Intrepid Millennial Explorers: Changing The Face Of Modern Consumerism (Webinar Slides)

Editor's Notes

• #3: MEGAN WELCOMES PEOPLE, TALKS ABOUT MC AND BRANDS AND LOGOS. TURNS IT OVER TO ME I TURN TO STACY FACTS ABOUT MILLENNIAL CENTRAL ADD ONE SLIDE ON COSUMER INSIGHTS GROUP. INTROS FOR US – HEADSHOTS, ME STACY, MEGAN AGENDA MEGAN CLOSES – WE REUN A TON OF CMAPAISGNS – ENCOURGAE ANYONE TO CONTACT ME. ME – I DO SLIDES 2- 25, STACY DOES 26 – 37.(CONSUMERISM BECOMES SOCIAL) I FRAME CORE OF RESEARCH. POLL – HAVE YOU BEEN CHALLENGED TO REACH MILLENIALS IN YOUR MRKTG? Megan - note this. We’ll add a poll up – kee an eye out for it.
• #5: Thanks Megan! As Megan noted, we are going to spend some time talking about this new generation of consumers – who they are and, some of the contradictions that surround them – and, most importantly, the challenges this poses to us as marketers. This is a generation rapidly increasing in consumer power and influence. Yet despite this, Millennials remain among the least understood consumer sectors. And in thinking about this insights study, we wondered: Do their ongoing bonds to their parents demonstrate a lack of independence or simply strong family ties? Does their fluency with technology impact their trust of online consumer sources or do of!ine, personal recommendations still matter? What most directly impacts their path to purchase? So we conducted an online study of 1,100 American Millennial Women. For this research, we surveyed women without children in order to glean insights from the data about Millennials as singletons. As there’s a growing group of non-Moms from their mid-20s to early-30s who find themselves with relatively large disposable incomes.
• #6: We know there’s a large amount of misinformation in the market about this generation. What we found is that for the The Millennial shopper, their customer journey is multi-faceted and circuitous, b/c they live their lives with an overload of recommendations and facts is just how they like it. as such, these consumers demand a new set of rules. Instead of a linear customer journey straight to purchase, Millennials often take the “long road” – involving inspiration, browsing, education, fact-"nding, and opinion-gathering – all overlapping with one another. They embark on meandering paths of purchase that combine personal aspirations with crowdsourcing and product comparisons. They embrace a strong sense of self and believe they make their best decisions using any available information. As marketers, we see them as consumers deeply in!uenced by the world around them. We focused on Millennials’ purchase path both online and of!ine, how their deep connections with family and friends impact the choices in their lives, and the effect of various types of media on their day-to-day decisions. W found Millennials differ from previous generations, and how their ability to share and crowdsource online in visual and instantaneous ways shapes their perspectives of brands, media, and relationships.
• #7: This sis a generation with a strong sense of self, in!uenced by family and peers alike, and steeped in the mosaic of the world around them. We describe them as INTREPID EXPLORERS: CLUSTERED BY PERSONALITY ATTRIBUTES
• #8: Key attributes = EXPLORATION AND INDEPENDENCE rank high with this generation of women. Millennials consider themselves intrepid explorers. While they’ll share very personalized stories on social media, they’re not out to establish expertise. Which we thought was interesting. Thinking about Millennials as a cohort, we anticipated that a focus on firneds and followers and high numbers of interactions would propel members of this generation into the “inflkeuncer” realm. Especially given the space we work in. However what we found is that They don’t want to be considered a “leader” or “in!uencer” because they focus more on egalitarian relationships or back-and-forth interactions with their friends and family. Millennials are not on a personal quest to secure readers, followers, or likes. Instead, they seek out new products and new experiences, deciding for themselves what they think about them. As a result, they do not seek to build large numbers of followers as many of their leadership and soapbox-seeking Gen X predecessors.
• #9: Millennials prefer instead to serve as advisors and consultants for their friends, peers, and family. They focus on creating and curating great content. They envision themselves as cool and trendy crowd- sourcers, taking into account what friends and peers like and do online, then adapting those traits they most admire to their own lifestyle. They care about sharing what they’ve most enjoyed – whether it’s a delicious dinner at the bistro down the street, recipes for tapas they cooked for a gathering of friends, or an amazing shopping find. Millennials like to track their friends and families activities online with 58% sharing this information as a common use for social media.
• #10: This sense of advising and consulting works both ways. Along their purcahse opath, Millennials rely on heavy crowd-sourcing to help make the best decisions for them. and we’ll see more of this later in the webinar when Stacy discusses their purchasing habits, but for example 66% rely most on friends’ advice when making tech purchases & 65% seek in-person WOM recommendations for vacation suggestions.
