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Marketing High-Tech Careers to Y-ers

Guest post by: Patti D. Hill

Article Overview: Generation Y is the biggest bulge since baby boomers and the largest consumer group in the history of the US. This strong-willed, choice-driven generation is forcing marketers to rethink their old strategies.

Marketing High-Tech Careers to Y-ers

The children of the Baby Boomers are coming of age at a rate of three to four million per year. Generation Y is wired. They have access to greater technical understanding than any previous generation. This sophisticated media audience has embraced the newest, coolest, and best technologies. Video games, CD-ROMs, MP3s, PDAs, and digital phones are widespread among young adults. Even the X-ers, whose first video game was Pong, had to adopt and adapt, while young adults of today have been exposed, experimenting, and engaged with technology from day one.

Y-ers will be making their entrance into advanced career development programs in major universities, technology incubators across the country, and high school programs where they will experiment with everything from multimedia to microchips. This generation has technology innovation in their blood. Complex and highly specialized industries are looking to capture and cultivate the talents of this remarkably technology-driven demographic. Generation Y is our emerging workforce.

How can corporate leaders speak to and influence these individuals? A marketing dialog has to incorporate the essences of how they interpret and receive information. There are three key components to breaking their code: 1) Create a truly relevant message; 2) Don’t make assumptions based on a caricature; 3) Captivate by identifying and infiltrating where they focus their attention. There must be an established and consistent presence in order for young adults to see and hear a message. Learn, observe, and ask them how they interpret information. This demographic is accustomed to the flashes of animation, video games, and instant messages.

A recent study, conducted by MTV/Harris Interactive, showed that the ‘average’ teen has been online for three years, is online five days a week, spends about five hours a week online, and has three separate email addresses. What are they doing online? At least three times per week:

66% instant messaging one another

55% surfing

49% chatting

37% conducting research or work on school projects

27% playing games

25% reading the news

25% getting sports information

21% downloading audio files

The use of the Internet is being used by Y-ers as a tool for communication, information, and source of entertainment. A tremendous amount of time is allocated to surfing - curiosity and information gathering. Building a compelling position in the midst of these activities requires creating relevance to a demographic that has vast choices in terms of where to direct its attention.

Let’s not underestimate the teen—the portrait of carefree, fickle, self-conscious kids looking for the next super cool thing is too simplistic. Today’s Y-ers have access and exposure to information in a capacity never seen before. They have knowledge and understanding of a globally-connected world, the ramifications of a recession, terrorism, the prospect of war, and exposure to corporate corruption parading through headlines. They also experience the ongoing battle to fund college, and plant the seeds of a career. Teens' opinions are increasingly sophisticated. The brightest, coming from across socio-economic lines, are forming opinions of where to build their career-identities years before they begin.

Do not rule out the element of ‘cool’. Interestingly enough, according to a recent MTV Poll, two-thirds of Y-ers associate quality with being cool. This is critical to understanding the Y-er: all puff and no substance does not qualify as cool. The fact is Y-ers can have a sophisticated sense of what is being offered to them. If you are talking about motivating Y-ers to consider high-tech careers, you are embarking on a complex communications strategy. The message has to be delivered consistently, and in a capacity that creates an image, while providing enough information for the audience to have taken away meaning. And while the impact of the future may not be as top of mind for Y-ers as it is with a more mature audience, they have been confronted with and been exposed to as much cool as they have complex, disheartening issues over the past several years. Its impact on how they view their future should not be underestimated.

What motivates Y-ers? What gets their minds ticking? How do all the clichés about fickle teens gulping Mountain Dew fit in with informing them about options for their future in a capacity that is positive for furthering innovations in technology? We recommend the following: 1) Create a sophisticated initiative for developing this demographic. If you are targeting 18 to 21 year olds, create something that seeks to speak to 22– 25 year olds. This means, defer to speaking in the most intelligent capacity possible when you are seeking to target the highest tier of this demographic. 2) When they drill into the topic presented, be sure to have information available that breaks down the message into definable, approachable steps to eliminate fears. 3) Imply the benefits of intangibles; fast-paced, leading-edge, and magnet for high-achieving peers. Always be subtle, yet consistent in delivering the message. Give them a hint, and lay-out the steps.

Marketing high-tech careers to Y-ers requires consistency and long-term visibility. Taking an occasional ‘snapshot’ view of this audience can be dangerously misleading. So can offering up information that’s meaningless to them when you’re addressing something as precious as the future. Only by committing to an ongoing program of dialog, can you hope to penetrate this market. And don’t forget, Y-ers started interacting and utilizing technology at significantly younger ages than the biggest and brightest high-tech gurus of today. Keep your eyes peeled.

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Article Tags: baby boomers, generation y, marketers, public relations



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