My Marketing Strategy
Nicolette Lemmon, President & Founder
They Think Differently
In reading Grown Up Digital, by Don Tapscott, there was a chapter on the 8 Net Gen Norms that created discussion in various areas of my personal and professional life. The eight Net Gen Norms are: Freedom, Customization, Scrutiny, Integrity, Collaboration, Entertainment, Speed, and Innovation.
An interest example in his book was how “Integrity” swings two ways with Gen Yers. When buying a product, significant numbers of these young adults take into account how products are made and if the company has acted in a socially responsible way. This is due to the access of lots of data available on the Internet about companies.
However, on the other side of “Integrity” from nGenera research, 77% have downloaded music, software, games or movies without paying. And, a Pew Internet and American Life Project statistic, 72% of file-sharers ages 18-29 say they don’t care about copyright status of the files they download.
Doesn’t this put a different orientation to how they approach purchases? While this generation is able to scrutinize the manufacturers and companies before purchasing, there is an off-setting swing of the concept of getting something for free without regard for copyrights. Why? Because they don’t consider it stealing.
Long have marketers been careful to protect their products, logos, imagery and creative work. Yet the way Gen Y has grown up in the digital world, their value system and decision-making is different from the Boomers. So different, in fact, that social media has become the platform and blogs or Facebook or Twitter or MySpace have become their voices.
How does Tapscott recommend marketers embrace this generation? One tip is to “Bake integrity into your corporate DNA and marketing campaigns. Honesty, consideration, accountability, and transparency are the foundation of trust for this generation. Be authentic in everything you do.”
Actually, credit unions fit very well with this recommendation because they have always been about honesty and people helping people!
Craving more information about Gen Y? Check out our white paper, Understanding the New Age Wave: Gen Y.