Marketing to Millennials

February 7 - 8, 2019, Mumbai

The dramatic evolution of consumers from baby boomers to Generation X to Millennials has provided a complex assemblage of opportunities and threats. The newest group of young individuals is the Millennials, also sometimes called Generation Y. This group is made up of those born after 1980, receiving its name because those in it began to come of age after the year 2000. The Millennials are receiving a great deal of attention from both scholars and the popular press for two reasons. The first is because it is such a large population segment: 75.3 million in 2015. Currently, it is larger than the previously largest group, the Baby Boomers, which reached its peak of 78.8 million in 1999, but due to mortality will dwindle to 16.6 million by mid-century. The second reason is that many believe the Millennials will be significantly different in their orientations and interests than the generations that preceded it, potentially changing our nation and its institutions to the same degree as the Baby Boomers.

Marketers need to understand that to reach this generational cohort, it is absolutely imperative to communicate in their language, to be able to reach out to them at their available locations, to adopt their way of communication. They also need to comprehend the multifaceted combination of experience and preferences that define them. For non-Millennial marketers, the challenges can be significant and even understanding how to describe Millennials in marketing-relevant terms can be formidable. Fortunately, researches in marketing, sociology, psychology and economics aids in filling in the gaps.

In fact, the description of Millennial, as those who were born after the personal computer’s introduction, helps inform how they think, what they like and how they want products and services. In short, they want them now, they want them perfectly tuned to their taste, they want to buy them with comparatively little effort, and they want information from trusted individuals. Thus, to them, consumer ratings are extremely important since millennial consumers will seek out rating information, even from strangers. The internet is the backbone of their lives and it provides a means of rapid gratification, communication and social interac tion with any and every one. Without the internet their personal computers, laptops, notebooks, i-Pads and smart phones will not deliver the information they want as quickly as they want it.

Much has been written about millennials—people born between 1980 and 2000—and how they are different from the baby boomers and GenX, the two generations that preceded them. Many millennial traits are positive—they are earnest, positive, seek new experiences, and display a high level of social consciousness. But, they are also demanding—they seek frequent positive strokes and approval, have a large number of expectations having been brought up to think they are the best, need flat work environments, and crave work-life balance.

Millennials (a word crafted to refer to the generation born between 1980 and 2000) are fast entering their prime spending years. Growing up in an age of rapid change, they have a set of expectations and priorities that are radically different from those of the older generations.

India is expected to become the youngest country by 2022, with an average age of 29. Being the largest generation in history, millennials have become the major inducing forces that can wield immense influence on the way businesses are controlled. It therefore becomes extremely significant to understand their buying preferences.