Selling to Millennials - the Rise of Y!

They value peer reviews from social media sites. Only 14% trust marketing messages but 86% trust online peer reviews. They will favor companies with cultures around enduring values—Green, Social Responsibility, Cause Marketing, Humanitarian, Meaning.

They spend over $20 billion on online purchases every year. Online research, online price comparison and social media all play a role in their purchase decisions. So where do you think they go when they have a project that could use a promotional product element? How do you think they determine what they feel a fair price should be?

Forget your traditional marketing to reach this generation. Make it easy for them to reach you and your information online. Focus your efforts and resources on Social Media, Viral Marketing and relevant information. Appeal to their ego, sense of meaning, edgy humor, trends and creativity.

This isn't something waiting to happen. Today, there are more Gen Y workers than Boomer workers. And 96% of them are on social networking sites.

(This is the fourth part in a series on the New Rules of Marketing. Read part 1, part 2 and part 3. In the next post, I will discuss how this changes the rules of marketing and how we can be more relevant in this new age.)