We don’t have much money…
Most youths in Singapore are students, and thus it would be good to bear in mind the budget constraints of students. As students are not financially independent, their spending power is severely restricted as compared to the working adult who has no children, and what they can spend is what they get as pocket money. Brands could appeal to students greatly if they have reasonable student deals or student discounts. Brands that are too high-end for the average student would be ‘an interesting find but impractical at the moment’. Thus, brands can appeal more to youths by selling their products at reasonable prices such that the average student would be inclined to buy.

… but we don’t want ‘cheap’ either!
However, this is not to say that brands should go all out in marketing themselves as ‘affordable’ and ‘catered for students’ or ‘reasonably priced’. Youths are in a transition phase between child and adult, and it is at this point in their lives that they encounter identity crisis. It is also the phase in which idealism is at its peak (think ‘Save the trees!’ or ‘I want to be somebody… someday’). Thus, youths want to buy things that set them apart from the rest, things that make them unique in a loud way. Also, youths want to show their peers that they possess sophisticated things, and the last thing they want to be is to be labelled as ‘cheap’. They want to be labelled as ‘adult’ and ‘mature’, not ‘juvenile’ and ‘childish’. Therefore catering to youths is not as effective.

It’s not so much of the advertising…
Advertising helps to promote the brand reputation itself, but is not the deciding factor in our eventual purchase. Not-so-successful advertisements would merely remind people of the brand when people see it. Successful advertisements would get people talking. However, advertisements play a minimal role in our decision to buy it. So, brands should stop trying to cater adverts to youths, because usually it doesn’t work. We’ll think you are trying too hard. Also, the point of advertising is to cater to as large an audience as possible, so by catering to a specific group, it would not be worthwhile spending so much money to connect with a group what does not appreciate it. Finally, (if I haven’t emphasized this point enough) we do not decide to buy based on the advertisements, so it is little point in getting famous artistes to promote products. I highly doubt that S.H.E fans would buy uKimonos or Avril lovers would buy DSLR cameras just because their favourite stars advertised for these products.

…it’s the product itself
Products from Apple like the iPhone and iPod have become almost ubiquitious, which is hardly surprising. Although these products are not cheap, they have a sophisticated interface, are useful to students (long MRT and bus rides can get a little boring) and it also helps that Apple has a reliable brand reputation. Apple didn’t cater to students intentionally, neither did they tweak their advertisements to cater to students. The only ‘student’ thing about Apple is the occasional student offer for their products that I know about because I subscribe to their newsletter.

I love my Nalgene. However, I didn’t hear about this brand from adverts, but through word-of-mouth. My friends were going on about these durable bottles that could withstand a drop from several storeys, so I decided to buy it, and I’ve been buying and recommending Nalgene bottles ever since. If the product is good, there’s no need for advertising!

Ultimately, the deciding factor is the product itself, because even if a brand has a good reputation, if the products are of no use to us, there is no reason why we should buy them. But some brands have tweaked their products to cater to more people. Think Deuter. They sell durable bags for ourdoor activities, but they have also introduced a line of more fashionable backpacks that cater to the non-trekkers.

I hope this helps brands to connect with youths like myself

This piece of thoughts is by Winifred Wong, an 18 year old student in ACJC.  Winning entry no.4  for the Marketing WITH Youth conference coming up in 20 & 21 May 2010 in Singapore.

–> What I would tell a brand which wants to connect with me:
How do I want you to connect with me? I don’t want you to. I know that there is no company in the world, not a single one, that has any remote trace of an emotional connection to me, the anonymous young adult (aged 16-25) with substantial but not great spending power, the random consumer. The only connection I want is that of producer and consumer.

It’s okay to love money. A business is a business, and it’s meant to make money. As long as you do not do anything unethical, I think it’s okay for you to love money. I’m not idealistic enough to say that money is evil, but please, you don’t heart youth. You heart money. Do you hear me (word play on your word play, nice)? Don’t ever believe that anything beyond a producer-consumer relationship will ever exist, and don’t pretend it can. Besides, you’re not a person, you’re a company, and you can’t possibly experience emotions.
Focus on being a good producer.

