15 Ways Millennials Think About Brands
Branded
Generation Y has a new relationship with brands. They saturated our world from birth, from alarm clocks and OJ to ice cream and PJs brands are everywhere and everything.
In the early 1980s advertisers began think of brands as more than logos or taglines, but as a position in the minds of consumers and a conceptual framework for adding value to products and services.
Over the next twenty years, as my generation came of age, brands evolved into symbols that carry intellectual and emotional meaning. Brands like Apple, Pedigree or Diesel define themselves in terms of functionality, personality, and identity.
Further, because of new technology our relationships with media (and thus the world around us) are far different from those of previous generations; and how and when we interact with brands and there messages is new as well.
Our saturated, plugged-in lives have built extraordinarily broad and rich brand knowledge structures in our minds. As a result, Millennials’ attitude toward and engagement with brands is unique. Yet, little is understood in terms of how.
I’ve created a list of ideas about how Millennials view and engage with the brands. The core ideas are that we feel ownership of brands that we use, we are fluent in the stories they tell, and use and shape those stories for identification and communication.
1. For Millennials brands are not a bad thing, just a thing.
2. We expect brands to offer us value (our definition of value is wide – a good product, an engaged community, two way communication, flexible meaning associated etc. more below)
3. If a community is not created for us by a brand we will create it. If one is created for us, it must be flexible and transparent. And, either way this community is considered to be owned by us (the users), not the brand.
4. We expect a say in the evolution of the identity of our community and thus “our” brand.
5. We want interaction with “our” brand.
6. From profiles to phones we demand the ability to personalize and customize. We want to make our piece of our brand, our own.
7. Like with good writing, truth is the most compelling feature of any brand – chic or punk, it must be honest.
8. Brands must know our boundaries and not attempt to push into our lives, they must be welcomed and will only be allowed so far.
9. Brands are embraced only if they follow certain unspoken rules and boundaries. Even the most brand loyal Millennial will abandon a brand if the conditions above are broken.
10. My brand associations are important to me, but ultimately a just one of many variables in my daily life/ equation of personal meaning and value. I dislike brands that do not understand their place in this equation.
11. Brands are used to self identify and create personal meaning. We seek out brands that represent who we are, or wish to be.
12. Individuals and groups identify similar people via their similar brand associations; this commonalty creates a de facto community.
13. We are fluent in brands. We know the symbols, their messages, and the communities associated with them.
14. We speak a language of brands, we can easily construct other and larger meanings through the combination and layering of brands.
(Take someone wearing a Red Sox hat, Converse shoes, North Face jacket, and holding Starbucks coffee – add or subtract any element here, and their brand equation or association map changes, and so does my understanding of them).
15. Just as much as brands mean everything they also mean nothing. Real interactions with people (virtually and in real life) are most important, I don’t much care if I’m drinking a coke or pepsi when I’m with those friends.
Photo Credit: philliecasablanca
Author: Jason Potteiger – Associate Editor at TNGG
Updated 4/22/10
19 Responses
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Interesting post, Jason. I would also consider adding that having grown up defining ourselves by the brands we believed in, we appreciate that brands can evolve and that our brand affinities (and thus, our definitions of self) can evolve.
For example: I’m 23. When I was 6 or 7, I had a pair of Converse hi-tops. They represented that I was strong-willed enough to want awesome hi-tops, and that my mom was willing to buy them for me. Today, I happen to be wearing Converse Chuck Taylor low-tops, my preferred sneaker of choice. The promise made by Converse has changed, as has the message I want to send by wearing them. But at both stages, they said exactly what I wanted them to say. In between? I wore Nikes, Pumas, Adidas, whatever I needed to be who I wanted in that moment.
Thanks for the kind words Rebecca. Your “relationship” with Converse is definitely the feeling I get from that brand, but unfortunately I’ve never worn them. I think that brand does a lot right; somehow they manage to do things like “advertise” in ad busters and have it not feel weird. And it should. But, they have a really good brand story and relationship with their users that gives them credibility in that space.
