September 29, 2014

5 Good Reasons To Ignore Millennials


I love millennials. My daughter is one. She and her friends are terrific, thoughtful people.

But I hate that the marketing industry has turned them into the cause célebre of marketing cement-headedness.

I am sick to death of hearing and reading marketing nitwits gushing about millennials.

Our industry is always on the lookout for some new jargonista bullshit we can invoke at the drop of a hat. Millennials are the latest magic. They are the mediocre marketer's obsession of the moment

The fuss about millennials is mostly
a) marketing flat-tires bloviating about their latest fetish
b) the noise of editors with millennial kids who think there's a big story there, or
c) the pathetic youth worship of older people who should know better.

Here are some facts about millennials that might attenuate your enthusiasm.

1. If you're in the automobile business and someone has convinced you to spend good money against a "millennial target" try not to soil your pants when you read this -- someone over 35 is about seven times as likely to buy a new car as a millennial.

2. If you sell luxury goods and your media target is redolent of millennials, you might like to know that millennials buy 3% of luxury goods. For every luxury product a millennial will buy, a baby boomer will buy 17.

3. If you're in the travel/hotel/hospitality business, people over 35 comprise over 70% of leisure travelers, and almost 80% of business travelers.

4. If you're selling "green" or "eco-friendly" products, millennials' much-vaunted commitment to such things seems to be a mile wide and an inch deep. Ten percent of millennials belong to an environmental organization. But once they have families this drops by 98%.

5. Like every group of young people the world has ever known, everything about these people will change when they get some money. For example baby boomers -- the generation that pioneered backpacking through Europe on $5 a day 40 years ago -- now represent the bulk of luxury travelers. By the time millennials are ready to become important factors in your category, they will have changed and so will your category.

If you think that by advertising to them now they'll remember your message in ten years, I've got news for you. They won't remember your message in 10 minutes.

Spend your advertising money where it will do you some good -- against people who are buying in your category now. If that's millennials, great. But if it's not, be careful.


19 comments:

Federico Jorge said...

But... but what about the lifetime value Bob?? *sobs uncontrollably*

Cecil B. DeMille said...

Advertising analogy to politics:


We have all the guns and planes and bombs and missiles and bullets in the world. And we invade the wrong country.


Now we know who's in charge.

Jonathan Rodgers said...

You complete me.

Amy McCloskey Tobin said...

I'm with you on not buying into the hype, I HATE gross generalizations in marketing more than just about any other crap marketers do, BUT, I read tons of negative tear downs of Millennials. The one much cited point you make on #4 doesn't carry weight for me because MOST of this generation hasn't had children yet. We don't know.

To me, any company focusing on one generation, unless it is OBVIOUSLY a Youth or Elder focused product, is just being stupid anyway. However, understanding buying trends in EACH generation is smart, as long as the data your analyzing is solid.

Doug Garnett said...

Good timing. Saw a research study posted on RetailWire this morning about Millennial vaunted preference for brands concern for the world.


Here's what was funny: The study didn't consider the product - but asked all these questions in the abstract.


Just watch. Get a millennial (or anyone for that matter) into 7-11 buying a candy bar and I doubt if ANY of the brands' concern for the world is going to have any affect on whether they choose a Snickers or a bag of Red Vines to go with that Big Gulp.

cheryl chapman said...

Millennials as an age group...or as a different mindset?. We in the philanthropy world see millennials as a new creative force bringing in new ways to give and a new consciousness about responsibility. (not all of them of course) Are they really going to revert to shallow-minded me-first people just because they age? I don't think so.

Tim said...

I hope you're right but we might be in for an unpleasant surprise. Life trumps ideology. All that 'Lovely Hippie-shit' (Pete Towshend said that) of the 60s and early 70s morphed into all that tawdry Yuppie-crap of the 80s. It's not that any of them were anything less than sincere – it's just that 'Life is what happens while you're busy making plans' (John Lennon said that.)

Stephen Eichenbaum said...

On the plus side, millennials DO purchase more than 65% of the illegal marijuana in America. Anyone have the contact info for a drug cartel's marketing director?

giblet said...

In a general sense, Millennials can and should be pursued by lifestyle brands that rely on association, have a lower cost of entry and a degree of disposability or turn. "Popularity" marketing, so to speak. Aside from those brands, pursuing millennials is lazy. Think of it as feeding a herd of cattle with a straw...it'll require a lot of effort, look like work and cause a fuss, but no one will be happy with the result.

I get a little joy when you stick your finger in the marketing world's collective eye....

Starla said...

OK, that's hilarious.....

Oscar Gonzalez said...

@Amy McCloskey Tobin's post turned me to yours. Great write up and I agree in the way you proposed it. Sometimes the millennial are the group we want to target but I do agree that it is a bit overhyped. I have had similar experiences to what you describe.

For items under $100 (from personal experience) at least 40% or so are millennials. But once the products get to $2000 or more, the millennials drop to less than 10%.

Oscar Gonzalez said...

I agree @cheryl chapman, about the creative force and all that, but that's not the point here. That's their contribution to their generation and the world... but it doesn't mean they're buyers and that most people should spend their ad dollars targeting that generation.

At the end of the day the fact that most millenials have less disposable income to buy stuff with (vs the older generations) I think is at the core here.

So in a way, it isn't age that we're dismissing, it's the size of their wallets and just so happens that younger people don't have fat wallets... yet. As with anything, we have to generalize and label things from time to time so we can make sense of them and discuss them.

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ChesterHrob said...

"Nitwit" is a gem of a term, far too under-used, like its cousins "half-wit" and "dimwit."

disqus_W4KjfaOksA said...

Good point, Bob. I guess it comes down to what business you're in, right? As a copywriter, I certainly don't target millennials. However, in 10 years time ....

Lisa Llewellyn said...

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Diane Kamer said...

THANK YOU!!!!!!!!

Bob said...

@cheryl chapman - the millenial "New Creative Force" is constantly looking for funding money from the "Old Creators Who Sell." I agree that we need their fresh perspective for change, innovation and disruption, but what this post is saying is that they don't have the cash to make it real at their age, or to buy your stuff, and then when they do - their purchase patterns and investments tend to shift to categories that are inconsistent with their earlier sentiments...

Michael Terry said...

This article may be a tad short sided, no? Millennials, whether people like it or not, are now controlling the ad market because they are starting to make a majority of the purchases. It translates to something to the tune of approximately 21% of discretionary purchases. That translates to 25% of the U.S.’ population, and more than $1 trillion in sales. I want to market to them...to Baby Boomers...hell, even to the Silent Generation. I'll market to anyone who wants to spend the money...alienating young people is just dumb.