sensitive
Marketers believe that the lack of loyalty Millennials display is due to price sensitivity. There is irony in the fact that Millennials seem to insist on getting what they want, when they want it, but are apparently willing to wait to make any purchase until a price is found that meets a certain criteria.
Private
With hacks, data breaches, and the fear of Big Brother monitoring their every move, Millennials want to keep their information private. Even with their high degree of oversharing on social media, marketers assume that Millennials don’t want to share with brands for fear of exploitation.
Some of the assumptions marketers make about Millennials are accurate, with the data and research to back them up:
❯❯ Educated and informed consumers: The majority of Millennial consumers review blogs and review sites before making a purchase. According to data from Bazaarvoice, an online retail shopper network (http://blog.bazaarvoice.com/2012/01/24/infographic-millennials-will-change-the-way-you-sell), 84 percent of Millennials say that user-generated content has an influence on what they buy. The brand experience is extremely important to Millennials. They believe that they can find good information in the unbiased accounts of other consumers. Tailoring the experience to the Millennial audience segment is crucial. This connected consumer base has more power than even the most rich and powerful brands.
❯❯ Price sensitive, but will spend: Millennials became consumers during the greatest economic downfall that the United States experienced in nearly a century. Combine that with a high amount of student debt, and you have a generation of consumers that thinks before it buys.
❯❯ Highly tech-savvy and living mobile-first: Millennials live online and, more importantly, on their mobile devices. They are constantly connecting and communicating. Any brand that doesn’t take this particular trait into account and recognize that mobile is the new norm won’t survive in an increasingly competitive marketplace.
When you make assumptions about an entire demographic, you risk getting some things wrong. (Chapter 3 covers analyzing audience segments.) Here are some of the false assumptions marketers make:
❯❯ Millennials are not loyal. Millennials are, in fact, very loyal. The difference with Millennial loyalty is that it relies much more on the relationship rather than brand recognition. Identifying the traits of audience segments, developing content that caters specifically to those traits, and building lasting relationships are what drive Millennials to be loyal.
❯❯ Millennials protect their privacy. In reality, millennials are willing to share more than any other generation. It may appear that they’re very private, but less than half of Millennials set strict online privacy settings.
❯❯ The group is lazy and entitled: Millennials are quite the opposite of lazy. In fact, many Millennials work more than one job to pay bills and debts. What marketers miss is that on-demand services provide access and convenience, not laziness or self-entitlement. Millennials don’t want to interrupt their work to run errands; they can have things like food delivered to them. This change signals a shift in consumer norms rather than providing evidence of a negative trait.
❯❯ Millennials are antisocial and self-absorbed. Self-absorption is actually a byproduct of shifting communications practices. Millennials receive a constant stream of personalized messages. Marketers know that personalized messages are more likely to catch a Millennial’s attention, so they become the norm. Therefore, Millennials aren’t so much self-absorbed as they’re used to responding to messages that specifically cater to their needs.
When you apply certain false assumptions to the strategy behind a campaign, the results can be underwhelming. To avoid getting disappointing results, don’t make these common marketing mistakes:
❯❯ Providing generalized, umbrella content with no specific target audience: You need to analyze your audience segments and develop tailored, personalized content to deliver to specific targeted groups. Sending generic content without the customization that Millennials look for leads to failed campaigns.
❯❯ Targeting Millennials by age and age alone: Millennials are more than an age range; they’re the new generation of consumers. When you think about Millennials as a mindset as opposed to a group of consumers restricted by an age range, you expand your potential audience and position yourself for long-term success.
❯❯ Duplicating content across all media: All consumers varies their use of media, so you can’t apply the same strategy to each of them and hope to be successful. You need to understand your audience on each of the platforms you frequent (see Chapters 6, 7, and 8). Then you can develop effective strategies for each audience and media type.
❯❯ Making assumptions without analyzing data to back it up: Data needs to be at the core of everything you do. So much of it is readily available to fuel your success, so make sure that you use it. (For more about the analysis and applications of data, see Chapter 4.)
The mistakes listed in the previous section are common for one reason: They generally come from the same four roots. These roots are
❯❯ Inattention to data: Data needs to be the driving force behind your decisions. If you’re developing strategies that don’t rely on data, you’ll likely be disappointed with the results. You have no reason to rely on gut instinct. Data insights are simply too accessible.
❯❯ Broad generalizations applied to your audience: With so much information about Millennials, it doesn’t make sense to run on assumptions alone. Take some time to analyze and get to know your audience so that you can develop content and campaigns that really resonate with them.
❯❯ A lack of testing: Everything you do should be tested. One of the greatest powers of new media is the ability to test, analyze, optimize, and implement all in a matter of hours. The ability to react in real-time is powerful and should not be ignored.
❯❯ Refusing to adapt to changing audiences: The audience you’ve cultivated and analyzed for today’s campaign may not be the same audience you’ll find when you’re ready to run your next initiative. Auditing and analyzing your audience can be a tedious process, but it’s an important one if you want to maintain relationships
