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Tag: millennials

  • Go Where Your Customers Are… the Mobile Phone

    Go Where Your Customers Are… the Mobile Phone

    At the recent Social Media Day Jacksonville 2018 conference, Carlos Gil, founder of Gil Media Company, spoke about current social media marketing strategies. In an entertaining and informative talk, Gil spoke about the challenge of getting companies like Win-Dixie to understand that they should be engaging with their customers on the device their customer is always paying attention to, and that’s the cell phone.

    It’s not about advertising either, it’s about being part of the conversation, being a brand that matters. Here are selected excerpts from Gil’s talk below that highlight this challenge:

    The Only Metric that Matters Is Sales

    The only metric that matters today is sales. Most of us, if not all of us, know that the reason why we’re on social media is that we want to drive more revenue for our businesses. You go to any CMO or CEO and for them, social media is just nice to have. The reality is that social media is the lifeline between you and your customers.

    Oftentimes, we see metrics being referred to as reach, clicks, impressions, but the only metric that really matters is the sale.

    I often get asked by businesses and marketers, should I be on Instagram, Snapchat, or something else? My answer to them is very simple, go where your audience is. Each one of these social networks gives you reach and helps put you in front of people who are potential buyers or existing buyers from your brand or your competition. If you are targeting millennials, Snapchat and Instagram might be good to focus on.

    Simply think about your business and go where your audience is.

    Revise Strategy from One-To-Many to One-To-One

    We’re talking about sales, we’re talking about driving revenue. Since the beginning of time sales has always been one-on-one. I think the biggest mistake that marketers are making is they think I’m going to get on social media and I’m gonna have access to reach all of these people. I have all of these followers, but the reality is that most people are not paying attention to the content that you’re posting. This is why you should revise your strategy from being about one-to-many but more one-to-one, and you should stop focusing on the numbers.

    Recently, I was working with a client that said to me, we have 30 million social media followers globally but we’re reaching a very small percentage. I looked at the CMO and said, you don’t have 30 million followers, in reality, you have like 300 or less. Their jaw dropped and they were shocked because the reality is that you can’t touch everyone that’s out there.

    Social media operates in real time, and with the way content moves, content is relevant today and it’s irrelevant 15 seconds from now.

    Millennials Don’t Want to be Sold, They Want to be Engaged

    Millennials don’t want to be sold, they want to be engaged. Millennials are really at the forefront of a lot of what we do. For example, I work a lot with real estate agents and they often say that you have to look at the data of who is your target buyer. In the case of realtors, 30 years old is the average age of a first-time homebuyer. You’re not going to reach that customer sending them direct mail.

    However, if you run Facebook Ads, if you have any sort of presence in social meeting, you can find a way to get in front of them then. You have a much higher likelihood of promoting your brand and getting that lead. The same thing applies to most businesses.

    Go Where Your Customers Are… the Mobile Phone

    I work with both B2B and B2C and you have to go where the current is, you have to go where the customers are. The reality is this is your audience today. People aren’t paying attention to really what’s in front of them besides their cell phone.

    I’m sure if you go to any boardroom meeting today and you look around, what do people do when they show up, they put their iPhone first thing in front of them.

    When I was working at Winn-Dixie back in 2014, we’re doing this campaign where we’re trying to take market share away from Walmart, Target, Burger King and McDonald’s, I made a comment to our CMO at the time. I said why are we focusing so much on doing direct mail at home marketing and instead, why aren’t we doing SMS and push notification ads? Why aren’t we reaching people on the device that they go to the bathroom with and that they use all the time?

    We use cell phones for virtually everything that we do, so guess what, the light bulb has to go off if people are using this device all the time and they live by it your marketing has to now appeal to the device itself.

    It was funny because in 2014 that CMO looked at me and says huh, SMS is never gonna take off, mobile marketing is never gonna take off!

    Marketing is Like Finding Your Match on Tender

    You’ve got this high propensity of customers, Millennials, they’re all using social media. I think the biggest challenge that we all face is how do we reach people at the right time and ensure that our content resonates with them? This is why I say that marketing is like finding your match on Tinder.

    Business marketing is very much like dating. You’ve got a lot of people out there in this digital ocean and if your content is not appealing to that audience then they’re gonna keep swiping.

