One of the most intriguing things about Millennials is that they do not see themselves the way other generations see them. 
Where others see impatience and arrogance, they see confidence and willingness to speak out.
Where others see evidence of materialism, they see “necessities”.
Where others see laziness, they see a desire for balance.
Where others see overreliance on technology, they see an desire for efficiency.
The disparity in generational perceptions was explored last year by Harris Internative. The 2008 Harris Study surveyed a crosssection of age groups and asked each generation to rank each other on a number of qualities. Thirty-one percent of Millennials say that they are the “most socially conscious”. The number of Gen X’ers who put Millennials first in socially consciousness was just 19%, similar to the 15% of Boomers who say so.
Newly released research from Pew shows 79% of Americans say they believe there is “a major difference in the point of view of younger people and older people”. What makes this finding especially interesting is that the number of people who see a major difference between the generations is the same today as it was in 1969, at the height of the so-called ‘generation gap’. What’s more, the figure actually went down in the intervening years (see chart).
The consequences of this misalignment are now being especially felt in the workplace, but they are a caution to marketers, especially those of us over 30. If you are not a Millennial, don’t presume that you think like one.
by Marty Predd, Research Associate, Brand Amplitude, LLC
I hate feeling like a conspiracy theorist, but that’s exactly how I felt leaving the theater after seeing the movie, Food, Inc., last night.
Really? Our government subsidizes corn to the point where it sells for less than the cost of production? Corn and corn derivatives are in a vast majority of the foods available at the grocery store, including the cheapest and most unhealthy ones? Less than 10 major corporations control the vast majority of food production in this country, with less government oversight than ever? Really????
Questions like these went on and on through my head last night, reading like a bad script from an AM radio late-night talk show. As much as I hated to admit it, Food, Inc. had changed me in a big way. Having slept on it, I’ve come to a conclusion considerably bigger than the movie or the specific topic at hand. Call it a Millennial thing or call it a Marty thing, but embracing the local — local products, local businesses, local relationships — is making more sense to me than ever.
I blame a recent post on this blog (“Will Millennials be the First to Let Go of Technology?”) for contributing in part to these feelings. One of the great ironies of the ever-advancing, ever-more-connected technological world we live in is the growing detachment I feel from the physical community in which I live and work. Via Facebook, instant messaging, and Twitter, I’m much ‘closer’ to friends (and some strangers) thousands of miles away than I am to the nice couple who lives across the hall from me.
And that’s not necessarily a bad thing. Besides maybe a conspiracy theorist, who would argue that it’s not a wonderful thing to keep in touch with old friends across the world and forge new relationships with strangers who share my interests? After all, it was this level of connectedness that allowed me to move across the country to Portland, OR without feeling like I was truly leaving my good friends from my Midwestern childhood. That’s pretty remarkable.
But here’s the trouble as I see it: As the first generation to have grown up in this world of virtual connectedness, technologies like instant messaging, Facebook and Twitter represent something much different to us Millennials than they do to our parents: For us, they are not merely added conveniences for keeping in touch with old friends, they’ve become the very mechanisms we use to forge and maintain new relationships. For me and I suspect many of my cohorts, this leads to a growing need to be ‘plugged in’ to feel socialized and happy.
And the more detached I become from the people living in my physical world, the easier it becomes to neglect the fairly obvious (and important) questions that our pioneer ancestors must have asked themselves daily: Where’s our food coming from today? How are the neighbors? Is everyone we know safe and healthy? You know, the sort of basic questions that lead to cohesive, socialized and happy communities, independent of the fiber optic cabling running through them.
Before you roll your eyes, let me reassure you: I don’t plan on ‘unplugging’ anytime soon, and I remain as eager as ever to buy the next iPhone or sign up for the next Twitter, and I’m instant messaging my friends as I write this. But starting today, I plan on making a concerted, if unnaturally deliberate effort to engage in the physical community that surrounds me: to support local service businesses, to buy groceries at the farmers market instead of the superstore, to say hi to the neighbors on the way out to dinner (or God forbid even invite them to join us)….generally, to give a damn about the community of people immediately surrounding me.
If this longing to rediscover the local represents a trend bigger than me (and I suspect it does), it stands to have dramatic implications for the work of Millennial marketers in the years to come.
The amount of information about Gen Y has grown enormously since I began this blog almost two years ago. Every day, new blogs, articles and twitter messages purport to offer Gen Y insighs. Much is opinion and conjecture, which is helpful in framing the discussion, but has limited usefulness in for targeting and marketing planning.
