Millennial Marketing

One of the consumer segments of marketing that every brand looks over far too often are the millennials. Brands have to step up their game in order to influence the buying behaviour of millennial consumers.

The catalyst for effectively influencing Generation Y (also known as Gen Y, those born during 1977 to 1994) is to understand how their brains are wired. For example, values such as happiness, that are inward focused, rank much higher on the scale for millennial consumers than the older generation (Gen X, those born during 1946 to 1976). Characteristics such as family and practicality are ranked much lower for the Gen Y. Awareness of their identities and values, allows brands to visualize and adapt to the change in purchasing behavior. Influencer marketing plays a major role when it comes to brand strategy and ensuring that brands are able to align their goals with the purchasing behaviour of this generation.

Aside from the Gen Y, the Gen Z (those born in 1995 to 2012) prove to be an even larger audience that proves that attention spans are getting shorter. Gen Z are the ultimate consumers of ‘snack media’ — they communicate in bite sizes. How is this possible? Science takes it back to the neurology of how their brains perform. They are able to better process more information, at a faster rate, and are far nimbler, when it comes to managing larger mental roadblocks. The problem, however, arises when it comes to maintaining their attention; the average attention span of this generation being around 8 seconds. This in turn becomes a major challenge for brands. With the rise of Snapchat this year, comes a major shift in focus to content consumption for users being just under 15 seconds or less of content at any one time.

The accurate and authoritative portrayal of the buying experience highlights its importance on the purchasing flow for millennial consumers. Why is this? They just don’t trust what they’ve been told. Being less engaged in face-to-face conversations and more reliant on research and comparison, the opinion of others matters the most with like-minded opinions. Millennial consumers rely on both experience and the advice of their fellow peers.

The introduction of marketing through social media platforms, including Instagram and Snapchat, will be critical to reaching and aligning with the identities and values of millennial consumers.