Attracting and retaining young customers (or employees) is vitally important for many industries. Most companies want to be there when consumers are ready to reach life's first milestones - from purchasing their first set of luggage to their first home. Market research suggests that many consumers build their brand loyalties before they turn 10 years old. Is your company missing out on a critical, high-potential market segment? Below is a summary of ten things your company can start doing today to capture the hearts, minds, and wallets of the under-25 set.
10 Steps
Engage Moms
Moms are often the driving force behind where their children open their first account and subsequently keep their accounts into adulthood. Make a mom happy and you'll probably get her business, her family's business, and her friends' referrals.
Things to consider:
- Incentives for opening accounts for young children.
- Baby register accounts for newborns so that friends and relatives can deposit money as gifts.
- Offer Art of Allowance workshops where moms and dads can learn more about raising money-smart kids.
Start a Kids Club
Many kids make their brand choices before they are even 10 years old. Kids accounts, with colorful, interactive, fun aesthetics will engage kids. They will become life time money smart consumers and you'll gain their loyalty.
Focus on experiences. Make your branch fun to visit
Some banks and credit unions have kids corners with coloring stations or digital corners with mounted iPads.
Teller should have small gifts to give young visitor like stickers or lollipops.
Have an app (or two)
Our favorite apps do things like track and pay allowances.
Hold regular focus groups of teens and parents
If your bank or credit union isn't consistently listening to young consumers in a formalized way, you may very well be missing fundamental shifts in the way that they think about money, transact with their money, and expect to be serviced.
Engage your young employees
Your employees under the age of 30 may have vast insight to the young market. How are you engaging them in order to get their feedback and recommendations?
Provide scholarships
Scholarships are a great ways to gain the attention of potential teenagers as well as build loyalty with your current college-bound members. Scholarship opportunities provide natural word-of-mouth marketing for your credit union as schools, parents, and students pass along the information to other college-bound families.
Sponsor school / sporting / community activities
There is no shortage of volleyball, baseball, football, soccer, gymnastics, and dance teams to support. Often with relatively little investment, you can have your bank or credit union’s name displayed on jerseys or, on gym walls or announced at games.
Provide media when and were they want it
At every teen panel, we have facilitated to date, at least half of the students said they watch YouTube videos on a regular basis and expressed that say they would watch tutorials about banking and wise money habits via YouTube.
Make sure your products and services for young people are hitting the mark
Take a hard look at the banking alternatives that many youth are now using. How does your bank or credit union stack up? You may be missing valuable opportunities for engagment if you don't pay attention and evolve your products and services.
We can help you with any or all of these action items. We work on an hourly basis and you can use us as much or as little as you need.
Request a copy of our white paper on this topic.