–> Brainwashing, lots of it.
We have been raised as a generation sitting in front of television screens, bombarded with thousands upon thousands of hours of endless advertisement exposure. When we were young, we begged our parents to buy expensive toys we cast away within a few weeks, and then how we start begging for the next one right after that. As we grow older, the brands that were pounded into our brains through marketing to us when we were young will gain subconscious favour from us. We are the children of a thousand corporations, raised to consume, consume, consume.

I realised what was happening after awhile, and it utterly disgusted me. I remembered how I really enjoyed going to fast food joints as a kid, and how I really liked the happy meals and the toys. Then I realised how as a teenager, I went back to these places, pushed by the invisible hand of child-targeted marketing. There came a point where I realised that the food was really junk, and the stuff I bought was almost always, utterly pointless.

–> You’re not that cool
It ticked me off even more when I saw how brands tried to rebrand themselves as “cool”, changing their packaging to neon colours, placing hip little cartoon characters all over. Adding words like “extreme”, or adding a “z” to the end of products’ names, essentially does nothing to the product itself. All I saw was brands trying too hard, and it was actually quite amusing. My point is, eventually most of us (I emphasize most) will grow up, and such ploys will lose its effects, and we might even start to despise companies who use them, especially those that market to young children.

–> We think before we buy
Oh the horror, such a cynical consumer I am. But a consumer I still am.
I still buy branded products. I do spend money on things that are far from necessary. I don’t live in a cave thinking about the infinite ways evil corporations are trying to take over the world. The only difference is that I think, before I buy. Which is essentially what a lot of brands fail to recognise. Many of us young consumers have learned how to think, which is something we didn’t do much when we were younger.

–> We care about the product, not your marketing strategy.

Now, if you are only going to read one paragraph carefully, make it this one. I only buy products based on the merits of the products themselves, not based on how amazing the advertisements are. The only function of an advertisement to me is making me aware that your product exists, and that it’s special, apparently. Upon taking notice of the existence of your product, and if I find that I may want it, I will do some research, either asking friends or doing some basic googling for product reviews. In this sense, pretty creative and funny advertisements may gain my recognition and notice, but it does nothing if the product does not interest me.

I am not interested in making any “connection” with you. I just want to be impressed with your product.

I think it’s time that companies stop trying so hard to appear youthful, hip, funny, creative, or emotional (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Um9KsrH377A – A Pantene shampoo commercial. Touching, but what does it have to do with shampoo?). I want products I really like, not advertisements I like. Don’t get me wrong, advertisements still should stand out, and make me take notice of your product. But that is as far as it should go. Advertisements should only serve as a way to inform us of your product. Marketing products by “connecting” with us and attempting to be “hip”, will not sell us things we don’t want.

–> How should you market to us?
Anyone in marketing should know who Seth Godin is. He’s the source of many famous marketing ideas and two of them are very relevant to marketing to youths:

1. “Me, me, me, the world revolves around me”
The world revolves around me. I’m only interesting in things I want or may want. The first thing I ask is, “what’s in it for me?” I think specific marketing is very important and probably the most cost effective. I want to be informed about products I want. You cannot generalise youth as one huge chunk, and as a single demographic. You have to be extremely specific. Market hi-tech products to techies. Cheap bags to cheap people. Market to the wrong group, you’re missing the point and wasting your time. Youths cannot be generalised as hordes of teenagers who desperately want to buy stuff from “cool” brands. Likewise, you’re missing the point if you think we want to deal with a “hip” company which sells a product that I don’t want.

Sometimes, you make fools of yourselves. Please take note, MDA (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ksw2UqTyhhc – I sure as hell hope this was intended to be tongue in cheek, if not, you guys have destroyed any chance of seeming cool).

