Blog : Marketing

Four Brands Embracing Data to Give Millennials What They Want
Dan Noyes

Four Brands Embracing Data to Give Millennials What They Want

When it comes to creating the perfect product for young consumers, savvy brands are increasingly embracing data. These brands are creating specific products and individualized experiences based on data acquired from customers’ online use, brick and mortar experience, surveys, and more. 

Here are four brands we can all learn from when it comes to using data to give Millennials the products they want:

BuzzFeed Tasty Gets Spicy with McCormick.

Spice company McCormick and Internet media company BuzzFeed have joined forces to offer a line of seasonings targeted at Millennials. While this may seem like an odd combination, BuzzFeed Tasty (the brand’s popular cooking vertical) used data on what recipes and flavors are most popular on its platform to determine the spices and flavors young cooks are interested in. The result? Five new McCormick spices (also sold as a kit) called Fiery, Zesty, Savory, Jazzy, and Hearty. Direct-to-consumer sales will be measured to determine which spices are most popular with young buyers.

McDonald’s Goes Personal with Menus.

McDonald’s recent acquisition of Dynamic Yield – a technology company that personalizes customer experiences – shows just how much the fast-food restaurant is investing into data-driven information. On the menu: featured items (like McFlurries) based on variants like each restaurant’s location and weather and personalized suggestions based on what previous customers have ordered (for example, a sweet sundae to go with your salty fries). 

Subway Adds Tastemade to the Mix.

Fast-food chain Subway is bulking up on data. The franchise (which is one of the fastest growing in the world) is teaming up with Tastemade – a video network that offers online food and travel related programming – to develop new menu items. For example, Subway’s new Green Goddess Tuna Melt was concocted by analyzing Tastemade’s posts to find ingredients Subway could try out in a tuna sandwich. The new sub tested in the top 20% of the past five years’ sub-creations. 

Stitch Fix Plays with Data Science.

Online personal styling service Stitch Fix has embraced data to provide more personalized fashion choices to their clients. Their Tinder-style in-app game called Style Shuffle is played by more than 75% of their shoppers. The game, which lets users swipe right and left on apparel suggestions for them, was built by the brand’s manager of data science. Using data from the game, styles are mapped together via an algorithm. It is just one way Stitch Fix uses data science to put together boxes (called Fixes) of clothing that are tailored to consumers’ tastes.

I have established a long history of helping companies – like those highlighted above – use data science to effectively connect with consumers and elevate their brands. Whether you’re large or small, we are here to support your brand. For more information or to discuss millennial marketing strategies please reach out to me at dan@dannoyes.com or call me at (585)230-9565.

How Millennials Have Changed Luxury – Updated May 2019
Dan Noyes

How Millennials Have Changed Luxury – Updated May 2019

It is no secret that Millennials have done much to shape the world as we know it today. One unexpected area that they have changed is the luxury market. This will come as a surprise to many as Millennials largely have avoided the traditional luxury brands. What they have done instead is redefined the word luxury. Historically, high-ticket items such as jewelry and couture have practically been the definition of luxury, but the Millennial generation has pushed that definition in a few different directions.

Three Ways Millennials Have Redefined Luxury

  1. Millennials have changed the way we look at luxury is in the areas where they spend their money. What we have seen recently is again a shift away from the more expensive items typically associated with luxury, and in their place, they are spending money on items with descriptors such as organic, fair-trade, sustainable, and ethically sourced. Items with these descriptions almost always cost more than their counterparts, but their value is higher to Millennials who care about where something comes from and how it was treated.
  2. Millennials are turning to resale apps and websites that give them access to traditional luxury items at a significantly lower price-point. Two such platforms are ThredUP and Poshmark. They allow users to take pictures and post items at a price of their choosing, and some items can even be sent in for authentication. Because the prices on these resale avenues are determined by the owner of the item and their motivation to sell, items nearly always sell for a fraction of the price that they would in a retail store that has overhead and employees to pay for.
  3. Millennials differ from their predecessors in how they look at luxury clothing. Millennials have moved away from couture such as Gucci, Prada, and Givenchy and moved toward brands like Supreme and Vetements that are known for their exquisite streetwear. This is the new phenomenon amongst Millennials: their idea of luxury attire would be categorized as streetwear. In fact, some of the classic luxury brands have even introduced lines of high-end streetwear.

As we have seen, Millennials have changed our world forever, and even a segment usually reserved for the rich and elite have felt their hand. Luxury is changing and Millennials are one of the driving forces behind that. Brands need to recognize these new drivers and shift their focus to match.

Achieving Success in Difficult Times
Dan Noyes

Achieving Success in Difficult Times

Achieving success in difficult times can be overwhelming.  The economy’s poor state, international competition, and constant technological advances make building a successful career more difficult than ever for those just beginning their professional life.   Like me, you may be wondering, “How can I build an innovative, successful business, when so many people are struggling simply to find a job?  How can I stand out amongst the mass of businesses and individuals seeking success and stability in a struggling economy?”  In this situation, it is always helpful to consider the steps that current leaders in business have taken in the past to achieve their success in the present.   What are some of the life lessons they have learned from creating and promoting their own businesses?  Most importantly, what qualities have enabled them to rise above their competitors and achieve incredible success in difficult times?

