Blog #5: Marketing Towards Millennials

When my mom emailed a link to an article from the ABA Banking Journal a few weeks ago, I rolled my eyes and planned on skimming it so I could tell my mom I read it. But as I began looking through the article, I realized that it would be great to discuss here on my blog. The article was entitled Millennials Upend Traditional Marketing and discussed how companies are increasingly having to change their marketing when targeting the millennial generation.

In my marketing class, we learned about the different tactics that companies use to market towards the three generational groups; the Baby Boomers, Generation X, and Millennials. When marketing towards Baby Boomers, the 78 million people born between 1946 and 1964, marketers are having to take into consideration that fact that these people are looking to save money as a result of the Great Recession. Even though Baby Boomers have been affected monetarily, they are still one of the wealthiest generations that the US has seen. They see themselves as youthful and, with no intention of slowing down, they purchase extravagant item such as cruises, luxurious mattresses, and medication said to retain youth.

Generation Xers, the 49 million people born between 1965 and 1976, are seen as much less materialistic than other generations. They prize experience over acquisition, and put family first. Being a skeptical generation, Xers often put lots of research into large purchases. While this is the most educated generation to date, they, like the Baby Boomers, face severe economic pressure. Due to the fact, however, that this generation is a family orientated generation, marketers consider this a prime target segment.

Millennials, the 83 million people born between 1977 and 2000, are the most financially affected generation postrecession. They are facing high unemployment, topped with high debt. The redeeming factor to this generation, however, is their fluency with technology. To market towards Millennials, companies find themselves becoming transparent through technology, engaging in two-way brand conversations.

The article that I read focused in on Millennials and how they are changing the way marketers think.  Due to the fact that Millennials are so in tune with social media, their interactions with companies, in terms of product feedback and suggestions, are accelerated. They expect a two-way relationship with the companies that they buy from, which is modernizing the ways companies market. Based on this article, Millennials are transforming the following five elements of marketing;

      1.     Reach – Millennials are engaging through social media and mobile devices much more than and previous generation. They use technology to search for promotions, look up info about products, and do price checks.

      2.     Relevance – the purchases Millennials make are influenced by other people more so than any other generation. They no longer trust the opinions of field experts and are more influenced by friends, family, and even strangers and celebrities.

     3.     Reputation – Millennials are beginning to relate to products on a more personal level, saying that they want a brand to represent themselves, and say something about who they are.

     4.     Relation – Millennials are looking to companies to establish a personal relationship with them individually or in small groups in order to establish brand loyalty.

     5.     Referral – Millennials are much more likely than any other generation to share their opinions about products on social networks.

Read the article here.