Like most of you, I’ve read many articles about millennials, each one describing how this generation differs from previous ones. Being the first generation to be brought up in an environment that promotes “instant gratification” through technology, millennials (born 1980-2000) experienced internet, cell phones and digital communication as the norm. While this was perhaps not so much the case for '80s children, by the early '90s children growing up could communicate, explore and learn like no other generation before them. Being a late-'80s child myself, I still remember playing with Lego, the first-ever color cell phone and the problems of slow dial-up internet. Looking back, these memories seem ancient—from a time that seems almost incomprehensible compared to the technology and connectivity we have available now.
However, of all the changes millennials experienced, the one with the greatest impact was the advent of the internet. Opening this, and future generations, up to the world like nothing before, research indicates that the millennials will constitute the largest online audience and have more buying power than any other generation that has come before it, including baby boomers. To put it into perspective, millennials today account for approximately 25% of the U.S. population and possess an annual purchasing power of $1.3 trillion. With such high spending power and as adopters of the latest technology and the first highly tech savvy generation, it is accepted that successfully targeting millennials will be a core survival factor for many brands over the next five years. As an experienced consumer psychologist, I have seen the importance of this firsthand— a failure to adapt can cause irreversible price wars, significant loss of brand equity and a total lack of brand loyalty. However, based on my observations, perhaps the most interesting changes from previous generations are the power dynamics between retailer and consumer and the importance of value drivers.