2. ” Sell to people who are listening.” (Target the Otaku)
Otaku are defined as people who have obsessive interests. Likewise, you should find the youths that you know will be obsessed with your product. Those that would queue up at 5am in the morning to be the first to buy it. Impress them, and you will start a chain reaction. They will tell their friends about it. They will blog about it. They will buy lots of it.

Thus, “sell to people who are listening”. For example, I think you can probably create the same, if not better results than a broad advertising campaign, if you lent a hi-tech gadget to a closely watched tech blog to test. The Otaku go there to keep an eye on tech news, and if your product is great and gets great reviews, word of mouth will do the rest. That’s how I came to hear about x-mini speakers.

My tech geek friend told me about it, and while I didn’t think I would want it, she was so convincing about how great it was, I eventually thought I could use it, and I bought it. It was great. I told friends about it, and they bought it. I never saw a single x-mini advertisement. Viral marketing can be amazing if done correctly, but only if the product is good in the first place.

In short, reach out to the people who care, especially in the case of viral marketing. They will do the work for you.

–> Seriously, the product is all we care about.
There is no way around this. Create an awesome product and we’ll love it to death. I love my iPhone. I was never influenced by the fancy advertisements in the newspapers, but I read about how fantastic it was from tech blogs and I got the thumbs up from early adopting friends.

Focus on making great products we would really love. Then let us know about it, and we’ll do the rest.

–> How would you know what we want?
That’s your job. Think of products that will make us sit up and make us say, “whoa, that’s cool!” Don’t make something that’s about the same as everything else on the market and tell us it’s cool. We also want affordable. We’re young and the last thing you want is for us to say, “that’s so cool, but I can’t afford it!” and not buy your product because it’s overpriced.
And also, listen to what we want. You can’t get a computer or a team of middle aged men to calculate what we want. You have to get down to the ground, and ASK us.

–> Now, about this conference
I wrote this essay in the shoes of an honest consumer puzzled at why so many brands are missing the point, while only a few have gotten it right. I have zero marketing experience nor have I taken any courses in marketing. The conference would definitely be an eye opening experience for me, as I’m truly interested in how the marketing world works (or in line with this essay, how brands think marketing works).

I love to give brutally honest opinions, and I do hope that if I get the chance, I would give the big shots of my “favourite” brands (that’s really not for anyone to decide but me) truthful constructive criticism on their marketing strategies, in the position of a young consumer. That being said, I want to approach this conference with an attitude of openness and learning, and I wish to learn from successful industry experts, and listen to their opinions as well. Marketing has always fascinated me, and I certainly want to learn more about it.

This awesome article is written by Jonathan Tan, 21 a student from Student Management University.  Another winning entry for the Changing Youth Marketing conference coming up in 20 May 2010 in Singapore where I will be speaking on “Appealing to Brand Passionistas on Market Influence”.

Achievement oriented. Confident. Tech-savvy. These are probably some of the terms that one will describe of a Gen-Y. Most Gen Y, like myself, are constantly armed with iPhone, Blackberry and labtop and are always on the move to clear all incoming e-mails (or even spams). If you describe us as “workaholics”, then you are spot on.

To be frank, there is never a moment when we will stop to look at the lush greenery or smell the aromatic flowers. Being caught in an endless rat race, our lives revolve around achieving the high (or even perfect) GPA so as to pursue the highest salary and to live in the highest condominium floor in the highest priced neighborhood. There is simply no time to waste on nonsense that does not meet our needs!

Given the busy schedules of Gen Y, increasing numbers of brands are using social media like Facebook and Twitter as means to reach out to the targeted group of Gen-Y. Well, the rationale for them to use these methods is simple. It is based on the assumption that the success of their campaign is to do what (seem to have) worked in the past – that is connecting with Gen Y consumers by using social media.

However, it is time that companies question whether these social media tools are indeed effective in reaching out to Gen-Y consumers. It is likely that companies will justify their action by quoting figures such as the number of fans on social media sites and start labeling these fans as their “loyal” or “potential” consumers.

