“A subculture is a homogeneous group of people who share elements of the overall culture as well as cultural elements unique to their own group. Within subcultures, people’s attitudes, values and purchase decisions are even more similar than they are within the broader culture.” MKTG3, Lamb, Hair McDaniel, 2009
By this definition, Millennials are a subculture.
While they share many of the myths, customs and rituals of the larger culture, they have language, preferences and customs that are distinct to their generation. They have a unique set of reference groups and opinion leaders. These cultural factors exert enormous influence over Gen Y buying decisions, and are crucial for establishing relevance.
Learning about Millennial culture can be a tricky business if you are not a Millennial yourself. Even within the Millennial subculture, there is diversity. In fact, this generation is notable for it’s multi-culturalism.
Two of the best Millennial culture sleuths I have discovered are Tim Stock, Head of Planning at scenarioDNA, and Kevin Walker of Culture Labs Creative.
I found both Stock and Walker on Twitter and have spoken with each of them ‘live’ (proof Twitter works!). They are both passionate about understanding cultural influences on consumer behavior among youth.
ScenarioDNA describes itself as a ‘consumer insights think tank.’ Stock, who is also adjunct faculty at Parson’s School of Design, urges marketers to think in terms of ‘culture networks’ and ‘culture codes’. This philosophy is based on the idea that “values are shaped at critical points of the maturation process”, and that “our image of what products mean is dictated by this imprinting“. In other words, generations are shaped by common experiences peculiar to that point in time.
Stock has developed a strategic methodology for segmenting consumers based on their ‘culture code’ and for ’mapping’ the corresponding networks. He offers a fabulous lecture on culture networks (via slideshare), and another look at one particular network, the ‘Transformer Generation”. Both are well worth viewing.
Culture Labs Creative is a research-focused digital agency with special expertise in urban youth culture. Walker, who comes from a marketing communications and research background, emphasizes immersion techniques. 15-20 members of the target audience are invited to share their experience and ideas in a live workshop that is part event, part research. Sample output from a Global Trends event is provided on the Culture Labs site.
To identify the ‘Top 10 Trends, Culture Labs ‘monitored social media chatter during the last quarter of 2009′ and conducted in-market explorations in Houston, Atlanta, Los Angeles and New York as well as a ‘Trend Summit’ in Dallas in December. Among the 10 Trends were these observational ‘gems’ I haven’t seen anywhere else:
Vans Sneakers
“Take note of the Classic Americana fashion trend developing. We also predict that Vans sneakers will be the hot brand of 2010. Vans are classic, inexpensive and are offered in many colors and styles…. As times remain challenged and serious, people are going to dress up more in 2010. The era of sloppiness in dress and casual Fridays is so ’00’s. Young people are rediscovering “dressing up” and it is driven by a new pragmatic sense that to make progress, get a job, and be taken seriously you have to look the part. As one of our speakers at the Trend Summit, Michael Hastings-Black, mentioned, it is the “grown ass man” syndrome that is inspiring people to dress up more.”
I recently finished reading Elizabeth Gilbert’s best selling book, Eat Pray Love. The book chronicles Gilbert’s literal and figurative spiritual journey toward a deeper relationship with God, but never actually reveals which if any religion speaks to her yearning. Gilbert, a Gen X’er, seems to have a lot in common with Gen Y.
New data released this week from Pew Research on Millennials and religion quoted in USA Today, Denver Post and elsewhere, says one in four Millennials (25%) do not identify with any one faith, instead describing their religion as “atheist,” “agnostic” or “nothing in particular.” This level of non-affiliation is much than was seen for other generations at the same age.
At the same time, the Pew study reveals that spirituality among young adults is undiminished. “Members of today’s Millennial generation, ages 18 to 29, are as likely to pray and believe in God as their elders were when they were young.” This leads them to conclude in their headline: “Young Adults ‘Less Religious,’ Not Necessarily ‘More Secular‘.”
There is other evidence to support the conclusion that the issue is more one of lack of affiliation than a lack of faith in God. A survey of Millennials reported in New Yorker magazine last year found that 43% of Gen Y believes they are ‘as religious’ or ‘more religious’ than their parents. A Marist Institute poll shows over three in ten Millennials define their primary long-term life goal in religious terms (“To be spiritual and close to God”). That figure was higher than for any other age group.
