Yesterday the New York Times published an online article that will also appear in its Sunday magazine titled, “What Is It About 20-Somethings?” The article has already provoked controversy for itemizing the ways that today’s ‘emerging adults’ are more immature than the generations that preceded them. (See “The 10 most infuriating quotes from the Times’ latest 20-something takedown” for a sample.)
While the facts speak for themselves, I believe the Times has it wrong on the interpretation.
Some young adults figure it out their identity and life path more quickly than others, but collectively it is taking longer than ever before.Over the past few decades, there has been a dramatic shift in the onset of what have traditionally been regarded as the markers of adulthood –marriage, job, children:
One-third of people in their 20s move to a new residence every year. Forty percent move back home with their parents at least once. They go through an average of seven jobs in their 20s, more job changes than in any other stretch. Two-thirds spend at least some time living with a romantic partner without being married. And marriage occurs later than ever. The median age at first marriage in the early 1970s, when the baby boomers were young, was 21 for women and 23 for men; by 2009 it had climbed to 26 for women and 28 for men, five years in a little more than a generation.
We’re in the thick of what one sociologist calls “the changing timetable for adulthood.” Sociologists traditionally define the “transition to adulthood” as marked by five milestones: completing school, leaving home, becoming financially independent, marrying and having a child. In 1960, 77 percent of women and 65 percent of men had, by the time they reached 30, passed all five milestones. Among 30-year-olds in 2000, according to data from the United States Census Bureau, fewer than half of the women and one-third of the men had done so.
While the facts are compelling, they don’t necessarily imply that Gen Y is any less well-equipped, lazier or incompetent, entitled or emotionally dependent. In fact, delayed adulthood may be a reasonable adaptation to increased complexity and risk.
Life may not be any more difficult for this generation, but there is little question that it presents more options, and greater ambiguity. The Recession has made matters even more difficult by making meaningful entry level jobs much more difficult to find. Why rush into decisions you may later regret? What does five years matter in the scheme of things if it reduces risk of divorce or an unhappy career choice?
These shifts are difficult for many Boomers and Gen X’ers to understand. We couldn’t wait to get away from home and get on with our lives. It would have been an admission of failure to return home at any point. Only losers did that. Today’s Gen Y’er sees moving home as a practical solution to their problems. Why not save money by living at home while to pursue your dreams rather than settle for less?
While it is difficult to prove, I tend to agree that young adulthood is emerging as a distinct lifestage with its own challenges, distinct from those of adolescents or older adults. I also think this may be a good thing.
There is a strong argument (and much longitudinal data to support it) that young adults are actually more responsible than earlier generations, not less. More are opting for higher education. They are frugal spenders and careful money managers. They value relationships, family and giving back. They want to make sure that what they are spending their money and their time on is worthwhile, not just part of a plan. And if they like their parents well enough to live with them into their twenties, is that such a terrible thing?
Furthermore, as the article points out, society has sent mixed signals as to what we expect of someone 18, 21 or 26.
People can vote at 18, but in some states they don’t age out of foster care until 21.
They can join the military at 18, but they can’t drink until 21.
They can drive at 16, but they can’t rent a car until 25 without some hefty surcharges.
If they are full-time students, the Internal Revenue Service considers them dependents until 24; those without health insurance will soon be able to stay on their parents’ plans even if they’re not in school until age 26, or up to 30 in some states.
Parents have no access to their child’s college records if the child is over 18, but parents’ income is taken into account when the child applies for financial aid up to age 24.
In the end, I think the challenge is for the culture to catch up with Millennials, not for Gen Y to conform to cultural expectations.
Articles like this one in the New York Times suggest the culture has a ways to go if they continue to equate delaying ‘markers of adulthood‘ with ‘ immaturity‘. In fact, it may be just the opposite, a sign of extra-maturity.
Was the Featherbone Parlor a forerunner of NikeTown and the Apple Store?
Was the Featherbone Parlor a forerunner of NikeTown and the Apple Store?
There’s a myth that Millennials don’t like marketing and are indifferent to brands.
The reality is, as my friend Rishad Tobaccowala reminded me last week, that Millennials are ‘besotted with brands‘. While that may seem like a strong choice of words, he isn’t far off the mark. It’s easy to engage a Millennial in a conversation about brands. They love to talk about what their favorite brands are doing, as the buzz about Old Spice Guy and Nike’s World Cup marketing attests. They understand the ‘language’ of brands and the role they play in communicating about culture. And many choose to friend or follow their favorite brands in social media so they can stay up to date on the latest news or provide their feedback. Insider information about brands is strong social currency.
What Millennials actually dislike is interruptive advertising.
This is traditional advertising that is designed to appear everywhere and anywhere, irregardless of context, without personalization, with the single goal of gaining awareness and conveying an idea that may or may not have any relevance to the person seeing it at the moment. This type of advertising is becoming less and less effective because Gen Y (and others) don’t see any reason why they should put up with it and — and don’t.
As marketers look for new ways to engage empowered consumers, ironically they are returning to the origins of marketing. Marketers are finding ways to add value that may have nothing to do with purchase, but everything to do with making consumer’s lives more informed, more interesting, or more convenient. This is marketing that aims to get noticed, even engaged with, by promising that the marketing itself will improve consumers’ lives.
