Why Businesses Need to Be Targeting Millennials
SOURCE: PIXABAY
Millennials are often mentioned in terms of business as a mysterious section of society, as a kind of catch-all term for younger people who have modern, progressive ideas and understand technology. But, flippancy aside, millennials are actually extremely important in a business sense, especially given that by 2020, nearly 50% of the workforce will be made up by millennials, according to PWC. So businesses and brands should start working how best to change tack to appeal to the millennials’ cultural views now.
Corporate Social Responsbility
Corporate social responsibility is extremely high on the millennials’ agenda, and with good reason given updated figures by NASA citing a 1.7 degree Fahrenheit rise in temperatures since 1885, and 13.3% per decade loss of arctic ice, for instance. Brands that showcase how they are helping the environment, and other social issues in the world, are more likely to have engagement as millennials enjoy the idea of their consuming also doing worldwide good. For example, Unilever, a brand mostly associated with beauty and hygiene products, focuses heavily in their CSR doctrine about ensuring everyone has clean water and adequate hygiene, especially in countries that are susceptible to droughts. Ecosia acts as a rival to Google to plant trees for every web search in order to remedy the vast amount of power needed to cool search engine databases. They say they are planting around 1.7 trees every minute. Car companies, such as Toyota, are focusing on promoting their electric or hybrid ranges, e.g. the Prius. Business Consultant Emily Gentile recently stated that millennials car ownership was going down, which could explain why companies are focusing on their business. Indeed, all businesses are placing focus on a balance between work and pleasure and the key to having positivity in your life.
Socially Led Experiences
Millennials are cited as being very interested in building experiences and a community around shared interests, so by developing a social experience, a brand is able to cultivate a self-governing community. This works by offering brand experiences that are memorable and can also have an element of connectivity with others. One such way this is already being rolled out is through the live experiences offered by traditionally non-live brands, such as Betway Casino challenging the social norms of providing online casino games of live blackjack and roulette games as opposed to the traditional versions. Such live games give the interaction that can help players build a community with one another. Twitch, which garners 45 million users a month, is another example of how common links i.e. the games they play, can help bond millennials who engage through playing and watching gaming on Twitch streams. By both brands offering ways for players to take a normally solitary pursuit and join together, they build communities and harness experiences in using their brands. Along with the final installment of The Hunger Games, Mockingjay – Part 2, in 2015 Reel FX released a virtual reality experience to coincide with the premiere, allowing fans to experience what the protagonists of the film were experiencing, and to broaden the conversation amongst peer groups and groups of friends.
SOURCE: PIXABAY
Humor and Comedy
Millennials also enjoy humor and comedy being used in lieu of overly sales-focused marketing messaging. For example, Oasis drinks use clever self-referential gimmicks in place of traditional billboard and radio advertisement, such as humorous posters that reference their own marketing targets. In October 2017, Burger King promoted a series of tweets that asked when rival Wendy’s was going to bring back a chicken nugget range, in order to poke at the funny bone of their target audience. Brands can’t solely rely on the kind of content that washed even 10 or 20 years ago, especially given how ironically minded millennials are as a coping mechanism for the state of the world they are expected to inhabit.
The Latest Technology
There is also no doubt that given how millennials have grown up with current technology and on the whole stay abreast of where technology is developing, brands should take an equally digital mindset when engaging with them. For example, almost everything is available online, including an e-edition of the Boca Raton Tribune. Being tech-savvy for businesses goes beyond updating social media channels and moves into the territory of actively taking on new developments and incorporating them in a business’s strategy. For example, virtual reality is the next buzz-worthy technological advancement and some companies are already harnessing the power of VR. Some universities, as listed on the UCAS website, are already offering virtual campus tours, which would have been unheard of a decade ago. This bridges the gap between students and further away universities and also between the established, older university and the modern, tech-savvy student.
As millennials are going to be both the new class of consumers and the new batch of business brains, understanding how the mantle can be passed now is crucial to ensure established brands retain their business. It’s alright for their parents to enjoy a brand, but if it doesn’t appeal to the new generation of people, it won’t stick around as long in the new, millennial-focused world.
