Corey Padveen
Marketing to Millennials For Dummies®
Marketing to Millennials For Dummies®
Published by: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030-5774, www.wiley.com
Copyright © 2017 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey
Published simultaneously in Canada
No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning or otherwise, except as permitted under Sections 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act, without the prior written permission of the Publisher. Requests to the Publisher for permission should be addressed to the Permissions Department, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030, (201) 748-6011, fax (201) 748-6008, or online at http://www.wiley.com/go/permissions.
Trademarks: Wiley, For Dummies, the Dummies Man logo, Dummies.com, Making Everything Easier, and related trade dress are trademarks or registered trademarks of John Wiley & Sons, Inc. and may not be used without written permission. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. John Wiley & Sons, Inc. is not associated with any product or vendor mentioned in this book.
LIMIT OF LIABILITY/DISCLAIMER OF WARRANTY: THE PUBLISHER AND THE AUTHOR MAKE NO REPRESENTATIONS OR WARRANTIES WITH RESPECT TO THE ACCURACY OR COMPLETENESS OF THE CONTENTS OF THIS WORK AND SPECIFICALLY DISCLAIM ALL WARRANTIES, INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION WARRANTIES OF FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. NO WARRANTY MAY BE CREATED OR EXTENDED BY SALES OR PROMOTIONAL MATERIALS. THE ADVICE AND STRATEGIES CONTAINED HEREIN MAY NOT BE SUITABLE FOR EVERY SITUATION. THIS WORK IS SOLD WITH THE UNDERSTANDING THAT THE PUBLISHER IS NOT ENGAGED IN RENDERING LEGAL, ACCOUNTING, OR OTHER PROFESSIONAL SERVICES. IF PROFESSIONAL ASSISTANCE IS REQUIRED, THE SERVICES OF A COMPETENT PROFESSIONAL PERSON SHOULD BE SOUGHT. NEITHER THE PUBLISHER NOR THE AUTHOR SHALL BE LIABLE FOR DAMAGES ARISING HEREFROM. THE FACT THAT AN ORGANIZATION OR WEBSITE IS REFERRED TO IN THIS WORK AS A CITATION AND/OR A POTENTIAL SOURCE OF FURTHER INFORMATION DOES NOT MEAN THAT THE AUTHOR OR THE PUBLISHER ENDORSES THE INFORMATION THE ORGANIZATION OR WEBSITE MAY PROVIDE OR RECOMMENDATIONS IT MAY MAKE. FURTHER, READERS SHOULD BE AWARE THAT INTERNET WEBSITES LISTED IN THIS WORK MAY HAVE CHANGED OR DISAPPEARED BETWEEN WHEN THIS WORK WAS WRITTEN AND WHEN IT IS READ.
For general information on our other products and services, please contact our Customer Care Department within the U.S. at 877-762-2974, outside the U.S. at 317-572-3993, or fax 317-572-4002. For technical support, please visit https://hub.wiley.com/community/support/dummies.
Wiley publishes in a variety of print and electronic formats and by print-on-demand. Some material included with standard print versions of this book may not be included in e-books or in print-on-demand. If this book refers to media such as a CD or DVD that is not included in the version you purchased, you may download this material at http://booksupport.wiley.com. For more information about Wiley products, visit www.wiley.com.
Library of Congress Control Number: 2017938428
ISBN 978-1-119-36904-2 (pbk); ISBN 978-1-119-36905-9 (ePub); 978-1-119-36902-8 (ePDF)
Introduction
Millennials aren’t magical, elusive consumers, but marketers have had a great deal of difficulty figuring them out. Millennials are defined as individuals born between the years 1980 and 2000, and they make up the largest audience of consumers in the world. Although they’re defined by their age, Millennials are essentially prototypes for the modern consumer. Importantly, they’re poised to inherit the largest transfer of wealth ever recorded in human history!
A seismic shift has taken place regarding buying behavior, and it’s up to the marketers of the world to find new ways to reach customers. There is no one-size-fits-all model for reaching this coveted demographic. Every consumer is an individual and will uniquely respond to different brands, campaigns, and content.
Marketing to Millennials For Dummies is written to provide you with a framework to develop an effective Millennial marketing strategy. It’s filled with information that you can use to craft programs that are right for your brand.
I wrote this book to provide guidelines that marketers in virtually any field can leverage. Whether you’re working in a business-to-business setting selling raw materials to manufacturers or developing consumer-oriented communications strategies to sell discounted school supplies to an incoming class of mobile-oriented college freshmen, there’s something in this book that can help you.
The methods outlined in this book don’t preclude any level of marketing professional from participating. Whether you’re a seasoned veteran who is looking for new ways to spice up your brand’s communications strategies or a new marketer wondering how to tackle certain types of campaigns, you’ll be able to develop your strategies.
First and foremost, I assume that you’re either a business owner who handles your own company’s marketing, or you work in the marketing department of a brand, organization, government, or other entity. I assume that you’re already familiar with certain marketing strategies and tools. Therefore, you can use what I cover in this book to expand that knowledge. I also assume that
❯❯ You’re familiar with some of the business applications of social networks, like Facebook and Twitter.
❯❯ You’ve already created content and other assets for channels – for example, blogs and branded social platforms.
❯❯ You or your staff have worked on marketing campaigns in the past and are familiar with some of the more general processes involved in marketing a product or service.
❯❯ You recognize that Millennials are regular consumers with unique traits and habits and should not be looked at in a vacuum.
❯❯ You’re willing to work with hard data and take the time to analyze and optimize your campaigns and strategies based on what these data are telling you (admittedly, not the most exciting thing in the world).
Throughout the margins in this book, you see little pictures that point out important information. The following list tells you what those icons mean:
In addition to what you’re reading right now, this product also comes with a free access-anywhere Cheat Sheet that gives you pointers on the topic of marketing to Millennials. To get this Cheat Sheet, simply go to www.dummies.com and search for “Marketing to Millennials For Dummies Cheat Sheet” in the Search box.
You can read this book in any order. The chapters don’t have a linear structure. Cross-references throughout