Teen Dream
Wake up to a market that could bring you big bucks.
The youngest "millennials"--a demographic segment
roughly defined as individuals born in the 1980s and 1990s-are
heading back to school. In 2005, 12- to 19-year-olds commanded a
whopping $158 billion in spending power, according to Teenage Research
Unlimited, a Northbrook, Illinois, market research firm. Want to cash in on this lucrative market? Here are some
tips: - Keep mom and dad in the loop. "The biggest factor
in marketing to millennials is that they have their parents
hovering over their shoulders more than other generations before
them," says Cheryl Russell, editorial director of New Strategist
Publications, a publishing and information company that
specializes in demographics.
- Look online. Tech-savvy teens are getting
recommendations from online sources. Provide information to them
through your website, work on search engine optimization to make
your business easy to find, and consider a presence on social
networking sites like MySpace.com.
- Forget the fluff. "It's not enough to hang your
hat on a microtrend or a fad," says Michael Wood, vice
president of TRU. "You [need] a product or service that is
meeting a basic teen need at its core, served up to them in an
interesting and entertaining way."
Gwen Moran is co-author of The Complete
Idiot's Guide to Business Plans.
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