the millennials

Why Millennial?

It is pretty obvious for marketers to focus highly on the generation, representing the majority of the world’s population today. Generation Y, or the offspring of the Generation X and Baby boomers, Millennial Generation today are not only the most educated generation in American history but also the most innovative and creative generation. Creative because there’s so much knowledge and experiences passed in by the history, using which this generation has been able to bring them to where they are today. Connected globally through various social media, sharing the universal culture of art, music and movies, this generation share so much in common that no other generation did in the past. What else makes Millennial such an attractive segment for the marketers? It might be easier for marketers to target the Generation Y because the similarities they share globally but this is also a challenging group of consumers is the most aware and critical group of consumers when it comes to making a purchase decision. The amount of knowledge about products and the whole market in general, possessed by this generation is significant compared to the older generation. The awareness about quality, value and reliability of a product is very critical to this generation. Education wise, this generation is the most educated generation, information wise they are the most informed and aware group of consumers ever, due to the increasing transparency of the market, availability of detailed information about the product in various Internet and printed resources. From need recognition to purchase decision, this generation considers multiple aspects of the products, looks for the value and importance, and cares about satisfaction. The Millennial generation is that fraction of consumer, which is more concerned with happiness and meaning, rather than material prosperity. Hit by the economic recession, this generation has faced job crisis and dissatisfaction at jobs. They now focus on the career that would make them happy. Various researches have revealed that the Generation Y is focused more on happiness and success where they think they can find the meaning of life. This is by fulfillment of their desires and meeting the wishes they have, they derive happiness and happiness was associated with being more self-oriented taker. Though researches have revealed that this generation is a selfish generation and a narcissistic in the past, newer researches have revealed that such negative trends are already starting to reverse. They feel more responsible, giving and generous after the political and economic catastrophe of the later years. Unlike the baby boomers and generation X, this generation is highly concerned about the environmental and global issues. So as a marketer, knowing the feelings and expectations of this generation is vital in order to successfully target any product to them. As a representative of this generation, and a student of marketing, I would say recognizing the beliefs and expectations of this generation is very important for a marketer. Depending upon the nature of product, marketer should focus on the various criteria, from environmental factors as social factors. Though often referred to as a lost generation or the ignorant group of people, its was the commercialization of such culture and implantation of their beliefs by the older generation that made this generation like that. But, due to the growing transparency and global connection, its is hard to hide secrets from anyone these days. The newer generation is very aware about the future of the planet Earth and more focused on recycling, reusing and controlling the use of plastics and harmful chemicals. They prefer organic food and products that is aware about environmental issues. Marketers have to take these things into consideration. For various reasons this generation is very acquisitional as well as epistemic shoppers though being an impulsive shopper is unavoidable. Even their impulsive and experiential shopping activities are often guides by loyalty and awareness. For example, some one travelling to Boston from Paris would prefer to experience Hard Rock Café of Boston and shop his/her favorite brand Louis Vuitton and Polo Ralf Lauren (though this trend of expensive brands does not apply to the majority of the people of this generation), and might want to walk around the city with a cup of Starbucks coffee in their hand. A marketer should not forget the consumer response to the popular brand Nike’s after the abusive labor activities china was exposed. It is the generation Y that is going to be the current and future market for the business, they have to understand that this generation is rebellious and stands for the global equality and human rights and challenges the system and authority and consumer market to be more responsible and transparent. As discussed above, meaning of life and happiness is a great motivating factor for this generation. It is important for a marketer to provide great value and deliver maximum possible satisfaction to the consumer in order to take their market share.
When it comes to decision-making, the amount of knowledge and information about the product makes a huge difference. Rational Decision-Making perspective is popular amongst the Millennials. They gather information from multiple sources, compare values and explore their experience while deciding what brand to buy. From the Experiential Decision-Making point of view, consumer often prefer widely accepted and previously experienced brands when they think the product is worth the price and their expectations are met. Both Hedonic and Utilitarian value is crucial to the consumers. As a marketer, I would consider that despite the massive amount of similarities among the people of Generation Y, they have different views and expectations. A lot of aware and responsible people are often found focused on their own desires in order to be motivated and move forward to the achievement of meaning of life. Along with the utilitarian value, the sense of attachment, symbolic and subjective attributes or benefits that are associated with the alternatives which is more Hedonic has a lot of influence on decision making of today’s consumers. Besides this, various Situational Influences where the hedonic values are more considerable while buying some gifts, the amount of Product Knowledge a consumer possesses, Expert Options where the guidance of an expert changes the view of the consumer towards a product and influences his final decision and Social influences that is effect of friends, family and the environmental behaviors have great impact in the decisions of the consumers. Within many executives making various products, they have a misconception about the millennials. Referring to the whole generating as “stupid” is ignorance. Compared to the 76 million baby boomers, which is just decreasing everyday, the group of 79 million American Millennials is the future of all businesses. These kind of negative beliefs will just fuel in the creation of Antiloyal consumers. By understanding the psychological and other motivational aspects of various purchase-decision made by the millennials, focusing on their evaluation techniques, analyzing their behaviors, knowing the popular trends as well as understanding the relative importance of satisfaction and value in their behavior, a marketer can execute his strategy successfully on the Millennial generation.