One of the biggest challenges for many businesses is attracting Generation Y. While traditional marketers may struggle to attract Millennials, it’s surprisingly easy for a young, exciting brand to stand out and attract a teenage or 20-something audience.
If your retail store targets a young audience and wants to brand itself as a place for younger people, adapting your signage is a great way to attract a new audience and stand out from the crowd.
The four tips below range from easy to implement to slightly more complicated but amazingly effective. If your business targets a Millennial audience, try implementing one, two or all four of them for better marketing results.
Emphasize your store’s online presence
One of the easiest ways to build a relationship with your Millennial target audience is to encourage prospective customers to connect and interact with your retail store online.
Instead of just listing your business’s name in its signage, provide the URL of your company’s Facebook Page or Twitter account. In short, make it as easy as possible for prospective customers to find you online.
This way, your store can keep in touch with its target audience through Facebook updates and tweets. Over time, this can help you build a loyal audience that’s likely to return to your store or purchase products online.
Don’t overuse memes and online culture
One of the easiest ways to connect with a young audience is to use the same memes and language. However, this marketing method can easily backfire, especially when it’s used in a format as permanent as a retail sign.
Instead of trying to appropriate Millennial culture, focus on communicating all of your brand’s values to a young audience. Showcase your product as part of a full lifestyle rather than as a single item or items in isolation.
Show prospective customers how your products can benefit them through your retail signage. This is a far more effective strategy than attaching memes, youth culture and other movements to your signage in an attempt to stand out.
Keep your branding sleek and simple
There’s no need to make your branding complicated. The most effective signage is often the simplest – often, it’s as little as a sign listing what your business can offer and how people can benefit from it.
No matter which audience you’re targeting with your signage, make sure you focus on the fundamentals of great signage. Have a message, have a call to action and have an explanation of how people will benefit from your product or service.
Although Millennials love to shop online and take part in communities, the old rules of marketing haven’t gone out of style. Focus on the fundamentals of great signage and you’ll achieve a great result, even on a young, digital audience.
Avoid traditional, old-fashioned design
It might sound overly simple, but it’s true: one of the best ways to make sure your brand feels youthful and exciting is to avoid using traditional design elements, such as old-fashioned fonts or color schemes, in your retail signage.
From serif fonts to old-fashioned marketing taglines, make sure your business has none of the 20th century marketing staples in its signage. Instead, go with a modern design that brands your business as something new and exciting.
It’s important that your business has the products or culture to back up its image, as modern signage is unlikely to make a very traditional business seem more relevant to a young audience.
Does your business appeal to Gen Y?
Marketing to Generation Y can seem difficult, but it’s actually much easier than most businesses imagine. Use the four tips above to create signage that’s highly relevant to a young audience and your business may stand out as an exciting youth brand.