  • Customers Rapidly Deserting Malls for Ecommerce, Says Former Toys ‘R’ Us CEO

    Customers Rapidly Deserting Malls for Ecommerce, Says Former Toys ‘R’ Us CEO

    Nordstrom is the class act of the department store segment and doing everything right says Former Toys ‘R’ Us CEO, Gerald Storch. Unfortunately, that is not enough according to Storch because customers are deserting malls for ecommerce.

    He predicts that only top-tier malls will survive and even those will have to adapt to attract millennials. For Nordstrom and other department stores to survive and thrive they will have to quickly need to learn how to make money on the internet.

    Gerald Storch, former CEO of Toys ‘R’ Us and CEO of Storch Advisors, discusses the death of most malls and the need for department stores like Nordstrom to do better at making money on the internet on Fox Business:

    Nordstrom “Doing Everything Right” But It’s Not Enough

    Nordstrom is the class act of the department store segment. They are doing everything right. Everything people say they should be doing but it’s not enough. Their stores are in great condition. They invest in their stores, they’re beautiful. They invest in their people, their service is the best in the industry. You love going to Nordstrom.

    They have great internet and have invested in their ecommerce sites. They have great data management and customer relationship management skills. They have great style, their merchandise is pretty good.

    Customers Rapidly Deserting Malls for Ecommerce

    But it’s not enough. There is a hole in the bottom of the boat and the water is pouring in and they can’t bail fast enough. That hole is that customers are deserting the malls and they are going to mass merchants off the malls and of course to ecommerce.

    I don’t think it is the demise of the department store. I think the all-channel model will still succeed. But in order to be profitable, a department store like Nordstrom needs to learn how to make more money on the internet. You can’t just say do all the things in the bricks and mortar store, make them more experiential, etc. They’ve been doing that and it’s not enough.

    You can see that in their results. Their high-end stores were up in sales only three-tenths of one percent over the holiday period. That includes their ecommerce which was up 18 percent. You don’t have to know a lot of algebra to know that their physical bricks and mortar stores were sharply negative during this season.

    You need to embrace the inevitable. You can’t just build a sort of fancier stagecoach in order to prevent the advent of the automobile. You have to build a profitable ecommerce site. That requires redoing their business system in order to be profitable online.

    Only the Best Malls Remain Viable Enough to Transform

    We talk about ‘A Malls’, ‘B Malls’, and ‘C Malls’. The ‘C Malls’ are gone. They will become doctors offices, insurance offices, places to get your nails filed, that kind of a thing. They’re done. Forget about them.

    The ‘B Malls’ are a mixed bag. Some of them will be fantastic mixed-used developments. They need to be repurposed. You can’t keep them the way they are. That’s for sure. You saw Google putting office space in there. I think you will see a lot of residential, apartment buildings along with streetscapes in those kinds of malls.

    The ‘A Malls’ are still viable and they will be. They’re putting in great restaurants, theaters, entertainment, and successful concepts which attract young people, millennials, who have not really been going to the mall.


  • Millennials Love Airbnb and There Are 400 Million Millennials in China

    Millennials Love Airbnb and There Are 400 Million Millennials in China

    The Head of Policy at Airbnb, Chris Lehane, says that they are seeing the same underlying dynamics and trends of millennials driving Airbnb growth in China that they saw earlier globally. With 400 million millennials living in China, the growth potential for Airbnb is massive. He noted that millennials will be 75 percent of consumers going forward and home sharing is how they like to travel.

    Chris Lehane, Head of Global Policy And Communications for Airbnb, talked about the huge growth of the company and their massive potential for even more growth driven by millennials in China and around the world in an interview on Bloomberg:

    Airbnb’s Single Biggest Quarter Ever

    As we released on Friday, we are significantly over a billion dollars in revenue in Q3, our single biggest quarter ever. We are blessed ultimately by this really significant and robust growth. Ultimately that’s tracking to the community model that exists on Airbnb. We only do well if our hosts do well, hosts do well if our guests do well, guests do well only if communities are benefitting. That flywheel does create a network effect globally. You can see that underneath these growth numbers, 91 percent growth in Bejing. Over 79 percent growth in places like Mexico City or even Birmingham, England.

