How to Reach Young Shoppers

The dean of a leading university recently told me that it has become increasingly difficult to reach students with almost any message. Today’s students, he said, do not read any notices the university posts — and faculty members feel lucky if they still read their textbooks.

Similarly, newspaper publishers have noted a marked reduction in readership among younger people, and advertisers have reacted by cutting their newspaper ad budgets. It is a dilemma that has caused alarm among marketers — yet young people continue to shop in their favorite stores.

I checked with some reliable sources (my granddaughters) and the parents of several other teenage girls to identify which stores are currently “in.” Mentioned most frequently as destination stores were Forever 21, Aeropostale and American Apparel.

What happened to Juicy Couture and Abercrombie & Fitch, two stores that were hot just 12 months ago? I am seeing a major shift in “favored” merchandise that is similar to the one that killed the status that Benetton tops and Levi’s jeans enjoyed decades earlier.

Y is not X
The mood is hard to pinpoint. While Generation X has been well defined, Generation Y — today’s teen shoppers — is much harder to understand. In many ways they act similarly to previous generations, but the stimulation comes almost exclusively from the communities to which they belong.

Many teenagers belong to a group of friends — a community that shares their likes and dislikes, their fears and their joys in honest and intimate terms. They are of a group that acts in concert with each other; if a store or even a garment is posted on Facebook’s wall, it is likely to have communal approval.

These young people act in sync with each other; and anything that is approved becomes part of their culture. It is said that to break away from the group is very difficult; peer pressure often brings the errant member back into the fold.

These youthful consumers place more trust in each other than they do in their parents. It is a defiant attitude that underscores their belief of what is right, and websites like MySpace, YouTube and especially Facebook play important roles in galvanizing these communities.

Facebook alone will surpass 200 million members by the time you read this article. Some retailers now have fan pages on Facebook in order to develop a deeper relationship with their customers, including Amazon, Costco and Target, apparel retailers J.Crew and Nordstrom, as well as Best Buy, Victoria’s Secret, Sephora and Bath & Body Works.

“Twilight” market
Convenience store Wawa is reported to have made Facebook fans feel at home in their stores, and the recent sales success of Hot Topic is due, at least in part, to its recognition of the popularity of the “Twilight” books (and film) among teens; it prominently features Twilight merchandise in its stores and on its website.

Staying in step with today’s teen consumer requires an open mind and an ability to change — quickly. To establish and maintain a meaningful presence on Facebook or any of the other social networking sites requires skill and a willingness to have honest communications with the socially conscious groups with which they are trying to connect. If a retailer receives a strong approval rating, its customer profile is likely to change and it will materially help sales.