Last Friday I took a trip to the YPULSE College Mashup in Santa Monica. YPULSE did a great job of lining up some interesting speakers and panels for the event. The focus of the mashup was to understand how to market to Generation Y at the college level. It took an entire day, but eventually it became clear to me that the single most important technique in connecting with college students is to acknowledge them as an important part of your business, and go the extra mile to connect with them on their own terms.
College students see themselves as unique and important individuals who deserve to be treated with the same level of respect as other key consumer demographics. They want products that are designed with them in mind, not just tweaked by a customized marketing message. PCs are interesting example. College students don’t want to be forced into using a laptop that their mom is using at home, and they certainly have no interest in using a computer that all those “suits” use downtown. They want a product that celebrates their unique lifestyle, and in the case of computing, this means that they want the power of business machines with the sleek styling.
Apple, who over the last decade has made the needs of college students one of their top priorities, has figured this out. They’ve created machines that are sleek and stylish while having the power that kids need in today’s education world (well, education plus gaming equals college education, right?). They also get bonus markets. High schoolers will look to emulate the college lifestyle, and older people will look to brands used by college students as a way to hopefully regain some of the youth that they have lost since those magical four years.
The bottom line is that if you want to get into the college market, you need to go the extra mile and make products that directly address college kids’ needs. If you don’t want to put in the effort to create products that speak to them that’s fine. But, you will also need to accept that your product simply won’t sell to an incredibly profitable as well as influential demographic.