Also, I think your observation that, “I wore… whatever I needed to be who I wanted in that moment,” is another pretty important point about how Millennials engage with branding, hence #13 and 14. At some point after our teen years I think we level out a bit, and settle down with one (or three) image(s).
It’s too bad that all of these involve how brands interact with us (“We demand interaction with “our” brand.”, “We want to make our piece of our brand, our own.”) rather than how they impact the rest of the world, speaking both economically and ecologically. We live in an electronic, globalized economy which creates a huge amount of distance between the brands with which we “self-identify” and “create personal meaning”, and the actual real-world effects that the companies behind these brands have on the world. We have, in effect, been desensitized to the havoc a company can wreak on the world, distracted by our attempts to “create a community around the brand” and other such lingo that I’m sure would be a viral marketer’s wet dream.
I won’t claim I’m immune to this phenomena. To me, my Chuck Taylors are like an old friend. The Chuck brand represents a lot of different times in my life, and reminds me of a lot of people. However, at the end of the day, Converse is owned by Nike, who has been criticized repeatedly for utilizing sweatshops and child labor in the assembly of their shoes. Maybe we could all do a better job at cutting through the “brand”, which is really just a manufactured façade of commercials and viral crap made to look good from the outside, and digging into how companies actually operate in the world. As the “next great generation,” I feel like it’s kind of our responsibility, don’t you think?
“Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain…”
-Wizard of Oz
I would take #2 a step further: brands aren’t just a thing, good or bad, they’re a tool. As you talk about later, we use brands to establish identity, engage in communities, and communicate (non-verbally) to others.
Just as you need to choose the right tools to build the right kind of cabinet, table, etc., you need to choose the right tools to build the right you.
Brands, and by extension their products, are no longer judged solely, or even mostly, off of functionality. They are increasingly judged by social perception. No matter how functional they are, some markets simply won’t use that brand if it doesn’t help build whatever they’re trying to.
Also, you mention brands having ‘boundaries’. I agree with your point, to an extent. How would we have reached the stage that we’re in now if brands didn’t occasionally push boundaries?
There are some brands that I would LOVE to see push their boundaries. But I don’t want to see others, such as my laundry detergent, push their brand on me. The trick is in finding the balance and knowing how your market perceives and uses your brand.
I like this article, and I think that it has a lot to do with how we view brands. I think Dan is also right–whether or not a brand creates a community that we can be involved in, what they do behind the scenes is just as if not more important than what we see in their products.
I think it is our responsibility to hold brands responsible for the choices that they make–good and bad. Let’s celebrate a great business and community move by buying more of a product. And let’s condemn companies that ‘wreak havoc’ just to make even more money.
In the past, I’ve made the effort to stop using products, stop going to stores, stop supporting a brand and company when immoral choices (in my moral code) were made. I think it’s important to add to this list that millenials think about the background of brands just as much as the feelings they create. We look at how they do business, and if it doesn’t mesh with our standards, then cushy commericals, print ads and social media wont make up for it.
Dan, thanks for such a thoughtful response. When I talked about things as “our” brand, I was hoping to stress the idea that we feel ownership. But, your point is well taken that anything “i” focused puts the emphasis on the end of the supply chain, when it ends up in our hands – and removes us from the product rather than bringing us closer to it.
Hopefully this is a trend that’s changing as consumers seem to becoming more socially conscious. Back in 2007 the New Politics Institute did a bunch of polling on gen y and found that not only did the Environment rank high among the concerns of Gen Y, but it was fairly salient issue as well. Therefore, I hope that what we’ll see is brands becoming better members of the global community and more transparent about it to demonstrate that their values are in line with “ours.”
We might not take to the streets for the environment and things like the economy and health care may overshadow the issue, but I think we’re willing to go with the brand that shows us it’s doing the right thing (thus as “our” brand we’re doing the right thing) and ultimately we’ll vote with our wallets.
Kate, I think you’re absolutely right. If we use brands to identify then we’ll certainly care about what they represent. We’re learning more and more that brands representing good business and sustainability aren’t that hard to find and support – they just need to make sure they are communicating that to us and that they can back it up. Thus, if you’re already “good” brand, get transparent fast.