The book having the greatest impact on my thinking at present is Bob Gilbreath’s, The Next Evolution of Marketing: Marketing with Meaning. Gilbreath points out that there’s nothing new about thinking about brands as offering real service and real value independent of purchase. He points out that David Ogilvy’s first ad for Guinness was a reference guide to selecting oysters. The 100-year-old Michelin guide was originally a travel guide for car owners in France ‘complete with information about auto maintenance, lodging, restrooms, and restaurants’ that created awareness for its tires and emboldened consumers to take to the roads. Betty Crocker cook books helped consumers try new recipes and gave them confidence in the kitchen.
Gilbreath believes that the answer to today’s challenge of consumer avoidance of ‘interruptive’ marketing tactics is to return to meaningful approaches like these that connect brands more directly to their target audiences.
I think he’s right. We could learn from these old school marketers. Here’s another example, dating back to the 1880’s. Warren Featherstone was the inventor of the ‘featherbone stay’, a replacement for whalebone stays in corsets created from by-products from the manufacture of feather dusters. Featherstone knew a thing or two about branded utility and community building.
“Featherbone Parlors were established in major cities and fashion shows were held to demonstrate the latest uses of featherbone to customers. With changing fashion styles, Warren kept adding new products and promotional campaigns. Featherbone bustles, bust extenders, featherbone-stiffened fabric, different weights and widths of feather bones, collar and belt foundations were among the new features offered. Promotions included instruction booklets and in 1893 Warren began publishing the Featherbone Magazinette for distribution to dressmakers and retailers plus advertisements in Ladies Home Journal and other women’s magazines. To further reach the home market and dressmaker, Warren patented and market a featherboning attachment for the home sewing machine in 1895. This 3-1/8″ long attachment mounted on the bed of the sewing machine and aided in the insertion of featherbone or stay.” – http://www.fabrics.net/joan905.asp
Think of the ‘featherboning attachment’ as an app and the ‘Featherbone Parlor’ as a 19th Century Apple Store, you can see just how far, or little, we’ve come from those early days. But there’s more. Warren Featherbone also understood the power of philanthropy. In 1917 he “acted on his vision to help create a better world for future generations by establishing the Warren Featherbone Foundation.” The foundation was intended to establish new methods for everyday people to engage in philanthropy. and led directly to the donation of properties for parklands and wilderness areas in the State of Michigan, known as Warren Dunes State Park and Warren Woods.
As we move from an interruptive model to an engagement model for marketing and brand building, brand strategies will also need to evolve, and perhaps what was old will be new again.
Marketers are investigating the power of ’branded utility’, ‘community building’, ‘user generated content’ and new forms of ’cause marketing’ as means for adding value and meaning to their brands.
We may look back and see the ‘Mad Men’ era of mass media as the exception, not the rule in the evolution of marketing.
For some great examples of campaigns that made participation the goal, see “Five Fantastic Campaigns that Put Digital First” by Jim Nichols of Catalyst.
At over 80 million strong, Millennials are a consumer market force today and will be even more important in the future. According to Alloy Media, the college market alone is made up of a record 16 million young adults with collective economic power of over $300 billion, $69 billion of which is discretionary. Yet economic clout is only the the most rudimentary reason marketers should be paying attention to this cohort. Young adults today have greater influence on consumer behavior than their enormous spending power even suggests.
The main reason Millennials matter to marketers is that they indicate future trends to a greater degree than young adults in the past. Here are a few reasons why:
- Technology proficiency has empowered Millennials to weild a disproportionate influence on the culture and on the buying decisions of other generations.
- Millennials are the first to put new technologies to use to make the most of their media time.
- Gen Y’ers are less impulsive shoppesr. They place a priority on experiences rather than possessions, and are more likely to make every purchase a considered one.
- Gen Y’ers also display a distinct generational “personality” when it comes to responding to marketing programs and messages. Consequently, push marketing is on its way out, the new marketing is all about engagement, and much of the shift is due to Millennials.
- Finally, Gen Y cares more about the company behind the products they buy and the places they work. Corporate branding and brand architecture are more important than they have been in the past.
Here are a few of the Millennials trends I have been seeing lately. I wonder how many will move mainstream?
1. TV is escaping the home. Many Millennials are talking about cancelling their cable subscription in favor of seeing shows via their Internet connection or on their mobile devices.
2. Nostalgia is Cool. Maybe it started with Toy Story 3 but Millennials are reconnecting with their childhoods.
3. Facebook Fatigue. Facebook fatigue has begun, or perhaps there are just better options now for connecting with friends. Long live text! (Until something better comes along).
5. Byte Sized: Posts are shorter. Texts are shorter. No one reads to the end.
6. Who Needs a Car? Many are forgoing a car in favor of less expensive and more environmentally conscious transportation.
7. Let’s Be Spontaneous! Last minute travel. Last minute dining. Who needs to plan? Text me!
What are you seeing? What trends are hot? What else is about to jump the shark?
Young people today watch more video in more different places other than traditional TV. This is hardly news.
Study after study has shown a dramatic shift, not in hours spent watching video, but where it is watched.
“Younger Viewers Watching More TV on the Web” – Retrevo 4.12.10 “According to a Retrevo “Pulse Report” of over 1,000 people regarding their TV viewing habits, 23% of people under the age of 25 watch most of their television content online compared with just 8% of people over the age of 25 watching most of their TV shows via the web.”
