If you haven’t noticed already, Millennials are a force to be reckoned with. There are more of them than anyone else, and they have money to spend. For business owners, the question shouldn’t be “Can I sell to Millennials?” Rather it should be “How do I sell to Millennials?”
Generally speaking, Millennials like to call the shots when it comes to their consumer experience. This independence applies to other aspects of their lives as well. Despite the practical concerns they face, many Millennials are now their own boss (and this is because e-commerce platforms and businesses like Amway allow them to be their own boss with greater ease than ever before). They know how to market to their own age group better than anyone else, and they have a drive to create and build.
Millennials and Baby Boomers are quite different in many ways. Understanding the differences can help business owners tap into this emerging market. Selling to Millennials is about meeting their immediate needs. If you’re a Millennial yourself, you already know this. But you don’t have to be to find success in reaching this audience. So this is what you need to know with a Millennial buying audience.
Millennials Shop Local
Maybe you think this is a tired cliché, but in truth Millennials really do like shopping locally. The reasons for this are many. Shopping locally develops a sense of community (a sense of community which many feel was lost with the sub-urbanization of North America), helps perpetuate a persona of individuality by avoiding brand name stores, and helps individuals live a quality of life they believe is more in keeping with who they are. Or perhaps it’s simply because shopping local is everything their parents do not do!
Millennials Love E-Commerce
Amazon. Etsy. Netflix. Hulu. Uber. The list goes on and on. Despite a penchant for visiting local bricks and mortar shops, Millennials love shopping online. And that is because for everything that isn’t an Americano or Cafe Latte, it usually is more convenient to buy directly using their phone or laptop. That includes taxi rides and television. Millennials are drawn to e-commerce because they value its convenience and competitive pricing. Online retailers tend to offer both values in spades. Millennials often are more brand-loyal than one might think, and strong online presence goes a long way to reach their demographic.
Millennials Love Deals
When Millennials were adolescents shopping at a dollar store would have been embarrassing for many. The 1980s and 1990s were perhaps the peak of American consumerism focused on material acquisition. But that is no longer the case. Today Millennials are happy to shop for a deal and have no qualms with letting others know. Though Millennials may happily drop $100 on a new pair of Nike Pegasus sneakers, they are just as happy to buy essentials for $1 a piece. Though Millennials can be loyal, they also seem to realize that brand loyalty can go too far. In many of their minds it doesn’t matter what brand of toothpaste you buy.
Millennials Crave Instant Gratification
Amazon Prime offers free two-day shipping. Uber and Lyft allow Millennials to hail a cab directly using a smartphone. And services like AirBnB let Millennials book a room for a night in homes across the world, and they can do this on the same day they want to check in. Needless to say, Millennials like instant gratification. As a business owner or corporate executive, understanding helps to refine your products, services, and delivery methods. If you own an e-commerce business, for example, an emphasis on fast delivery may be more important than competitive pricing.
Millennials Value Authenticity
This concept may be the most tenuous to grasp. That’s because authenticity is a completely subjective metric. Despite this it’s a goal easily reached. If you break down how to be authentic into specific action steps, they are rather simple:
Millennials like businesses that are philanthropic, that fulfill a need within the marketplace, develop new technologies or ways of doing things, and that solve problems in clever ways. They also like businesses that are open and upfront. Any business can do this but many don’t. And when they don’t they likely miss the Millennial market.
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Millennials are in the midst of becoming the largest, most powerful consumer demographic in history. With buying power in the trillions of dollars, there is no doubt that Millennials are more than capable when it comes to making consumer purchases. But are they willing? Well, look no further than smartphones, tablets, video game consoles, and young people’s dining preferences as proof that Millennials are happy to spend their hard-earned cash. Yes, their habits may differ than yours, assuming you’re a Baby Boomer or Gen Xer, but suffice to say, Millennials enjoy spending money. And yet, for many businesses, the question remains: how do you sell to them?
The answer is complex and multifaceted. If it could be summed up with three simple steps, there would be no issue! Unfortunately, it is not quite that easy. But here are three tips that might just provide you, if you are in sales and marketing, with a magic formula.
1. Get Their Attention
Millennials don’t like advertising. They recognize ads for what they are, sales pitches for products and services that in most cases, they don’t need. If you are a marketer, this fact creates a dilemma. How do you market to someone who hates marketing?
The short answer is: get their attention!
How do you do that? First, you must be where they are. That means ditching television and other traditional advertising channels altogether. Though Millennials do still sit down in front of a TV (though increasingly to watch Netflix, and other download broadcast services), they spend much of their time doing this through mobile devices including smartphones, tablets, and laptops. Knowing this, you as a marketer should tailor promotional initiatives around these channels, not the old tried and true ones that worked for the previous buying generation.
That means social media, video, blogging, search engine optimized web presence, and other inbound marketing channels. Your marketing website must be mobile-responsive. And you need to incorporate lots of online resources because Millennials are tech-savvy. The key is to make it easy and interesting to find you. Once you’ve done this go to the next step.
2. Engage Them in the Buying Process
Getting a Millennial consumer to buy something is often a hopeless endeavor. But what if the buyer simply doesn’t know they need a product you have built and want to sell them? It’s a matter of education rather than coercion. This is most effectively done by engaging them in a conversation – either literally via social channels, or figuratively through your marketing outreach. Your marketing is no longer about shouting from the rooftops. You are now into relationship building.
Though the prior Generation we deem “X” is more often thought of as being cynical, it is actually Millennials who are the most distrusting of big business. Overcoming this lack of trust goes a long way towards earning Millennial loyalty.
How does a business do this?
Whatever approach you take, being authentic, Millennials value this above all else, sets you apart.
3. Give Them What They Want
At the end of the day, a business must adapt to the needs and wishes of the next generation if it hopes to have long-term success. Ivory jewelry and whale oil lamps don’t win you fans in 2016. If you want to win over Millennial consumers, you must give them what they want. So companies like T-Mobile with services like Binge On streaming. Millennials love this type of service because it fits with behavioral norms where and Millennials stream music and video to their mobile devices,. The T-Mobile twist is to ensure Millennials can do this without cutting into their mobile data plan which would cost them money. Instead T-Mobile offers them an enormous carrot. Use us and you can stream music and video for free, whether on your mobile network or on Wi-Fi. It is novel, unorthodox and it works?
So What’s Next? How Will Selling and Marketing Differ with Generation Z?
What will Gen Z – the generation that follows Millennials or Gen Y be like? They will be the byproduct of multiple generations that have witnessed a series of technology revolutions. First the computer, then the Internet, then mobile computing and smartphones. Needless to say, it’s anyone’s guess what technologies will define this coming generation’s buying behavior.
Think about this. Millennials were raised on processed foods and yet have embraced organic and farm-to-table produce with unrivaled enthusiasm. They were raised on cable TV, yet increasingly shun it. Gen Y has been raised with multiple cars in every driveway, yet many report they have no interest in owning one. If the children of these Millennials rebel in the same way as they have, does that mean Generation Z could become Baby Boomers Version 2.0? Only time will tell!
In Part 2 of Selling to Millennials and Generational Change we will look at the fate of the “bricks & mortar” world of retail. Does the evidence show that Millennials are abandoning traditional stores like JC Penney, Sears and Nordstrom. Will they just as quickly abandon Big Box retail stores that have become predmoninant in the last two decades? Is Amazon not just today but the future for Millennials and the Gen Z that follows?