Here are eight studies I recommend for data-backed Gen Y insights.
1. Accenture: Millennials at the Gates: Results from Accentures High Performance IT Research (Feb 2009) – Technology and new generation workers. “One-third of the mid-Millennials said they expect not only to use the computer of their choice,but also to access their preferred technology applications once in the workforce.”
2. College Board (with Art and Science Group): (May 2008) Longitudinal Study of High School Student Values and College Choices. “Millennials appear more like than different from their parents’ generation.”
3. Economist (with Genysys): Maturing with the Millennials: Are Organisations Prepared for Dealing with the Millennial Consumer? “Convenience, customisation,
community and “cool”
4. Harris (With Charles Schwab and Age Wave): Gen Y Views Itself. “Gen Y would like to rename themselves the “Internet Generation” (32%). They really dislike being called “Generation Y” or “Millennials.””
5. Harvard Institute of Politics (with Harris): 15th Biannual Survey on Politics and Public Service (October 2008) “Nearly seven in ten 18-24 year-olds today (69%) say they see political engagement as an effective way of solving our nation’s problems, up six percentage points from fall 2007 (63%) and fall 2006 (60%) IOP polling.”
6. Circle (with Kettering): Millennials Talk Politics: A Study of College Student Political Engagement. “Millennials Dislike Spin and Polarized Debates and Seek Authentic Opportunities for Discussing Public Issues.”
7. Demos: Economic State of Young America (Spring 2008)”Today’s 20-somethings are likely to be the first generation to not be better off than their parents. Evidence of their declining economic opportunity and security abound, from widespread debt to lower earnings in today’s labor market for all but those with advanced degrees.”
8. Bureau Labor Statistics: A Generation Apart: Expenditure Patterns of Young Singles “A recent article using data from the BLS Consumer Expenditure Survey (CE) compares the spending patterns of young (21-to-29-year-old), single adults interviewed in 2004-05 to those of young, single adults interviewed twenty years earlier in 1984-85. Clear differences…”
“A desk is a dangerous place from which to view the world.” –John le Carré, former British spy and English author
John le Carre is one of my favorite authors. His ability to weave a story and evoke a character with just a few details is remarkable. He didn’t get that from sitting at a typewriter all day. If he were still alive, he might say the same thing about Google. As a portal on the world, it has both disadvantages and advantages.
There are growing indications that people are realizing media saturation is leading to media-induced stress, that activity is not the same as productivity and that technology can be a hindrance as well as a help. Millennials, as the most connected generation, may be among the first to put technology in its place in favor of simpler pleasures.
Two articles last week alone about Millennials and ‘nostalgia’ seem to support my premise. Last week, an article titled, “Everything old is new again to Internet Weary Young Adults” appeared in the Australian. Judging by the discussion and number of Re-Tweets it generated on Twitter, the article seems to have hit a nerve. The article reports on a study of young adult culture and concluded 16-30 year olds “pine for a less complex time.”
“Communicating with friends online has lost some of its lustre even from as recently as a year ago and they now want to have more face-to-face time. And they increasingly prefer to do that at home rather than going out to noisy, potentially dangerous pubs and nightclubs. ….those still living with their parents (about half) have noticed the global financial crisis’s impact on the family and pared back their lifestyle in response. It also shows their love affair with technology is heading for a break-up, with time spent online down 30 minutes a week from last year, while their consumption of newspapers increased by the same amount. Facebook and Twitter are also still on the rise, but losing some of their cachet. “
Likewise the NYT this week made a stir July 23 with an article, “Harry Potter is Their Peter Pan” describing the new nostalgia among Millennials in the U.S. The NYT attributes the longing for the comforts of their childhood to the uncertainties of life today.
“Millennials see the world before Sept. 11 as a period of innocence. Our biggest worry was the Y2K bug. That all seems a world away now.”
Jeff Gordinier, the author of “X Saves the World,” a book last year that looked back at the early-90s formative years of Generation X, said, “It shouldn’t come as a surprise that Generation Y is burrowing into nostalgia in the middle of a severe recession.
“Nostalgia comforts people and the Millennials are probably craving comfort right now.”
The research reported by the Australian article attributes the change in behavior and attitudes less to a longing for a simpler time than a desire for more immediate person-to person connection:
“And they want more connections with their friends that aren’t digital, that are tangible. They’re starting to question the authenticity of social networks such as Facebook and Twitter. They want technology to assist rather than dominate the way they communicate.”
