Generation Y demands a marketing story

That is according to Karen Fewell, founder of Digital Blonde agency, who was speaking about the science of psychology and marketing to help sales at the M&C Allegra Foodservice​ Marketing in Foodservice conference last week. 

The study of neuroscience and food marketing is on the rise as marketeers attempt to understand why people choose the products and services they do. 

Fewell said it has been found that people’s emotional reaction is stronger to photographs and images so these resonate better with an audience than words alone.

However, a picture alone will not sell a product - people need the emotional attachment as well to resonate within their brain.

With the rise of social media people frequently photograph food to share on social media and this can be harnessed by operators to create and enhance brand awareness. 

Fewell said we make more than 200 decisions each day about food, many of which are made unconsciously by our brains.

This insight allows companies wanting to market their product or service to develop a brand story that resonates with customers, which ultimately sells.

BrewDog​

Creating this brand story has been the success of BrewDog’s marketing campaign, as Alex Myers of Manifest PR said.

Myers said the shift from Generation X to Generation Y can be seen in people’s attitudes: Generation X was happy with production rationalisation with marketing focused around what a product is and how cheap it can be made; however Generation Y is more concerned with why a product exists and the relationship of the brand to the consumer.

The founders of BrewDog set out to change how people thought about beer because they loved beer so much. This has been at the heart of everything they have done and helped them achieve turnover of £30m last year and projecting that to increase to £50m for 2015.

Myers was sharing marketing innovation tips on how BrewDog has achieved this without spending money on advertising.

By sharing their story founders Martin and James Watt have turned their fans into brand ambassadors the company and created a large network of people who are so passionate about the brand they have been willing to invest in it.