What Do Millennials Care About? 3 Tips For Marketing To These Consumers

As a brand or business, you need to ask yourself the question: what do millennials care about? Here’s our answer to help market to this new generation of consumers.

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Millennials are known as the “me” generation”. We’re self-absorbed, we take a lot of selfies, we don’t care about anyone or anything else. No, all of that isn’t true. We truly care about a lot of things.

Millennials are the main target audience for any business looking for success. Knowing how to market to them in the right way is key. But, how do you figure out how to land this demographic? You have to get to know them.

If you want to successfully market to this generation of consumers:

  • You need to know what they care about
  • Create authentic partnerships with them
  • And, give them opportunities for inclusivity and participation.

What Do Millennials Care About? 3 Tips For Marketing To These Consumers

1. Engage with their core values & interests

Whether it’s living eco-friendly, saving the animals, being an advocate for Black Lives Matter and the LGBTQ+ community, #bodypositivity, women’s rights and feminism — millennials care about the social movements that impact our society.

Why? Because these are the issues that matter. and they want to make a difference and be a part of change.

They’ll pay less attention to you if you’re advocating for anything less. Don’t push anything down their throats. Don’t try and sell them or convince them that they need to support your brand with bells and whistles – they won’t buy into it.

Instead, lead with an authentic approach. Talk about the real stuff and get down to the core of what inspires and motivates them to act. If you’re trying to market to them, you need to know what they care about.

There are many brands that are doing it right, like Glossier, Madewell, Carolee Jewelry. These companies celebrate diversity and promote topics that are of importance to the millennial generation. Such as body positivity, equality and sustainability. Thus, they are succeeding and gaining the attention of this demographic.

2. Create positive partnerships with authenticity and inclusivity

Millennials can see right through superficial advertising and inflated attempts to land their attention. They’re good at noticing the difference between a genuine company that wants a mutual beneficial agreement and a company that’s just trying to make money. Therefore, it’s essential to millennial consumers that you are transparent about every step of your business process.

Talk about how you have clothing sizes that fit every body type. Show off your cruelty-free, healthy, vegan, and good for the environment products.

Who’s creating your products and where? What are your products made of? What’s your mission statement? How are you developing that mission statement throughout your company? How do you respond to questions and concerns from potential consumers?

Be honest about who you are and what you’re doing. Start a conversation that showcases the transparency of your company. If you’re just pushing forward with the only intention of making money, you’ll quickly lose the attention of valuable and loyal customers. 

Related: Brands, Strive For Authenticity And You’ll Make A Profit

3. Give them opportunities to participate

Millennials love participation. If you want them on your side, promote User-Generated Content.

What exactly is User Generated Content?

UGC is content that is created by your consumers such as tweets, pictures, reviews and blog posts. Then, this content is shared on social media.

Unlike influencers, they’re not being paid to promote your products. They’re simply sharing insight because they like you. Companies like Mejuri and Glossier participate in UGC and that’s why they’re becoming so popular. Millennials all over the world are posting about their products from a genuine standpoint of interest.

So, why does that matter? 

There is so much power in User-Generated Content. If they appreciate your brand and what you have to offer, they’ll post about it and share with their network. That type of communication is incredibly powerful.

But, keep in mind, they will only participate in UGC if they know your brand is truthful and transparent. If they feel a strong connection to your brand, they’ll be more inclined to spread your message to everyone in their circle.

Related: User-Generated Content: The Power of Authenticity. 

If you want build a successful company, then start talking about and following through on the things that truly matter.

Develop a voice for your brand that is truthful and transparent. All while, keeping in mind that millennials are your target audience. Do something that is impactful, good for the environment and promotes change. Grab the attention of millennials by caring about the things they care about.

And, don’t forget – the traditional advertising techniques are out. Harnessing their power and promoting tangible action with the millennial generation, is in.