Millennials in Asia Pacific are expected to have an estimated US$6 trillion in disposable income by 2020, says a 2016 report by research consultancy firm Accenture.
That high spending power with the fact that millennials represent more than 45 percent of the region’s population, then it’s no wonder that businesses are rethinking how they can capture this age group.
Terry Goh, director of the Malaysian branch of KyoChon , the fried chicken chain that hails from Korea, says the way to go is social media and digital marketing. “There is no other way to see it. Traditional marketing just doesn’t work anymore,” he points out. Gaining a following Goh took on his role at KyoChon Malaysia in 2014. He says that even back then, the plan was to use digital marketing because the restaurant chain “didn’t have the funds for marketing on print, TV, and radio.” “We used Facebook at launch,” he shares. “We also had an Instagram account, but for the first couple of years, it only had about 1,000 followers.”
In 2015, customers started tagging the restaurant on their social media accounts following the success of Korean drama series My Love from the Star . The show happened to feature a scene with the female lead eating at a KyoChon outlet in Korea. “There were people tagging us online that we didn’t even know, and that just kept growing,” adds Goh.