Ogilvy: Code of Conduct and Marketing Inspiration for Post-90s Generation (Excellent Reference)

Today, the post-90s generation has increasingly become the main consumer force for major brands. However, many brands that wanted to please them have been severely slapped in the face, often failing, and even being spurned by them.

This creates a situation where "I love you but you don't love me".

Previously, I saw that Ogilvy China released a white paper titled "Making Luxury Brands More Meaningful". This consumer survey is specifically aimed at the new middle class, mainly those born after 1990, focusing on the emerging and highly dynamic millennials.

Although it mainly provides insights into luxury consumer brands, Lao Zei believes that it also provides an excellent reference for all brands to gain a deeper understanding of the values ​​and life attitudes of this generation.

When you are doing brand rejuvenation marketing, you can learn and draw lessons from them. Each of them is accurate and effective. If you don’t believe it, read it yourself.

Young people born between 1990 and 1999 account for 12% of China's population. This generation is in the era of shaping their own identity and image. They have a core attitude towards life:

“Everything I do now is to become a better version of myself”

This is crucial for brands.

If the post-90s generation has always aspired to “become a better version of themselves”, then brands can play an important role in helping them achieve this goal, but the prerequisite is that we have to understand them.

This white paper from Ogilvy points out the six core values ​​that young people pursue.

For this generation, “becoming a better self” means:

1) I am who I am: This generation highly values ​​independent thinking and being different.

2) Appearance is Justice: Good looks are not the only necessary condition, but it is a basic requirement for this generation.

3) Talent is everything: This generation is more concerned about whether a person is "interesting" and "talented". I also hope that I can be interesting and my talents can be shown.

4) Loneliness needs to be cured: The need for "company" and "sense of belonging" is particularly strong.

5) Pay for Interests: They are willing to spend money to cultivate their interests or anything that can further their talents or add icing on the cake to their experiences.

6) Take control of your destiny: They pursue their ideals in life and believe that they will become winners through hard work and perseverance.

When a brand meets one or more of these values, it becomes more relevant to this group.

Based on these six core values, the report also provides six transformations that brands can make to change the rules of the game. In Lao Zei’s opinion, this is the code of conduct for brands entering the post-90s market, which can be used at any time in future planning and strategies.

1. From "symbol of identity" to "symbol of self", the value associated with this is "I am me".

The post-90s generation holds a strong belief: I am born different. In addition to being shaped into consumers' "identity symbols", brands/products also need to consolidate the unique tastes and experiences of this group, shape a unique personal image, and match and highlight their personal style.

This generation places a high value on independent thinking and uniqueness, prefers to follow their heart, and doesn’t care that much about what others think of them. They like everything that is authentic and believable. Real flaws are better than pretended perfection.

Implications for brand marketing:

Brands need to have attitude and need to reflect the diversity of consumer tastes and styles. Personalization or tailoring is effective, with more emphasis on the "I" because it makes them feel unique and special.

For example, Timberland’s advertisement “Unfinished” launched last year tells a story about growing up with a pair of big yellow boots as the main perspective. Every pair of Timberland records the personality of its owner, who chooses different paths because of his or her personality and leaves different traces on different paths.

What you look like is what your kicks will look like. The product rises to the spiritual and emotional level, and people and shoes are integrated in the copy.

Every pair of kicks that are not worn out is unfinished, and it requires you to go out on the road to complete it. When we left, it was called timberland, and when we came back, it was called indestructible. As long as you keep moving forward, the spirit of invincibility is far from complete.

I forgot since when

People call me a bad kicker

Not Timberland

From that gust of wind

When I was kissed by the wind

Dyed by moonlight, starlight, and sunlight

Provoked by a stone

Then heal the wounds with the stream

When I start to hear the flowers blooming

When I accidentally took the right road and seriously lost my way

When I experienced separation and was waited for

When I need and am needed

I know that from the beginning

That new pair of Timberland is completely different

In time I get old and wrinkled

Covering scars with scars

Every day when the sun rises, I am a new person

When I left, it was called Timberland

When I come back, I can't kick it.

But the story of kicking can't be broken

Still far from done

2. From "showing off wealth" to "showing off talent", the value associated with this is "talent is everything".

Young people today don’t appreciate being seen as just “rich.” They would rather be seen as "interesting people" and "talented people". They are more concerned with the overall package, with the focus being on the “inside” of the person.

Identity is less about material things or financial status and more about having rich experiences or knowledge.

If “good looks” is the entry-level requirement for this generation, then “talent” will become the differentiating factor. People born in the 1990s prefer people or things that are not only good-looking but also talented and interesting. This may be what is often said nowadays: "Beautiful appearances are all alike, but interesting souls are one in a million."

Implications for brand marketing:

Brands should think about how to help them showcase their talents and pay more attention to how to help young consumers demonstrate their knowledge or unique experiences, such as a trip around the world, which shows what they have seen and experienced rather than their luxurious life.

Or the brand itself can have both good looks and talent to win their favor.

In 2017, Huabei launched the slogan #Youth is Huabei# and shot a series of advertisements with the theme #Live the way I want#.

We often hear young people complaining about how little they earn and how little they have accomplished. I don’t understand why young people are so anxious? Isn’t our greatest asset our youth? Why should we measure ourselves by the standards of middle-aged people?

We are the new nomads

Our home is all over the world

Xiaolei & Yijia

Settle down in 4 cities with Huabei

I'm just an ordinary person still chasing my dreams

Wang Kang Courier

I bought my first saxophone using Huabei installment payment

I am afraid that my world is just a line between two points.

