consumers. We want to get all the available facts and decipher the information in order to make an informed decision. This is ultimately the result of growing up in an era when so much information is so readily available. We have always had the “information superhighway” at our fingertips, so this ingrained the habit, or rather craving for information in Gen Y.
By comparison, my mother hates having to do the research about a new purchase and is more than happy to shrug responsibility on to me. Many Baby Boomers would rather have the decision made for them; they find the limitless options inherent to modern day purchasing exhausting. They remember growing up in a world that wasn’t so complicated, where when they needed a product they went to the local store and bought the item that most closely met their needs. Market saturation wasn’t an issue in those days, and the long lists of features and personalization options were limited by manufacturers’ technologies.
Even to this day you can see the difference when it comes to purchasing a laptop. I will see my friends’ parents get hung up on every detail. Whether deciding what processor speed, amount of RAM, or most insignificantly the color of the laptop, Baby Boomers seem pained by having so many choices. Even the fundamental decision of Mac or PC leaves a lot of Baby Boomers scratching their heads, which to me seems ridiculous because I would go back to writing with pen and paper before I go back to a PC!
5. Growing up in a World Full of Choices
Baby Boomers like an authoritative figure helping them to make a decision. This would explain why sensationalized marketing was an effective practice for this generation. They liked having a commercial tell them definitively what was the best purchase choice for them. They didn’t have to explain why this was the best choice, and the argument didn’t necessarily have to make sense. Baby Boomers just liked to be reassured before making a decision, to be pointed in the right direction. It’s not that Baby Boomers are dumb or unable to research a purchase the same way Gen Y does, they simply grew up in a time when it wasn’t as necessary. Their purchasing habits were formed in a different economic climate. In the 1960s and the 1970s much of the manufacturing was still done within the United States. The markets weren’t flooded with hundreds of foreign manufacturers seeking to niche themselves within a marketplace.
During the 1990s to the present, markets have become constantly more and more saturated with endless variety. Increases in manufacturing technology have meant more products being developed by endless new companies from countries all over the world, which has equaled endless options and considerations for every product. The difference is Gen Y has grown up in a world of saturated markets and they are quite used to, if not expectant, of the limitless choices. We don’t mind spending the extra time learning about and comparing all the features, since we have been doing this all of our lives.
I remember being only eight years old and having to weigh the pros and cons of a Super Nintendo or a Sega Genesis. I considered the graphics of the systems, plus the caliber and number of games for each system. Many of the younger video game consumers have had even tougher decisions as new systems have emerged. Now the options are the Wii, the Xbox, or the PlayStation. I pity the poor eight-year-old who is left with that decision! Deciding between only two caused me many sleepless nights and took years off my adolescent life!
6. You Must Show Gen Y You Are the Best
As opposed to our Baby Boomer parents, Gen Y doesn’t want some unknown advertiser giving them a sensationalized pitch on why its product is the best fit for them without backing it up with facts. If you want Gen Y to purchase your product, you must understand how important
it is for them to feel they have done their due diligence in researching
the product. At the end of the day they need to know why this was the best product for them. Simply stating that it is the “best” without substantiating the claim is far more likely to irk Gen Y than to influence them.
Speaking as a person from Gen Y, we like making up our minds for ourselves. We want retailers to give the information needed to make the decision; we don’t want them to make it for us. This is where the Internet can be very useful for companies. Things such as online interactive guides, forums, and user reviews allow Gen Y consumers to feel like we have made the best decision. Ultimately, we might not always make the best decision, but we just need to have consulted enough information to feel like we are making an informed decision.
If a retailer can give us the feeling that we have made the informed decision after having visited its site, read all the user-generated forums and reviews, then used an interactive guide to help us decide which features are best suited to our needs, we will undoubtedly buy the product. Why? Because we can rest easy thinking we had really looked into it and picked the “best” product.
Many companies don’t like the idea of user-generated reviews on their sites because of the inevitability of negative reviews. Yet this is a mistake; in fact, the reviews humanize the opinions, and give us the feeling we have gathered all the information; good and bad. The reviews will actually positively influence Gen Y, unless the majority of the reviews are bad, at which point you should probably take a look at improving your product to better suit your customers’ needs.
At the end of the day, over-the-top sensationalized marketing may have worked on previous generations who were more eager to have someone help them navigate through the limitless choices. However, Gen Y has grown up in a world where picking a toothbrush offers no less than a hundred different options, from flexible necks, gum massagers, battery power, or sonic cleaning power. I personally use anything that bears the likeness of SpongeBob, but only because I trust his integrity!
As a generation we don’t view too many choices as a problem; in fact, we enjoy the opportunity to be able to take the time and pick the best product. If you are trying to reach Gen Y consumers, forget all the flair and focus on the facts.
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