By Marci Hansen, SheerID
As of last year, the Millennial generation overtook the Baby Boomers as the largest generation in the U.S. This young, vocal, decision-driving group will carry the majority of consumer spending power by as early as next year. Even now, the Boston Consulting Group estimates that Millennials in the U.S. wield about $1.3 trillion in annual buying power.
With these numbers in mind, it’s no surprise that retailers are frantically trying to adapt their strategies to reach this demographic. However, many are struggling to understand how to prioritize the many demands Millennials have placed on the market. Furthermore, it’s not enough to just appeal to these young people, retailers must figure out how to keep them coming back.
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For this reason, you first must look at who these consumers are to better understand what you can do to gain their business and loyalty.
Millennials 101
By definition, Millennials are the generation born between 1980-2000, most of whom grew up in a world where cellphones and social media were the norm. While each of these consumers are different in their own ways, this group has general characteristics that directly impact how retailers should approach selling to them:
- They demand instant gratification, and respond positively to brands that provide them with easy, fast, seamless experiences.
- They look for personalized communications that speak to their interests.
- They are willing to hunt for a good deal to save what they can. Most aren’t afraid of couponing, bargain shopping or doing price-comparisons before making a purchase, and they shop more often at organizations that offer them a discount.
- Millennials are opinionated and care deeply about social responsibility, which is why they are often loyal to organizations that mirror their same values.
Building A Winning Strategy
While there are many dimensions that make up the Millennial consumer, focusing your efforts on these two specific areas to address their needs will yield the greatest ROI: customer experience and public persona. While these areas are full of both potential opportunities and nasty pitfalls, creating the right combination of both will help you get the business you’re looking for from Millennials.
Customer Experience
When it comes to providing a customer experience that will speak to the Millennial consumer, it’s all about creating a seamless, personalized experience across channels. They love the idea of a “shopping journey” that is easy to navigate both online and in-stores and is full of relevant recommendations.
Therefore, put extra emphasis on data analysis to identify shopping trends and buying habits that will help you better understand your customer’s behaviors. This will not only help you identify weak areas within your current process, but it will also help you make highly personalized recommendations and create marketing campaigns that will resonate with these young consumers.
A great way to do this is to create segmented marketing campaigns that focus on one of the biggest sub-segments of Millennials: Students. There are more than 21 million students in the U.S. who specifically shop with brands that offer student discounts and promotions. In a yearly survey of college students, SheerID found that 75% of them think more favorably of brands that offer student discounts, while 87% said they would shop at their favorite stores more often if they offered student discounts.
Another key is to make sure that you’re translating the same experiences from your stores to your online presence and back. If you’ve created an incredible in-store experience for shoppers in which using loyalty points or price checking is easy and simple, but then make it hard to do the same online, these customers will move to your competition in less time than it takes to swipe a credit card. Make sure that your digital presence complements what you’ve created in-store and vice-versa so that Millennials can price check and compare in-store while experiencing the same, consistent shopping experience.
Public Persona
Millennials care are about who they buy from. They want to support brands that care about what matters to them, which is why creating a public persona they trust is crucial to winning them over. A simple way to get on the right track? Align yourself with a cause that fits your brand and tailor your marketing messaging in-stores, online, and on social media to highlight your support.
Take TOM’s Shoes as an example. Each purchase of their product provides shoes for those in need, a message and cause that has resonated heavily with the Millennial market. TOM’s chose a cause that directly aligned with their brand and products, leading to massive popularity that has lasted throughout a decade.
Another key component to creating a public persona that Millennials will respond to is crafting messages that are genuine, personal and relevant. While advertisements in the 1960s were enough to convince Americans to buy, Millennial consumers are more apt to trust friends or even reviews of strangers over an ad. Just 6% of Millennials consider online brand advertisements as credible.
One great way to tackle this hurdle is to get social. Recent research from Crowdtap indicates that Millennials spend an average of 5.4 hours a day texting, posting on social media, taking photos, blogging, and generating online content. 71% of Millennials report they log on to social media sites every day; however, running Facebook ads is not enough to get their attention. They are more likely to notice interactive content, giveaways and deals in their news feeds than advertising. Try creating a fun social giveaway before popular events, such as music festivals or sports games, to get their attention. They also take notice of brands that are liking and responding to their posts, so take the time to interact with a genuine voice.
While there is no perfect recipe for getting Millennials to buy into a brand, retailers must put a personalized, seamless customer experience at the forefront of their strategy, mixed with a brand image that personifies what the retailer stands for and why. This combination will not only bring in new Millennial customers, but keep them coming back for years to come.
Marci Hansen is a co-founder and Chief Marketing Officer at SheerID, an eligibility verification service provider. She has more than 15 years of marketing experience in the B2C, B2B, and non-profit worlds, and has been dubbed Guerilla Marketer of the Year by Brandweek magazine. (www.sheerid.com / @SheerID)