Graduates of Lin Yuping

Started my global travel with Huabei

3. From "cold mentality" to "companionship mentality", the value associated with this is "loneliness needs to be cured".

For this group, if the brand is aloof to them, they will probably also be aloof to the brand. "Companionship" and "belonging" are particularly strong needs for them, which is why they spend so much time on social media.

Implications for brand marketing:

Brands should step down from the lofty Iron Throne and serve this group of consumers with a companionship mentality. Only a warm attitude can achieve this. A cold mentality will only damage the brand.

Therefore, brands need to comprehensively consider how to interact with post-90s generations, pay more attention to and accompany their users, and become “the ones who stay with them.”

Sanjiu Cold Relief previously launched a heartwarming short film "Someone Secretly Loves You" on the eve of Thanksgiving, which selected the true stories of four young people: a depression patient | a company employee | a corporate white-collar worker | a drunk person in the middle of winter |, implying that this society seems to have caught a "spiritual cold."

Everyone is busy taking care of themselves and living cautiously, as if no one cares about your feelings.

When all the depressed emotions reach their peak and it seems that the world will never get better. From another perspective, the truth slowly unfolds before us: people with depression receive care from countless people; the uncle at the newsstand suddenly loses his temper in order to scare away a thief; the traffic police stops the car just to help put on the gas cap... The world doesn't seem so bad because of these little warm actions.

"Life is like a bad cold, everyone is waiting for a cure." 999 Cold Relief paid tribute to the warm little ordinary things in life during the Thanksgiving period, which not only deeply touched the users, but also made the brand more heartwarming.

4. From "scarcity" to "rare", the value associated with this is "paying for interest".

Luxury goods previously had to be extremely expensive or difficult to obtain, creating value through scarcity. And now while scarcity remains an important component of luxury, true scarcity will limit growth.

Brands should strive to create a sense of “rarity” rather than just “scarcity”. This generation wants to have things that no one else has, whether it’s a product or a memory. Moreover, interest is the core criterion for them to choose something.

Implications for brand marketing:

Brands need to think about creating a sense of rarity, not just scarcity, and be sure to connect with consumers’ interests. For example, regularly launching limited editions or series related to the different hobbies, interests or passions of post-90s; using personalization or customization; or creating resonance and precious memories can also create a sense of rarity.

Red Star Macalline previously launched a series of advertisements - decorate your home however you want it to be beautiful.

Everyone’s ideal home decoration style is always different, and each style represents a kind of life and value. From the low-carbon "pastoral forest girl" to the motorcycle-loving "industrial style follower"; from the minimalist "severe obsessive-compulsive person" to the exaggerated and schizophrenic "human brand identifier"...

8 different young people, 8 different personalities and attitudes towards life.

5. From "lifelong achievement" to "lifelong innovation", the related value is "mastering the future".

In the past, consumers believed they could only purchase luxury handbags if they made a lot of money, and that owning a piece from the brand would signify a lifetime achievement.

However, this approach needs to change for the new generation, where the emotions associated with luxury brands are not just about superiority, but more about self-enhancement and satisfaction. In other words, brands have become their choice to reward themselves on the road to taking control of the future.

Implications for brand marketing:

What brands need to do is to constantly think about whether they can give these young people something they can get through hard work, so that they feel that success is not so far away.

Brands can constantly “reward” young people for their self-improvement by offering a variety of products and categories at every stage of their lives as rewards for their self-improvement, building lifelong relationships with young people and becoming part of their success.

For example, China Merchants Credit Card #Life is more than just expectations#.

This set of posters for China Merchants Credit Card mainly focuses on people returning home at night in the city. “Life is not just about the present, but also about poetry and the distance.” But most of the people live in hardship due to reality.

Through advertisements, China Merchants Credit Card interprets the true expectations and desires of urban night owls. Combined with the recommendation of credit card products, it makes the small but firm goals of ordinary people like us more worth looking forward to and more within reach.

Fang Zhicheng, 32-year-old startup company owner

Every night life,

It’s about thinking about how to overcome the next difficulty.

Put aside the trivialities of the day and leave yourself alone with the difficulties late at night.

Liu Ziwen, 28 years old, Brand Manager

I want a decent job and life.

The kind that you earn yourself.

Coming home late is for the sake of being respectable and glamorous,

It is also a testimony to my independent and strong self.

Li Jie, 23 years old, company employee

There are many uncertainties in this city.

But now the most certain thing is you.

There is always a light on my way home late at night, which is the little happiness you give me.

Wang Wei, 36 years old, private car driver

Can't keep up with the growth rate of children.

So we must give our all every day.

Faster, faster, more time for your future.

Finally, the sixth transformation that brands can make is from “offline” to “omni-channel customer experience”. This is a change in the channel, so I won’t say much about it.

Back to the beginning, the post-90s generation has a core attitude towards life:

“Everything I do now is to become a better version of myself.”

Then the brand targeting this group should also have a core attitude:

"Everything I do now is to help them become better versions of themselves."

And, "becoming a better self" means being different, having a high-quality image, being an interesting and talented person, having companionship, doing things you like and are interested in, and moving towards a better self and a better life through hard work.

This is how brands can maintain communication with post-90s and truly impress them – becoming a symbol of their “better self”.

Author: Mumu Old Thief

Source: Mumu Laozei