Moving the Target to Gen Y

Many historically conservative brands which have targeted Baby Boomers and Gen Xers are beginning to refocus their efforts toward Gen Y. This is a curious concept which begs the question, is the older audience disloyal and moving on? Or is it simply that as Gen Y is getting older, brands are realizing what a large opportunity is available? Additionally, aiming at Gen Y widens the gamut of advertising channels. Gen Y can be targeted through avenues which older generations cannot, such as social media.

Southwest Airline, P&G’s Herbal Essences, and politicians are among the many who have refocused their efforts.

Southwest, an airline which has traditionally targeted business travelers through low price and customer service, recently announced they will be sponsoring the Midnight Gaming Championship (MGC) 2008. This sponsorship of the video gaming season is targeted at gamers aged 16 to 25 who will be tomorrow’s business travelers. “The ‘Southwest Airlines Ultimate Gamer’ promotion and MGC sponsorship speak to young adults and gaming enthusiasts--a demographic far removed from the traditional frequent business traveler that Southwest typically targets with low airfares and timely plane departures and arrivals,” states a MediaPost Publications article. This “Ultimate Gamer” promotion is a sweepstakes in which two grand-prize winners will each receive two roundtrip tickets on Southwest to Las Vegas, tickets to the Video Game Awards, a Sony PlayStation 3, a Microsoft Xbox and a Nintendo Wii. Southwest is making an obvious long-term attempt to capture this audience early, which may show no short-term payoff.

Herbal Essences, an almost 40 year old brand, was in a “long-term decline” when P&G acquired it in 2001. P&G’s marketing team found that the target audience for Herbal Essences was too broad. A BusinessWeek article states, “By 2006, [Chairman and CEO A.G.] Lafley and P&G's beauty business chief, Susan Arnold, knew something had to be done with the tired brand. ‘We had three choices,’ Lafley says. ‘Abandon it, divest it, or frankly, reinvent it and resuscitate it.’” They chose the latter. In finding that no competitors were targeting Gen Y specifically nor meeting their specific needs, Herbal Essences decided to prioritize their efforts on this generation. Through not only redesigning packaging with youthful designs and curved bottles which fit together, but also renaming the specific products (different lines renamed “color me happy”, “body envy” and “totally twisted” - as opposed to bland titles for color treated, volumizing, and curl booster), Herbal Essences was able to drive up sales by targeting Gen Y.

Barack Obama’s campaign has notoriously been targeting the younger voters. By using social media venues, Obama has been able to reach out to his young supporters in a way that other candidates have not embraced, giving him an advantage in this demographic. Strategically targeting Gen Y through Facebook, where he has over 1 million supporters, and Twitter, where he has over 43,000 followers, gives this audience an insight into his campaign in a way that is more appealing to them. He also posts photos from his campaign trail to Flickr, and has just over 5,500 followers there. Additionally, MTV has now decided to accept political ads, but only from candidates and party committees, not from third parties. In the past, even as recent as primaries earlier this year, MTV had refused political advertising, even throughout its Rock the Vote and Choose or Lose voting promotions. MTV Networks is encouraging the youth vote, which gives the candidates even more access to reach Gen Y.

Understanding the marketing opportunities available to reach Gen Y will be an important tactic for brands in the near future. However, it will also be important that these aging brands not abandon nor alienate the earlier generations who may still be loyal consumers.