The Baby Boomer generation brought social change, Generation X brought punk rock music and the Millennial generation brought…marketability? According to former Spych Marketing Analytics CEO Ben Smithee, Millennials possess unique qualities that set them apart from prior and future generations and make them a marketing segment businesses should target.
Smithee gave a great presentation about Millennials at this summer’s JA New York Education program sponsored by Jewelers of America, so we decided to catch up with him and get some more information about engaging this self-proclaimed self-absorbedgeneration.
“Most people underestimate the Millennial market,” Smithee said.
In addition to currently being the largest generation population in the U.S. (Millennial population passed Baby Boomer population earlier in the year), Millennials have the ability to influence not only future generations but past generations as well.
“Millennials are the first generation to affect upstream and downstream generations,” Smithee said.
Being witness to the birth of the Internet is a large part of the reason why, according to Smithee.
“Millennials didn’t grow up 100 percent on the Internet,” Smithee said.
Because of this, Millennials impact their parents’ decisions and their children’s decisions. He added that Millennials familiarity with analog technology (think VCRs, cassettes and record players) as well as digital technology (think computers, smartphones and CDs) brings an “innate comfort with evolution.” “That mindset is going to make a brand successful across all segments.”
Engaging Millennials and holding their attention is easier said than done, however. “When information is cheap, attention is expensive,” Smithee said. Thanks to smartphones, the average human attention span is less shorter than that of a goldfish.
Convenience is the key to Millennial attention, according to Smithee.
“Accessibility is everything. We want to consume ads, as long as it’s not disrupting our information consumption.” Smithee said.
He named Snapchat ads as the ideal model for an information and advertisement marriage.
Although there are plenty of articles out there about how social media has created a smartphone-dependent atmosphere in which Millennials rarely interact in person, Smithee said that’s just not true.
“Millennials thrive from experiences — they use technology to optimize our relationships, but they still want to experience things in their lives.” Brands should use this quest for experience as a way to target Millennials, Smithee said.
“Curate awesome experiences and make them accessible,” said Smithee. “Look at Uber or Rent the Runway — accessible luxury.” In the jewelry market, it’s all about creating an experience consumers can associate with your brand, according to Smithee.
“Think about the usual jewelry experience: you walk into a store, you’re greeted and taken to a counter where you choose what you’d like to see as the salesperson stands there and looks at you. Then, you decide if you want to buy it or put it back. What other items at that price point have that sort of cold experience? None.” Again, create the experience, win over the Millennial. “You need to associate real life interactions with brand interactions,” Smithee said.
One way to associate your brand with experiences are tastemakers. Tastemakers are sort of members of the hierarchy of cool in a particular industry — they can be bloggers, celebrities or people who have gained notoriety from social media such as Instagram.
“People look to imitate others — not everyone has vision to creatively style,” Smithee said. “We look for people with a voice.” Tastemakers are a good way to create a sense of community through curation, according to Smithee.
The concept of tastemakers has been around longer than the Internet though, according to Smithee. “Think of celebrity endorsements — it’s not something new.”
Tastemakers’ influence should not be underestimated, according to Smithee. “Tastemakers for brands are often the brand’s biggest advocates. If a brand can engage tastemakers, they’ll see their magnification of digital impact magnify ten-fold.”
