How to sell to me, a Millenial (yikes!)
It is well known that when a girl becomes a woman.. she becomes a marketable demographic.
This is evidenced by the fact that I have been harassed by brands ever since I’ve become legally able to sign contracts. Now, don’t get me wrong; I understand why people in my stage of life are attractive targets from a marketing perspective. And I quite appreciate that companies are trying to come up with products and services just for me….
I just wish they understood what I wanted a little bit better.
So, that’s why today I’m offering a little guide to companies on how to sell to me.
I am 28. Now, depending on your age group, you might think I’m really young. But believe me, among young people, I am old. So, don’t expect me to tell you what’s happening on TikTok. That is an article someone else needs to write, I’m afraid.
I also should note that talking about generations is per definition reductive. Technically, based on timelines I’m a “Zillennial” (half “Zoomer”, half “Millennial”), but that doesn’t really mean anything. The characteristics shared within the generations are debatable at best and highly dependent on generalization. And yet, it is the tool that we have available to us, so lets make the most of it.
I felt hesitant to write this article, because it would just be all my opinions. So I read up on what other people were saying, trying to ensure that I was representing things fairly.
It helped; I learned that pretty much anyone writing about how to market to specific generations turns out to be just giving their opinion. And at least I have the advantage of being in the right age group. My sample size might be just 1, but that puts me firmly above most authors in this category of articles.
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But, to make sure that we are talking about some broader trends, I did do some reading of academic articles, which will be linked as sources. I made sure that all articles I’m using are free on the internet. I had some difficulty linking to some pdfs’s directly, but please use Google Scholar and read them for free if you are interested. This is not a literature study, though, so I recommend looking into the topic yourself.
While I hope to give you some insights that might apply to people who are building a career, but not (yet) a family, I can only guarantee that I will give insights into me.
Why would companies even want to sell to me?
It seems kind of weird to market to young people, who typically have lower salaries then those who have worked longer at their careers. And yet, young people typically have more discretionary budget than you’d think. They do not have children yet, often live in lower-cost housing (or for free with their parents), and have generally less financial commitments. This means we are attractive in two ways:
- More freedom to spend our money on (unwise) one-off purchases
- We might not yet have the insurances and mortgages, but we will need them at some point
That’s why the banks will come to your university, promising you a bike if you sign up for a student checking account. This student checking account won’t even make them money, but people tend to stay with the bank they are with, slowly increasing the services they use.
My bank acquired me as a customer when I was still a child, by giving me a “Pennymaat” and this year I closed my mortgage with them. So they are not wrong…. -\_(-_-)_/-
Okay enough talk about you, let’s talk about ME!
Or more specifically, what you should know about people like me if you want to sell to us.
Internet
The internet has existed (almost) my whole life. Sometimes I get the sense that companies think young people want mobile apps and websites from them because it’s cool. I can assure you this is not the case.
We want mobile apps and websites because it is normal.
I need my mobile banking app to work, because if I need to login to my internet banking I would need to deep-dive through old password managers until I found my password. And I genuinely don’t know how to pay through paper payment slips. When people ask me for cash I need to google where I can find an ATM. So when I select a bank, their app is going to be one of my evaluation points.
This is all to say, I am used to living my life with online tools. I am incompetent without them. If you are not online, I simply cannot buy from you.
For me, your application doesn’t need to be fancy, and I would prefer if it asks me as little permissions as possible. I know for certain that all the access rights I give to you will be utilized to collect data on me.
Also, your business app is not a social media platform, and I’d prefer it if you would not treat it as one. (Who needs Instagram filters while buying groceries?)
Now, I’ve read articles that advise you that you need user-generated content to appeal to us, like this one.
This advise is not… incorrect. It’s just that things have a time and place. You might enjoy the ability to order cocktails when you’re out for dinner, but would find it strange if they were offered at your bank office. Similarly young people enjoy seeing a map of where other Strava runners have run, but not a map of where other users of the same bank app have made payments. Just make sure that what you’re doing makes sense.
To sell to us you need to be online, and you do need to follow the rules of online spaces. If I am unable to understand how to use your application, you built it wrong.
I’ve heard from various Zillennial beta-readers that they experience similar impatience with technology that doesn’t work right. There are rules that govern interactions with websites and mobile application, that to us feel as mandatory as traffic laws. And we have no patience for people who refuse to play by the rules.
You managed to build an app that I get lost in? Time for a new Insurance Provider, I guess.
Community
I just stated that your app is not a social media platform. This is correct. But your online presence should probably include social media platforms.
We like approachable brands, that we can reach out to on Instagram/Facebook/LinkedIn if we have to. Not that that should be the primary contact point, but it is nice to know that we can.
This is partially because it is an easy way for us to communicate with you, and we could drop you a complaint without it sounding so formal. The medium is the message, as they say, and we often feel more comfortable complaining through social media, because it makes us less of a Karen.
The most important thing of Social Media is, however, that you can foster a community there. And that is something that we care about. We will discuss it a little more in the Authenticity area, but we care more about what our peers say and think about your brand than we care about what you say and think about it.
