A Direct Marketing Agency - Helping Brands Acquire and Retain Customers

Call them the Millennials. Call them the Young Americans. Call them anything you want. But don't call them indifferent to social causes. In fact, quite the opposite is true.

The 2006 Cone Millennial Cause Study by Cone, Inc., found the following:

74% of those surveyed, ages 13 to 25, said they are more likely to pay attention to a company's messaging when the organization shows a meaningful commitment to a cause. 89% said that they are likely or very likely to switch to a brand (assuming equal price and quality) if the brand is connected to a worthy cause. Even more revealing is that 79% say they want to be employed by a firm that cares about how it contributes to society. So, the value they place on a company contributing to society goes far beyond their role as a consumer of a brand. Instead, it is something they value deeply and will evaluate carefully as they enter the workforce.

The message to marketers is clear. This generation of consumers that is already bursting on the scene is far more passionate about social causes that the more self-interested, self-gratifying group of consumers that preceded them. Those companies keying in on the Millennials as a target segment had better make some changes, at the core, to become or remain a brand that resonates with them.