The ability to adapt to change determines your success. This is so often true with your marketing campaigns. Marketing strategies evolve over a period of time, with the aim of staying relevant to the customer base always being the goal. Companies should make themselves future-ready in order to handle the coming customer base shift.
Millennials, often referred to as Generation Y, is the generation born between the early 1980s and early 2000s. Currently, millennials are the largest generation in the U.S., representing one-third of our total population. With this first round of millennials being in their young thirties and at a relatively early stage in their careers, they are bound to play an important role in the economy.
Apart from the numbers, the most important characteristic is that this generation has had access to the Internet since their childhood. Technology has always been an inherent part of their lives. Innovation in technology has gained a phenomenal momentum during these early years of the millennial generation. This has shaped the way millennials interact with and what they expect from technology advancements.
More importantly, this generation is transforming how businesses market their products or services – forcing them to move away from traditional marketing methods. Instead of looking to choose a product or service provider from a pool based simply on features, consumers are looking to find out how best the product or service can solve their problems. Indirectly, they are ensuring their voice be heard by giving the business a problem statement to solve. Businesses now must strive to gain more understanding of consumers’ problems.
Millennials are also transforming how businesses interact with their customers. Information used to be generally uni-directional with traditional print marketing. But now millennials want the brands to interact with them and respond to their queries. They are also more willing to share their opinion, whether good or bad, to the people around them through social networks and product reviews. This means continual feedback.
For manufacturing companies, this has opened up both a new set of challenges and opportunities. The challenge for businesses is to change their traditional product design approach based on customer feedback. Innovation is the greatest opportunity businesses have. By interacting with the customers, you can know exactly the kind of problems they face and what they expect regarding the solution that will make their lives easier.
Millennials are tech-savvy and they expect the same from their circles, including the brands they interact with. They are your largest customer base now and for years to come. Their prominence in decision-making, whether you are a B2B business or B2C, is going to continue to increase. The sooner businesses realize this and start adapting themselves, the longer they will enjoy the benefits reaped from this demographic group.
