Targeting the ‘millennial' generation - tech-savvy and tough to reach

A survey by the Economist Intelligence Unit has found most companies are struggling with how to adapt their businesses to serve a new wave of consumers from the "millenial" generation...

The global survey looked at how consumers born between 1982 and 2001 will impact the customer experience, asking C-level and senior executives from around the world how they are creating a customer experience to attract and retain millennials.

Three key findings were:

• Investment strategies are shifting to favour millenials. Companies are debating heavily whether to invest more in catering to aging baby boomers versus next-generation consumers, with 42 percent saying they should tilt toward younger customers, while 39 percent would shift toward baby boomers and generation X.
• The time to act is now. Most companies (54 percent) have not yet set their strategies or marketing for millennials even though they overwhelmingly agree that such steps are needed, with 75 percent saying millennials will impact their organisation as consumers in the next three years.
• It’s an Enterprise 2.0 world. Most companies have a sophisticated understanding of what it would take to adapt, but are not ready to change their customer engagement model by leveraging social networking, peer marketing, better online support, text messaging, and blogging.

The survey found that 75 percent of companies believe that in the next three years they will need to have a millennial strategy in place, with 30 percent expecting a major impact that will lead to change across the organisation, and 45 percent expecting a more modest impact.

Despite this, 54 percent of respondents say they have yet not set their strategy for targeting, attracting, or retaining millennials, while 32 percent say they have done so.

For example, most companies have not kept pace with the millennials’ preference for interacting through newer, community-based technologies, as most firms continue to rely on telephone, e-mail and store/office-front points of contact.

The Economist Intelligence Unit found the proliferation of blogs, podcasts, videos, chat rooms, social networking sites and other online interactive communication has changed the corporate-customer relationship.

In the past, customers tended to go directly to the company to enquire about a product, make a purchase or raise a complaint; today they increasingly go online.

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8/10/23_ex_h_nl