What makes this lack of affiliation especially intriguing to me is that in many other areas of their lives, Millennials are inclined to go along with their parents’ choices.
Within the 25% who are unaffiliated, nearly three quarters were raised in a religious faith tradition and dropped away. This makes faith the outlier as far as decisions that break with their parents. Recall that this is the first generation that as a rule likes their parents and even thinks of their parents as their ‘best friend’.
- 86% say they share their parents political views.
- Every single student in my Principles of Marketing class raised their hand last week when I asked who banks where their parents bank.
- According to an AARP survey, 41% of Millennials with cars drive the same brand of car their parents drive or have driven.
- The American Savings Council found 71% of Gen X’ers and Gen Y’ers turn to their parents for financial advice.
So why make the break here, over something as important as faith?
I think has to do with the strength of the Millennial subculture and its strong, shared ethical values than a fundamental change in their belief in God.
The Gen Y subculture is astonishingly ethical, both in values and in practice. ’Bad behavior’ on a variety of social dimensions from pregnancy to crime to drugs are all down among young adults. Socially, Millennials prize tolerance as a result of their inherent diversity. They are significantly more socially liberal than their parents on issues of marriage, abortion, interracial dating. Millennials are less inclined to believe that church affiliation is necessary to be a ‘good person’. According to a Marist Institute poll, 56% have donated money to a charity in the past six months and 67% have volunteered their time.
I’ll go out on a limb here and speculate that some of the lack of affiliation is due to a desire for ‘authenticity.’ The Gen Y subculture is unusually sensitive to phoniness. It’s unlikely they will go through the motions of attending church just because it is ‘the thing to do’ if they have questions about their own sincerity.
In the final analysis, reaching Millennials and getting them to re-affiliate with any one ‘religion’ may be unrealistic as a ‘marketing objective’.
Gen Y is accustomed to choices, and there is some evidence they may feel confined by a denominational label. In December I noted that Millennials are ‘auditioning’ faiths the same way they would look for a college, a spouse or other major decision (“For Millennials Belief Is A Choice“). This represents a huge generational shift and as with so many other Gen Y trends, may start to migrate into the thinking of other age groups. The Pew research shows that like Millennials, most Americans are embracing ‘multiple faiths’, with beliefs that do not ‘ fit conventional categories’.
According to a new report by the industry blog, WineandSpiritsDaily, Millennials are now the recommended prime target for wine marketers:
“The wine industry can take comfort in the fact that consumption continues to grow in the United States, said John Gillespie, president of the Wine Market Council, at the Council’s 5th Annual Presentation of US Wine Consumer Trends in Dallas. Not only are older generations drinking wine, but the industry has a big champion in the millennial generation. By process of being younger, millennials were not as hurt by the economy and feel more comfortable spending money on wine as an affordable luxury. They don’t view wine as elitist and enjoy, rather than feel intimidated by, all the choices that wine presents.” (“Millennials Drive Growth, Core Consumers Trade Down”, Wine and Spirits Daily, Jan 26, 2010).
1. MILLENNIALS ALREADY LOVE WINE AND THEIR NUMBERS ARE STILL GROWING. Right from the get go millennials have begun drinking wine at core consumption levels, while gen X and baby boomers have increased wine consumption with age. 20 million of the 70 million millennials aren’t even at legal drinking age yet. “We have the pipeline full for core wine drinkers for the next 5 years, assuming the 20 million who aren’t 21 yet will follow in the older millennials’ footsteps” says Gillespie.
2. MILLENNIALS ARE TRADING BEER AND SPIRITS FOR WINE. 32% of millennials traded over to wine, which means young people are increasingly favoring wine over beer and spirits. This compares to 9% who are trading off among the drinking population as a whole.
3. MILLENNIALS ARE MORE ADVENTUROUS. They consume more imports than other generations, are more likely to belong to a wine club, and dine out more often.