    Home Sharing is How Millennials Like to Travel

    Ultimately what’s really underlying the foundation for all of that is that people are looking for this type of travel. More people are going to be able to do home sharing type of travel, people to people travel tomorrow than today. This is not new, Abraham Lincoln, Gandhi, they did home sharing, but in particular, this is what consumers are looking for, particularly millennial consumers who are going to be 75 percent plus of all consumers going forward. This is how they like to travel.

    400 Million Millennials in China – A Huge Opportunity for Airbnb

    Looking at our global numbers, what we are seeing in China really does reflect the same thing that we are seeing globally. We are blessed with this growth which is being driven by that network effect that exists locally. What we are seeing in China is really interesting. It has the same underlying dynamics and trends that we saw with the business earlier.

    When Airbnb was first launched the majority of users were millennials. If you look at our China market right now about 85 percent of our consumers are millennials. It’s a similar trend, but keeping in mind that there are 400 million millennials in China. We are really the significant player in what’s called the outbound travel, people going from China abroad. What’s happening is they come back and then they begin to travel domestically and Airbnb begins to grow as a result of that.

    China is a place you have to get up every day and work incredibly hard. We do have a president of the business who is from China based on the ground there. We have an incredible team made up of Chinese folks who are on the ground there in Bejing and other offices around the country. I feel good about where we are but I know that we need to keep working at it.

  • Walmart is Using Acquisitions to Reign in Millennials, eCommerce Head Marc Lore Reveals Strategy at ShopTalk 2018

    Walmart is Using Acquisitions to Reign in Millennials, eCommerce Head Marc Lore Reveals Strategy at ShopTalk 2018

    Walmart will continue its buying spree of digital brands in 2018 as it aims to build and differentiate its online inventory in competing against Amazon. Marc Lore, eCommerce head of the world’s largest retailer, revealed that there’s a bigger strategy involved with Walmart’s bullish acquisitions during the Shoptalk conference in Las Vegas on last Tuesday.

    “[We’re] trying to create a portfolio of these brands that give us proprietary content for a reason for [a] millennial to come shop inside the Walmart ecosystem,” Lore explained. “We’re not going out making billion-dollar acquisitions. We’re buying companies that can help accelerate us to the fundamentals.”

    The retailer’s acquisitions are targeted to expand its reach into new demographics—a younger and hipper clientele of millennials. Jet was acquired for more than $3 billion in 2016, while online startups ModCloth and Bonobos were purchased in 2017 for about $50-$75 million and $310 million, respectively.

    Lore said that Walmart is prepared to spend about $50 million to $300 million, or more, for future acquisitions. Since Jet appeals to affluent millennials in urban areas like New York and San Francisco, adding more digital brands to its roster makes it all the more attractive.

    “We’ll continue to push the assortment,” he pointed out. “We’re working on a lot of premium partnerships right now that will augment and uplift the assortment and of course add Bonobos, Allswell [Walmart’s new bedding and mattress brand] and ModCloth to Jet as well.”

    But having few digital brands with their own unique inventory is not enough for Walmart as they continue to be on the lookout for more startups. “We’re looking and talking to more companies now than we ever have,” Lore said. “We’re looking for the right opportunities.”

    While the aggressive acquisition of independent brands allows Walmart to learn about merchandise expertise in specific categories, these online startups will also benefit from the retailer’s supply chain infrastructure.

    “The concept is let’s cross pollinate talent. Let’s cross pollinate learnings and let’s have a common backbone and backend through Walmart’s supply chain infrastructure. This wasn’t about let’s figure out how to rip out costs. It’s about how to play offense,” Andy Dunn, founder of Bonobos and Walmart’s SVP of digital consumer brands, emphasized.

    Dunn joined Lore on stage to refute reports that his colleague was being ousted following Walmart’s disappointing online growth in the last quarter of 2017. Despite the holiday shopping season, online sales growth decelerated to 23 percent from previous quarter’s 50 percent. Moreover, Walmart’s fourth-quarter results missed Wall Street’s forecast earnings, causing shares to drop by more than 10 percent.

    But Lore isn’t worried about the lackluster results. “Basically that Q4 was largely planned. We attempted to create a healthier Q4. We told The Street we’d do $11.5 billion in the year, and that’s what we did. We also said we’d have 40-percent growth this year and we recently reiterated that growth.”

