Marketing Research Millennials

Dana Ellis November 1, 2014
Millennials: A Target Worth Closer Examination by Brand Strategist, Mara Friedman, found at Greenbook.org, discusses the essential concepts that should be understood when doing market research concerning the generation born between 1980-2002. This generation is often referred to as “Millennium Generation”, “Echo Generation” or “Entitled Generation”. The article states that the Millennium generation uses products differently, communicates differently, perceives the world differently and responds to advertising differently than other generations. Complicating the understanding of this complex generation even more, there seems to be a vast difference in the way the older and younger parts of this generation interact with the world. These things being the case, marketers are often left shaking their heads when the same marketing strategies that worked with older segment of the generation do not get the same results from the younger portion.
As the product of “helicopter parents”, the younger portion of Generation Y, those who are currently 25 and younger, are highly educated but tend to be much more hesitant to enter society and are therefore dependent on older adults. They are more socially conscious and are just much concerned with what a producer cares about as they do the product they’re producing. Having been told so their whole lives, they believe that they are special and seek instant feedback and constant recognition for their work. They expect their jobs to accommodate their personal lives and on the average, tend to change jobs every two years. Also, since they’ve had all knowledge at the tips of their fingers, having the Internet, they expect instant gratification. As this new generation comes into the market as adults, market research is of great importance in understanding such a perplexing group of people. They are a highly diverse group of people that are different than all generations before them. Consisting of about 72 million, Generation Y is a larger portion of the population than the Generation X, the generation before them. There is no doubt, that such a large portion of the population, with unprecedented resources and such a different way of interacting with the world, will no doubt change the face of marketing.