Digital marketing can never be a successful unless one identifies their target audience. The core audience that purchases a company’s products or services forms the target audience, and predictably, it is a very diverse population. So how then, can one understand the quirks and eccentricities of a subpopulation in order to formulate marketing messages that are customized? Firstly, it is important to identify a target audience, and secondly, it is important to understand how that audience perceives digital media, digital advertisements and digital paid content. In this article, let us take a look at marketing digitally to a target audience that comprises of hipsters.
Who Really are the Hipsters?
Hipster subculture is defined by its refusal to be categorized, and to remain nonconformist. While doing so, this demographic may try to adopt cultural trends from different eras and cultures and create personal collages of lifestyle patterns, all of which remain subjectively inauthentic. In his article “Hipster: The Dead End of Western Civilization”, Douglas Haddow describes hipster culture to consist of recently settled urban middle class youngsters between the ages of 18 and 34.
They may prefer independent music, organic foods, non mainstream tastes in art and culture and a tendency to strive for individualism and authenticity, while disregarding what is mainstream and what reflects of mass culture.
This then, poses a significant risk and challenge to marketing managers who have always lived upon the idea of identifying influencers and influencing those influencers so that the rest of the population that admires these influencers can purchase those goods and services.
The Challenge of Authenticity, Ethics, and Corporate Accountability
If marketing to hipster audience is a challenge, it only means that marketing strategies need to be more creative. One must understand that this sub-group thrives on authenticity, ethics and a sense of responsibility towards environment, health and respect for one another. Thus, it becomes important for a brand or a company to be authentic, ethical and carve out a niche for itself.
It is funny, but this is what all companies need to be doing anyway: remaining authentic, original, not doing what everyone else is doing and developing an individual personality that is far removed from what everyone currently professes. Luckily for marketers, when a company targets hipsters, they can also ensure their own ethics, authenticity and responsibility for environment and the world.
Digital Marketing for Hipsters
Commonly, hipsters tend to use either Twitter or Tumblr, when it comes to prominent social marketing tools. It might do well for a company to adopt a very authentic and individualistic twitter campaign and have a personal engagement strategy with their target audience. It especially works for small and medium businesses that need to develop a faithful and loyal consumer base. By remaining authentic and true to your product and service, and by conveying that message on Twitter, you would be able to win not only a hipster’s heart but also anyone’s heart.
Apart from Twitter and Tumblr, you might want to identify social networks that are unique and that which lie on the fringes. That way, you will be able to choose a social network that reflects your own ideals and ethics.
Online Ad Campaigns for Hipsters
Another way to handle digital marketing for hipsters is to create online ad campaigns that are ethical and call for an action based in ethics and social responsibility. You might want to use your own corporate responsibility principles in your ad campaigns. For instance, you might want to communicate your company or business’ commitment towards ameliorating the conditions of feral cats or your commitment towards educating students in high schools about the ill effects of bullying.
This again will improve your own corporate image while also boosting credibility and reliability of your social responsibility. While naysayers and old fashioned executives find it difficult to market to hipsters, if you remain authentic, ethical and socially responsible and show your customers and consumers that you do what you believe in, you will be able to send a very strong marketing communication.
Why You Need to Be a Hipster Yourself in Order to Target Hipsters
A hipster will never identify himself or herself as a hipster and will almost certainly deny it. By admitting or accepting that he or she is a hipster, they will negate the very philosophy they believe in: that one must not conform to a category and must remain authentic. In your digital marketing campaigns, you must make sure that you remain true to your company’s ideals and ethics. Basically, if you walk the talk, you will be able to achieve success in your digital marketing campaign targeted at the so-called hipsters.
