Beware the “generic” Millennial! They have a lot in common with unicorns, Bigfoot and Loch Nessie

A Millennial is not a Millennial …

… is a Millennial …

… is not a Millennial …

… might be a Millennial.

As we mentioned in the last Daily Data article, not all Millennials are alike.

That’s like thinking that all dogs are alike or all cars or all wines. That initial mindset means that your ultimate experience will suffer unless you’re accidentally lucky.

Being accidentally lucky does happen sometimes in demographic marketing. But even when that happens, you will inevitably waste your prompional budget by reaching a lot of Pomeranians when only Rottweilers are buying into your message.

As pointed out in that last Daily Data article income and education may be more accurate ways to target Millennials (or other demographic groups as well.)

The different flavors of Millennials

Sometimes to find specific ways to target your product you need to look beyond product-specific data (wine, craft beer etc). Nielsen’s “Total Audience Report” looks at media usage by Millennials.

But — perhaps even more importantly — it defines Millennials by the stage of their lives. And as, as illustrated in the report, income and education (important variables for wine, beer and spirits consumption) vary with stage of life.

Which Millennials do you want to target?

 

Narrowing the target

To make the best use of your promotional budget and maximize  sales per dollar spent you would probably look at the “on their own” Millennial segment since that correlates to both income and education. And (my guess here) also focuses on a group with more disposable income (no mortgage or children).

That’s a guess on my part and could be wrong. That also makes a good subject for studying that particular Millennial group’s wine/beer/spirits consumption habits.

In other words, data on Millennials as a whole is not as valuable as first narrowing the study down to those specific demographics as indicated by other established demographic characteristics. Continue to apply more demographics until you can see the faces of your target.

The beginnings of strategy

The better you narrow your target market, the more effectively your promotional budget can be spent. That’s key to overall strategy.

With the target defined as best possible, you must then determine the best way to reach them. Some very good starting points can be found in Nielsen’s ““Total Audience Report.”