Marketing For Millennials: Customize Your Memevertising
With a new generation comes a new marketing concept appears, 'Memevertising' has taken the marketing world by storm and has introduced a whole new genre of humor.
Millennials are the generation born between 1982 and 2002. This generation will replace the Baby-boomers as they retire. Millennials have grown up in a society that is very different than any group before them. They have been plugged into technology since they were babies, are a safe generation, are the first generation for which Hispanics/Latinos will be the largest minority group instead of African Americans in the United States and have the most educated mothers of any generation before them. They are the most scheduled generation ever, are true multi-taskers, expect to have 6-8 careers in their lifetime and are attracted to diverse environments.
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In terms of their buying powers, they are about over 80 million world-wide members and represent 25% of the US population and hold more than $200 billion in buying power. As much power as this generation holds, marketers always have a tendency to ask, what’s next? What do we know about the generation that follows, who will they be, how will they be different and most importantly, how can we prepare for them?
With a new generation comes a new marketing concept appears; Memevertising has taken the marketing world by storm and has introduced a whole new genre of humour. Memes are now littering newsfeeds on Facebook and Twitter and are increasing in popularity within the Millennial demographic. But where did this phenomenon start? It might be a surprise to learn that the concept of a meme has been around since the 80s. This definition has since expanded into what we know today as Memevertising.
Memevertising believes that Millennials have low brand loyalty and are easily distracted with the various offerings provided – the higher the quality of a product the more these Millennials will buy. They don’t accept direct marketing, and favour a connection with a brand to leverage their identity in the group they are in. Thus, to be able to market for this generation successfully - memes allow your brand to connect with Millennials on three different levels –humour, memorable and share-ability.
Humorous Brands Wins
Millennials like to have fun and always favour the brands that do to. MTV have conducted a research which showed that 79 percent of Millennials think it’s cool to be able to make fun of themselves. This insight speaks to accepting quality of the millennial generation. “Flawsome” has become a new catch phrase that highlights the unique qualities of Millennials
Memorable Brands Wins
It is when the brand transforms a key cultural message into a clever marketing – brands wins. College Humour, is an online “YouTube” channel where key marketing messages associated with social marketing and brands – allows viewers to have fun and laugh and be part of the group – their videos are viral as they apply these concepts of effective meming.
Shareable Brands Wins
Memes are a creative marketing tool that depends on the network effect. Essentially, the network effect is an economic theory that explains how the value of a product is dependent on the number of shares and likes it receives. Memes cost nearly nothing to produce but spread like wildfire on social media gaining brands more awareness, loyalty and engagement online. Millennials place a high value on peer affirmation so an image, video or link that already has traction is more likely to be reposted by a Millennial.
Today’s marketing is more than just producing ads and marketing campaigns to attract customers, generations are rising and others are falling. It is when brands realize strategic messaging that resonates with Millennials they will continue to remain in connections with this generations and others to come.
Where to find Dr. Islam Gouda
Twitter: https://twitter.com/IslamGouda11
LinkedIn: ae.linkedin.com/in/islamgouda/
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