3 Tips For Brands To Succeed In An Online Age

Is Your Brand Inspiring The Millennials?

Value: [rating=4]

Our commentary: Our modern concept of convenience is about getting what you want, when and how you want it - whatever that may be, so says Nick Parish - the North American Editor of Contagious. Blogging on Mashable, Nick believes that it's down to Millennials, or as Edelman call them 8095-ers. Double-jargon alert, I know, that's people born in 1980-1995 in short. I feel a lot of us have come to expect that, it's how it is, and probably how it always has been when change happens and a new reality dawns for enough people - a Tipping Point as Malcolm Gladwell puts it.

Edelmen's 8095 survey is important and insightful to what is an influential market - did you know that 8 in 10 Millennials take action (or at least claim to, whatever action is) for brands that they trust - their study also reveals that:

• Brand relationships are a form of self expression: Brand preference ranks with religion and ethnicity as top personal identifiers that Millennials are willing to share about themselves online
• Information is a key to influence: In addition to Millennials that use four or more sources of information to help them make brand purchase decisions, thirty-one percent use seven or more sources of information.
• Taking action on behalf of brands is a core value: Fifty-seven percent of Millennials would volunteer to try new products from a preferred brand and most would post an online review of the experience.
• Reverberation is online, offline and increasingly mobile: For those brands that Millennials love, 68 percent have recommended their products to friends and family and 44 percent have friended/followed that brand on their social network.

Marketing implications: Parish goes on to make what I feel are 3 great points, not totally new but well put with great examples so do check out his full post:

• Provide Exceptional Customer Service: Good service, and the ways in which a brand can best meet the needs of its customers, lies at the heart of this new approach says Parish. And, we know it, this is where the brand experience is made or broken - during the delivery of the product or service - in many ways it is the *truest* way to differentiate your brand. Parish sites Debenhams trial of Twitter assistants in 6 of its flagships stores as an example.
• Do Good, Even When It Challenges Your Interests: Brands have to offer more than value, they have to pre-empt and address consumer desires as they arise. There's Volvo's 'Your right to clean air' campaign where the global car manufacturer is creating a ratings framework for less polluting vehicles - "Volvo"€™s cars will be topping these ratings, and the company is essentially building a framework that it"€™s going to excel in "€” seeding a need. It"€™s a marketing campaign cloaked in a real public concern, with time before the tech comes to market," notes Parish.
• Be A Smiling Omnipresence: "If the consumer-facing proposition is one of ultimate convenience, then brands must be seen everywhere as a do-good enterprise", says Parish. Nick references publicity stunts that spark buzz, citing a "€œsurprise and delight"€ strategy for the real-time age when a brand goes over the top to deliver in the real world to a tweeting consumer - "I just ran out of my favourite chocolate - help". Gary Vaynerchuck, of Wine Library TV, references the same approach in his book for an irate customer on Christmas Eve (or something like that), he delivered the customer's wine himself - a few hundred mile round trip no-less, knowing it was good marketing.

Personally, I don't feel it's about "Millenials" necessarily - it's actually no different only know it's harder in some ways and much easier in others - you have to be the best, build trust in order people want to talk about you online, and off.

Recommended link: 3 Things Brands Must Do to Reach Millennials Online