Despite that, they also need to understand that some “fans” are doing it out of goodwill and they are probably not hard-core fans of their brands. As for myself, I am a Facebook fan of many different high-end boutiques. However, I do not have products from those brands as I am just an undergraduate with very limited purchasing power. Therefore, figures shown on the social media sites are poor reflections of the success of the campaigns.

Also, marketing is not (and should not be) just provocative ads that attract consumers’ attention and promise them nothing. Marketing is about connecting, understanding and translating new insights for consumers. To put it simply, it is about building long term and sustainable relationship with consumers. While this may sound like a fairly simple concept, it contains profound skills and knowledge that many companies have yet to achieve today.

Diesel, for example, launched recent marketing campaign “Be stupid”. Its campaign encourages consumers to take risk and move beyond the smart and sensible track of life. However, it is hard for someone like me to identify the purpose of the ad when the message tells nothing about the benefits or attributes of the product. If I were to purchase any Diesel products, then it will be due to two factors, brand name and peer pressure. The marketing campaign is unlikely to play a contributing role in my
decision to purchase their products.

In contrast, Unilever, for example, launched its “Campaign for Real Beauty” Dove ad where it showcased the old, marginalized and fat women. The campaign was a tremendous success as sales for Dove’s body firming lotion skyrocketed during the launch of its campaign. Dove’s underlying message is clear.

Beauty is skin-deep and you could be equally beautiful by using Dove’s product. The realistic models, who consumers especially the marginalized and low esteem groups could easily relate to, have contributed to the success of Dove’s product. With a strong understanding of consumers’ needs coupled with strong brand name and excellent marketing campaign, it is justifiable why the Dove campaign is so successful and exists till today.

As illustrated in Unilever’s example, I feel that companies should base on the needs of consumers to promote the benefits of their products. Yet, more and more companies are selling their brand name instead of the benefits and attributes. Promoting the brand name instead of the brand benefits is akin to choosing a lifetime partner based on looks rather than his personality and characteristics. This is dangerous for companies as such relationship can never be sustainable!

Therefore, moving beyond 2010, brands must behave like the inner voices of Gen Y consumers. They need to understand the needs or desires of Gen-Y consumers and translate these needs into value-added products and services for them. Instead of trying to be creative by having catchy yet incomprehensible tag line, why not get straight to the point? Like I said, Gen Y consumers simply have no time to waste!

However, please do not get me wrong and label me as a science geek. I am certainly not asking all marketers to remove all forms of exaggerated claims and present just scientific description of features of the product. By doing so will be to deny consumers of some forms entertainment in lives and to force them to accept hard facts even after an intensive battle with their bosses at work. A simple yet effective ad, like Unilever’s Dove campaign, that answers to the innate needs of consumers will do equally fine, or even better, as well.

Every viewer is different and has different needs and desires. If they accept the message, they will be willing to pay for the product or even repeat their purchase in future. If they don’t, at least (I hope), companies have created a positive image that consumers can remember.

Therefore, do not be disheartened if consumers do not buy the message of your ad for the first time. They may eventually purchase your products one of these days when you have finally met their needs and desires. After all, we, as consumers, have both political and economic rights to decide what is best for us and doing brand switch is as easy as ABC. What really matters is for companies to master the art of building a long term and sustainable customer relationship with people.

This article is written by Khoo Qian Yu, a youth trendsetter studying in Singapore Management University.  This is one of the winning entries for the Changing Youth Marketing conference coming up in 20 May 2010 in Singapore where I will be speaking on “Appealing to Brand Passionistas on Market Influence”.

2010 is the year those with the deepest youth customer insights will win.

Mobile Youth Unconference Asia 2010 is the premier event gathering 350 youth trendsetters (18-25), marketeers, stakeholders, media, innovators, tech experts and investors.

