Avoid words like “invest” and potential millennial-aged customers will more likely to opt to save money for retirement. That was the finding by a group of students at Colorado State University who won Saturday’s DisCOver Challenge, a intercollegiate business competition sponsored by Fidelity Labs.
“The way you phrase things has such an impact on how people use your product or interpret your product and decide to go with you over someone else,” said Montana Williams, from Team Business For Good, on why they ditched the term “invest” (no one clicked it) for “stash your cash” in a website prototype built to encourage young people to sign up for both healthcare and a retirement-savings account. The team, which added an à la carte-style healthcare plan, won $10,000.
The Challenge, which was hosted by the University of Denver and its multidisciplinary Project X-ITE, had about 70 students from five Colorado universities spend the past month designing a product that pitches healthcare and finances to millennials. Saturday was the final pitch day and judges from the Denver’s entrepreneurial community got to tap into the mindset of college students and how they save for retirement. Many don’t.
“Investing is boring,” said Everett Montano, from Team Tres Comas at the Air Force Academy.
Tres Comas wants to turn investing into a game, literally. As gamers pay cash to buy more PokéCoins in Pokémon GO, for example, they could also opt for a portion of the money to go into a retirement or savings account. Every time they played, they’d save more.
“We’re providing the foot in the door,” Montano said. Tres Comas placed second, leaving with $7,500.
Fidelity Labs, the innovation arm of the financial company, launched the challenges because it wanted to build deeper relationships with the local communities it operates in. Fidelity, which employs about 800 people in Colorado, put $50,000 into the event.
“It’s a huge draw for us because we’re in Boston. And there are a lot of universities and colleges in Boston,” said Suzi Hamil, head of design thinking at Fidelity Labs, who also sat on the judges panel. “But to be part of something that is a state innovation challenge for the entire state, and to see such a diversity of students, it was like, ‘Okay, we’ve got to do this.'”
But beyond stronger relationships, Fidelity also got to tap into the millennial brain in a way its typical market research doesn’t.
“But by giving (students) this framework, we can give them the ability to really show us strong signals about what we should do. With the disCOver Challenge, they were able to observe themselves and their own behavior and come up with a solution that works best for them,” she said. “This really gives us optimism and faith to do what we need to do, and galvanizes Fidelity to keep moving forward to meet those needs.”
Students also came from DU and the University of Colorado Boulder.
Team Uni4, also from Colorado State University, pitched a plan that would help young people not worry as much that they’re only putting in $5 here or $10 there. By getting a better sense of what other peers are doing, young consumers could see how one decision affects others. The team placed third, winning $2,500.
“We all appreciate the opportunity to get outside ou respective boxes and work on a diverse team on this project,” said Jenn Gonzales, a CSU senior who is double majoring in business management and philosophy. “I’m sure we will be mulling over the choices we made but we consider this a victory. … We feel empowered.”