“Generation M2: Media in the Lives of 8-18 year old s” Kaiser Family Foundation Longitudinal research tracked changes in media use 1999-2009 via diary. Loaded with great charts on total media usage and how it breaks out by medium over time. Total hours spent with media has increased by over 2 hours due to multitasking. TV accounts for 4 hours 29 minutes a day, but only 59% (2 hours 39 minutes) is watched live.
“How Teens Watch: The Future of Media is in Their Hands: Nielsen 6.16.10 “12-24 year olds are more connected, more tech savvy, and more likely to use personal devices such as smartphones, laptops and other gadgets for video viewing. They are also less likely to watch traditional television. Teens living at home tend to watch more TV overall than 18-24 year olds busy with college or their first jobs. But the “first screen,” TV, is less central to both.”
But will this behavior shift persist as Gen Y ages?
The Nielsen research raises some interesting questions regarding whether this pattern away from traditional TV and toward time shifted TV or third screen is age and lifestyle related or generational. This may seem like hairsplitting, but actually is important. If the behavior is age and lifestyle related, they may revert back to traditional viewing with age. If it’s generational, however, we’re seeing something more fundamental.
Nielsen suggests the changes may, in fact, be more due to age. But I think it’s generational.
Let’s look closer at the Nielsen analysis. This gets a little convoluted, but bear with me (it helps to look at the chart above as well). According to Nielsen:
“The teens of 2001 watched less than 25 hours of television a week but by 2009 as they aged into 18-24s, they were watching 31 hours of television.
Even more dramatically, the young adults of 2001 watched less than 25 hours of television but watched more than 36 hours a week of television as they aged into the 25-35 cohort.”
This is compelling on the surface, but I think the comparisons are unfair. First, if you compare apples to apples – P18-24 in 2009 vs. P18-24 in 2001 – you see that the total hours of viewing have increased from under 25 per week to 31 per week in 2009. So the increase from P18-24 in 2001 to P25-34 in 2009 is consistent with the overall trend that indicates video watching in general is becoming more, not less, important.
Second, the Nielsen analysis doesn’t account for the fact that the media environment is exploding with options, making it difficult to predict how today’s 18-24′s will behave ten years from now. If the pattern of increased television holds, they will watch more, but that does not necessarily mean it will be on traditional television. ”Convergence” is something that has been predicted for a long time. Given the dramatic changes in time shifted and third screen viewing by Gen Y, it may actually come true sooner than we think. In my opinion, the changes indicate a generational shift. Those in traditional television should take little comfort in the Nielsen analysis.
According to Pew, just 31% of Millennials have no plans to go to college, with the rest either in college, planning to go to college or already graduated. This may be the most educated cohort in history. Yet, there seems to be an increasing sense of uneasiness about the degree to which college is preparing them for life after college.
They are right to be concerned. Pew data also shows that in 2010, only 41% of all 18-29 year olds have full-time jobs compared to half in 2006.
By contrast, the proportion of older adults employed full-time stayed about the same. 10% of Millenials report losing their jobs recently, compared to just 6% of older adults.
The cost of a college education (amount families pay after adjusting for financial aid) according to Money magazine has skyrocketed 439 percent since 1982“. Increasingly, students are funding the cost of their education via student loans. College debt constrains their post-college options and places a drag on their income for a decade or more.
With high paying jobs in shorter supply, students, grads and parents are questioning what is the true value of a college degree?
ROI as well as depth of majors and the college experience are considered when it comes to selecting a college. A MarketWatch article reported the results of a survey among 2010 high school seniors. About two-thirds reported that their families’ economic concerns “greatly” or “somewhat” influenced where they were applying to college. The decision about where to attend is also being influenced by other practical considerations such as graduation rates and percent of students employed after graduation.
Harvard has been tracking attitudes toward college among undergraduates 18-24 years old for over a decade. Over the years the study has expanded to include non-college students and 25-29 year olds. Their most recent report is based on responses from 3,000 18- to 29-year-olds from late January through late February, 2010. They found that concern about finding and keeping a job is high across college students and non-college students alike.
“The biggest thing that [college] students share with their [non-college] peers is an intense anxiety about the economy. Sixty-percent of Millennials are concerned about their ability to meet their current bills and financial obligations and 59% are worried about being able to afford a place to live. Almost half of those who are currently in the workplace are afraid that they’ll lose their job, and this fear is echoed in college students’ anxiety about their future after graduation – 84% indicated that finding a job will be ‘very difficult.’ Students are also worried about their ability to keep paying for college, with 45% of 4-year college students and 64% of community colleges expressing concern about staying in school.”
Wednesday night, Josip Petrusa and Chanelle Schneider moderated an hour-long Twitter chat using the hastage, #GenYchat (transcript here). Their topic? The “Experience Catch 22″ – how to get a job or job experience without having any. The 34 contributors vented their frustrations and shared some practical advice. Most agreed that internships help bridge the gap between college and job, but often are not valued by employers. Blogger Jenny Blake of “LifeAfterCollege.com” (who just landed a book deal, congrats Jenny!), has this to say about an internship eased her transition:
“During the first quarter of my junior year at UCLA I got the opportunity of a lifetime. My political science professor and mentor suggested a possible internship opportunity for me at astartup company in Palo Alto. I grew up there and was ahead in school, so I told her and the founder I would move home to work full time if it meant I could help start the company. I anticipated filing papers…I was wrong. I had tremendous opportunities and responsibilities, but I hadn’t anticipated what it would be like to be in the real world – to work full time, to save money, to spend so much money, to be so far from my friends. As much as I loved the confidence I got from working so hard and learning so much every day, at times I felt incredibly lonely and confused.”