4. MILLENNIALS VIEW WINE AS AN AFFORDABLE LUXURY. Millennials view wine as an affordable luxury. They don’t see wine as elitist or unattainable but believe it denotes maturity and sophistication not given by beer or spirits. This age group is also the first truly gender neutral generation when it comes to drinking wine.
Wine producers have no time to waste. Many Millennials do not feel that marketers have spoken to their generation.
I don’t think wine marketing is geared toward millennials. More 30+.”While it’s true that Millennials are price sensitive, they also care about brands. According to Mintel, the % of 21-24 year olds who say they decide based on brand (55%) is higher than the number who say they decide by price (48%).
Reaching Millennials now could shape their wine preferences for a lifetime. So wine producers, what are you waiting for?
Photo from Daniel Prager, http://danielprager.posterous.com/dove-bars-and-wine-is-the-new-going-out-on-we
Carolyn Torres, a Brand Amplitude moderator
1) How do we find them?
2) How do we engage them?
Stalking the Elusive Gen Y Respondent
To find study participants, Gen Y Research firm, Outlaw Consulting, sends ambassadors to recruit at the places where Millennials like to hang out – clubs, schools, malls. This is effective but can be very costly. Another firm, Agent Wildfire, has conducted a dozen research projects on Facebook over the past two years, by ‘looking for people who have self-identified their interests by the groups they join.’ Anderson Research uses a software robot to ’scrape’ online forums for the sentiment members express about products and issues. The firm then matches the findings to publicly available information about the speakers. Other firms use networking – literally bring a friend – to identify communities of interest. At Brand Amplitude, we like to tap client’s customer databases Gen Y research, a ready-made opt-in community of brand enthusiasts.
Talking to Gen Y: Fun and Games
Engaging Millennials in qualitative research also requires imagination. If we are doing real-time online focus groups, we vary the activities and stimuli frequently to hold their attention (and keep them from playing Halo or checking email in the background). When we designed focus groups for Vogue last Fall, we used dozens of word games and visual exercises to understand how they related to different kinds of articles, their feelings about fashion, and their aspirations. Tapping into emotions, imagery, culture and language were essential to uncovering their true relationship with the brand.
Software designed to engage Gen Y in market research communities (MROC’s) over time, such as that provided by Revelation Global, asks members to blog about their activities, upload photos and read and respond to the stories provided by their peers. Steve August, principal at Revelation puts it this way: “You have to figure out ways to engage them at an emotional level, if you ask for cut-and-dried answers, you won’t get rich information.
Software innovations are extending qualitative research in new directions. For example, a new research app for the iPhone, called Everyday Lives, shows great promise for making ethnographic research convenient for on the go researchers and study participants. Peanut Labs uses virtual worlds to stimulate participation. Through a partnership with MyYearbook.com, respondents can earn ‘virtual lunch money’ to share with friends or unlock hidden features on the site.
Millennial research experts agree on one thing, however. It’s best to have a Gen Y moderator involved in each project.
Under 20 moderators often think to ask questions older moderators might never consider. When we conducted research on our own behalf in 2008 about Gen Y’s workplace expectations, Carolyn Torres, a recent Notre Dame MBA grad working at Whirlpool, was tapped to draft the guide and lead the discussion. Her question, “If you could tell your boss one thing, what would it be?” lead to a surprising exchange which ended up being featured in our report and ultimately in an article in Advertising Age, (“The Inside Scoop on Millennial Hires“, 9.22.08).
Younger moderators also have the advantage of ’speaking the language’, so to speak. Shalli Bhatt, 28, is an independent moderator based in Chicago. Bhatt had this to say in a recent article in QRCA Views: “Gen Y consumers appreciate that someone is listening to them and can recognize and embrace the subtleties of their own personal stories and experiences over time.” Outlaw’s Holly Brickley, 29, thinks her age gives her credibility with the target, but she also believes people of any age can draw out Gen Y consumers as long as they are ‘real and not disingenuous’. Some things just can’t be faked. On the Internet, no one may know you are a dog, but they certainly can tell if you aren’t in touch with their culture.
Yesterday, we announced the launch of the Millennial Marketing Wiki, a resource for those interested in learning more about Generation Y. It is our hope that, in the spirit of Web 2.0 sharing and community building, it will become a go to resource for the great free survey data that is being published everyday.
