The target audience (how to gain their attention)

Young people aged 18-24 are key to numerous markets, from mobile, fashion and technology to alcohol, snack foods and entertainment. This audience spends money and in the case of students, who account for around half the UK youth population, they contribute an estimated £20 billion to the UK economy every year.
However, there is a perception that this age group is hard to reach and even more challenging to engage. It’s true that young people are usually clear on what they want and have fully-formed perceptions about different products, services and brands. However, our research here at The Beans Group shows that with relevant messages and via platforms that they actually use, 18- to 24-year-olds can be a highly engaged audience for brands.

Freshers and the university experience

For any marketing professional looking to engage and influence students, new students are considered a priority and Freshers' Week is a significant event in the calendar. Most youth-focussed organisations invest a big slice of their budget to capture the interest of freshers as well as returning students.

The right platform and the right message

Our research found that students spend more time online than they do watching TV and socialising with friends. Thirty three per cent of students say they spend more than 20 hours a week online while at university. Convenience, novelty and a love of online shopping were key reasons why students said they loved our recent campaign freshersfields.com for The National Online Freshers’ Fair, and over 90 brands including GBK, HP, Ocado, The Guardian, Sky, Nando’s, Papa Johns are involved this year.

This generation expects services "on demand" and they want choice - they are beginning a new journey as independent consumers and are defining themselves through the brands they choose and online gives them a great platform to do this.

Social media marketing has been top of mind for brands targeting 18-24s. Brands have learned the importance of transparency, relevance and shared conversation versus traditional push approaches. We know young people are big users of social media - 97% in our recent survey use Facebook and 45% are on Twitter. However what do they want and expect from brands through these platforms?

Those that do follow brands have clear expectations. They want either material gain - free products, a good discount or a winnable competition - or they want to be entertained. That’s pretty much it. Having a conversation does not feature. Almost half of respondents said explicitly that they do not want to talk to brands using social media, while a third said they do not follow a single brand.

Outcome 

In depth research has been undergone in order to gain a greater understanding upon the ways in which a young consumer interacts with a product, and what they would like to gain from it. From the research conducted it is evident that young people frequently use social medias such as Facebook and Twitter, although other social medias have not been outlined. This may be a task in which I complete myself. It was also suggested that a younger audience like the product on demand, and would also like to gain free products, a discount or a competition.

From this surveys may be conducted in order to gain a greater stance upon what social medias are frequently used by a younger audience, and thus allow myself to tap into the consumer market.