    He downplayed the speculations of an early exit as well, reiterating his commitment to staying for five years, and possibly more.

    [Featured image via YouTube]

  • Millennials: Why Your eCommerce Business Should Focus on Them

    Millennials: Why Your eCommerce Business Should Focus on Them

    Millennials are now the biggest demographic with disposable income in the US today. This is the generation born between the 1980s and 1990s. Statistics show that Millenials will make up the majority of the US workforce by the year 2025, which also means that most of them still have their prime earning (and spending) years ahead of them. Thus,  eCommerce businesses with sound marketing strategies focused on this demographic should yield steady returns for the next few decades.

     

    Millennials also have a distinct psychology from the previous generations. How they were raised and the technology they learned growing up definitely affected their buying habits. Here are some other reasons why eCommerce businesses should concentrate on this segment:

    They are an Influence to be Reckoned With

    There are about 80 million Millennials in the US today. Aside from being the biggest segment of the population, representing trillions in sales, they are also a force to be reckoned with in terms of influence on brands and what the next generation of shopping will be like.

    Being the children of the technology age, Millennials are dependent on their gadgets. Not only are they constantly connected to their devices, they also influence the next generation’s use of these gadgets as well as their shopping habits. eCommerce marketers should recognize that when they target Millennials they are also targeting their sphere of influence as well.

    It should also be emphasized that Millennials are very involved with the brands they like. They’re very active in searching for reviews, reading feedback and providing their own as well. They’re also open to giving positive and negative feedback on almost every product they use, as can be seen by their propensity to fill out surveys on customer experience, the products they want and the content they consume. 

    Millennials Demand Value for Money

    Growing up during the recession has caused these group to be more careful with their purchases. This means that they are prone to taking their time and evaluating the value of the product. They will take to social media to look for reviews and ask pertinent questions to find out more about a product they are interested in.

    This generation is also wise about getting the most out of their hard-earned money. They will look for deals, promos, and discounts and are not ashamed of using coupons. They would even wait patiently for a flash sale or an auction just to get more for their money. While they would often forego unnecessary expenses, Millennials are famous for window shopping online. They can spend hours clicking on sites, looking at products.

    They are Always Online

    Hours Millennials Spend Online

    Graphic via Content Science Review

    Never forget their need to be and do things online. Being raised on technology means they know the power they have at their fingertips and are only too willing to use it. This is why brands who were too slow to embrace online shopping are now being left in the dust. This generation loves to check things out online first before buying anything. So companies who want to cater to them should focus on marketing online over other all other types of marketing mediums.

    Image result for how much do millenials shop online

    Graphic via Social4Retail

    Capturing the Interest of Millennial Consumers

    It’s obvious that Millennials have a different approach to shopping. This is why online retailers must find a way to relate to them and capture their loyalty and their dollars. Since this generation has an active online presence, your business should be felt online too.

    Using conventional marketing tactics won’t work here. It’s vital that you engage with them honestly and realistically. This means providing content with the same behavioral, emotional, and psychological benefits that turned them to social media. Place yourself in the running by providing high-quality images that provide ideas and inspiration and make sure they’re optimized for sharing and for mobile.

    It’s also a good idea to make pricing a priority. Millennials are always looking for good deals. So pushing a marketing plan that incorporates promos, discounts and coupons are a good bet. Add some free shipping and you’ll be able to drive traffic to your site.

    [Featured image via Graphica YouTube]

  • Millennials Hate Facebook Ads

    Millennials Hate Facebook Ads

    A new Harris poll, commissioned by Lithium, confirms what everybody knows, millennials hate ads in their social media feeds. What that really means is that they don’t want ads to appear in their Facebook news feeds because they’re expecting to see posts by their friends.

    According to the study, 56 percent of millennials are actually motivated to stop using social media platforms (Facebook obviously!) because of the ads. At least that’s what they tell survey makers, statistics on Facebook use say otherwise! More precisely, 74 percent of millennials don’t want brand posts in their social media news feeds.

    Survey results indicate that advertising on Facebook and other social media platforms can actually hurt your brand and lose you customers because of the extreme distaste some users feel over your brand interruption in their very personal social media interactions. It’s looked at as shouting rather than connecting according to Lithium.

