Here’s Why Companies Fail to Properly Market to Millennials

Every brand wants the attention of Millennials, but few know how to get it. Millennials spending habits and desire for authenticity play a big role in what works and what doesn’t work.

By Nick Powills1851 Franchise Publisher

SPONSOREDUpdated 9:09AM • 06/28/16

A lot of brands are having a hard time cracking the “Millennial Code.”

First, Tic-Tacs, assuming that all Millennials are easily bored, introduced a candy that changed flavors halfway through dissolving. Sales rose a little bit, but not as much as in the prior two years. Thinking that Millennials only communicate through Twitter, Diet Coke decided to put fan tweets on billboards in an effort to make them appear a little more hip. Turns out, this generation doesn’t even like soda. Then, Banana Republic partnered with Hot Dudes Reading--an Instagram account dedicated to, you guessed it, hot dudes reading in public places—to create #HotDudesReadingForACause in an attempt to appeal to millennials’ social conscience (after all, 75 percent of Millennials say that it’s important a company gives back to society). Hot Dudes Reading has more than 843,000 followers, but that did very little to help—the retailer’s net sales dropped 10 percent.

Talk about a major marketing #fail. But it’s hard to blame these companies for trying.

The 83 million American Millennials have become the country’s biggest percentage of working adults. They represent nearly one third of the entire population. They’re wielding a mind-blowing $1.3 trillion in annual buying power. And 74 percent of Millennials believe they influence the purchasing decisions of those around them—even those outside their generation. This demographic might be prime targets for consumer brands, but there’s only one problem—companies are trying way too hard to get them, and it’s making their efforts seem disingenuous.

Forty-three percent of Millennials said that they have to trust a company before they even bother exploring their product. Millennials love content that was crafted with their best intentions in mind, rather than with an urge to open up their wallets. They’re resistant to call-to-actions focused on the sale, and they’re likely to ignore content that screams “buy.” For a lot of brands, Millennials are seeing right through their surface-level marketing ploys—instead, their efforts to woo this generation comes off as pandering and inauthentic.

“It’s as if your parents are trying to connect with you and they’re trying to do it by using the same language that your friends would,” said Paul Angone, author of two books on Millennials, including All Groan Up: Searching For Self, Faith and a Freaking Job!

Money has a lot to do with it, too. Millennials are misunderstood, in large part, because they aren’t approaching adulthood the same way that previous generations have. The economy is a big factor in that—the milestones of adulthood (like buying a home and getting married) aren’t as feasible for many Millennials given the ramifications of the recession. The average student loan debt for Millennials is $29,000. Wages are stagnant. And most of the money that this generation does make is spent on increasing housing and rental prices.

In other words, Millennials are judicious about what they buy. And when they do make a purchase, they’re going to do as much research as possible to ensure they’re getting the biggest bang for their buck—that starts with scouring as many online reviews as possible before making the educated decision to pull the trigger. And no matter how many brands continue to misguidedly target Millennials to make their product the one to stand out, one thing is clear—it’s going to take a lot more than hashtags and emojis to win over their hearts and their wallets.

“Brands are doing stuff at the edges to try and look like they’re the kind of brand that Millennials might like, but really at the core they’re not making the changes they need to make to really appeal,” said Brent Smart, chief executive officer of marketing firm Saatchi & Saatchi New York to Bloomberg. “Brands today are like, ‘We really need Millennials!’ Meanwhile, the rest of us are sitting back asking them what they plan on doing differently.”

Here’s Why Companies Fail to Properly Market to Millennials

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