The key to marketing to the millennial consumer is getting others to talk about your brand or product, according to teenage business sensation Ben Towers.
Employing “micro-influencers”, such as Youtube stars and vloggers with growing follower bases, is the best way to reach large numbers of young consumers and create a buzz around a product, Towers said.
He was speaking at a special Marketing Masterclass at FPJ Live yesterday (4 May), along with Roger Williams from Zest the Agency and Tunde Daczo of Storm Strategy.
“Traditional marketing is how you talk about your brand. This is about how you get others to talk about your brand – it’s not about you saying it – and I challenge you to do that,” said Towers.
“Social media is a really interesting way of doing this and creating viral content,” he said, before warning that firms should choose their platform carefully.
Twitter is now technically a news app, he said, better suited to live content and news, so there is “no point” scheduling content for a campaign series.
“More under 25s watch Youtube than TV – but if you look at the costs of advertising on TV the difference is vast,” he said. “Don’t stand alone in your marketing, get a wider group of people involved.
“If you play your cards right, you may not even need to pay these influencers – a healthy brand offers them as much kudos as they offer you.”
Speaking about the responsibility of funding marketing campaigns for own-brand produce, Daczo said: “Suppliers are still responsible for marketing their own-brand products to create an experience for their consumer. B2B companies play a very important – you shouldn’t think of the retailer as the customer, but the end consumer.”
Consumer 4.0
Consumer-to-consumer (C2C) communication is overtaking B2C and B2B, Daczon said, as younger generations grow up to shape each others' behaviour through sharing opinions on social media.
This is a fundamental change in customer behaviour, she said, which should prompt a similar fundamental change in how products are sold.
Williams said when shoppers visit a supermarket they often go into auto pilot and shop “subconsciously” for the same products.
“What would happen if they shopped consciously? They would be more selective. They might choose healthier options to consciously follow their health aspirations,” he said.
In the new world of consumer-driven marketing, companies should focus on four key things, according to Williams.
The purpose of the product, which should answer questions like ‘why this apple and not that apple?’; authenticity, to respond to new consumers’ desire for transparency and trust; agile, to react quickly to new consumer trends; value, brands should constantly check and re-check the perception of value of their product.
Advocacy, i.e. other people telling people what to do, is now more powerful than traditional advertising, PR and even disruptors in the market, he said.
“The role of the brand is to stimulate and generate informed choices so that the consumer makes a conscious decision.”