While the youth trendsetters continues to actively ‘move & shake’ the commercial world, this Unconference takes a good in-depth look on current youth insights and trends, what’s really going on in the youth community and how youth brands can effectively engage with the youth market.

Here’s a Sneak Peak into what’s brewing at the Mobile Youth Unconference Asia 2010 ; 11 & 12 March 2010.

Exclusive Keynote by Youth Specialists from the Youth Research Partners*
Listen to a panel of Youth Specialists as they share successful youth engagement strategies and activations with you.
Learn from internationally-recognized highly specialized youth agencies from London, China, India, Indonesia, Singapore and Malaysia.

*Youth Research Partners is the world’s first and only global network of Highly Specialized Youth Agencies spreading across the Europe, Asia, South Africa, South America and the US continents. (www.youthresearchpartners.com)

Young Ideas Salon
Do you know your young market via datas and statistics?
Or…do you really know What Youth Think and Want?
For the first time ever in Malaysia, 4 Young Ideas Salons will run concurrently touching on a wide range of youth engagement topics i.e. new media, technology, mobile & public sectors.
Conducted in a lively atmosphere, this unconference style setup allows full interaction between youth trendsetters and youth brands.
The Salons are kept in small breakout groups to ensure a high intensity of no-nonsense, no-hold-barred real time live feedbacks, ideas and debates among the delegates.

Awesome Pitch
Is your youth marketing winning customers or winning awards for your agency?
Are you marketing TO or marketing WITH?
It’s time to put your strategies to some real test – right in front of your young market.
Pitch it to the youth trendsetters live – 2010 is the year your young market is going to tell you whether you’re good or you’re actually truly relevant.

GrassRoots Action
Ever wonder how youths run a campaign or organize a campus event?
Ever wonder why you’re always paying (sponsorships) but not achieving desired returns?
Have Youth Trendsetters pitch selected projects/campaigns/events to you.
Learn from the grassroots youth how it is done, what are the factors involved.

“In 2010, Attention is your biggest cost. Youth only process 5% of the marketing information they receive at any time, 95% being ignored…” Youth Research Partners, 2010

What makes you worthy of that 5%?
Listen, Learn and Engage.

Youth Party
2010 will see grassroots youth movements actively mushrooming within the communities.
Party on with more than 500 grassroots youth as we gather local youth movements to jointly host this party.
It’s time to take that first step to build that quality relationship with your young market.

“2010 is the watershed year when marketers will shift to match the changing landscape;
youth no longer want to hear stories told about brands, they want to tell their own…”

Are you telling your own stories or helping your young customers tell theirs?

Youth Biz-Match
Opportunities, opportunities, opportunities.
It is all about getting onto the right platform where doors open up and opportunities are abundance.
Youth Biz-Match allows youths to schedule appointments with key decision makers of the various youth brands to take on collaborative proposals together.
This ‘business matching’ session(s) are to be scheduled during lunch hours and business fellowship sessions throughout the Unconference.

Registration goes live 1 February 2010 @ www.mobileyouth.my

Mobile Youth Unconference Asia 2010 is proudly brought to you by Summer Sands Group (Malaysia), MAD Incubator (Malaysia), mobileYouth (London) and GrassRoots Youth Network.

MAD Inc & Mobile Youth (London), we present to you

Mobile Youth Unconference Asia

Malaysia 2010

Registration begins 1 Feb 2010.

Stay tuned as we bring you more Exclusive updates!

Together with our buddies from Mobile Youth (London) and the Youth Research Partners worldwide, we present you 40 solid Youth Trends in 2010.

This compilation of Trends is an extensive effort of highly specialized youth agencies around the globe – right from Europe to Asia to South America to South Africa continents.

Think these Insights would be of great resource and help in your business?  Want Summer Sands to visit your team for a good chat?

Get in touch with us at bernardhor@gmail.com.  We’re more than happy to share what’s Inside the Insights with you.