I tend to agree with the Australian article. The driver is a desire for authenticity, not a return to safer more secure time. Millennials long to get out into the world and make a difference, or simply get out into the world. A newly released study by Timex on American Life and the Outdoors shows many feel trapped indoors, and struggle to find time to enjoy the outdoors. According to this study, “More than half of American adults (56%) fantasize about breaking free from their homes and offices to be outdoors, and that more than one-third expect the economy will negatively impact the time they spend outside this summer.” Millennials appear to be especially affected. “Millennials (ages 18-24) spend almost 10 hours per day on the computer and socializing with friends, yet less than two hours outdoors.”
As the most connected generation, I think it will be easiest for Millennials to put technology in its place. It may not be wholesale technology backlash, but longing for a simpler time and more genuine relationships may eventually diminish time spent online. Here’s Melbourne clothing designer Clea Garrick, 27, on her pursuit of simpler pleasures:
“We’ve definitely had more dinners at our house than we normally would, including a fondue party, would you believe it?” said Ms Garrick, who is married with no children. She agreed there was now a greater emphasis among her peers for human contact rather than online connections than a year ago. “Facebook, for sure, we’ve dropped our usage,” she said. “It’s just a time-commitment issue: how do you want to be spending your time?”
One of the basic tenets of generational marketing is that each generation is uniquely defined by the culture and events of their growing up years. My generation grew up in the golden age of dramatic TV series and sitcoms. We knew the prime time line ups and talked about them at school. We can still recite the Gilligan’s Island song at the drop of a hat. Farrah Fawcett’s passing was mourned by many women who aspired to be Jill on Charlie’s Angels.
For those coming of age in the 70′s and 80′s, Star Wars movies defined their childhood and teen entertainment. And for Millennials, Harry Potter perfectly spanned, and in many ways defines, their growing up years.
As this mega-media dynasty grinds to its conclusion next summer, it will mark the end of an era. A child born in 1987 was 11 when 11-year old Harry received his owl-post admission letter to Hogwarts, and will be 22 when the 17-year old Harry finally vanquishes Voldemort. Little wonder Millennials consider Harry Potter to be their own, despite its cross generational appeal. My daughter can’t remember a time when she wasn’t waiting for the next book or movie. She even dressed up for the midnight showing this week, much as she has for each event of the past 10 years.
There’s more to this than coincident timing. Harry was as much shaped by Millennials and their times as they were shaped by him. Just as J.K. Rowling set out to create an archetype of timeless values, set in a totally novel world, so too Millennials espouse what used to be universal values as their own: Multi-culturalism, heroicism, teamwork, learning, contributing to the greater good.
The simultaneous increase in Internet penetration made it easy for Harry Potter to transfer its fantasy world to the web and become one of the first truly multi-media franchises. No sooner did the book become a movie, than it also spawned video games, trivia games, Internet memes, mugglecasts, Harry Potter Puppet pals videos, music acts (Wrock) and more. As the first to ‘discover’ Harry Potter, Millennials feel a special affinity to the ‘boy who lived’. It provides a shared bond and culture. Just start chanting Snape, snape, severus snape – DUMBLEORE! in a college dorm and you may be surprised to see what happens. That puppet pals episode has over 65 million views on YouTube. Finally, Harry Potter is a global phenomenon; it was an experience shared by Millennials all over the world, and may even have contributed their remarkably similar values.
I’m not sure what the parallel would be for my generation, but I am quite sure that Gen Z will not have the same relationship with HP as my 15 and 18-year old Millennial kids. The question is, what will take its place?
On Saturday, I attended a wedding for the daughter of our friends. We knew the bride 10 years ago when she was graduating high school, but haven’t seen much of her in the mean time. So when the best man’s toast made it clear that he expected the couple to have a family, I was startled. That simply wouldn’t have happened 20 or 30 years ago. Yet, upon reflection, the presumption seemed completely logical. Millennials are in fact showing every sign of being one of the most family-oriented generations to date.
I first wrote on this topic last July when I speculated that babies were becoming cool (What the Cool Kids Want, A Baby). The post evoked this response:
“For first-wave Millennials like myself, we were coming of age just as all the characters on FRIENDS were starting to settle down and even have babies. I think girls my age thought “Why am I going to waste a decade trying to find myself, when in the end what I’m looking for is a family?”