Stay Proactive

One key to success in today’s business world is to adopt a proactive attitude.  Technology is advancing and evolving at such a rapid rate that it requires constant and proactive effort to remain on the cutting edge.  Constantly looking for ways to improve yourself or your business will help you stand out from your peers.  It is essential to keep your product fresh, up-to-date, fully equipped to successfully compete in its market.  Constantly weeding out the deficiencies in your business and improving its virtues can do wonders to refine and streamline your business.  Never become complacent with the success that may come your way, but always be looking for the next way you can improve your business and make it more efficient.  Your business’s success can be a fragile thing, especially in today’s economy. Acknowledging this and making sure you are always one step ahead of the market and your competition is vital for your company to be successful.

Complacency Kills

Another quality that has helped business leaders and can help us as well as to never grow comfortable with where you or your business currently may be.  You never know what the future can bring to you or your business.  Natural disasters, health problems, or the economy are all variables that could affect your success, and in many cases, there is no way for you to control them.  This is what makes it so essential for you to always be ready for the next experience, for what the next phase may be for you or your business.  You always need to be prepared for the obstacles that might be thrown your way.

Don’t Quit

Perseverance is an invaluable commodity in today’s business world.  Looking at some of the most successful companies competing today, it may seem upon first glance that their success is nothing more than good luck or just the right set of circumstances.  Some businesses, it seems, achieve monumental success virtually overnight.  What many of us probably don’t realize is the number of years many of the prominent business leaders have invested in their companies to rise to the status they now hold.  Dedication to your business and its product, especially through hard economic times, is what sees you through difficulties and enables your business to come out of them on top.

Seize the Challenge

Turn every challenge into an opportunity.  Focus on your business and its product obsessively.  Take good advice, but also listen to your instincts.  Understand that not every wise business decision is a monetary decision. These are only a few of the principles that have enabled today’s business leaders to rise to incredible heights and achieve success many of us only dream about.  But these qualities are not exclusive to them.  They are things that every one of us can incorporate into our businesses and our daily lives.  With an economy in which it is harder than ever to build a successful career, the basic qualities of a proactive attitude, a persevering work ethic, and an innovative mind are what will enable you to stand out from your competition and turn your dreams into a successful, profitable business.

To get the entire article with examples from today’s business leaders make sure to email me at dan@dannoyes.com.

What Millennials and Gen Zers Actually Want For the Holidays
Dan Noyes

What Millennials and Gen Zers Actually Want For the Holidays

The holidays are quickly approaching, and brands are preparing for the busiest shopping season of the year. As busy consumers complete last-minute holiday shopping for their loved ones, brands are increasingly looking for new and innovative ways to reach these holiday shoppers. However, in order to understand what consumers are looking for this holiday season, brands must understand the changing trends associated with holiday shopping within the marketplace as well as the consumer philosophies behind these trends.

Increased Spending

One such change in the market this holiday season is the actual amount of revenue that will be generated by holiday shopping. Research has shown that during this holiday season, overall spending will largely increase. While retail sales have been predicted to grow this holiday season, the biggest growth rate in spending is projected to be in the online industry. In fact, industry predictions show that online holiday shopping will surge by almost 17% from last year, according to eMarketer.

This migration toward online sales growth seems to be widely influenced by the Millennial and Gen Z generations who have grown up with technology and view it as more convenient and accessible than retail stores. Brands hoping to capitalize on this shift toward online holiday shopping should make certain that their mobile apps are visually appealing and user-friendly and that their marketing strategies target primarily digital audiences.  

Millennial and Gen Zers’ Holiday List

In order to understand just what Millennials and Gen Zers will be spending their money on this holiday shopping season, YPulse decided to conduct a survey of 1,000 Millennials and Gen Zers between the ages of 13 and 35. Their resulting responses provide valuable insight into what these generations will be spending their money on this holiday season.

Money

Based off of the YPulse survey of 1,000 people, both Millennials and Gen Zers reported that the top item on their wishlist this holiday season is money. Rather than desiring physical items from various brands, both of these generations desire cash. Perhaps in response to the growing economic uncertainty or a volatile social climate, both Millennials and Gen Zers would prefer to have money than the newest iPhone or the most popular clothing trend.

While the desire to be given money for the holidays was prominent among Millennials and Gen Zers, interestingly, the age bracket that responded the most with money as being the top item on their holiday wishlist was individuals between the ages of 18 and 20. With overall rising education costs and an increase in the cost of living, it is no surprise that adolescents of student age are the group most likely to ask for money for the holiday season. Brands seeking to reach

Millennial Marketing Strategies – Favorite Celebrities
Dan Noyes

Millennial Marketing Strategies – Favorite Celebrities

Since the rise of the Internet, fame has taken on a much different meaning from its historical connotation. Now, musicians, movie stars, YouTube personalities, comedians, bloggers/vloggers, athletes, and social media influencers could all be considered famous. To get a better understanding of who Gen Z and Millennials consider “famous” today, Ypulse conducted a survey that simply asked the question, “Who is your favorite celebrity?”

