A Direct Marketing Agency - Helping Brands Acquire and Retain Customers

As marketers, we need to be aware of how the Millennial (also know as Gen Y) generation’s brand choices affect the bottom line, even for brands that are not marketing directly to this group. Many Millennials are still living with their Baby Boomer or older Gen-X parents and exerting great influence over the family’s purchases. It’s estimated that this generation influences as much as half of all spending in the U.S. economy. This chart shows the categories they impact the most.

While mass marketing has long turned off Baby Boomers and Gen-Xers, our under-30 consumers are embracing it. Mr. Howe – co-author with the late William Strauss of "Generations" (1991) and "Millennials Rising" (2001), which christened the generation – sees this generation as averse to chaos and unpredictability. They prefer a very smooth brand that has minimal turmoil. This may perplex Gen-Xers who require niche marketing. For them, once something becomes popular with too many people, it’s no longer cool.

But mass brands (think iPod and Harry Potter) are very appealing to Millennials. They are a much more communal, pro-social generation than the Gen-Xers or Baby Boomers. While Millennials want to be in control of their own relationship with a brand (by customizing and personalizing) they also find strength in numbers – the more people on board the better. Gen-Xers and Baby Boomers, who were very anti-marketing in their youth, find this mass adoption of brands quite puzzling.

When we market brands in categories with high Millennial influence, we need to understand and communicate to three generations of consumers, each of which responds to a different kind of message. Marketing needs to appeal to each, but cannot consist of entirely different messages either. If we try to be “edgy” for the kids and “safe” for the parents, they’ll both see right through it. The challenge of crafting advertising that speaks to all the decision-makers who buy/use your brand is what one-to-one marketing is all about.