Colby, I like your point. Essentially you’re saying that brand stories are more important than ever. How many senior VPs do you see driving Kia Rios? The brand identity makes it so that just doesn’t make sense.
And to your point about boundaries, I think the larger idea here is that rules are made to be broken–just really make sure you know what you’re doing when you do. I’m talking to you Tide.
Jason, great post. Many of your points talked about finding or dissecting identity through brands, which I find very powerful in everyone’s lives, whether they know it or not. I think the importance for brand managers is to be very, very aware of their audience and how they are choosing to identify with their brand. Very interesting subjects, thanks for the insight.
Brands & Consumers ~ matching their ethics.
It does seem that as more and more consumers, especially millennials, are realizing the power they can wield in the global marketplace they are making use of that power. They are not simply content to grab some brand off a shelf JUST because it makes their hair look good. They are developing a personal litany of standards that a brand must pass. There is so much access to information now, savy millennials are doing the necessary research AND they are not keeping their lists to themselves. The political arena is no longer the only place people have a say in how this world will be run. Everything we chose to put in our shopping carts is a vote, and it seems to me that it is the Millennials that are leading the charge here. Of course, they have more to lose.
In the old days it was enough to simply get the buyers attention, but now they need to earn the buyers trust and hold it. It’s not enough to know.. Where’s The Beef? Younger Consumers now are asking… WHERE’s the Beef from? The relationship between Brand and ethical consumer is a working partnership. It is no longer a one way street.
In this new marketplace consumers want brand advertising to not only entertain but inform and disclose. Fool the consumer once, shame on you, fool them twice, and you’ll end up on Youtube with 3 million hits. ~ ~ ~
This whole idea is reminding me of the Starbucks phenomena. While some people are willing to admit their devotion to their exact drink at Starbucks whose specifications take 30 seconds to recite, others choose very specifically not to go there. I use to be one of the latter, but now I’m sort of neutral.
It drives me crazy though that Starbucks has either acquired or opened several chains by different names, seemingly with the goal of disguising the coffee’s origin. It’s almost as if they mean to trick those people who go out of their way to avoid them. What is up with that?
Sidenote: I have been to the intersection in Vancouver where two Starbucks are caddy-corner from one another and it feels like an important corner in the World of Branding.
This was a very good article. As someone who markets to high school seniors, I am constantly dealing with the issue in number 8 – “Brands must know our boundaries and not attempt to push into our lives; they must be welcomed and will only be allowed so far.”
I generate leads for a college system by offering presentations in schools by targeting my presentation to meet curriculum standards and marketing myself as a resource teachers and schools. In my presentations I do NOT HIDE that I am from a college but I also DO NOT SELL the college. As I inform students about the college, I encourage students who may be interested to get more information. I also tell them to get information from any college they might be interested in. This has benifits in the short term and over time (recently someone remembered me speaking in their classroom 10 years ago and contacted the college to get information) and allows me tokeepreturning to speak to students in their classrooms.
However, when the sales force gets into the classic “sell, sell, sell & ABC (always be closing) mode, not only do they turn the former prospective customer into no longer being interested, that former prospect has told 10 of his/her friends directly of his/her discontent and through the social networks on line and in person of that person and their friends, that one negative experience reached many, many more people.
Gen Y are NOT OPPOSED to sales per say. They are opposed to hidden pitches, less than up front attempts at their business, general pushiness and other bad sales techniques.
This is fantastic. Exactly what I’ve been trying to tell marketers about talking to us. I hope you don’t mind but I linked to the article from my blog! I did tell people in no uncertain terms they had to get over here and read your article!
I think it's possible to re-sensitize to the problems you talk about. Further, if I'm right companies will be forced to change if their communities “demand it,” because we feel ownership over those brands. I've got a pretty big beef with Starbucks wasting tons of water. If the larger community's attitudes shifted an Starbucks was actually listening, I bet you'd see a shift in their policy, and happy customers.