Word of Mouth has always been the greatest form of advertisement, but for us this mostly happens online. In fact this article has some great observations on that.
On Social Media you can create a place were we can easily find reviews from actual human beings, which we find inherently more trustworthy. And if you play your cards right, we can even help each other out when we run into problems while using your products. Not only will this leave more time for your call center to deal with the Boomers, but it also fosters a great sense of community and belonging for us.
It might be strange for older generations to hear, but our online communities are very real for us. They can fulfill our social needs and losing connection with our online communities hurts the way losing access to offline communities would hurt older generations. If you, as a brand, maintain the access to a place where such a community congregates you will be able to leverage that control to create Brand Loyalty.
For an explanation on how this works, this thesis is definitely recommended reading.
Don’t push us too far; sometimes communities will re-platform themselves. But be a good host and we might be very good customers indeed.
Environment
I am going to live through the consequences of Climate Change. So I care. I try to consume in a way that minimizes harm to the environment. And unless you prove to me that your product is aligned with that, I am going to assume that it is not.
I don’t like brands that brand themselves environmentally friendly, but on closer inspection turn out to be lying. (Greenwashing.) Those are pretty much guaranteed to be blacklisted by me. Not only do they ensure that the world will be just a bit hotter when I’m old, they are also inauthentic (the worst sin of all!).
To be honest, I’m not very trusting with brands, so if you want me to pay a premium for you environmentally friendly behavior, you better have proof. Turns out that according to research I’m not the only Millennial (or in fact, consumer) that feels this way. According to research Millennials look at signifiers of environmental friendliness in the product such as biodegradability rather than at the Greenness of the brand. The researchers indicate that this is due to Greenwashing eroding trust in brands. This is also mirrored in my own decision making:
I trust quality marks that are under the control of the EU. I trust in clear factual claims on environmental impact. I trust in assessments of third parties, which I look up myself. Absent this information I prefer to buy from smaller local sellers that give me more insight into the production process. Buying local seems to be a Zoomer thing, according to this research. Of course, you don’t have to be physically near me, sometimes I consider small sellers that are very transparent online also to be trustworthy.
The same article also notes by the way that greenness isn’t the only factor Millennials consider. Other factors like cost and quality still apply. If you’re interested in a more general exploration of millennial buying habits, this article is also quite interesting. But of all generations, Millennials and Zoomers are most invested in Greenness.
Authenticity
Companies seem to have caught on to the fact that the younger generations like authenticity, but seem to be struggling to understand how to be authentic.
That is how we got the twitter wars among Fast Food brands, the banks and phone subscriptions that talk to us as if they are actual human beings and the influencers trying to sell us audiobooks.
When you are trying too hard to seem real, that, ironically, makes you seem fake. Maybe try self-deprecating humor instead, that tends to work for me.
I am not sure what makes me so allergic to bullshit, but I am.
And so are most of my contemporaries. Be too scripted, too forcefully funny, too cool and I will see you as fake. I can’t tell you how to come across as authentic to me in your ads and communication. But I can tell you what usually sets off my radar: contradictions between marketing and reality, being too focused on how the brands appear rather than on what the product is, or giving off the sense that the marketing sounds too good to be true.
In general a good rule seems to be that authenticity can’t be a gimmick. Because authenticity is often discussed in the context of social media, people seem to equate ‘authenticity’ with ‘having a lot of personality. But…
1. You are not an Influencer, you are a brand.
2. Influencers are charismatic next to authentic and that is what you are describing here.
In reality authenticity isn’t being cool, it is being honest.
If you are looking for recommendations on authentic communications, I do like some of the suggestions made in this article about Engaging Content. It makes the excellent point that good authentic content is created by trusted people (peers or experts) or informative in nature.
Their observation on peer based content is also actually supported by research.
If I am completely honest, I’d be more likely to buy from you if you are open about your shortcomings, than if you claim you don’t have any. In fact I would say that authenticity almost always comes from failure, and almost never from success. The next time you fuck up: remember that this is a chance to be authentic. Own the mistake, explain how it happened (but make no excuses) and rectify it. Oh, and you can do that as a brand too!
But that’s just me, though. (That is passive aggressive Millenial for: ‘I am spitting facts here.’)
In conclusion
The things noted above apply to me, and perhaps to others around my age. Perhaps it will help you rethink some of your marketing and sales strategies targeted at younger consumers. Please take it all with a grain of salt. After all, what the hell do I know?
If you would like my opinion on how to actually build the necessary IT systems to satisfy my Zillennial whims, might I suggest joining the Direct To Consumer virtual round table I’m organizing with Gérard Ringenaldus (retail expert)? Especially if you are a brand who is used to selling through other companies, I think we can give you some insight into how you can use IT to reach out directly to your (Zillenial) consumer and increase your revenue 5 times.
One last note about “millenial avocado toast”: The reason Millennials (and Zoomers!) love avocado’s is for the healthy fats that are important in a healthy plant-based diet. (Plant-based diet= good for the environment.) But we also watch Netflix and learned from Rotten that the Avocado comes with a lot of baggage. So if you would like to market to us using avocado toast, but feel its cliché, might I suggest using lentils instead?