There’s more than anecdotal evidence that a baby boomlet may be on the way. Birthrates per women reached the magical 2.1 population replacement rate in 2006 for the first time since 1971. More babies were born in 2007 than even during the height of the baby boom. Studies of values shows Millennials put having a family as a goal. According to longitudinal survey of high school students conducted by the College Board, 77% of students nationwide say “raising a family” is an “essential” or “very important” life objective. In 1977, by comparison, just 59 percent of students gave the same level of importance to raising a family.
What will Millennials be like as parents, and what does that mean for marketers? I have a few predictions:
Gen Y will be attentive parents, albeit for different reasons than the parental-attention-starved Gen X’ers who’s extreme parenting styles seem to be about making up for what they missed as kids. In contrast, Gen Y, enjoyed some of the most child-centric parenting ever known. There is every reason to think they will continue to dote on their own offspring, most likely with help from grandparents. Boomers are unlikely to back out of their kids lives now just as things get really fun. We may even see multiple generations under the same roof again, by choice and in some cases, by necessity.
Millennials will put their kids ahead of their careers.Young, well-educated young mothers and fathers, will find a way to balance their career expectations against their parental responsibilities. Millennials who have already shown willingness to decouple identity from work. (Think of the character Ryan in The Office relative to Michael for examples.). A young cousin of mine and her husband each have part time jobs in LA to ensure that someone is always home with their r 2-year old son. I would also expect young parents to leverage their expectation of job mobility to enjoy alternating periods of working and staying home, or working from home. The direct implication is that there will be more sharing of responsibilities, including shopping, cleaning and child care, putting men squarely in the target for many CPG products.
Millennials’ interest in healthful, locally produced and organic foods will accelerate. According to Mintel, interest in shopping at Farmers’ markets, in food co-ops and community gardens all jump with the presence of children. For example, 6% of households without children buy local goods at a farmer’s market and 3% at a food co-op. That jumps to 9% and 7% respectively with the presence of children.
Millennials will emphasize family experiences over material things. An emphasis on travel, learning and experiences is characteristic of their generation and a pattern they are likely to carry over into their parenting. Again, this may be a function of necessity as well as values. Whatever the reason, look for houses to be smaller and greener, toys to be fewer and family activities to be more common. When my mom was a kid, she and her family used to go to ‘family camp’, and I have recently heard several young couples say they have been doing similar things.
Millennials will evolve their use of social media to focus on their lives as parents.
Age 27 or younger, Millennial Mom is the newest mom on the block, and she’s the first generation to use technology to seamlessly blend work and life. Not long out of college or high school, she’s facing many firsts: marriage, babies, insurance, jobs, maybe even owning a house. Hyper-connected and beyond tech savvy, Millennial Mom’s world is both physical and virtual, bringing social connection and life-skills management as close as a computer or cell phone. She’s busted out of previous generations’ isolation challenges during those early, tethered-to-the-house years. You’ll find her plugged into Myspace.com or TheNest.com, sharing worries, excitement, and ideas with her online family. Products like mythum mobile coupons and Infinity Broadcasting Visual Radio — delivered right to her cellphone — resonate with her values of connectivity and access, seamlessly going where she goes.
Professors and other teachers who have the privelege of interacting with Millennials may find this amusing…
Professor to Class: For tonight’s assignment, please memorize the alphabet and be prepared to recite it in class tomorrow. Any questions?
Which alphabet did you mean?
Is alphabetical order okay, or do you want some other version? Can we use the song? Do we have to sing? I’m not really comfortable singing in front of other people… How long will we have? Will we be timed? Will we need to dress up for the presentation? I am learning disabled — if I bring a note from the can I have extra time for my recitation? Do you have a grading rubric? Do you have any examples you can share of how students have done this in the past? I have a conflict, I am supposed to pick someone up at the airport and want to know if I can recite it in your office day after tomorrow about 2:00PM? Is this part of our grade or for extra credit? Is there anything more I can do for extra credit? Will this be on the final?
According to the College Board, the cost of tuition at a 4-year public university doubled between 1980 and 2006. The pace of increase is accelerating with a 35% increase in the past 5 years alone. (Source: Economic State of Young America).
According to the National Retail Federation, college students are expected to spend about $10.5 Billion gearing up for and attending college this year. But tuition is only a fraction of the story. According to a very cool graphic assembled this spring by Westwood College, just 19% of college student spending goes to tuition. Another 26% goes to to room and board. Where does the rest of the money go? Most goes to consumer goods and services – travel, apparel, textbooks, entertainment and ‘discretionary’. The National Association of College Stores says students spend about $750 in their college store, only $488 of which goes to textbooks and course materials.
