Fan seats at Wyandotte County’s new soccer stadium have QR codes on their backs.
Don’t know what that means?It means Sporting Kansas City is marketing to millennials in a big way. They’re reaching tech-savvy baby boomers and Gen X-ers, too, of course. But quick response codes, those successor graphic designs to bar codes, are full-on aimed at the baby boom echo.This huge generation of young people — who’ve grown up online and with their Internet-enabled phones in hand — has changed marketing and public relations forever. The soccer team’s efforts are just one example.At Livestrong Sporting Park, QR codes on the seats link users to the team website. Fans can click on the icon, get information and earn affinity points.“Eventually they’ll be able to order food from their seats,” said Rob Thomson, Sporting KC’s vice president for communications. Phone battery dying? Try one of the Sprint charging stations sprinkled throughout the stadium.Also, Wi-Fi access is free inside the stadium. The organization has 21 digital properties — Twitter handles, Facebook pages, including Spanish language ones, blogs and websites. The team’s IT department has burgeoned from one member last year to 14. Stadium music is geared to 20-somethings. Even the food choices in the stadium align with young adult favorites. The soccer team, like other savvy merchandisers, knows its key demographic. More than 80 million strong, the population group born after 1981 and before 2000 is bigger than the boomer generation, whose habits have held sway over retailers, restaurateurs, marketers and publicists for decades.“Now we’re partners. We can influence. We can’t control the message,” says Jeff Fromm, senior vice president at Barkley, a Kansas City-based advertising and marketing agency that’s deep in studies to understand the millennial generation.“Now, it’s two-way communication. In the digital space, consumers own the brand.”Clicking with clickersQR codes on stadium seats, newspaper pages, or even on your television screen, mean that consumers can point and click on the two-dimensional matrixes that hold alphanumeric bits of information.Scan a QR code with an iPhone, Android or other smartphone, and you may link to a company website, to email or social media sites.And that’s what makes millennials different. They click. It’s second nature for them.“There’s a danger in saying, ‘The millennials do this …’ because like any generation there’s a wide range of skills and behaviors,” said Craig Safir, vice president of marketing at Service Management Group, a Kansas City company that measures customer experience in stores and restaurants.“But we do know that millennials overall are different from boomers.”How different?“If you are in the restaurant or retail sectors and haven’t built your go-forward technology strategy … you’d better hit the panic button now,” Fromm said.According to marketing-to-millennials experts, that strategy must include:•Mobile-friendly websites.•Facebook.•Quick responses on Twitter to consumer tweets. •User rewards for consumers on Foursquare, Gowalla or similar sites.And it doesn’t hurt to post clever video on YouTube.Big generationThere isn’t exact agreement about the bookend dates for the millennial generation. But it’s generally acknowledged that around 2003, marketers began to recognize the age group as different from Generation X, the small population cohort sandwiched between the boomers and millennials.Although “millennial” has become the favored label for the generation, other names include Generation Y, Generation Next, Net Generation and Echo Boomers.Whatever they’re called, they do about $200 billion in direct commerce each year and have about $500 billion more in indirect purchasing power through their influence on family and friends and the ripple effects of their personal spending.Most have Facebook pages and sign on regularly, and 30 percent have their own blogs, blasting their habits and opinions into cyberspace for all to read. Marketers recognize that the biggest differentiator — the force that has shaped the millennial consumer — is the Internet. Carol Phillips, writing on “Marketing to Millennials” for Brand Amplitude, a market research firm specializing in social media, explains: “What makes them unique, perhaps in all history, is access to platforms to broadly communicate and share their ideas.”Figuring out millennials’ thoughts and how they communicate is what now consumes professionals who help businesses sell products and services. A survey published this year by SBR Consulting says two in five millennials say they don’t trust big business. But they do trust recommendations from each other. And they gravitate toward businesses that are perceived as ethical, that support the environment and humanitarian efforts they believe in.Put Trader Joe’s, Ikea, Zipcar, Apple, Starbucks, Herbal Essences, Chipotle, Toms Shoes and Kashi among brands favored by millennials in that regard, experts say.Among Kansas City companies, Boulevard Brewing and Helzberg Diamonds get high marks from marketing experts for understanding millennial marketing.