Charlene’s new article summarises the importance for marketers in following GenY. 

Gen Yers – 18- to 26-year-olds who came of age with broadband, cell phones, and iPods, among other things – stand apart from older generations because of their hands-on approach to the Web.

Marketers trying to anticipate future consumer trends should tune in to Gen Yers. As these do-it-yourselfers become a primary consuming audience, they will carry with them their cross-channel shopping enthusiasm, active blog usage, and reliance on the information-scouring powers of Google.

Source: Forrester: Interactive Marketing All Forrester Research

Gen Y are maturing, and having an impact on everything, including financial services.

Gen Yers relish its power for connecting people, transmitting news quickly, and providing buried facts on any person, product, or place

Charlene makes the point (summarised here only):

• Cross-channel shopping increases
• Blogs gain a foothold
• Google keeps expanding while AOL fades

The message is that Gen Y are the barometer of the near future, and that their behaviour patterns are deeper than ‘going online’.   The purchasing pattern of net users is fundamentally different.

Relevance to Bankwatch:

Internet is not about web pages, and firewalls.  Internet is about social and behavioral change, new purchasing patterns, return of basic human interactions that were lost in the industrial age.

tags: GenY, purchasing+patterns, marketing