Somehow or rather, the conversation went on to online and the internet – blogs, Facebooks (and Friendster, somehow), Twitters, YouTubes, movie downloads, online games……….and finally Online Marketing / Advertising.

There are a couple of mixed responses from these groups of 18-21 year-olds.  However, I noticed two very common feedbacks and responses during the conversation which drives me to think whether we (marketers) have OVERUSED & OVER SOLD the web for brand marketings.

Two interesting insights I would love to share my thoughts with you here.

1) “Don’t sell us Online Surveys”

Online marketing surveys are a Nuisance, Annoying, “Waste-of-Time” to us.  Two pronged here:

a) If you send us an email and asked us to fill up the survey, we will very likely IGNORE it.  Even if we do it, it will be just for fun with no committed response and feedbacks.

b) If you tell us that we will be Paid filling up and completing a survey, Fat Chance!  One, we will NOT fill in our details for online payment you promised us.  Very often than not, stuffs like that turns out to be a scam at the end of the day.  And two, the payment scheme plan (RM0.20 per question) is rather ridiculous as we will only see the cash once we reach RM50!!!

2) “Too Much and Too Fake”

Pretty much referring to banner ads and blog advertising – the latter deriving more interesting insights.

On banner ads -it was plain simple -“…we don’t really remember those banner ads even though we spent more than 3 hours on the Internet daily…”

Product or event write-ups on blogs are not Full-Trust-Proof.  In short, Blog Advertising is becoming less and less ‘trustable’.  “We definitely don’t trust what is written on “his” blog.  We know “he” is the highest paid blogger in town.  But who cares?  ”He” is paid to write – “he” can’t possibly write bad about that thing…”

The level of Trust and Credibility in blog advertising in particular is rather being questioned.  Although the number of bloggers among youths is on the rise, the Trust level still very much depends on the “offline personality” of another blogger.  It is evident that youths who follow and read blogs do not necessarily buy in to the write-ups but rather have a mind of their own in the purchasing process of a particular service or product.

The insights from these youths very much shows a changing trend in the online and the internet arena.  While many marketers are heavily promoting and selling Facebook Marketing or Social Media marketing seminars and packages, youths continue to digest and derive informations on the web at their own pace, at their own cost – meaning to say at their own credible judgement.

Question is, with the level of trust among youths online, is the web just a tool of communication or is it really a tool to attract ATTENTION of the younger market?

For more insights on Youth & Online Cultures, stay tuned for our exclusive Video Insights soon.

Part 2 of “Attention IS your biggest cost” next week.

The author is a Youth Engagement Specialist, business author and a professional speaker based in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.  He thinks ATTENTION is not just as easy as getting online with youths.  An active partner with mobileYouth, London & Youth Research Partners Asia, you can Google him or be his friend atwww.facebook.com/bernardhor or follow his awesome Tweets at www.twitter.com/bernardhor.

10% is a HUGE investment.

What are we talking about here?  I’ve been speaking to many people recently on selling to the youth crowd or rather pushing sales. (in a more polite manner, it’s called “Marketing”)

Interesting conversation a.k.a debate we had.  I noticed one common factor in every one of these conversations.  One, it is talking about the YOUTH market.  And two, it is mainly about the “investment” needed.

Interestingly, 10 out of 10 I spoke to had the idea that “investment” (when it comes to youth market) is all about the money.  They think (or so they thought) that the more money you have, the better (or easier) you can attract the youths.  Now, I’m not going to deny this naively.

It is true to a certain extend.  And that extend is that – YES!  youths will definitely be attracted if your “investment” is HUGE.  But, the question is, how, what, why and when do you make that HUGEEEEE “investment”?

“Throwing” or splurging the budget does not necessarily means success in youth marketing.  Like I mentioned, YES – we will be attracted.  However, the attraction, I can guarantee you – is a short-lived one.

3 simple “excuses” why we say this;

1) WE DO NOT NEED YOUR MONEY. Oh hell yeah!  We don’t actually give a damm about the size of budget you’re splurging on us.  We will be impressed (at that very moment…ONLY) with what you’ve got to flash.  But in reality, we really don’t give a *&#$ about it.

