What’s the deal with Millennials?

JJUMPP
JJUMPP
Aug 25, 2017 · 6 min read

Seriously. What’s the deal? Never has there been a more divisive generation, especially when it comes to the economy. No one can decide whether millennials are hardworking or lazy, entitled or intelligent, revolutionary or traditional. In terms of business, it’s important for companies to understand how millennials think. Without a true understanding of millennial behavior businesses will lose an uphill battle against a changing customer base.

To narrate these differences, consider millennial behavior through the lens of Chain Restaurants. A quick google search of “millennials and chain restaurants” yields interesting results. These are four real headlines, all published since June 2017.

“Millennials are killing chains like Buffalo Wild Wings and Applebee’s” (Business Insider)

“Why Millennials Are Hooked on Chain Restaurants” (NBC)

“Millennials are killing chain restaurants thanks to Instagram” (The Next Web)

“Millennials Love Chain Restaurants” (The Association For Convenience and Fuel Retailing)

So which one is it? Do millennials love or hate chain restaurants? Once again, millennials look like an insolvable mystery. The truth is more nuanced than the headlines might represent. What do millennials really look for in a business?

  1. Convenience
  2. Experience
  3. Authenticity

Convenience

A few elements go into convenience for millennials. First, location. For small businesses, this is great news. “Near Me” searches have grown by 34x’s since 2011. Millennials are hoping to find local services and goods. If they can find a great restaurant within a few minutes of their home, a great experience can guarantee repeat business.

Convenience is more than just location. Time in the store is also important.“We don’t want to wait for 30 minutes to be seated at an exclusive restaurant. We want our food to be available wherever we are, whenever we want it.” This sentiment, reported by NBC, illustrates the subtlety between suggesting millennials are “killing” chain restaurants. It’s not the chain that matters, it’s the wait time. Fast-casual chains like 5 Guys or Panera Bread do much better than casual sit-down restaurants like Applebee’s and Chili’s.

Hand-in-hand with speed is mobile ordering and delivery options. Restaurants like Chick-Fil-A and Starbucks reinvented their service by offering in-app orders. In 2016, a quarter of Starbucks’ in-store sales came through their app. Cheesecake Factory delivers their food using third-party services like DoorDash or Grubhub. Fast and convenient service caters to a younger audience.

Experience

Experience is similar to convenience in that the convenience often enhances the experience. Experience involves atmosphere, presentation, and social causes. Atmosphere is important for people to feel comfortable in a store. The atmosphere could be casual, warm, exciting, quirky, or any other definable feeling. The atmosphere should be noticable. A store, and in this case a restaurant, is a place to experience something. Or at least that’s how millennials see it.

What about presentation? This extends further than just what the store looks like. How is the product delivered? How do the employees dress and act? Is the store worth sharing to social media? Was the food so appetizing on the plate that it had to go on Instagram? It may seem ridiculous, but this is the way some millennials think.

The final factor of experience is a social cause related to the business. Social activism is the cherry on top of an already great business. The difference between choosing one business over the other may come down to a cause a millennial cares about. Think back to the last election season. Customers chose businesses depending on which candidate or causes they endorsed. Millennials won’t shy away from choosing a business because of a social cause.

Authenticity

Authenticity is accountability. Millennials care that the expectations set by the company come true. If a store promises fast service, it better deliver. If it advertises healthy food, it should follow through. Pricing is another key part of authenticity. Millennials prefer a good deal rather than a discount. The price needs to reflect the actual value of the food without breaking the bank.

Here’s an example of the power of authenticity. Chipotle created an enterprise that checked all the boxes for millennials. It was convenient, cheaper than most of its competitors, clean, and very fresh. Chipotle built their brand off of fresh ingredients. It’s no surprise that an e-coli outbreak in 2015 crushed Chipotle’s public appearance. All of the sudden, Chipotle wasn’t as healthy as everyone thought.

The media was aware of Chipotles target audience, and used frustrated millennials to narrate the crisis. A Bloomberg Articledetailing the issue starts with this paragraph:

“Chris Collins is a 32-year-old Web developer and photographer who lives in Oregon, just outside Portland. He and his wife are conscientious about their food: They eat organic, local produce and ethically raised animals. Collins liked to have a meal at Chipotle once a week. On Friday evening, Oct. 23, he ordered his regular chicken bowl at his usual Chipotle in Lake Oswego. His dinner was made of 21 ingredients, including toasted cumin, sautéed garlic, fresh organic cilantro, finely diced tomatoes, two kinds of onion, romaine lettuce, and kosher salt. It tasted as good as always.”

The article goes on to explain that Chris got food poisoning and lost his trust in Chipotle. The article is a dagger in the side of authenticity. Could Bloomberg have chosen a better person to take down Chipotle than this guy? He lives in a green location. He works in a millennial job — web development. His family eats organic, local produce, AND (the tragedy of it all) Chipotle. The way Bloomberg puts it, Chipotle broke this man’s confidence in one fatal blow.

Chipotle branded themselves so well that this crisis hurt even more. Imagine if McDonald’s had an e-coli break out. Would people be frustrated? Yes, of course, it’s a serious health issue. Would they be surprised? Not as much as they were with Chipotle. McDonald’s doesn’t market themselves as a healthy option. A health related issues wouldn’t have the same shock factor.

Authenticity is the fulfillment of promises made by the brand. As Chipotle shows, if branding runs deep, the realization of those expectations must as well.

Updating a Business Model for Millennials

Millennials aren’t killing business. Instead, businesses that fail to accommodate a new consumer base kill themselves. Some restaurant chains thrive and others fail because of their own adaptability. Restaurants aside, any business large or small needs to create a business model compatible with the millennial mindset. Create a more convenient process. Revisit in-store atmosphere and presentation. Finally, to create true authenticity, implement all these changes deep into the company culture.

Businesses can start reaching a millennial audience by securing their online visibility and branding. Millennials use social media and Google searches to discover businesses. With the JJUMPP Springboard, business owners control their online information and branding. They can take a proactive approach to growing their online visibility and managing their reputation. The Springboard is the right choice for business owners hoping to reaching a larger online audience.


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