Soundbites: Trends and Gen Y Values
With more than 11,000 Millennials turning 16 every day, Ford recognizes the importance of addressing the values and needs of the country's youngest drivers. Ford turned to Barbara Bylenga, founder of Outlaw Consulting, to learn more about the Millennial mindset. Bylenga specializes in identifying Millennial values and has been telling major companies what the coolest of the cool kids want since 1994.
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"Gen Y has a strong set of values that shows in lots of ways, in how they live, how they choose their career's, how they buy, it's very easy to talk to them about their values because they're living it and like to express it, and at Outlaw we find young people who are living a forward life style and also are very articulate about their life style and hover over their generation and really explain to us why they do things and why their peers are thinking and acting in certain ways." :34 sec. |
So how does this apply to what Ford Motor Company needs to do so it'll appeal to Millennials? According to Bylenga, Ford needs to think in terms of functionality and not just a status symbols. |
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"A car, for boomers has been a status symbol in that it's often a way to show your success. By how expensive it is or how flashy it is. For this generation it's a way to give them experiences…so it's a tool almost, the more that a car is associated with helping you have interesting experiences live the life that you want and do the things you want, the more that it becomes a status symbol for you it's not about flashy or snazzy…they want to show their values, they want to show their success in different ways then in overt flashiness or snazziest." :34 sec. |
This is not to say that a Mustang BOSS 302 would not appeal to Gen Y, Bylenga says, it's saying a vehicle that performs a function is an instrument that represents success. |
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"When a car gives them the ability to be connected, get more done, do more things, then it's part of what success and status is to them. And you could go on it, could be how they can store all their things, get around quickly, be cost efficient, be fuel efficient, saving money for other things, for more experiences, so the more that it helps and enables them to live life, rather than be a symbol for their success, the more it's desirable to them." :25 sec. |
Bylenga expressed this desire in another way when she recalled a Gen Y comment about flashy versus functionality. |
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"An interesting quote from one of our trend setters, 'Ya know it's ok to have flashy gadgets and nice cloths, but a flashy sports car makes you seem like maybe you're trying a little to hard " :09 sec. |
Bylinga also expressed her optimism for the future, because of Gen Y. As she says, we now have a generation of 80 million people who have grown up as a connected generation and are accustomed to working together to resolve issues. |
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"In school they were taught to be team players, forming group consensus and technology has just propagated that even further in terms of Face book and social networking . So they're connected on a daily basis with people that stretch way back to childhood and they will remain connected to them and so they almost have almost a tribe behind them or a silent army that is there for them and they use their network to get things done." :24 sec. |
Bylenga notes that Millennials, like generations past, want to make a difference in the world. She is convinced their values are in the right place and that Ford Motor Company is on the same wavelength with its products, as evidenced by programs like the Fiesta Movement. |
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"The social networking on the campaign in terms of introducing it and having it be so well known before it even came out on the market using pioneering social networking in order to do that. And I think the new models coming out are very impressive as well ." :14 sec. |