“Community service and supporting causes are important to millennials,” says Tracy Panko, chief executive at Spiral16, a Kansas City software company that scours the Internet to find and analyze digital content for clients.Strong appealSpiral16 tracked Livestrong online mentions for 18 months and found 16,055 URLs that talked about three specific Livestrong events. What Panko found to be particularly unusual is that 13 of the 15 strongest “online influencers” were Livestrong’s official websites, blogs and social media.Even if many organizations have those properties, studies show that “official” platforms typically aren’t the most influential drivers to shape millennials’ opinions or spur purchases.In fact, the Barkley/SMG/BCG survey uncovers split perceptions about brands that use social media to reach consumers. About one-third of the millennials say they like the brand more if it uses social media, but a nearly equal percentage say they’re annoyed to find brand messages on Facebook or Twitter. “Millennials use and trust social media,” says Fromm. “But what their family and friends think is more important than the official message.”QR codes and social media also make it easy to spread dissatisfaction about companies that are out of favor.Currently, in a campaign led by several social action organizations, activists are using a QR code posted online and printed on fliers placed by volunteers on scattered supermarket shelves. The groups are fighting child labor used on West African cocoa farms where Hershey buys most of its cocoa. They’re calling it a “raise the bar, Hershey” campaign, and the goal is for shoppers to click on the QR code, register complaints and change their buying habits.This ability of protest groups or even individuals to spread such messages heightens the need for companies to be vigilant and shape their own image. Safir applauds Denny’s — generally seen as a sort of stodgy, middle-America restaurant — for understanding how to pitch to millennials. The company even sponsors a video featuring raunchy comedian Sarah Silverman, portraying Denny’s as a meeting spot.Accepting Silverman as a spokeswoman shows that a company is onto another millennial trait, as detailed in marketing research: They aren’t as offended as older generations by profanity and vulgar videos. And that opens the door to edgier commercials. Bottom line: This “first generation of digital natives” has a far bigger online network than preceding generations. And, although older folks are catching up quickly, millennials still spend more time tethered to their devices.For marketers, that means “technology has enabled us to affect entertainment, shopping and restaurant choices at practically the last minute,” Fromm said. “We couldn’t have had flash mobs before.”Long-term trends •Stores may see foot traffic fade in favor of online shopping.•Restaurants may offer more happy hour specials throughout the day and night.•Consumers may be invited to produce more commercials and online testimonials.•Companies will continue to increase social media staff for “reputation management.”Millennial markers Market research indicates that millennials are:•Early adopters of technology.•Active users of social media, especially Facebook.•Active online shoppers.•Likely to shop with friends.•Adventurous in food, travel and work choices.•Supportive of causes worldwide.•Concerned with health and nutrition, and work out regularly.•Concerned with physical appearance.•Willing to pay more for products or services they like.•Tending to delay big-ticket purchases, such as homes.•Staying single longer.•More likely to dine out with friends than family.•Likely to eat out because they like the food options, don’t have time or don’t want to cook, and consider restaurants to be a social outlet.•Big weekend partiers.•Snackers rather than adherents to a breakfast/lunch/dinner routine.•Brand loyal until a great deal lures them away.•TV watchers on their own schedules, through DVR, TiVO, Hulu, Roku, on-demand channels, and on their computers or mobile devices.MARKET RESEARCH Bookshelves groan with millennial research. A sampling of titles:“Gen Buy”; “Generation Y”; “Generation We”; “Millennials Rising”; “Not Everyone Gets a Trophy”; “The Trophy Kids Grow Up”; “Plugged In”; “Millennial Makeover”; “The Millennials Are Coming”; “Chasing Youth Culture and Getting It Right”; “The M-Factor”; “The Millennials — Connecting to America’s Largest Generation.”Share. Like. Buy. Barkley, the Boston Consulting Group and Service Management Group, partners on a study titled “American Millennials: Deciphering the Enigma Generation,” will participate in a national conference set for Sept. 22-23 in San Francisco. Conference information is online at sharelikebuy.com.Read more Workplace
Posted on Mon, Jul. 18, 2011 11:00 PM
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To reach Diane Stafford, call 816-234-4359 or send email to stafford@kcstar.com. Source: Amazon.com Source: Barkley, the Boston Consulting Group and Service Management Group 2011 research