Their results found that the number one celebrity among men and women ages 13-35 is Rihanna, followed closely by Taylor Swift, Beyoncé, and Justin Bieber. The full list can be obtained from Ypulse here.

There are a number of conclusions that can be drawn both from the survey results themselves and from the way the survey was answered by each age group. First, musicians account for seven of the top ten favorite celebrities, with actors making up the other three. When asked, respondents said that musicians are the most admired and perceived to be the most talented celebrities. Gen Z and Millennials are also most likely to follow musicians on social media. It is also important to note the younger consumers said that they are more likely to pay attention to a paid social media post from a musician than any other type of celebrity.

Secondly, the survey shows that “fame” has been spreading horizontally, not vertically. Over 300 different names were given as responses to the survey question, and about 200 of those names were only mentioned by one or two respondents. This trend is even stronger among Gen Z respondents because an overwhelming majority of their celebrities were only mentioned by one or two survey-takers. To see what resonates with Gen Z in place of celebrity endorsements, Millward Brown Digital completed a parallel study. Gen Z consumers were asked about advertising methods to which they respond positively, and nearly 75% said that humor causes them to be more receptive to an advertisement.

As a takeaway, advertisers should note that Gen Z and Millennials are exceptionally adept at spotting advertisements and their perception of fame is not like that of previous generations. Therefore, it is crucial to make the best possible partnerships (ideally with musicians) and to use humor often but appropriately.

Millennial Marketing Strategies – Entertaining Millennials
Dan Noyes

Millennial Marketing Strategies – Entertaining Millennials

Millennial and Gen Z consumers have long been known to seek forms of entertainment that do not require them to spend money. They recognize that, oftentimes, you can have just as much fun participating in a free activity than if you spend money on one.  But while free activities remain popular, it goes without saying that younger consumers do spend money on some of their entertainment options. What do they find to be some of the most popular options, and what does this say about their overall entertainment desires?

To help answer these questions, Ypulse did a survey of 1000 men and women between the ages of 13 and 35. They asked the question, “Of all the things that you spend money on for entertainment inside of your home or outside your home, what do you enjoy the most?” The number one response among those surveyed was going out to eat at restaurants. Some of the other top responses were streaming services (such as Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon), going to the movies, travel, concerts, and video games. There was a difference in the top responses for Millennials and Gen Z: Millennials chose restaurants first, but Gen Z prefers going to the movies first and going out to a restaurant second. Most likely, this is due to the perceived formality that Gen Z associates with going out to a restaurant.

What is consistent among all the responses regardless of age or gender is a desire for communal activities. Millennials and Gen Z have moved away from solely screen-based entertainment and are becoming more social people. They have a strong desire for shared experience and want to experience new things with other people, especially their friend group.

While it is no secret that these generations do enjoy their alone time at home, it is also clear that there has been a shift away from screens when it comes to their primary entertainment preferences. Moving forward, brands should focus on messaging that emphasizes a sense of community among consumers and provide Gen Z and Millennials with the opportunity to experience new things with their friends.  

Website Benchmarking
Dan Noyes

Website Benchmarking

A common question amongst website and marketing managers is what is the most effective way to benchmark website traffic. Typically we have these discussions while we’re helping a company formulate their key performance indicators, but it is also something we need to revisit and reassess especially when considering the impact of social media. Contrary to some social media hype, websites aren’t going anywhere, but the age of social media does mean that we need to continually monitor and benchmark how our site is performing and how web traffic is being produced.

The big question is what are the averages that we should be comparing our website traffic against. First, it is important not just to measure your overall website traffic, but to measure your length of stay, percentage of first-time visits and first-time bounce rates, number of pages viewed and length of site visit. All important criteria, but there is another variable we’d recommend adding to the mix. Don’t forget to measure the percentage of website visitors coming from any particular traffic source. For example, is most of your traffic driven from direct navigation or type in traffic (when someone types your URL into their browser) or are they being driven from some other referral sources.

We find that companies that focus on building long-term relationships and use their website as a way to communicate with customers will tend to have a significantly higher percentage of traffic through direct navigation. It just makes sense, the more your drive customer back to your website the higher percentage they will be going to your site directly versus through some other source. It is not uncommon to see at least fifty percent of website traffic being driven through direct navigation. We feel that if this traffic is also engaging with your website content as demonstrated through time on site and pages viewed it generally means customers view your site as a resource. Like with all website traffic is it important to consistently measure these trends and try to spot any shifts that may require action. For example, a decline in traffic from existing customers may mean that the website needs to have content added or refreshed.

After you analyze your core customer base traffic then start to plot an analyze all other sources of traffic. These would include

  • Search engines
  • Paid media whether this be paid search or display advertising
  • Social media
  • Email
  • Referring site links

It has been our experience that most clients will have between 30-60 percent of their total website traffic coming from organic search engine traffic with the rest being spread across the other channels.  Obviously, a site with an aggressive paid search strategy may have a completely different percentage.  The key take away is to benchmark your referral sources month to month and year to year to give you a clear sense of long-term trends and directions as well as an opportunity to revisit your online communications plan.