Yesterday’s Marketing Daily featured the article “Gen Y is Going to Need Financial Guidance More Than Most.” Citing outstanding student loans, credit card debt and lack of savings, it’s easy to see why Generation Y may need some guidance to navigate these challenges.
So, what kind of financial guidance are you offering Gen Y?
The article makes a good point about life-stage goals – with Susan Menke, senior financial services analyst at Mintel giving the example that “Many Gen Y consumers have a picture of where they’d like to be financially by the time they’re 35. Often, that picture includes owning a house, having children and being free of student loan debt.” She goes on to say “They key is to build your model so that you’re targeting both short-term profit and log-term profit potential.”
Looking at Generation Y’s current life-stage (many are high school or college students, or recent graduates starting careers), and the challenges many are currently facing – like the student loans, credit card debt and lack of savings, as mentioned in the article – gives us some direction as to what kind of financial guidance Gen Y needs now, in the short-term. Gen Y needs a plan to pay off their debts; and many need a reason to start saving their money. This is where life-stage goals like buying a car or home, or saving for a vacation or retirement can become part of the financial guidance your institution offers.
And, depending on your market, offering financial guidance to Gen Y may also require that you think beyond the traditional in-branch meeting with a personal banker. As an example, how will your institution offer financial guidance to Gen Y through your website or other venues?
If you aren’t currently offering any overt financial guidance, education or planning tools for Generation Y, it may be time to start thinking about doing so. With Gen Y expected to become more lucrative in the coming years, the relationships established with them now – especially during important life-stage events, like buying a first home, should be looked at relative to both short-term and long-term opportunities.
May 20, 2008
What kind of financial guidance are you offering Gen Y?
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In my experience, the credit union side of financial services is more aware of this need than banks...but the ways in which they are doing it are generally very cliche, stagnant and passive. Rather than providing a page on the website that explains how to balance a checkbook, I'd like to see these bankers that does more interesting, interactive and impactful stuff. For instance, what if the website had a tool that connected young adults with folks like loan officers to shadow for a day. The idea is that if you spent a day watching a mortgage lender work, asked a lot of questions, learned why a loan program works the way it does, then you'd truly EXPERIENCE the education rather than just read it.
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