OMG! The Coupons Are Here!

In his book, The Age Curve: How to Profit from the Coming Demographic Storm, Kenneth W. Gronbach tells a story about stopping at the top of his driveway to retrieve the mail, getting back in the car and hearing his two daughters—aged 13 and 16—excitedly ask what came for them. Both, it turned out, received direct-mail offers from their favorite clothing retailer, and they immediately asked if he would take them shopping. "This is not a real question," he writes, "because they know I'm trapped. How else will we save all the money reflected in the coupons?"

Even though kids live in a digital-online-wireless world of iPods, laptops, mobile phones, text messages and downloadable media, his daughters' enthusiasm for the low-tech approach of direct mail is not unusual. According to Gronbach, Generation Y customers—who will number 100 million by 2010—watch little broadcast television, don't read newspapers and rarely listen to broadcast radio. It's a good thing for marketers, therefore, that they respond so well to this tried-and-true channel.

"Put some compelling coupons in a snail-mail offer and watch what happens," he says.

It might not have the glamour of avant-garde marketing, but here's your Marketing Inspiration: "Generation Y loves direct snail mail," writes Gronbach. "I know this seems strange in the cyberage, but if you need to brand Gen Y and you are not using the U.S. Post Office, you are making a big mistake."