Mobile Youth Consumers

• Published:August 18th, 2008
• Comments:No Comment
• Category:mobile life youth, mobile youth consumers

From Original Post Here

This recent headline grabbed my attention: “Home Equity Ads Encouraged Americans To Go Into Debt.” Wow, welcome to America where advertising is so powerful, it can steal your money. Or, welcome to America, where clearly we are not capable of independent thought and the marketing people have ultimate control.

Here’s the set-up in the article:

Lenders have spent billions of dollars in advertising to change the language of home loans and with it Americans’ attitudes toward debt. Not long ago, “home equity” loans were known as second mortgages and were considered the borrowing of last resort, to be avoided by all but people in dire financial straits. Today, these loans have become universally accepted, their image transformed by ubiquitous ad campaigns from banks. “Calling it a ’second mortgage,’ that’s like hocking your house,” says Pei-Yuan Chia, a former vice chairman at Citicorp who oversaw the bank’s consumer business in the 1980s and 1990s. “But call it ‘equity access,’ and it sounds more innocent.”

It’s brilliant. You have a product and you need to sell it. But it’s not moving because people just don’t understand the value – or worse yet – it has a negative association. The answer: tune up your language (and back it up with some good marketing).

Let me give you another example that targets the youth market. Blue Cross has health insurance. They wanted to sell more. But it turns out, today’s youth don’t think anything bad will happen to them and it’s not a priority purchase when they leave home. And who wants to buy something called Blue Cross Health Insurance? But what about buying something that sounds like an energy drink? Enter Tonik – the Blue Cross plan for kids who need to get “hooked up” if they blow out their knee.

This concept is interesting to consider when we think about our business. One of the problems facing the communications industry is many of us have been doing this for a long time. If you know what POTS is, I am talking to you. If have ever used the phrase “dial tone”, I am talking to you. And if you have ever called a remote control “the clicker”, yes, I am talking to you too.

We need to look at the products and services we are creating and enhancing and think about the language we are using to describe it. Does it convey a benefit (and that’s not necessarily a description of what it does!)? Does it make the user feel good about buying it or using it? Thinking about youth, does it break away from old conventions and appear to be something current and fresh?

So here’s your assignment, spend the next week just being aware. How is language affecting your business? Maybe the barrier isn’t a new feature set, but instead, you could benefit from simply using some new words for some proven value!

PS: if you want to add comments with your ideas, examples or inside-communications industry code words, I’d love it!