreading their wings and looking for change?  Gen Y has started its impact, demanding change and questioning the big corporations.

Déjà vu, isn’t it?

This push of the Boomer generation then translated into the “Dream Decade” of the 80s, when money was flowing, businesses were booming.  There were lots of Boomers with high consumerism.  However, it was followed by the “Nightmare Decade” of the 90’s when corporate downsizing and offshore solutions started to shift business opportunities.

At the turn of the century, it was all about the burgeoning Internet and how to get online and do business online, but still Boomers drove growth.  Now, in the second decade of the century, we have recession, high unemployment and a smaller market of consumers in Gen X to keep the purchase cycle high enough to make the returns businesses need to survive.

Funny, looks a lot like the pattern is shifting with the large Gen Y cohort coming into their own.  It will take two decades of pressure from the smaller Gen X market and then, we will have another Dream decade where Gen Y will make more of an impact.

Prediction?  The brands that will survive are the ones romancing and retaining their base of customers/members while preparing for the later part of this decade.  From 2015 through 2020, a huge shift may be taking place where young people drive demand again as did the Boomers.  They will look for consumer goods in terms of clothing as they preen to capture the attention of mates. They will buy homes, appliances, and other needs for the family building phase. And, they will look to trusted brands that give them the best deals as well as service that meets their needs, however individual these are.

Marketing ideas to embrace the youthful exuberance is key – providing the good deals, the choices and the new directions that the Baby Boomlet generation demands.

How are you making the most of being a trusted brand?  How are you keeping in touch with those current customers/members who are providing the most profitability right now?

How can marketers be prepared, plan for big swings in consumer loyalty, and even protect their brand in light of this new low level of tolerance?

The first critical step is to keep the long-term user, the most profitable group in your customer/member base, at the forefront of your marketing plan in terms of consistent touches and schmooze!

On a recent business trip, as a Blackberry user for many years, I was unfortunately one of the 20% with no email during the last glitch.  Interestingly, my husband was traveling with me and his was working fine. While grabbing a bite to eat before our plane, a businessman at a table across from us asked if we were getting anything on our B-Berries.  He was traveling with another person and said that she was getting everything because she had an iPhone!

More comments ensued around us from other business travelers, some smiling that they were unaffected with their iPhones, others claiming to switch away from B-Berry and me, irritated that I was disconnected!

While the CEO of RIM did apologize in the media, the CIO did come out with a general email apology to its 70 million users and admitted to no answer with why the outage happened.  As a B-Berry user, neither Sprint nor RIM made it more personal to me to ease the irritation.  Neither seemed to think they should gather resources around protecting their brands with long-time profitable users!

So, when I’m at the soccer field and another soccer mom says she just switched to iPhone and her husband chimes in that he wants to switch when his contract comes up, what’s a B-Berry, annoyed owner to think?

What’s your low tolerance story?

While we laughed, as one of our market research analysts, she commented about the changing of consumer behavior. “Will consumers go back to paying full price when the economy recovers?”

The danger in discounting and couponing has been noted by retailers placing offers through Groupon and other discounting online services. Less than 25% actually get new business from customers who redeem the special offers and even less had attracted full price business afterwards.

From Knowledge @ Wharton e-newsletter, experts at Wharton and elsewhere are conflicted about consumer spending habits impacted by the recessionary period we have found ourselves in for the last three years.  “Cheap” has gone from being a stigma to being a “badge of honor.”

According to the article, “No Longer Simply ‘Chic,’ Cheap Is Now a Badge of Honor.” http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article/2849.cfm, “While some argue that consumers will pick up their spending as the good times return, others say Americans have permanently embraced a cheapskate philosophy, and are unlikely to go back to their spendthrift ways anytime soon.”

As a marketer, it has always been difficult to want to lead with special offers or discounts for fear of generating only loss-leader sales without more profitable repeat sales.  In financial services, the loss leader has been a low rate or waived costs. However, to attract the attention of consumers today, it requires an offer that will move them to action.

Here are two things to consider about using discounts with the new “Cheapskate” consumer:

• The discount on a product or service is a not only for “first-timers”, but is also a “treat” for long-term customers/members. There is little worse than a long-time customer/member feeling that they are not getting the best deal.
• Your discounted product/service can gain a lot of volume to make it somewhat profitable, especially when targeting new customers/members.  Loss leaders are meant to gain an interaction with your product/service with a new customer but may gain discount-only customers that drain away profits.