Why a Wiki? Because it will make it easier to keep track of and share the new material becoming available every day. The velocity of Millennial survey research has accelerated. Last month, Pew Research announced a new initiative focused on Millennials. The Girl Scouts and Junior Achievement have both published longitudinal studies of young adult values. Fidelity, Microsoft, and AOL have created generational profiles, along with many others. With the help of the Wikispace, we can work together to stay on top of all this great material.
All this activity is evidence that, as I have long predicted, marketers are waking up to two realities:
1) Millennials represent a ‘blue ocean’ for brands wishing to acquire new customers. According to AOL, 14-24 year olds spend $2,200 a year of their parents and their own money on fashion, music, cell phones and other discretionary purchases. 25-29 year olds are purchasing their first everything – first portfolio, first new car, first home, first home appliances, first baby supplies, and more. They love new experiences, to eat out, travel and cook new things.
2) Millennials do not respond the same to marketers’ programs as young adults of the past. They are on the go, split their media time across ‘three screens’, and want immediate results, when, where and how they want it. They are smart shoppers who research, reuse, review and resist purchases more often and more effectively than older consumers.
If you doubt either of these ‘facts’, stop reading now. If you are a brand, school, non-profit or other organization with an interest in Millennial marketing, you have no doubt realized that surveys and free research only take you so far. Often a proprietary study is required to really investigate your issue or category.
Millennials are not only different in their consumer behavior, they are a challenge to traditional research methods. On the one hand, online research is tailor made for Gen Y. After all, they are accustomed to exchanging opinions semi-anonymously in an online setting. But they are also highly skeptical of marketing. And this can make research a challenge.
Tom Anderson, Managing Partner at Anderson Research had this to say about researching Millennials in a recent article in QRCA Views (Qualitative Research Consultants Association):
… (Anderson) remembers one online quantiative survey effort that was foiled when a few students on a discussion board pointed to it as a way to pick up a few dollars in incentive payments. “A lot of them had stopped caring about surveys because the quesitons were repetitive and boring. They felt it was okay to cheat, ” he says. “One person had calculated that he could make $40 to $60 an hour just by taking surveys.” Anderson’s advice to researchers it to make engagement tactics stimulating and fun, talking to Millennials in their own language.
At Brand Amplitude, we draw heavily on free, secondary research surveys. But we have learned the really useful insights about Millennials come from qualitative “deep dive” research. Studies of Gen Y attitudes and behavior for Vogue, Notre Dame, Purdue North Central, Corona, and many others have shown us young adults and teens are uninhibited, collaborative and authentic in research studies, just as they are in other areas of their lives. You just have to know when and how to ask the right questions. By far the best way to meet them is online. This is a group that barely remembers a time before Google, and who communicate almost entirely electronically (telephone calls are a last resort, something you do with your parents when all else fails).
Barbara Bylenga of Outlaw Consulting, a firm that specializes in understanding trendsetters, says ‘Generation Y consumer are comfortable expressing opinions online. “They’re motivated to be seen as individuals and less inclined to be judged by society’s expectations. They will answer questions about topics that are sensitive to Boomers, such as diversity or sexuality.” They also tend to express themselves more completely than older consumers. Our focus group transcripts for Gen Y can be twice as long as the same group with older adults.
Tomorrow – what we’ve learned about conducting qualitative research among Gen Y.
I was reading Josh Bernoff’s book, Groundswell, last night as part of my effort to spend more time with analog media. The book challenged me to think about to do more to bring together the community of Millennial Marketers. Voila, an idea! A wiki!
Twelve hours later, here it is, a one-stop resource for research reports and data Millennial marketers can access FREE, all neatly categorized.
Home Page: http://millennialmarketing.wikispaces.com
Millennial Consumer & Shopping Behavior
Millennial Lifestyle, Attitudes & Values
Millennials & Financial Services
Millennial Demographics & Economics
Millennial Political & Civic Engagement
Bookmark it! Use it! But most of all, please Join it!
There are about 40 links already, but it is my hope that readers will contribute their own links. The goal is participation, so please feel free to add your finds to the lists.
