Who are “The Millennials” and why are they an amazing focus for your business?

THE NEW BABY BOOM GENERATION: HOW TO PROFIT FROM IT

Remember the Baby Boomers – that massive group of people who came of age in the 1960s and set out to change the world? I’m one of them and while we Boomers may not have revolutionized everything we set out to do, we did change the face of marketing as companies watched our every move and figured out how to profit from it.

And while the Boomers are still a force to be reckoned with, there’s a new demographic in town that could prove even more profitable:  The Millennials.

The Millennial generation, also known as Generation Y or the “Echo Boomers,” is three times bigger than Generation X and even bigger than the Baby Boom generation. The dates of the Millennial generation are not precisely defined, but depending on what measure you use, their birth dates typically stretch from the late 1980 to 2000.

Barkley (a marketing agency), Service Management Group and The Boston Consulting Group recently released a new study, American Millennials, that sheds some light on this massive generation and its potential to generate massive profits for marketers. Here’s some of what they found.

They’re mobile. No surprise, but Millennials are early adopters of mobile shopping and are more likely than non-Millennials to research products with a mobile device while they’re shopping (50% compared to 21% for non-Millennials).

• Lesson for your business: If you’re not already exploring mobile marketing, you need to be. And even if you’re not targeting Millennials now, keep in mind their familiarity with mobile means this will continue to be a crucial marketing channel as they get older.

They care about causes. Millennials were more likely than other age groups to beaware of cause marketing campaigns such as Gap RED (26 percent compared to 9 percent for other age groups). They typically learn about cause marketing campaigns online through social media or news channels.

• Lesson for your business: If there’s a cause that resonates with Millennials and makes sense for your business, consider getting involved. But be sure it’s something you truly care about, since Millennials can spot inauthenticity a mile away.

They don’t watch much TV—at least, not on TV. Nearly half of non-Millennials watch more than 20 hours of TV a week; by comparison, just 26 percent of Millennials do. That doesn’t mean they don’t watch TV shows—they just watch them on their computers (42 percent), on DVR (40 percent) or On-Demand (26 percent).

Continue reading at SmallBizTrends.com