Do you have other things for all of us to consider in this new “Cheap” marketplace?

From a marketing standpoint, this book clearly states the issues that are underlying the economic slump and encouraging the focus on the future.

First Haunting Thought:  “Gen X is 11% smaller than the Baby Boomer generation, which is 9 million less consumers.”  Most of the growth in retail financial services in the last 20 years came from the Boomers using credit to fund homes, cars, second homes, college educations, and more.  But, subprime mortgages may have been just a hint at an underlying problem – less consumers meant slowed growth and more pressure to widen the acceptance for credit.

Second Haunting Thought:  “The American Dream of home ownership is changing.” Boomers now becoming empty nesters and wanting to sell their McMansions to downsize will not find buyers very easily.  Gen X and Gen Y will not be buying them because Gen X doesn’t have enough consumers to absorb the Boomer real estate.  And, Gen Y won’t be old enough and prosperous enough to afford them for another 20-30 years.  The rental market, however, will boom with Gen Y.  Remember, big apartment complexes flew up to accommodate the influx of Baby Boomers in the 70’s and early 80’s?  But it also means getting more innovative in mortgage lending rather than revisiting the subprime fiasco.

Third Haunting Thought:  “Gen Y is larger than the Boomer generation, however, they are too young to buy the products and services that right now sell best to ages 29-46 (Gen X).”
The Boomers have moved into the slow-down in consuming after being the major push for spending for the last 20-25 years.  As a marketer, battling for fewer consumers means romancing the customers/members that you have now to keep them and steal market share as often as possible!  Trimming margins is necessary for most companies to offer the best possible prices, rates, and products to compete for business with fewer buyers.  Key is to make it through the next 10 years.

What to do?  Battle today but focus on the future by reinventing the marketing line-up to be attractive to the upcoming wave of Gen Y.

Profiling for Dollars.  For every product or service you offer, review the demographics of the most active users.  Profiling allows you to build more business with those people who most likely will take advantage of your offers. In addition, there are more on the fringe of the profile.

Know Who Is Profitable. Build a tight relationship with the people who keep your business in business. If these people are profitable for you, you can bet someone else wants them, too, so your database information allows you to romance them to keep them.

Make New Friends.  Profiling and profitability studies help you to develop acquisition strategies, in essence, who you want and what relationship you want with them.  Once the new person has opened an account or purchased something from you, there needs to be a marketing strategy in place to build the relationship with the newbie.

Keep the Old.  The old adage of “make new friends but keep the old, one is silver and the other gold,” is true.  Every business needs to continue to attract new customers to grow, yet the most profitability is usually made from the longer-term relationships.  For every marketing dollar spent to gain more business from an existing customer/member, it costs $5 to attract the same business from someone new.

Show Me the Money.  The best part of working with a database is the ability to capture results of marketing efforts.  From how much dollar volume was generated to how many new people were attracted, to how profitable the campaign or promotion was, a marketer can justify marketing expenditures more easily to CFOs and CEOs who want to see the “numbers!”

Do you have other “laws” that still work for you today?

Being in the middle of wedding planning, it is amazing how many companies target women for wedding products and services.

Attending a bridal show recently, every vendor had chances to win prizes for my contact information. Everything from a speedy cash company, teeth whitening, real estate agency, Costco, florists, venues, restaurants, dresses and tuxes plus much more.

The key was obviously to get my email and address because the vendors know that I’m definitely going to be purchasing products and services for an upcoming wedding. I did
receive all kinds of email and mail after the show.

But, what about other ways to target people who are planning a life event?

One example is financing. I looked into common ways to finance a wedding including using a credit card, applying for a personal loan, or taking out a home equity line of credit.

With loans being a major source of funding, are you missing out on connecting with that bride and groom or their parents?

Creating life event information on your website is a starter. One of our clients has a “Getting Married” link on the home page to a special landing page for newlyweds.

Another way to attract brides, grooms and parents is to do a mini-promotion, usually in the first quarter when a lot of bridal shows are held. Keeping the message year round on your website also helps as another way to remind your target that you offer wedding solutions as a trusted partner!

Any other ideas for a busy bride to help me make things easier for my wedding next year?