Cord cutters, millennials, Generation Y, the social generation -- we find many names for those we love, as we say in Sweden. Companies do love millennials. Not only because of their social media obsessiveness, but also for the fact that they are open minded, tech savvy, and ambitious (they are also described as the lazy, narcissistic generation). All this talk about millennials leads me to the questions: Who are they and why are they so important?
Generation Y is anyone born between 1980 and beginning of 2000. It is probably you reading this right now! This generation has grown up with technology and is more reliant on it than previous generations ever have been. Generation Y has seen a lot of changes when it comes to ways to communicate and even ways to live your life. Many millennials began to experience technology at a slightly older age, which means that they still lived for some time before they got introduced to mobile phones, internet, computers, etc. Compared to the people born in 2000, Generation Y did not grow up with an iPad in their hands. Generation Y played outdoors and was probably the last generation to not be dependent on technology.
Right now, Generation Y is around 16-36. The age that most companies like to target today, but let’s get back to that later. 16-36 is the age span where a lot of changes happen in life and the age span where one needs to grow up and get their own preferences in products and services. This age span is the perfect time for companies to get their customers hooked for life.
Millennials are go-getters, they are always on top of trends, and they are constantly using social media and other technologies. This creates openings for companies. Companies can today use the people on social media to get free promotion through likes, followers, mentions, referrals, etc. They can influence the people using it to buy their product and they are getting better at doing it every day. This is one of the reasons why companies love millennials. They use social media as a communicator and they want to be on top of trends, which means that they will like, refer, or mention something if a company manages to make it trendy.
Another important trait that companies love about this generation is that they are very open minded when it comes to new products and services. They are not stuck in their ways like their parents and grandparents. The millennials will most likely not say “in the good old days” when they are older – they will embrace everything new.
Generation Y is important because it is the first generation that actually grew up with technology and the first generation to lead this world from a traditional way of doing things to a digital way of doing things. It is quite exciting, and we already see many millennials making millions and billions on their digital efforts.
Not to forget, the millennials are considered very selfish and “the me generation." We can only hope that this is only speculation. After all, the millennials sound great and you cannot push everybody off the mountain (another Swedish expression).
(Disclaimer: I am so self-involved that I amwriting about my own generation. Maybe the "me generation" part is not that far-fetched after all.)