As Josh Bernoff puts it, “...amazingly, people are willing to spend lots of time helping each other if you just get out of the way.”
Source: CDC/NCHS National Health and Nutrition Study
On two occasions in the past year, when remarking on my observations about Millennials and their evolved food preferences, I was challenged by senior executives who quite reasonable asked, ‘If Millennials are so much more sophisticated about their food choices, shouldn’t it follow that they are less obese?” On both occasions I had no ready answer.
Are Millennials healthier than previous generations, or is all the talk about fresh and nutritious foods, gourmet tastes and healthy lifestyles, just that: talk?
The data to address this question is surprisingly hard to find. There is a lot of research on kids and obesity, but adults tend to be lumped together by the CDC and other government health reporting groups. Now, just in time for New Year’s Resolutions, I have the answer, thanks to my new Twitter friend, Rick McGuire, a writer and expert on health and medical issues. He provided a link to a 600+ page report with the intimidating title, “Health, United States, 2008, with a special feature on the Health of Young Adults.” This report draws on a wide variety of sources to paint a most comprehensive picture, based on what I can only call ‘a ton of data’.
Unfortunately, the trends suggest the opposite of what I would have predicted: Gen Y, defined as young adults 18-29, are less active and more obese than earlier generations.
“The proportion of young adults 18–29 years of age who were obese more than tripled from 8% in 1971–1974 to 24% in 2003–2004.”
“Nearly two-thirds of young adults did not have regular leisure-time physical activity and three-quarters did not report strength-training at least twice a week.”
Beyond obesity, there are other reasons to be concerned about the Millennial generation’s health. Overall, the report makes for alarming reading. The statistics on risk factors such as cigarette smoking, drug and alcohol use, unmarried pregnancy, and infectious disease rates among 18-29 year olds all suggest a generation who’s health is in serious danger. These facts are not well understood and important to consider as country is about to take on the enormous challenge of insuring a greater proportion of the population.
Alcohol: “Trends in heavy drinking remained constant for both men and women during the period, with about 6%–8% of young men and 3%–5% of young women reporting heavy drinking. Heavy drinking is defined as more than 14 drinks per week for men and more than seven drinks per week for women, on average. One-fifth reported 5 or more drinks in a day on at least 12 days in the past year.”
Illicit Drugs: “Almost 40% of young adults 18–20 years of age, about one-third of 21–25 year-olds, and one-quarter of 26–29 year-olds reported using an illicit drug in the past year.”
Tobacco: “In 2006, nearly 30% of young adults were current cigarette smokers. Between 1997 and 2006, the current smoking rate declined nearly 20% among young adult women but did not decline significantly among young adult men.”
Sex: “Twenty-one percent of women reported forced sexual intercourse before age 30.”
HPV: “45% of women age 20–24 years tested positive for HPV infection.”
Overall Health: “Eighteen percent of young women and 12% of young men reported at least one of six selected serious health conditions in 2004–2006, and 4%–5% of young women and young men reported overall fair or poor health or an activity limitation due to a chronic health condition.”
Mental Disorders: “An estimated 7% of young adults 20–29 years of age had a diagnosis of major depression in the past 12 months. 9% of young adults 20–29 years of age had one or more of these three illnesses major depression, generalized anxiety disorder, or panic disorder) in the past 12 months. Young women (11%) were almost twice as likely as young men (6%) to have major depression, generalized anxiety disorder, or a panic disorder in the past 12 months.”
Unmarried Pregnancy: “Between 1990 and 2005, the proportion of births that are to unmarried women was highest for women under age 20. Between 1990 and 2005, the proportion of births to unmarried women rose from 66% to 84% for women age 18 years, from 58% to 77% for women age 19, from 37% to 56% for women age 20–24, and from 18% to 29% for women age 25–29.”
Health issues and health care are likely to be the single biggest issue of Gen Y’s lives. Already, the desire to maintain work-related benefits is contributing to keeping them in place on the job, according to a report by Fidelity (“Gen Y Workers Under Financial Stress Value Their Benefits”). Although they are healthier than older adults, young adults are still subject to chronic diseases, activity limitations, and death, and need health care for various reasons. As this report points out, however, “they are the age group least likely to have health insurance, and when they do need health care, they experience problems accessing the health care system.”