    “I go on social media to see and know what my friends are doing. I don’t want to see ads clutter my news feed. If I’m interested in a product or service, I know where to look,” said 23-year-old recent graduate, Mallory Benham. “Social media is a place for us to connect with our friends, not be attacked by advertisements.”

    This is scary stuff for Facebook and advertisers because social media is looked at as the future of brand marketing. It still can be, but there are significant hurdles to overcome for businesses and social platforms.

     

  • These Apps Are Used Almost Entirely by Millennials

    These Apps Are Used Almost Entirely by Millennials

    If you’re chatting on Yik Yak, it’s pretty much guaranteed that you’re a millennial, talking with other millennials.

    comScore’s 2015 US Mobile App Report looked at which apps have the highest concentration of millennials. Another way of putting that it which apps count 18 to 34-year-olds as the majority of their userbase.

    And what comScore found was that millennials tend to dominate many popular social apps.

    Yik Yak, a location-based messaging app, can count millennials as a staggering 98% of its adult userbase.

    Mobile payments app Venmo is 94% millennial, while Tinder and Snapchat count 18 to 34-year-olds as 79% and 76% of their adult userbases, respectively.

    Screen Shot 2015-09-24 at 3.58.48 PM

    “What nearly all of the apps in the ranking above have in common is a social element to them. Even apps that serve non-social functions, such Venmo with payments or Spotify and SoundCloud with music, have integrated social add-ons which are crucial to the value proposition of those apps. Expanding further on the social theme, the list also includes several social personalization apps, such as InstaSize and Layout from Instagram, which indicate Millennials’ affinity for creative expression and enhanced communications,” says comScore

    If you’re looking to advertise or promote content on Snapchat, Vine, Tumblr, or Spotify – it’s definitely worthwhile to know your target audience. And that target audience, by and large, is between 18 and 34 years old.

  • This Is What 90% Smartphone Penetration Looks Like

    This Is What 90% Smartphone Penetration Looks Like

    ComScore just released a new report on U.S. smartphone penetration – or, if you don’t like the sound of that, call it the percentage of a certain market using smartphones.

    Bottom line: everyone has a smartphone. Actually, about 77% – but that’s a whole lot. When you look at the younger generations, it’s even more staggering.

    “Millennials continue to be the pace-setters for smartphone adoption, with 18-24 year olds and 25-34 year olds both hovering around 90 percent adoption. While teens have historically had slower adoption rates than their slightly older counterparts, they have been making up ground quickly and are now at 85 percent,” says ComScore.

    Would you like to see what 90% smartphone penetration looks like? Here’s a recent performance on The TODAY Show, and speaking of penetration, it just so happens to be The Weeknd performing his track “Earned It” off the 50 Shades of Grey soundtrack.

    Ok, not everyone in the crowd is between the ages of 18 and 24, but the percentage of 13-17, 25-34, and 35-44-year-olds with smartphones isn’t far off that 90% mark:

    “When I was growing up in the 1980s, cable TV was still seen as something of a luxury and I remember that several of my childhood friends not having it in their households. By the time the 1990s rolled around, almost everyone I knew had cable. It wasn’t that cable had gotten any more affordable, it was just that what was happening on cable TV had grown as a part of our culture. At some point those who could afford cable TV and didn’t have it probably began to feel like they weren’t keeping up with the times,” says ComScore’s Andrew Lipsman.

    Precisely. If it’s not on Instagram, did it even f*cking happen?

  • Student Loans: The Only Debt Millennials Care About?

    Student Loans: The Only Debt Millennials Care About?

    Student loans are the beginning and end of debt problems for Millennials, a fact that previous generations cannot seem to wrap their heads around.

    Out of one side of their mouths, Baby Boomers and Gen Xers are appalled that today’s youth would dare take out loans for college. Some even cynically suggest they don’t attempt higher learning at all.

    Out of the other, these same groups are equally bothered that Millennials are largely uninterested in credit cards. Some are baffled that Gen Yers would rather live at home with their parents to cut down on costs than consider a mortgage.

    To Millennials, college debt is a burden earned in pursuit of their version of the American dream. Although an increasing number of them are having to forgo that dream altogether.

    Everything else is entirely too risky. This shift in values and thinking has led to some interesting clashes in opinion.