We were curious to see if other Gen Y had similar feelings, so we posted the question to our Super Consumer Community of Gen Y marketers. “Did your education prepare you for what your are doing? Should it have?” Here’s what they had to say:
Kyle: I feel like I come from a unique background having partaken in a specialized program at my Alma Mater called the BDIC (Bachelor’s Degree in Individualized Concentration). Essentially, what it allowed me to do was really narrow down the focus of my studies at college to the topics I KNEW I was interested in pursuing in the professional world. I had the incredible opportunity to work closely with 3 professors from 3 of the colleges within my University to design a classroom and experiential curriculum around my BDIC in Sports Marketing. My BDIC experience allowed me to handpick the courses I took and pair them with internships that allowed me to really get a hands-on feel for the subject matter. Had I not had been given the reins and allowed to work in the experiential learning aspect of my curriculum, i feel like I would have left college under prepared for the challenges that one encounters on the job. While I gained a great deal of knowledge and insight from my internships, it also didn’t hurt that it helped build my resume – I feel like I finished college with a leg up on the competition for jobs in the narrow industry of sport since I had 4 internships as opposed to 1-2.
Josip: I think education we’re getting is great and it would prepare you for that field your being educated in. The problem doesn’t so much lie in education, i think the issues lie in what happens after education. Also, sometimes education doesn’t prepare you for actual real world use. Being a philosopher, historian and many other programs that get a lot of students quite frankly don’t have real jobs associated with them. For instance my political science major does not dictate I join the government or politics. I also find that thousands of students graduate with degrees that quite useless unless you plan on being a teacher or something. Although, there are jobs for every field, the ones I mentioned at the end of the first paragraph have the most real world jobs waiting for them. My university has thousands of students graduating with political science degrees every year but I hardly see any political scientists in the real world.
Rob: This is the kind of question schools should be challenging themselves with at least once a year. I think an opportunity exists to bring more real world cases into the classroom. I know case competitions often give students the chance to sink their teeth in to real projects, but those are often some of the more challenging ones employees take on (read: looking for free consulting/ideas from students) and likely not typical enough tasks to get a solid sense of what an entry level marketing or finance person really might do at company X on a day to day basis.
Micah: Funny you should as this is a topic I have been wondering about myself very recently. I am in the midst of a Masters in Library and Information Studies and I am starting to get very worried about if I will actually have any practical skills when I graduate. Most of the coursework I have done thus far has been theoretical-based and while understanding information needs of groups and database structures seems useful, I still have no idea what it actually means to work in a library day to day. My former Master’s degree (I love college) was in American Studies, and while I learned a great deal about the culture and history of our country, I graduated with no practical work experience and went back to school after a summer working as a temp for a medical supply company. In conversations with friends recently I have started to think that if anything vocational training needs to become a more active part of our educational system. Internships are great, but since I have always had to work full time, I never had the opportunity to pursue one outside of my coursework. So basically, I have greatly enjoyed my education but I am not sure it has prepared me for active citizenry or professional life. Any steps I have made in those directions have been of my own interests and initiative.
Derek: Education itself is a wonderful thing. However, education in America today is something that is too broad. General education in college is the same things one learns in high school and middle school and even elementary school before that. This focus on general education prepares us for nothing but provides jobs for professors in the subjects. If we were to have those classes as options as opposed to being forced into them, perhaps we can begin the process of specialization. Internships further specialize but are a catch-22 in themselves. Requiring an internship as part of graduation (like Chapman University does) is an excellent idea because it helps build the résumé. The problem with requiring an internship is that not all students can afford to work for free or take time off from their paying jobs.
Tony Szymczak: Since I am in a totally different field not related to my degree my Education did not totally prepare me for what I am doing. I cannot count the number of classes that I was required to take that I had absolutely no interest in. When picking classes becomes a process of, what will count towards my degree so I can graduate on time, the education process fails. When you take a class that you really have no interest in it really destroys focus. Students face so many appeals for their attention it is hard enough to get them focused on education. The time they do spend on education should not be in classes they are forced to take because a college mandates it.
Of all the impacts of the Recession, the impact on Millennial attitudes and shopping behavior may be the most lasting.
There’s no question, Gen Y has been hit harder than other generations by the double whammy of fewer jobs and higher student loan debt. The result is a generation that is more consciously frugal and actively reconsidering the role of material possessions, luxury, sustainability, career in their lives.
The result may be a new Gen Y aesthetic, one that prizes minimalism and simplicity over luxury and status in the choice of homes, fashion, technology, travel and more.
A recent report by Price Waterhouse Coopers, “The New Consumer Behavior Paradigm: Permanent or Fleeting“, found there is a more careful approach to shopping and consumption across all generations, including Gen Y. Twenty-five percent of 18-27 year olds say their shopping behavior has ‘changed significantly’ and another 47% say it has changed somewhat.