• #11: Growing up as Digital Natives, Millennials create sharable narratives through user-generated content with their opinions, purchases, and decisions. It’s a constant process of forming opinions and sharing them instantaneously using dynamic social platforms. Content creation happens at a moment’s notice – it’s become second nature to this group. They don’t see this as “in!uencing” or “being an expert,” but rather as living their lives in the online, social milieu in which they have grown up.
• #12: this statement reflects the overall sense of living their lives online. QUOTE. Not the same for those of us who are Gen Xers, or Boomers. 74% post pictures online in “real-time,” not surprising as 49% use their phone more often now than 3 years ago to access social media accounts. 45% post videos they create themselves, 67% share videos they discover online.Of the 40% who have an Instagram account, some post more than 50 times per day.
• #13: But not a surprise - first gen to come of age immersed in tech. READ STATS. Another personality cluster that emerged as Digital Natives – life online seamlessly integrated in their core selves.
• #14: Not just as personal or emotional expereinces, this constant self-branding is also a factor when ti comes to learning about trends and loking for inspiration in various categories, and
• #15: FACEBOOK STILL RULES FOR MILLENNIALS AS THEIR SOCIAL PLATFORM OF CHOICE Much discussion has been made about the importance of Facebook with this generation andits future as their primary social community. Does Facebook stand a chance? According to thisgroup, it does. While many adopt new platforms, Millennials continue to use Facebook more than any other social network.
• #16: Millennials’ focused consumerism gives each material purchase a weight and story. Every action, every choice, every moment becomes their mirror through which others de"ne them and they re-de"ne themselves. Because of their penchant for sharing information, every purchase decision involves touching base with their core group. Consumerism for Millennials is an intuitive, interactive part of life – not a separate decision or private process. I’d like to hand it over to Stacy to discuss wha thappens when these contextual discerners take consumerism social.
• #17: Regardless of the platform, Millennials act as creators of their own life stories, branded through the "lters of Instagram, labeled by hashtags, and offered as personal updates on Facebook. They constantly interweave photos and personal reflections to create the curated content, it is the immediacy of their evolving experiences that connects and defines them as a generational cohort. As such, Millennials live in the center of their own branded self-networks. But for them, it’s all about self-expression, not narcissism. They use social media to announce important moments in their lives. When something good happens, they turn "rst to social media to share it. Every moment gets saved, publicized, and offered up for comment.
• #18: MILLENNIALS SWIM IN TRANSPARENCY, WITH SOME CAUTION: THE MILLENNIAL PRIVACY CONTRADICTION This piece we were quite inteested in – as with all of this online activity happenign 24/7, how do Millennials think about online privacy and the ramifications of sharing so much of your life across social media platforms. Millenials accept the inherent transparency that comes along with social sharing –and they do so because they assume their social commuinties are made up of peers, friends and family members. Again, they don’t bview themselves as influencers and as such they don’t assume strangers will stumble upon their content or posts.
• #19: BUT 0- they have changed their behaviors over the past few years. And there is a line in the sand – no checking in, It seems their photos and visual posts are open but any logistical/text won’t be
• #24: Millennials utilize a blend of sources for complex decision-making, placing important weight on product reviews to help shape initial views into buying process. They trust blogs for education and research, but look to other online sources for reviews. Millennials do most of the upfront work online. At this stage in the purchase path, Millennials are more trusting of the facts on product websites than personal recommendations or reviews. Brand websites allow Millennials to dig into product information and specifics, as well as pricing, and they use these product facts to evaluate alternatives. In contrast, Boomers and Gen Xers are less likely to do this as they perceive inherent marketing wrapped up in brand-owned media, not trusting the bias. But for Millennials, they regard owned media as the top source to "nd neutral, unbiased product data.
• #28: Celebs No Longer Loom Large but Brands Still Key Fame has little sway on ”final purchases and only marginal reach when it comes to awareness about a new product. While brands have bridged the gap with the Millennial demographic, ”finding a way to live both within and outside of their social communities, celebrities remain far removed: 68% of Millennials remain unfazed by a celebrity spokesperson’s in!uence when promoting a brand/product.
• #30: In fact, because Millennials don’t have the same innate distrust of brands that previous generations did, they’re more willing to connect with and make brands a part of their social communities. But bear in mind, connecting does not mean welcoming them into the conversation. 66% follow brands on social media, yet only 41% enjoy when brands interact with them online.
• #33: Online review
• #34: Online review
• #35: The difference in the depth of trust is huge when it comes to anonymous online reviews: 97% MOVE 97% TO TOP
• #42: Celebs No Longer Loom Large but Brands Still Key Fame has little sway on ”final purchases and only marginal reach when it comes to awareness about a new product. While brands have bridged the gap with the Millennial demographic, ”finding a way to live both within and outside of their social communities, celebrities remain far removed: 68% of Millennials remain unfazed by a celebrity spokesperson’s in!uence when promoting a brand/product.
• #43: ENDLING SLIDE WITH CONTACT INFORMATION