    What is behind the negative reaction by previous generations to what sort of debt Millennials value?

    Blame it on a growing generation gap.

    For boomers and even Gen Xers, credit cards and mortgages combined to give them access to the things that physically embodied the “American Dream”.

    Things like a nice house, new car, and being able to buy whatever stylish items they wanted “on credit”.

    Millennials are a generation that lived through the bubble collapsing as a result of unregulated borrowing and irresponsible spending by their parents and grandparents. As such, they simply aren’t interested. Give them debit cards and leave them alone.

    Let them wallow in the fact that they are paying back fifty thousand dollars in student loans for a degree for which they only discovered there are no jobs upon graduating.

    But don’t worry too much about Millennials.

    Even with their financial priorities shifted to student loans, they have already carefully considered the reality of a post-recession world.

    It only makes sense as they are closer to ground zero than Gen Xers or Baby Boomers.

    They are weighing their options and making moves to be as financially responsible as possible.

    That’s something older generations should be proud of. When the young learn from both their mistakes AND yours, that’s a sign things are moving in the right direction.

  • Nielsen To Online Retailers: Age Matters

    Nielsen To Online Retailers: Age Matters

    Not surprisingly, Millennials (age 21-34) are leading the way in online shopping compared to other age groups, according to a report from Nielsen.

    This age group comprises at least half of all those surveyed who plan to make an online purchase across every product category the firm measures. The most popular categories among the age group are baby supplies, personal care items, toys/dolls, and alcoholic drinks.

    “But don’t count older generations out,” Nielsen says. “They represent a sizeable 40% share of online purchase intenders. But reaching the older age set is much more fragmented territory than with their younger counterparts. As can be expected, the older the age, the greater the decline in online shopping intent. Globally, Generation X (age 35-49) respondents comprise about 28% of those willing to make a purchase online, and Baby Boomers (age 50-64) make up about 10%. The Silent Generation (age 65+) contributes roughly 2%. The youngest age group, Generation Z (under age 20), represents about 7% of those who intend to purchase online.

    “While the generational mix of online shoppers currently skew younger, attention to the needs of all segments should be considered when developing outreach plans,” said John Burbank, president of strategic initiatives, Nielsen. “Tomorrow’s highest purchase-power consumers are ones who skew much higher for digital shopping. As the population ages, greater percentages of consumers will be connected and online prominence will continue to grow. Building trust at the onset is the foundation for sustaining lifetime loyalty among shoppers.”

    We recently looked at some other findings from it related to the product categories with the most purchase intent here.

    You can find the full report here.

    Image via Nielsen

  • Millennials Are Really Into Snapchat

    Millennials Are Really Into Snapchat

    That about says it. Millennials, categorized by comScore as those aged 18 to 34, have a new favorite toy in the social media realm.

    According to comScore’s most-recent Mobile Metrix, Snapchat is now the third most-popular social app for millennials. It boasts 32.9 percent penetration, trailing only Instagram and Facebook (43.1 percent and 75.6 percent, respectively).

    That means that more Millennials are snapping ephemeral photos than are using Twitter, Pinterest, Google+, Vine, or Tumblr.

    And when you look at the even-younger crowd, those aged 18 to 24, Snapchat meteoric rise is even more pronounced:

    “Long term success in the social media sector is no given, and there are certainly several examples of companies that have both ascended into the stratosphere of successful tech companies and of ones that are no longer relevant. Achieving critical mass is an important step in eventually reaching the winner’s circle, and with Snapchat currently at 18 percent penetration among smartphone-using adults it would appear to be right in that sweet spot. If usage begins to accelerate significantly from this point forward, who knows how big it can eventually get?” asks comScore.

    First off, don’t kick MySpace while it’s down. That’s just mean. But to the salient point – is Snapchat poised for a breakout – well, is it? What do you think? The app currently handles well over 700 messages a day, is clearly a hit with the kidz these days, has somehow prompted Facebook to create two crappy copycat apps, and has just been given a seemingly comical $10 billion valuation. Critical mass may have already been achieved.

    Or, the Snapchat bubble might burst. Like comScore said, it wouldn’t be the first time that a high-flying social property went full Icarus.

    Images via comScore, Snapchat/iTunes