MARKETING
Connecting with our youth How do we ensure that the youth still find our engagement with them authentic, empowering and empathic? Connector. A word that I use without the blink of an eye every time I am asked to describe myself, free from the tags that come with my educational background and work experience. I am often one to suggest names, brands, channels, presentations and reference conversations that could potentially help amplify people’s ideas or play a role in getting them off the ground. So, if someone would have told me that in 2020, I would be working for an organisation whose focus is on helping youth become more employable and bring them closer to entry-level employment opportunities, I would have believed them – there’s clear alignment and connection in purpose. Some of the pre-COVID-19 office memories that spring to mind include my weekly ‘Skhaftin Friday Hangouts’ with circles of young people during my lunch breaks, engaging in conversations that left me uneasy, and constantly reminded that, while we strive to understand the youth better as marketers, their voices are clearer, and empathy and context are much better gained through face-to-face interaction.
empowering and empathic? Over the past couple of weeks of lockdown, there has been a lot of observation and learning that I have done as a social marketer and in understanding that the youth of 2020 are fighting different battles as compared to the youth of 1976. Every word in a marketing campaign can easily become a trigger and a reminder of how far removed your brand is from their reality.
Little did I know that soon, a digital version of these hangouts and new ways of gaining these insights would have to be explored. But the reality is that not everyone can afford to surf the net and switch between different social media platforms without worrying about the cost of data, let alone stay on the phone for an hour catching up with loved ones. The “comfort of one’s home” looks different for those that would use their commute to work as a form of escapism and the scenery as a vision board that perfectly paints the life that they are working towards.
BE RELATABLE
What does this mean for us as marketers and small business owners who still need to connect to their market? How do we stay in touch and ensure that youth still find our engagement with them authentic,
42 YOUR BUSINESS | June-July 2020
“Do you hear me? Does what I say mean anything to you?” – Oprah Winfrey. Youth don’t just want to be heard; they want to be understood. While we hear and read the different stories that they share about their reality, we sometimes forget to take the learnings with us into our strategy and the messaging that we compile. Before the government started supplying water tanks in water-scarce communities, you might have gotten used to content about sanitising, making use of wipes and washing of hands regularly that you had already packaged your messaging. But you may have forgotten that there are many families who do not have access to running water and have to share a bar of soap, and ensure that they
