The Next Generation . . . Has Arrived

September 8, 2015 by Impact

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My my my  Generation X-ers are the middle children lodged between the Boomers and the Millennials and out populated by both. What does this mean?  In the words of that little blond girl in front of the Television from Poltergeist: “They’re Here . . . . . .”
There are 87+ Million Millennials in the U.S. They are the generation born between 1980 to 2000. Some studies push the end -date to 2004 and others say there is no end point yet defined.(1) Compare the millennial population to 78 Million Boomers and 69 Million Gen X.(2) They are here and in great numbers.
Millennials behavior and preferences are the talk of websites, blogs and headlines everywhere. Here are some stats and research to take note of:
Millennials make up 21% of Consumer Discretionary purchases. This is estimate to be over a trillion dollars in direct buying power.(3)  They are consuming at 500% of their parents level in adjusted dollars for age.(4)
53% of millennial households already have children.(3)
Almost 50% of Millennials would make a purchase from a Company if their purchase supported a cause.  37% say they are willing to pay a bit more for a product or service if it supports a cause they believe in.(3)
Millennials value Brands that enhance their lives. 80% of millennials want brands to entertain them.  40% want to participate in the co-creation of products and brands.(3)
70% feel a responsibility to share feedback with companies after a good or bad experience.(3)
Understanding Millennials will allow companies to create user experiences to attract them to their brands, products and services.  If a Millennial buys your product or service and they like it, they will tweet about it and text about it.  A good customer experience for Millennials leads to free advertising and referrals for your business.  The contraposition of this free promotion is the “what if”?  What if they don’t like it and have a bad experience?  The stat above told us 70% will share the experience good or bad.
Thanks to the sheer numbers of Millennials, their buying power and the Marketers quest to understand them via psychographics and demographics studies, creating quality products and a great customer experience is more critical to business now, than ever before.

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