Out of the Box

The Youth “Vote” in Marketing

By Menachem Lubinsky on May 23 2008

Political pundits seem to have concluded that Senator Barack Obama was a huge success with the youth vote, a major factor in his success. Mr. Obama used modern technology to communicate with the young. He resorted to short and dramatic phrases like Change, which seemed to capture the imagination of a significant segment of America’s youth. Even if the word was loosely defined, it went over well in the imaginations of America’s young. He added these features to his charismatic personality and considerable oratory skills. In short, the youth vote felt very connected with him.

The pundits say that while Senator Hillary Clinton ran a more classical campaign, Obama clearly energized the young who somehow felt engaged in his campaign to the point where large numbers volunteered for him and others even raised money. Whatever changed meant to them, it was better than the current set-up in Washington. Mrs. Clinton, on the other hand, say the pundits, tried to control the message and failed to communicate Obama’s message that if elected they will be alongside the driver.

This analysis of the campaign for the presidency is also consistent with marketing principles that I have heard over and over again. Marketers that tend to take their market for granted and “control the message” do not fare as well as those that involve their target audience. In recent years, many companies have taken to survey their customers with increased frequency and in many different ways. It even translates to an ordinary service call, which I am sure that you might recognize. “Have I provided you with the answers that you needed?” is what you might hear from the person on the other end of the phone. Even the clerk at the bank is asking such questions nowadays in an effort to engage the customer. It’s not a survey, but an attempt to convince you that the clerk really cares.

This engaging strategy that seems to have worked so well for Mr. Obama is even extending to fundraising. Many fundraising professionals recognize that spoon feeding emotion and need may be similar to controlling the message of corporations. Instead of selling how great the cause is, they now tend to solicit advice and comment on how to do things better. They create activities where the donor can be involved. An anti-poverty organization that has its donors distribute food packages before Yom Tov is engaging its donors. Fundraisers are finding that when they do involve their donors more, the payoff is greater.

In the general election, Senator John McCain will face the challenge of not seeming too aloof and not relying on spin. He will have to come across as someone who cares about young people and somehow relate to their quest for change, whatever that change may be. This challenge will be even more daunting as I have no doubt that his opponent and the media will play the age card to further distance him from the youth audience. He in turn will have to show that age is not an impediment to experience, particularly his formidable military record, in which he is portrayed as a hero and a man who is far from his own selfish interests.

Marketers of products frequently face that same challenge. Even the most tried and tested products need to reinvent themselves and become relevant to a new generation of users. Using global messages that gloss over the large and influential youth market are destined to fail. That is why popular brands always seem to be addressing youth in their advertising. It is more important to capture the dynamic youth market and to plan for a strong future than to gloss over that market and find out later that the youth do not relate to the product.

There are exceptions, as there always seem to be in marketing. As an example, the investment and banking community tends to go where the money is and target older consumers. They may even segment their messages, depending on the product they sell. A good example is targeting the young with their loan and mortgage business and relating their investment and retirement account business to older customers.

Fundraisers also successfully use market segmentation in planning special events that cater to specific audiences and even highlighting different activities that appeal to different audiences. The presidential candidates will also have to tailor-make separate messages to a diverse electorate and perhaps avoid what is now considered the Clinton mistake in not engaging the youth audience.

Ads for a well-known supermarket chain used to address experienced shoppers with messages that seemed to feature experience, knowledge of food, and a more mature lifestyle, until a survey showed that they were shunned by younger customers. The younger shopper preferred a competitor because it was friendlier to children with a designated play area, highlighted new products, offered demonstrations on how to use new products and in general had a friendlier staff.

With such results, the chain that appeared to not to be in step with younger shoppers moved aggressively to win over the younger customers. They adopted some of the programs of the competitor but proceeded to go well beyond that program. They produced their own coloring book and crayons, introduced a cookie jar with many cartoon characters on the outside, and even distributed children’s bracelets with their logo on it. Most importantly, they constantly “engaged” their younger shoppers, in a marketing approach that may be dubbed in the future, the “Obama” approach.

Out of the Box is a collection of strategic marketing articles that Lubicom has published on various topics, trends and ideas in the marketing world. The articles have been published in the Hamodia weekly newspaper circulated on three continents to a readership of well over 100,000.

The name, "Out of the Box" is a term used frequently in business nowadays to describe creative thinking that is not the norm. It is meant to help a business pull away from the pack or separate oneself from the competition. It is to some extent fraught with risk, simply because it is not the run of the mill thinking, but it is at the same time the key to reaching the next opportunity.