“A more thoughtful approach to spending on luxury and non-discretionary goods is emerging. Shoppers are placing a premium on goods that exhibit qualities of timeliness, usefulness and versatility. Items that make shoppers feel like they are getting something that will hold its value for the money (rather than something that is going to go out of style next season or has limited, narrow usefulness) will be judged worth the investment. Shoppers also continue to look for goods that are “green” or sustainable and appear to be willing to pay a slight premium for green goods that also deliver a personal economic benefit—e.g., energy-saving light bulbs and appliances.”
My favorite source for culture trends is Tim Stock, professor of Design at Parsons School of Design in New York. This week he released a fabulous new presentation focused on the post-recession definition of ‘luxury’ and emerging ‘culture codes‘. According to Stock, “The recession left us acutely aware of the fallacies of finance and the need for sustainability.” At the same time “transparency is forcing us to confront the truths that lay behind the production of our favorite luxury goods.” (See 4.28.10 NYT article “Why does this pair of pants cost $550?” for more evidence.)
Stock’s “Recession Codes” presentation (see below) goes one to explain that not everyone is responding to these pressures the same way. He describes four different segments, Purists, Passport Posses, Guilted Lilies and Brand Heavies. Purists recast traditions in a new way while Passport Posses take a more irreverent stance toward fashion and luxury. Guilted Lilies embrace nature and shun all kinds of ostentation. Only the Heavies have a more traditional view of the meaning of brands. This is powerful stuff and I urge you to at least flip through the presentation.
While Stock doesn’t limit his analysis to one generation, Millennials in particular seem to be embracing the concept of ‘traveling light’ as a way of life.
Many Gen Y-targeted blogs and articles provide advice to others on how to live the frugal life, avoid debt and aim for experiences over stuff. A post from CollegeFashion.net provides “10 Recession Fashionista Tips”, including “Plan Plan Plan”, “Cut back on the frills”, and “write down your debt in a place you’ll see it every time you spend money”.
Whether by necessity or choice, minimalism appears to be the new ‘chic’.
Basics are in. (Sales of Levi’s are on the upswing).
Complexity and clutter are out. (The biggest complaint about the iPad appears to be that it doesn’t do enough to warrant buying a new device. Recycled and vintage are hot. Even the value of an elite education is increasingly being questioned.
Further evidence of the new minimalist aesthetic comes from a blog post last week by Matt Cheuvront, an influential Gen Y blogger and the voice behind “Life Without Pants“. He writes of a “Rising Trend of Minimalist Marketing“:
“The minimalist trend isn’t rising, it’s here, it’s everywhere around us. We’re living in a society that ultimately wants less. We’re condensing our wants to meet our needs – and in a world in which we are absolutely inundated and bombarded with information – we value simple and effective over flash and glamour… I was in the store the other day buying some shampoo and something obvious was staring back at me – gone are the days of the bright pink bottles with crazy typography that scream “look at me”. Now we’re seeing rows upon rows of simple, clean, white bottles with easy to read fonts and clear “messages” about what that product will do for me. Calls to action are clearer, messages are much less fuzzy, and everyone, even Vidal Sasoon, is buying into the minimalist approach.”
Will this trend last? According to Matt Cheuvront, minimalism is not the majority, but it is a growing trend for marketers. Many of the comments in response to his post seem to support the view that fewer gadgets, fewer things and more experiences are the way of the future.
“Minimalist living is something that resonates with me tremendously. I usually don’t get involved in predictions, but I think it’s safe to say that minimalism is here to stay. The thing that appeals to me about the whole thing is the simplicity. Everything stripped to the bare essentials. As a civilization we’ve gone to the extreme end of consumerism (at least in the Western countries) and are now realizing what’s really important.” – Henri J
“However you look at it, minimalism is SO appealing right now. People are sick of feeling overwhelmed. It’s a turn off. How do you appeal to people? Keep it simple. I think the future has simpler living in store with higher quality.” – Melissa G
“I’ve always been a big fan of minimalism in my life, globally, and is a part of all my decisions, particularly from an ecological perspective. I want as few packaged, processed, and plastic things in my life as possible. I live in a small space so that I’m not tempted by the suburban sprawl ethic of always getting more “stuff.” And once you get set in your more minimalist routine – life is a lot more comfortable. And I love seeing that minimalism of all varieties is becoming more mainstream.” – JennSutherland
“With regard to minimalism per se I think a lot of it has been forced by the current world economy which when, coupled with the likes of craigslist and ebay as a simple means to turn unwanted or unnecessary belongings into hard cash, has led people to decide whats important in their lives. I also think that the current economy has turned the traditional college-career-family trajectory right around. A LOT of people who were before totally career-driven (and therefore money-driven) have had that option taken away from them, not through choice, and instead have been forced to drive their energy and enthusiasm into other pursuits, such as enterprise and travelling (and blogging).”
“I am definitely seeing the minimalist marketing as a trend. I agree that as a society we are overwhelmed with information. I genuinely hope that this trend continues and I believe that it will. There is definitely a strong correlation with the “green” movement and the allure of minimalist marketing so I believe that this style of marketing will continue to grow.” - MelliMoore
This trend poses interesting challenges for marketers:
First and foremost they need to create functional products with fewer features, lower cost and lower environmental impact. Beyond this they must find new ways to make their brands meaningful and desirable now that anti-chic is the the new cool. One brand that seems to be ahead of the fashion so to speak is Urban Outfitters. A recent post on TheNextGreatGeneration.com blog explains the source of its appeal. Urban Outfitters creates a unique experience that mimics rummaging through a vintage shop in the East Village. How chic can you get?
