How Millennials Gen Y Loyalty is a Challenge for Brands

Millennials Brand Loyalty

With the Baby Boomers getting in to the zone of less spending, Brand owners are worried about the right approach they can use to attract the Millennials / Gen Y.

Though people in age-group 18-34 are not really the biggest spenders across the world, brand managers are keeping them as the target audience. Brand managers think that if they hook the customers in this age group, these hooked customers will stick with the brand forever.

Millennials Brand Loyalty

However, this may not always be true. Brand loyalty among Gen Y is less than that among the Baby Boomers and Gen X. This doesn't mean that brand loyalty is a thing of past. It only means that it is going to be tougher for brands to sustain the loyalty of Gen Y. It is important to understand the parameters on which the Gen Y decides its brand loyalty.

Insights: Millennials Brand Loyalty

A recent study conducted by Ardoit Digital puts these questions across:

Do you use, or are you brand-loyal to, the same brands your parents use and to which they are brand-loyal?

Millennials Brand Loyalty

Do you feel brands that don’t advertise on mobile, smartphones, and tablets are less desirable and outdated?

Millennials Brand Loyalty

Which advertising medium influences you and other people your age the most in how you perceive and value a brand?

Millennials Brand Loyalty

What criteria do you and others your age use to select a new brand for trial?

Millennials Brand Loyalty

What causes you and other people your age to switch brands?

Millennials Brand Loyalty

Key Finding of the report are:

77% of the Millennials surveyed said that they evaluate brands on a different set of criteria than their parents did.
55% of Millennials said that recommendations of a friend is one of the strongest influencers in getting them to try a new brand. 47% consider brand reputation to be almost as important. Product quality ranks fourth at 35%, while price is the most sway at 62%.
39% of all respondents said that the brands that don’t advertise through mobile channels, smartphones, and tablets are outdated and undesirable.
60% of Millennials said that social advertising has the most influence over them in how they perceive a brand and a brand’s value. This compares with TV at 70%. Traditional media outside of TV fell flat. In the realm of influence, radio, billboards (OOH), and magazines finished last with mobile and online—both display and video—comfortably in the center.

By Anjani Kumar Sinha (anjanisinha@managementmasala.com)

Google