Using social media and a spread word of mouth in marketing gives the Generation Y a chance to make their own identity. This generation has grown with everything they wanted at their hand is characterized to be practical. A sense of having connection with other people is also an important trait of this generation.

       Out of few generation cohorts we learn in the marketing class, the generation Y, also known as millennial with birth dates from early 1980s to early 2000s, is the unique generation for its first adoption of the internet usage.  Unlike their precedents, Generation X, their life was exposed to the ocean of connection, communication, and information that are unbounded online.  Whereas marketers had to make more of physical moves to target the Generation X, it is easier now for marketers nowadays to reach the potential loyal customers.

         Baby boomers and generation X were approached and marketed by production, sales and marketing orientation. However, given the proliferation of information and easy accessibility, marketers also have high level of threat from its rivalry.  Therefore, even though a firm has secured a number of loyal customers, it is extremely likely that those loyal ones would shift their preferences to any other firms when those  firms capture better values.  That said, building trustworthy relationship with Generation Y customers is imperative.  Make it more convenient, make it more valuable, make it stronger, and make it cooler.

Conventional rules for successful marketing strategy may state that touching on emotions of people, as we human beings, is the best one you can ever do. But it is as difficult to achieve as it is obvious because it is all about making money. Psy, who has become a world billionaire Korean pop singer, is in point. Beginning from July 15th 2012, Psy’s new title Gangnam Style spread virally all over the world.

How did Psy’s Gangnam Style make such a huge success? His music video has been watched on Youtube almost 1.8 billion times around the world. People whose mother-tongue is not even Korean just love his catchy dance moves and interpret his lyrics they do not even understand.  However, Psy was indifferent and completely laid back when it came to infringing on his copyright of his music video; he decided to give up on his copyright, which resulted in thousands of different parodies.

His decision on copyright, of course, was a shock to the norm; you would most likely make copyrights on your ideas to make more money. As a result, the phenomenon of unbounded awareness and reputation through YouTube, his appearance on TV shows such as Today, Ellen, and Saturday Night Live, and commercials, like Samsung Electronics and LG’s provider UPlus, created social validation and scarcity, which, in turn, gave him maybe ten times of what he would have earned through his copyrights.

    At some american weddings, a hired DJ would play the DJ’s own version of Gangnam Style and all members, including “older generation” will stand up and perform the horse-riding dance. A lesson we can learn from Psy’s viral success across the world is that sometimes we should make marketing strategies that people feel it is ownable that everybody can freely enjoy it and love it, using consistency principle. 

http://www.techdirt.com/blog/casestudies/articles/20121209/07431921317/psy-makes-81-million-ignoring-copyright-infringements-gangnam-style.shtml