Much attention is paid to what Millennials watch for fun and their disinterest in printed newspapers. So, it’s easy to forget that Gen Y is actually among the biggest consumers of news.
An April study by McKinsey in the U.K. reports that the average person consumed 72 minutes of news a day, compared with just 60 minutes in 2006. They further report that the increase was driven almost entirely by people under the age of 35. ”Two-fifths of those in this age group said they felt the need to be the first to hear the news, compared with just 10 percent of people aged 55 to 64.”
In the U.S., the Associated Press (AP), a group with a vested interest in Millennials’ interest in news, released a study in March that looked at ‘news ad fatigue’. The study took an in-depth, ethnographic apporach that focused especially on people 18-34. The study concluded that consumers are “tired, even annoyed, by the current experience of advertising,” and that, as a result, they don’t trust very much of it.
Younger consumers, ages 18-34, have adopted ways of getting their news that are much different from those of past generations. Younger consumers are not only less reliant on the newspaper to get their news; they also consume news across a multitude of platforms and sources, all day, constantly. Among the key touch points in the new environment are online video, blogs, online social networks, mobile devices, RSS, word of mouth, Web portals and search engines.
Newspapers may be less popular with young adults not because they are printed so much as that they are no longer the ‘newest news‘ by the time they hit the newstand. With a smart phone in your pocket, why do you need a newspaper in your backpack? (As an interesting aside, a recent ethnographic study of the contents of over one thousand Gen Y backpacks revealed many ‘low tech items’ like pens and notebooks, but no newspapers).
At the same time, AP found, “consumers do want information relevant to their needs, as well as ways to socialize that information“.
In other words, it’s not just about being informed, it’s about the ability to share information with other people. News is another form of ‘social glue’. By it’s very nature, news is social currency for Gen Y. The AP study further concluded that where Gen Y leads, other cohorts will soon follow: ”the rest of the population is catching up to the vanguard.”
The AP study was designed to understand what ‘news’ means to Millennials and how it relates to their lives. A variety of ethnographic research methods were used.
- Participants completed a live ” journal about how they would represent themselves, focusing on what was important to them, their likes/dislikes, values and philosophies, as well as who and what made up their social networks.”
- In the news realm,” participants described what they considered to be news, how they defined newsworthiness, the influence of platform and channel on their personal definitions of news, their preferred means for accessing the news and how and when they themselves disseminated, or shared, news.”
- Participants were also asked to choose a news story they would typically follow and then track it over the news cycle. A debriefing session asked questions about why they approached the story they way they did, their choice of sources, etc.
- There were also ‘day in the life’ exercises, using cameras and blogs to get ‘in the moment’ close to decisions about what to read or listen to and what to share.
The report takes the form of a series of in-depth, individual profiles of young adults and their relationship with the news. Reading through the profiles it becomes apparent the degree to which news, work, entertainment and social media have converged. These are no longer discrete categories of activities.
Robert, a 28-year old performance events manager working long hours, showed a close connection between texting and checking news. “After finishing a text message, Robert habitually hit the Internet button on his PDA and quickly browsed headlines.”
Here’s a description of how “Mark”, a 28-year old manager of an online travel agency in the U.K.consumes media.
“Mark’s news cycle was continuous and he spent up to six hours a day searching for and receiving information. Mark was on the Internet most of the day and used that time to keep up to date on news coverage and sports-related information. Mark liked his news to be “punchy” and pointfocused. He read the headlines in the Times and followed up on BBC online to “find out what’s happening” with stories that he wanted to track. Mark said he trusts the BBC and Sky Radio (for sports), followed by the Times and the Guardian. Mark’s news consumption was related to other activities that he was engaged in and although he was actively consuming the news, it was almost always in tandem with other activities such as driving or working…
Mark also mentioned Facebook as a source for news. He recently had a friend die and found out about it from another friend who used e-mail viaFacebook to let everyone know about the death. Mark admitted to this being a difficult and potentially unfair way to tell people about the death. He questioned the use of Facebook for certain types of “news.”“
These findings emphasize the need for topicality in marketing and the importance of news to the Gen Y audience. Millennials are accustomed to fresh, relevant content. The blurring between daily activities and ‘news’, combined with the diminished trust Gen Y has for ‘ads’, means marketers who want to reach Gen Y need to spend more time creating ‘news’ than messages.
For marketing that leverages the power of ‘news’ I can think of few better examples than Van’s Shoes. Van’s is a division of VF which also owns The North Face, Jansport, Wrangler and Lee brands. Van’s, which sells both footwear and apparel wholesale, online and in its own retail stores around the world was acquired in 2004 for about $300 million but has grown steadily since. Van’s actually spends very little on paid media, but is extremely active in youth culture. Even a brief visit to their web site shows an overwhelming amount of ‘news’ – about bands, video, contests, and events (like SXSW). Their blog, Facebook and Flickr pages are up to date with lots of current posts. The ‘news’ on their site that isn’t really about Van’s or even footwear, but is all about the things their young active, athletic target is interested in. Van’s really seems to understand their target and how they think about ‘news’.