Looking ahead, the cost of health care overhaul will mostly be borne by Gen Y. The single biggest thing they can do to keep the overall cost of health care down in the future is to change the choices they make now. It’s a new year and a new decade. Let’s hope for their sakes Gen Y makes a resolution to take the health care debate and their own health care seriously.
In their October report, “The Millennial Muddle: How Stereotyping Students Became an Industry”, the Chronicle of Higher Education provides this scathing assessment of the ’experts’ that have sprung up to discuss Gen Y:
Everyone in higher education has pondered “the Millennials,” people born between 1982 and 2004 or thereabouts (the years themselves are a subject of debate). Ever since the term went prime time about a decade ago, a zillion words have been written about who Millennials are, how they think, and why they always _______________. In short, Millennials talk is contagious. Those who have shaped the nation’s understanding of young people are not nearly as famous as their subjects, however. That’s a shame, for these experts are colorful characters in their own right. Some are scholars, and some aren’t. Many can recall watching the Beatles on a black-and-white television, and some grew up just before Barney the purple dinosaur arrived. Most can entertain an audience, though a few prefer to comb through statistics….They are products of their time. In an era when the wants of young consumers have become a fixation for colleges and businesses alike, these unlikely entrepreneurs have fed a world with a bottomless craving for labels.
Unfortunately, it is true there is no agreement on precisely where to draw the line between Millennials and Gen X, and even less agreement on when the Millennial generation ends.
Gen Y’er, Blake Sunshine, has a special tab on her blog, “The Perrennial Millennial” to deal with the issue, but concludes the answer is fuzzy, somewhere beginning around 1980. Even Wikipedia concedes, “there are no precise dates for when the Millennial generation starts and ends.”
Many experts when making presentations about Millennials feel compelled to begin by defining what is meant by the label, which is itself an indication the term is fuzzy. (The same is true of presentations about ‘brands’, but that is a subject for another day!) For the record, here how a few of the leading thinkers define Gen Y:
- Don Tapscott, author, “Grown Up Digital“: 1977-1997
- Kit Yarrow & Jayne McConnell, authors, “Gen BuY“: 1978-2000
- Morley Winograd & Michael Hais: authors, “Millennial Makeover“: 1982-2003
Suzanne Kart features a cool infographic today by McCrindle Research on her blog, GenXpert (click on the graphic to enlarge). I love the way this defines the generations and provides some key statistics for each – size, life expectancy at birth, age at marriage and first child, % of work force. The real take away here is that demographics matter and each generation leaves a distinct footprint. Whether the cut off between Gen X and Gen Y is 1978 or 1980 is really beside the point — there will always be gray transition years. In the end, what matters is how an individual identifies themselves.
Gen Y is famously averse to labels of any kind, and especially the label ‘Gen Y’. They consider it ’stereotyping’. As individuality and choice are core values for young adults today, this aversion is understandable.
Yet marketers need ways to group people. Gender and age are generally the first of many prioritizing cuts, because they known to be associated with real differences in attitudes, lifestyle, media consumpton and consumer behavior. Generational segmentation takes this profiling one step further, but is by no means the only, or final step, in any target audience definition. Other factors such as category use, income, and lifestage, that take into account Gen Y’s wonderful diversity are also critical. (See “Gen Y to Marketers: All Millennials Are Not the Same“)
A generational portrait, such as the one I paint in the presentation below, is useful because it provides ’color’. It can bring a target alive to those who are trying to influence it to do something - to watch, to buy, to donate, to vote, to volunteer, to read. Relevance is the most critical part of any communication. Understanding generational values increases the chance you will say something relevant, or at least say it in a relevant way.
Millennials: A Generational Portrait
Smart marketers are waking up to the fact that people under age thirty are a ‘Blue Ocean’ opportunity today and a critical target of the future. They are recognizing that Millennials have some distinctive characteristics that are good place to start in developing meaningful products, services and communications.