2) WE DON’T REMEMBER WHO “THREW” IT. Sad fact – but yes!  We don’t really remember who splurged all that cash on us.  Not unless you kindly deposit that cash into our savings account and make sure it is not ‘withdrawable’ (not at least for the next 5 years!!)  We MIGHT remember you then.

3) WE COULDN’T CARELESS ABOUT YOU…not unless you are Apple or Google or maybe…Facebook…otherwise, screw it and live with it!  You got to really understand that we don’t wake up thinking about you (your brand).  We love choices.  We adore choices.  We desire choices.  So, don’t bother telling us you’re good, you’re the best, you’re the cheapest or you’re the ONE (that’s the worst thing you could ever say to us).

And 3 simple “reasons” we might want you to know (or rather, you might want to know) ;

1) WE KNOW WHAT WE WANT….and you just got to be the ONE to guide us and show us the way.  Many of us are loss – but heck it! – we’re not gonna admit it to you anytime soon.  And don’t think that you could “get” us just by pulling off a smart publicity or CSR stunt once.  We have to be nurtured.  We have to be cared for.  We have to “understood”.  We have to be INVOLVED.

Run with us to create that change…TOGETHER.

Are you willing to “invest”?

2) WE WANT TO BE IN CONTROL….who doesn’t?  rather, which young guy/girl doesn’t?  What we’re trying to tell you is, let us have the ownership.  Whatever way or whichever PR agency you’re hiring, make sure they’re good enough to ‘convinced’ us that we’re IN CONTROL.  We will be the one to tell you, “It’s under control, don’t worry…”

Are you willing to “invest”?

3) WE “MIGHT” WAKE UP THINKING…no!! not about you…but at least, you’re worth to be ‘part of the thought’ first thing in the morning.  Let us tell you what we do straight from the bed – we log in to Facebook, reply some messages, comment on some walls and check on Mafia Wars….then we’ll surf into some “news” of the day, start the MSN Live or GTalk machine…etc etc etc…

So, be glad if you make it to the ‘part of our thought’ segment.  Don’t push it!  Not that we never warned you before – don’t push it!

Tip here is : Get something done that NOT ONLY reach out but reach IN into our hearts.  The thing is, you have to remember that we’re not 6 year olds that you can “convinced” just by some kiddy publicity stunt by your ad agency.  Neither are we 60 year olds who in many ways doesn’t even really bother anymore!  We’re the “stucked in the middle”, swarmed with 1001 choices every day and have a great tendency to kinda “forget” you.

Again, are you willing to “invest”?

Read carefully the one-liner above and observed that the word to focus on is not “invest” but rather focus on WILLING.

How willing are you?  How much time are you WILLING to spend with us?  How much are you WILLING to let go for us to take ownership?  Are you then WILLING to take the risk?  Just in case we fall, will you be WILLING to fall with us?

You don’t need HUGE inve$tment$$$$ – Influence and Trust are two things money can’t buy!  You just got to earn it.  And once ‘betrayed’, that’s all folks…

The funny thing here is that, you don’t actually need BIG FAT BUDGETS to sell to (oops, i mean market..or engage) ALLLLLL of us!  What you ultimately need is to identify and ACKNOWLEDGE the 10% of us – something your Ad and PR or Event agencies will never ever tell you!!!

Work on the 10% and you shall eventually see the rest of the puzzle falling into place.

Question is, are you WILLING to work on that 10% – yes, 10% is, indeed, a HUGE investment.

The author is a Youth Engagement Specialist, business author and a professional speaker based in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.  He enjoys talking about youths with the like-minded over a cuppa.  An active partner with mobileYouth, London & Youth Research Partners Asia, you can Google him or be his friend at www.facebook.com/bernardhor or follow his awesome Tweets at www.twitter.com/bernardhor.