Effectively Reaching Millennials Starts With Listening.
If your company is struggling with a strategy to reach millennials, you are not alone. According to Forbes, companies struggling because many of the traditional methods of advertising have proven ineffective at capturing millennials attention. And with reports predicting that by 2018, millennials are expected to have $3.4 trillion in buying power and outspend the Baby Boomer generation (the second largest generation) you can understand why millennials are so important to businesses. This projection can be both exciting and frustrating for brands who want to tap into this powerful consumer segment but have not yet figured out how to do it successfully. With traditional methods of
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• With 86 million millennials, this segment is currently the largest generation in the U.S. making up more than 25% of the population.
• Millennials are very active in sharing online. In fact 70% of millennials share feedback, ideas, opinions and customer experiences on social, which is a gold mine of data for marketers.
• They have a different set of values than the generations before them. According to CEB Iconoculture Consumer Insights, millennials value Happiness, Passion Diversity, Sharing and Discovery over baby boomers value’s which are Integrity, Family, Practicality, Duty, and Justice.
• 78% of millennials would rather spend money on experiences than on things. This characteristic contributes to explaining why more brands are sponsoring music events and festivals to reach this audience.
• Millennials want to buy or work with business and people who they identify with their values. 50% are more willing to purchase from a company if their purchase supports a cause.
• The average attention span of a millennial is 11 seconds compared to 8 seconds of Gen Z, says millennial expert Chelsea Krost.
Okay, so brands are looking at a population of 86 million millennials (in the U.S. alone) who have very different set of expectations than previous generations held. This population is also prone to sharing their ideas, opinions and experiences online, and expect to be heard, understood and engaged with.
Before
This target market is outgoing, fluent in English, and highly value conscious3. They reside in urban areas with higher population densities and educational institutions. In terms of market segmentation, these young adults are the innovators and early adopters of new products and services. On a daily basis, being exposed to thousands of different messages makes them proactive and more aware of the world. They are heavily impacted by popular culture and being technologically savvy allows them to share their experiences on social media4.
One specific competitive advantage Macy 's holds over Nordstrom 's is its target demographic. While Nordstrom 's focuses mainly on career moms between the ages of 35 and 50, Macy 's recently launched "Millennial strategy" states that its merchandise areas primarily serve ages 19-30. The millennial generation (ages 13-30) is now America 's largest and most diverse generation, spending an estimated $65 billion each year for the type of merchandise sold at Macy 's. A much larger demographic gives Macy 's a competitive advantage.
Shifting demographics: Millennials have emerged as the most populous generation in the United States. As this group’s disposable income rises, industry operators will increasingly cater their services to attract these individuals. Millennials are
There are two reasons related to politics. One of them explains why this generation think Stephen Colbert should be president of the U.S., and the other one is that they know nothing about politics from the fact that a few Millennials could not name some senators from their home state. Another reason is that these young people do not know how to manage their money because from a survey done in 2013 over half admit they are living from paycheck to paycheck. Furthermore, millennials oppose to vaccination more than any other age group by the theory that it can cause a lot of diseases. On the other hand, they smoke more than any other generation, at least one in every four of Millennials admit to smoke according to Ipsos. They are lazy as well,
According to the article What Millennials Want From Work And Life by Adam Adkins, “Yes, millennials want to be healthy, but they also want a purposeful life, active community and social ties, and financial stability.”(Adkins 1) Millennials want so much more than a good job and health, they want to experience life. In The Giver, the community
Learning is something that defines the millennial generation. While some some may call us lazy, I’d say we care more about ourselves. We will question the social norms of working a job we don't like and job hop to find one that makes us happy because we know that the happier we are, the better we perform. That idea also shapes how we affect the world. We try to make entice change by having rallies, such as the Women’s Marches, and bringing awareness to issues, such as bullying and suicide, through our use of the internet because we know that happier people equal a better place for
A company called YuMe Inc. has recently surveyed over 5,000 consumers to “understand how cultural, environmental and life events influence purchase behavior, media viewing habits, device preferences and the impact on consumer marketing.” In that research they were able to segment millennials which made then realize that “by segmenting into different consumer models, companies can focus on the individuals who actually show interest in their product”. This is great for companies in choosing which approach to take when trying to reach these millennials. The results in sales become greater because the reach to a certain segment becomes more accurate. According to Mike Randazzo’s article “What Influences and drives millennial purchasing behaviors” Randazzo found that “while there are common characteristics that define the entire generation, there are more depth and nuance to the audience that advertisers should be aware of in order to influence this segment and drive high engagement.” This shows that if advertisers begin to lump a generation, in particular the millennial generation, into one segment the results will be
The millennial generation is defined as the generation of children born between 1980 and 2000. This is the generation of young men and women fully committing themselves to personal aspirations. Time Magazine published an article titled “Millennials: the Me Me Me Generation,” which claimed millennials are lazy, self-entitled, self-obsessed narcissists. Yet, millennials are also known for being realistic.
Millennials are individuals who were born during 1982 through 2004, ages 18-34 years old. These individuals are considered to be the “largest generation in the United States with 75 million individuals belonging to this generation”
“Millennials as a group of a generation are a group of people who were born 1984 and after are tough to manage, they’re accused of being entitled and narcissistic” as stated by Simon Sinek in the video Millennials in the Workplace. While most would agree with this assumption of millennials, no one ever takes a moment to examine why are millennials are this way. There are reasons as to why one generation can’t clean up the mess that past generations have left behind; in order to make our lives easier, it requires not the participation of one generation but multiple. As a nation we need everyone to work together to ensure high quality of life, to stop treating people as if they were a commodity, to ensure a better future. All of these life changing
For comparison, 78 percent of those 65-and-older said they were ‘not at all likely’ to base purchasing decisions on the advice of their peers. Millennials are a group that highly weights their purchasing decisions on the thoughts and shares of their peers. This may take the form of boycotting or supporting products politically, reaching out to each other rather than wider establishments, or valuing their peers’ opinions over
To market to this audience, one should focus on mobile marketing. 85% of millennials in the U.S. own smartphones (http://www.nielsen.com/us/en/insights/news/2014/mobile-millennials-over-85-percent-of-generation-y-owns-smartphones.html) and by creating pages on social media platforms one can target this audience with deals, events, and information. This will also allow one
Over the past few years, Taco Bell has used technology to try to position itself as “the millennial brand” (Schroeder).Taco Bell has adopted both a unique and effective digital brand strategy to fulfill it’s positioning. The brand strategy has been to increase it’s social media presence to actively engage with fans, specifically millennials (their target market). Taco Bell is now ranked No. 1 on Digital CoCo’s Resturant Social Media Index, beating out other brands such as Wendy’s, McDonalds, and Starbucks.
Millennials tend to be technologically advanced and eager to learn. They also value social responsibility and team-work. They are often seen as impatient and quick to express opinions without having all of the data. Millennials are quick to jump-ship if they do not feel if they are progressing fast enough, often at speeds that might be seen as unreasonable. Dayan (2005) says that about 5.6 million Millennials are about to enter the employment market. Millennials are said to be the most challenging generation for employers.
According to recent research, Millennials (75.5 million) have edged out the Baby Boomers (74.9 million), who are retiring, as the fastest growing group in the United States, with Generation X lagging behind (66 million) (Fry, 2016). By the year 2020, Millennials will account for half of the workforce and their impact on the economic is contingent upon how the economy is doing at that time (Shin, 2015). The Education Testing Service found although Millennials are receiving more education than any other generational group, they may lose their competitive edge against international peers (Twaronite, 2015).