I haven’t seen an iPad in person but I have watched a few video demos, like this one from Wired magazine at SXSW. I definitely want one, although not enough to be among the half a million people or so who have pre-ordered to the point that it is sold out. (Another nice scarcity marketing coup for Apple!)
Thanks to strong pre-order rates, Apple’s manufacturing partners now expect to ship 2.5 million iPads between March and May. Device sales are only the beginning for Apple of course. As with iTunes, the real money is in the ‘after sales’ – in this case revenue from content providers and advertising. Apple just announced its mobile ‘iAd’ platform for the iPad, which will bring Google and Apple face to face in mobile advertising. Things are starting to get intersting….
I am doubtful Millennials will be among the early adopters.
My students at Notre Dame show no interest. They have all the devices they need to listen to music or access the Internet. The $499 to $829 price is also a significant barrier. On the other hand, they may not be all that representative. Focus group research by Frank Magid suggests the appeal knows no demographic bounds. Consumers of all ages expressed enthusiasm. Even stronger evidence of Millennial appeal comes from a study by NPD, which suggests the iPad enjoys its strongest appeal among young adults and Apple owners.
NPD’s Apple iPad: Consumers’ Perceptions and Attitudes report found that awareness is highest among current Apple owners, (82 percent), consumers with $100,000 or greater income (80 percent), and 18-34 year olds (78 percent). Those demographic groups are the ones with the most interest in buying an iPad. Only 18 percent of all consumers surveyed expressed a real interest in owning an iPad while 27 percent of 18-34 year olds and 24 percent of Apple owners said they were extremely or very interested.
A lot depends on how much new functionality the iPad brings. If it just allows you do to more of what you already do, why invest in a new device and ongoing data plan?
Smart phone penetration is growing smartly. Penetration of smart phones like the Blackberry and iPhone was just 21% in Q4 ’09 according to Nielsen, but is expected to reach 33% by the end of Q4 ’10 and be half of all cell phones by Q4 ’11. With that kind of mobility in your pocket, many will certainly find another device superfluous.
There are suggestions, however, that the iPad will be ‘transformational’. I am especially intrigued by the announcement from MTV this week of a co-viewing app developed specifically for the iPad and mobile phones. They observed that 59% of people multi-task when watching TV, and are betting that tablet devices and mobile phones will be easier to play with while watching TV than laptop or desktop computers. This would mean true ‘interactive’ TV – you interact with friends while watching. IPad apps for “Beavis and Butthead”, “MTV News” and “VH1toGo” are due in April. I’m sure this is just the first of many ‘firsts’ we will see from the iPad (social shopping anyone?!)
Integration of interactive ads, social networks and cool, fast visuals could make the iPad a ‘must have’ for Gen Y, especially after the price comes down.
According to the NPD research, price is currently the main barrier. Among the 18-34 year old demographic, 57 percent of those survyed by NPD cited price as the number one reason they aren’t ready to buy, 25 percent more than the overall percentage of non-interested buyers. That discrepancy suggests there may be pent up demand that can be tapped by lowering the price. Given the pattern of start high, end low followed by the iPhone and iTouch, Millennials may in fact be the main sales driver for the iPad.
I’ve always loved word games, so it was a natural decision for me to study ‘intrinsic motivation’ as a graduate student in Psychology. My master’s thesis attempted to show a relationship between enjoyment of a game and the presence or absence of feedback, and whether or not that feedback was tied to performance.
I hypothesized that pay to play would diminish internal enjoyment and motivation. Because I was a starving graduate student, I tested this theory by creating and programming a crude hangman game (in Fortran) to create the various conditions of performance rewards, no rewards and random rewards. An elegant design, I had high hopes of an experimental breakthrough. I wasn’t able to prove my hypothesis, but I did pass my oral exams and got the degree. Off I went to a career in advertising, then marketing.
In one of the many ironies of my life, I now realize the real breakthrough was not the findings but the hangman game itself.
Talk about lack of vision! This was 1978, right about the time Bill Gates and Steve Jobs were busy changing the world. The Google Guys weren’t even born yet. Yet, I was so busy mastering SPSS, Fortran and other mysteries of experimental design that I totally missed the point that the game itself was the point, not just a vehicle to gain a degree. (If I could turn back time….)
It was apparent to me even in 1978 that computer-based games were literally “sticky“.
My measure of ‘intrinsic motivation’ was how long subjects stayed and played after I told them their contribution to the experiment was over (no more cash) and they were free to leave. I casually added that they could stay and play if they wished. This was a strategic error as it cost me a lot of time waiting. Some subjects had to be told to leave after an hour. The average ‘persistence’ was 20 minutes.
Fast forward 32 years and electronic games have become a worldwide obsession. 24% of U.S. and U.K. Internet users play social games like Scrabble and Farmville online at least weekly. The profile is very broad, in terms of both age and gender. E-Marketer reports that as of March 2010, gamers spend an average of 8 hours a week playing games, up from 7.3 hours in 2009.
Gaming has become so important a ‘media’ that Nielsen tracks it along with radio, movies and TV. According to Nielsen, the most popular PC game is World of Warcraft, with The Sims a distant second. WOW is played on average 524 minutes a week.
Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2
In March, Activision’s Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 hit a record 25 million unique players across all platforms, XBox360, PS3 and PC’s. I asked my twitter friends to enlighten me as to what makes this game so addictive. The answer appears to be great storylines and graphics.
