By Priyanka Gupta, Sr. Brand Consultant

India is a millennial country and are millennials just defined by an age cohort born between 1981 and 1986 or a group of liberal, ambitious and expressive souls? Marketers, therefore, need to be relevant to the GenY, a generation who design their lives based on what they like and love. For them just Roti, Kapda Aur Makaan will not work as a formula, they are defined by more. We as marketers need to see what motivates these digital people who fight for their freedom of expression and seek experiences that enrich life.

How do Marketers stay relevant to GenY?

  1. Brands must be authentically aligned with a cause. The idea of brands nurturing a cause by contributing a share of their proceeds has been around for a while, for example, P&G (Shiksha initiative) and ITC Classmate notebooks (Education for underprivileged). Consumers are wise to marketing manipulation and will be quick to note discrepancies between what a company says and what it does.
  2. Albert Einstein once said, if you can’t explain it to a six-year-old, you don’t understand it yourself. So, Brands should focus on one simple question ‘what do we as a brand want to do’. Like Uber gets you where you want to go, Google helps you find answers by organising the world’s information.
  3. Telecommunications has transformed the way of life for every Indian. Fall in device prices, data cost and 4G adoption has come to a point that a brand’s first interaction with a customer is on his phone. A brand should keep their content visually appealing, catch the attention within 3 seconds of the display, have a light version of the site because of limited bandwidth and should not be socially awkward.
  4. Millennials have less time and lesser patience also they are well informed and extremely active on social media. Brands need to look at customer obsession than just customer service. It has a domino effect as your happy customer will be your most powerful ambassador.

Millennials are that wave in today’s world who have taken a shift from man’s basic needs of food, clothing and shelter to Whole Wheat Roti, Branded Kapda Aur Rented Makaan for sure.