It’s the last three weeks of December and Christmas, at least in America, is unavoidable. Everywhere you look there are lights, parties, gifts, shopping, music and wishes for a Merry Christmas. For Millennials, it appears, Christmas is a time of introspection, as there have been several articles and blog posts lately about the difficulty of making religious choices.
The concept of religion as a personal choice is a generational shift. My generation did not think of religious belief as a choice. You were Catholic, Jewish, Presbyterian or Baptist, just like your parents. But young people today take a more conscious approach to faith. As my 15-year old son put it, “If I were born in a Hindu family, I’d be Hindu”. The implication being that religion should be a considered choice, not something that happens by ‘luck of the draw’. Adam DiSefano writes today, in The Next Great Generation blog, that for Millennials, it’s hard to know ‘how to choose the correct religion’:
“Nearly every major religion preaches that it is the one true religion. If there’s only one true religion, what happens to all the people who don’t subscribe to it? Do they rot in hell just because they chose the wrong religion? I was baptized Roman Catholic. I went to Church and Sunday School most weeks until I was eight. I was Roman Catholic because that was all I knew. There was no other choice. In the sixth grade, I had a class that aimed to teach us about morality and religions from around the world. One day, the teacher said something that stuck with me: “Religion is a choice. You can choose your religion….It used to be that if your parents were Catholic, you were Catholic, end of story. Religion had a captive audience. Now, we have a choice. We’re shopping around for the best religion, and you know what? We can’t pick a winner. We’re paralyzed by choice, and so, we decide that maybe we don’t need organized religion after all.”
No choice appears to be the choice of a large number of Millennials. According to research by Lifeway.com, “70 percent of young adults ages 23-30 stopped attending church regularly for at least a year between ages 18-22.” Paul Eulette wrote in October for his blog, “QuarterLifeMagazine” that when young adults reach college, ”the support of the “family atmosphere” is gone and now young adults of Generation Y are having to realize the need to make these decisions for themselves for the very first time.”
Young adulthood today seems to be a time of auditioning different beliefs. Adam reports that he is still in the process of deciding what he believes:
“Today, I don’t consider myself a Catholic. I meditate and have dabbled in Yoga, but hesitate to call myself a Buddhist. After all, I don’t believe in reincarnation. I have issues with organized religion in general, but still consider myself a spiritual person. I do good in a way that’s consistent with my own values, as they’ve been defined by my parents, my friends, social norms and my personal experiences. But as for a label, I haven’t chosen one yet.”
In this respect, as in so many others, Millennnials appear to be on the vanguard of a trend.
New research released today by Pew shows most Americans are embracing ‘multiple faiths’, with beliefs that do not ‘ fit conventional categories’. Nearly three-quarters of Americans (72%) say they attend religious services at least a few times a year, including 38% who say they attend at least once a week. Among those who attend religious services at least once a week, nearly four-in-ten (39%) say they attend at multiple places and nearly three-in-ten (28%) go to services outside their own faith. In other words, most church going americans are a lot like Adam DiStefano — they like to mix it up and avoid a ‘label.’ A surprisingly high number of Americans, say they believe in reincarnation, ghosts and fortune tellers. Three fourths say they communicate with the dead.
“Though the U.S. is an overwhelmingly Christian country, significant minorities profess belief in a variety of Eastern or New Age beliefs. For instance, 24% of the public overall and 22% of Christians say they believe in reincarnation — that people will be reborn in this world again and again. And similar numbers (25% of the public overall, 23% of Christians) believe in astrology.
Nearly three-in-ten Americans say they have felt in touch with someone who has already died, almost one-in-five say they have seen or been in the presence of ghosts, and 15% have consulted a fortuneteller or a psychic.
Twenty-three percent (23%) believe in yoga not just as exercise but as a spiritual practice. Similar numbers profess belief in elements of New Age spirituality, with 26% saying they believe in spiritual energy located in physical things such as mountains, trees or crystals, and 25% professing belief in astrology (that the position of the stars and planets can affect people’s lives).
Fewer people (16%) believe in the “evil eye” or that certain people can cast curses or spells that cause bad things to happen to someone.”