However you size it, college, and preparing for college is big business. Department stores like JC Penney and Bed Bath and Beyond each have specific college directed efforts and there are dozens of web businesses like collegepad.com that would love to outfit your dorm. The College Board even offers a handy checklist to make sure you don’t forget the band-aids and Neosporin, much less a bottle opener or DVD player.
It’s possible 2009 will see the peak for college spending. Not only has the recession put pressure on decisions about where students apply and attend, it may also alter how they go to school. According to Engage Gen Y, educators, parents and students are taking a hard look at these alternatives to expensive textbooks.
Chegg: Allows students to rent their book for class at a discount of more that 50% and have it delivered to their door. Chegg plants a tree for every book rented.
CourseSmart: Offers digital versions of traditional textbooks from some of the major publishers in the industry.
Textbook Media : Textbooks and study guides provided online through a web-based book reader, offered free to students through sponsorships from national brands.
Flat World Knowledge : An open-source textbook provider that provides online textbooks in a reader to students free of charge. Students pay for premium services.
Beyond text books, as online education becomes more mainstream, the ‘college experience’ itself, as least as I knew it with four years at college living on campus, may become the premium or luxury option, not the default. This summer, my son is taking an online high school ‘health’ course for credit from BYU.edu. If he likes it, it may shape how he thinks about college. And according to Time (July 29, 2009, “Can Community Colleges Save the U.S. Economy?“), community colleges are enjoying record enrollment surges from laid off workers and students looking to save on room and board.
This video by Tampa Bay agency, 22squared, is the cleverest explanation I have seen on how social media helps consumers find brands — and how brands find consumers. While this post (my 200th!) isn’t strictly about Millennials, it expresses an essential truth of Millennial marketing – what your friends think matters, and now it’s far easier to know what your friends think.
There is more to this chart than meets the eye.
It is the result of a remarkable 20-year study of values by the Pew Research Center.(download entire pdf here). The latest wave of the study was conducted in April/May of 2009. This chart reveals two important findings: a decline in ‘social conservatism’ among specific age cohorts over time and progressively lower levels of social conservatism among each younger age cohort.
Here’s how the report summarizes this chart:
“Younger age cohorts are less conservative than older ones, with Baby Boomers significantly less conservative than the Silent Generation and its predecessors, and Generation Y considerably less conservative than either the Baby Boomers or Generation X. Within age cohorts, the change over time in social conservatism is very modest, indicating that the societal change in these values is mostly a function of newer generations replacing older ones.”
What that means is that Gen Y is distinct in its values from both Gen X and their largely Boomer parents. This finding was widely touted Monday, June 29, in many newspaper and online articles. Here is a sampling:
New York Daily News: “Survey shows widest generation gap among American children and their parents.” A survey released Monday by the Pew Research Center shows a widening generation gap on issues ranging from religion to marriage, creating divisions not seen since generational clashes over the Vietnam War, civil rights and women’s rights 40 years ago.
Yahoo News. “Study finds widening generation gap in America.” From cell phones and texting to religion and manners, younger and older Americans see the world differently, creating the largest generation gap since the tumultuous years of the 1960s and the culture clashes over Vietnam, civil rights and women’s liberation.
MSNBC “Study: Generation gap in U.S. largest since ’60s.” A survey Monday by the Pew Research Center highlights a widening age divide after last November’s election, when 18- to 29-year-olds voted for Democrat Barack Obama by a 2-to-1 ratio.
Sounds serious! Yet, how can these headlines be reconciled with the common wisdom that Millennials get along famously with their Boomer parents? In the past, ‘generation gaps’ led to physical and emotional distance, but not so for this generation and their parents. Somehow, the culture wars appear to be, suddenly, over. They have apparently learned to ‘mind the gap’. While they may not see eye to eye, these generations have no problem with that fact, and it’s not that they are unaware of the differences in outlook; according to the Pew Study, almost eight in 10 people believe there is a major difference in the point of view of younger people and older people today.
The reason also has nothing to do with the nature of the differences or how strongly they are felt. Indeed, most said that the biggest differences concerned issues of morality, religion, and the social values surrounding lifestyle, family, relationships and dating — hardly minor issues. Older people also cited differences in a sense of entitlement. Those in the middle-age groups also often pointed to a difference in manners.
Instead, the reason appears to have everything to do with a flourishing of ‘tolerance’, especially among younger people. If there is one value young adults hold above all others, it is tolerance. Apparently, this even goes for their parents.