Interactive games have become a ‘social media’ in their own right. A July 2009 Mintel Report (“Gaming in the Interactive World) explains that console is the most social, with more than a third of users play these in person with other. Remote is common on social networking sites, as would be expected, as well as online sites. 18-24 year olds are the most likely to be social when playing games – 41% say it’s more fun to play games in person compared to just 25% overall. 31% of 18-24 year olds say playing games online is a great way to meet new people and 22% say they would like to play in tournaments. Older gamers are much less likely to agree with the more social aspects of gaming.
Ford Taurus: Chasing the Shadow Game
With games this popular, it’s little wonder marketers have caught on. Many participate in popular games as sponsors, while some create their own games. Ford Taurus is featured prominently in the USA Network hit show, White Collar. They have extended this placement to White Collar’s male skewing audience with an online game that mimics one of the show’s FBI-crime solving episodes called “Chasing the Shadow”. The game is said to be fairly sophisticated, more like a console game than an online game. It also features the Sync interface, “which may be the most important element of the game, since players spend a good deal of time using it to make and receive phone calls, text messages, and so on.”
Marketing Daily (Jan 20) described it this way: ”While driving the Taurus, the trainee uses features like Ford Sync technology (to receive text messages, voice messages, make calls, and get clues); SecuriCode vehicle access; adaptive cruise control; and collision warning….Ford Taurus branding frames the game window, and vehicle features are also touted via text messages and voice messages from headquarters.”
That is certainly a far cry from hangman, and well beyond anything I could have ever imagined in 1978. The Ford Taurus provides a great example of how marketers can leverage the inherent ‘stickiness’ of games to involve young consumers in their stories and products. I expect we’ll be seeing a lot more of these types of efforts in the future.
I only wish I had the vision to imagine what they will look like.
St. Patrick’s Day is my least favorite day of the year to teach. St. Patrick’s Day at Notre Dame is like a spring version of Halloween. This year, it happened to coincide with the first day of sunny warm weather after what has felt like a really brutal winter. The whole day felt like a major holiday. There was even free food all afternoon. I also suspect there was a lot of drinking going on.
I first became aware of the issue of campus binge drinking when I read the terrifying 2005 novel by Tom Wolfe, “I Am Charlotte Simmons“. As with most of Wolfe’s books, it is anthropological exploration disguised as fiction. The book was based on years of research on elite college campuses. The documentation of the ‘student-athlete, hook-up and drinking culture was an eye-opener.
Academic research on the culture of college drinking is not hard to find: “It is far more pervasive and destructive than many think” was the conclusion of an extensive 3-year investigation by the Task Force on College Drinking, commissioned by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism(NIAAA). The problem begins in high school, with thirty percent of 12th graders, reporting heavy episodic drinking. (Slightly more report having ”been drunk”, and almost three-quarters report drinking in the past year.)
By the time they get to college, alcohol consumption is considered a necessary “rite of passage. Traditions and beliefs handed down through generations of college drinkers serve to reinforce students’ expectations that alcohol is a necessary component of social success.”
- Approximately 70 percent of college students consumed some alcohol in the past month.
- 31 percent reported symptoms associated with alcohol abuse (e.g., drinking in hazardous situations and alcohol-related school problems).
- 6 percent reported 3 or more symptoms of alcohol dependence (e.g., drinking more or longer than initially planned and experiencing increased tolerance to alcohol’s effects).
The immediate consequences of alcohol abuse in college are troubling, and include death, injury, assault, unsafe sex, suicide, health problems, and more. Immediate consequences also include negative impact on academic performance. About 25 percent of college students report academic consequences of their drinking including missing class, falling behind, doing poorly on exams or papers, and receiving lower grades overall.
The short-term impact extends even to ‘second-hand effects’ on other students, and the campus community. “Students who do not drink or engage in low-risk drinking are affected by the problem drinking of their fellow students. These problems can range from disrupted sleep or study to caring for an intoxicated roommate to even being humiliated or assaulted.”
There are also longer term consequences. While most high-risk college student drinkers reduce their consumption of alcohol after leaving college, others may continue frequent, excessive drinking, leading to alcoholism or medical problems associated with chronic alcohol abuse. A 2008 CDC Report, “Health United States with a Special Report on Young Adults 18-29,” notes “The period between ages 18 and 29 sets the foundation for future health behaviors and health status, and may be the time in life when health education and preventive care may arguably have their greatest impact”. This report provides troubling details that suggest that ‘foundation’ may not be all that solid.
Last February, Lesley Stahl reported on the problem for CBS 60 Minutes. The student interviews reveal a high degree of peer pressure to drink. Drinking is equated with having a good time, and not drinking means you are nowhere socially.
The problem appears to be peculiar to college students. The NYT reported last June that information collected over a 27-year period by the National Survey on Drug Use and Health, found “binge drinking by men between 18 and 20 years old who did not attend college dropped by more than 30 percent over that period but remained statistically unchanged among similar-aged men on campus. There was no difference between college and noncollege women in the 18- to 20-year age group but a big upsurge in binge drinking by older college women.”
No one seems to know why this problem has been particularly difficult to address among college students. Millennial have proven remarkably prepared to make good choices in other areas of their lives, but appear to resist efforts to break the culture of college drinking.