The desire to avoid a label and celebrate diversity is characteristic of Gen Y. What I find especially fascinating is how this characteristic appears to be migrating into other age groups. The trend toward embracing broader spiritual views appears to be well underway. Half of Americans (49%) say they have had “a religious or mystical experience – that is, a moment of religious or spiritual awakening.” According to Pew, this represents a sharp increase over the past four decades. In 1962, only 22% of Americans reported having had such an experience, which grew to about a third in 1976 (31%) and 1994 (33%). This seems to at least partly explain the current fascination in angels, demons, vampires, and other supernatural beings.
Will Millennials continue to forge a more individualistic spiritual path? Or return to a more conventional approach as they age? What do you think?
2009 “Cyber Monday” sales exceeded last year by 14%, thanks to plenty of deals and rising consumer confidence. Consumers bought nearly 30% more items per order this year versus last year, and 10% more items per order online than they did in stores on Black Friday.
Based on consumer survey data from Mintel (Online Shopping US May 2009), it’s safe to say Millennials played a role in the surge in online shopping last week. Compared to older age groups, people 34 and under are more likely to shop online. While overall they may not have the spending power of older consumers, their willingness to shop online makes them disproportionately important to online retailers.
- . When presented with a list of 25 major online retailers, only 30% of those 18-24 years old and just 29% of those 25-34 years old say they have never purchased online from any of those listed; the comparable number of all other groups is 42% or higher.
- Amazon has the strongest penetration of all online retailers among Millennials. Forty-one percent of 18-24 year olds and 41% of 25-34 year olds have purchased from Amazon; every other age group is 32 % or lower.
- Millennials are more likely than older shoppers use the store to research, and online to buy. Thirty-seven percent of 18-24 year olds and 41% of 25-34 yearolds say they price comparison after a store visit. This compare to just 31% for 35-44 year olds and 32% for 45-54 year olds.
- Millennials are more likely to pay attention to online peer reviews. Sixty percent of 18-24 year olds and 60% of 25-34 year olds “read consumer feedback online about products or services before making a purchase” compared to just 55% for 35-44 year olds an 51% for 45-54 year olds.
Two factors hold Millennials back from doing even more shopping online.
First, many 18-24 year olds lack electronic payment ability. 40% of 18-24 year olds and 46% of 35-44 year olds say they prefer to do business with retailers that accept Pay Pal or another service they are signed up with. This is a higher level of agreement than for other age groups.
Second, many lack the funds to do much shopping, at all. According to a new Fidelity study, nearly two-thirds of Gen Y checks their balance before making a purchase of $300 or more. (“Recession Makes Gen Y More Conservative” 12.8.09)
“Over 70 percent (of those surveyed) are very concerned about their finances and have set the goal of daily money management and budgeting as their biggest focus. Most Gen Y individuals are using mobile technology to stay updated on their cash flow situations with 64 percent reporting that they typically check their balances online before making a purchase of $300 or more. On average, this younger generation holds over three credit cards with one fifth (20 percent) carrying a balance greater than $10,000 and one in four (25 percent) believing they will never be free of credit card debt during their lifespan.”
How can online retailers encourage young shoppers to spend online?
Although they are comfortable shopping online, the youngest Millennials (18-24) are the most careful shoppers. With money tight, it will come as no surprise that Gen Y is the age group most receptive to online coupons. According to IRI, 51% of 18-24-year-old shoppers indicate they would be very likely to use coupons presented to them online, the highest of any group. Mintel research shows that EBay enjoys the highest penetration of any age group among 18-34 year olds.
They want to deal with retailers they know and buy products they are familiar with. Of all the age groups studied by Mintel, they were the most likely to agree with these three statements:
I will only buy products from brands I am familiar with when shopping online
I will only make an online purchase if I am familiar with the product I am buying
I will only make an online purchase from a store I am familiar with
For marketers, this is a warning not to take young shoppers for granted. They like shopping online, but it may take more effort to convert them to buyers than older age groups. Brand familiarity, online reviews, online coupons, and the abilty to see the merchandise in store before buying will all be important to winning their business. They also like gift cards and are avid users of ‘wish lists’. Perhaps a strategy for reaching Millennials is to make it easy for them to let others know what they like.
