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Is ‘Millennial’ a lazy marketing term?

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It is a well-documented statistic that our workforce will be made up of 50% millennials by 2020, but is the term ‘millennial’ a lazy marketing term?

Firstly we need to look at what exactly classes as a millennial, and this is the question I posed to my Twitter audience yesterday in #MilnsysMondayMusings.

Pew Research Centre classes a millennial as anyone between the ages of 18 and 34 and marketers look at this particular age range as a generation to define the people they are trying to target.

My issue with this is that the wants, needs and pain points that an 18 year old is likely to be experiencing are going to be VERY different to the wants, needs and pain points that a 34 year old is likely to be experiencing.

When it comes to looking for the people that will ultimately join your business, my recommendation is that your employer brand is positioned correctly depending on the type of people you are looking to attract. Something that would appeal to an 18 year old fresh out of college may not appeal as a working environment to someone in their mid-thirties.

The same goes when you are using age ranges to define your target audience to attract clients or customers.

Therefore, is ‘millennial’ just a lazy marketing term?

I posed this question yesterday on Twitter with a poll:

 

Léon Milns@Milnsy14

#Millennial talent will make up half the global workforce by 2020 - what age group do you class as 'millennial'? #MilnsysMondayMusings

10

10:06 AM - Nov 14, 2016

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45%18-25

26%20-30

29%25-34

58 votes•Final results

21 people are talking about this

asking my Twitter following what age range they class as ‘millennial’ giving the options of 18 – 25, 20 – 30 and 25 – 34. 45% of the people that responded opted to class a millennial as someone aged between 18 and 25, with the runner up being 25 to 34 and 20 – 30 coming in last place. We also had some interesting remarks on the use of the term ‘millennial’.

 

Stephen Paddy Dyson@SDysonX

Replying to @nickyhumfress and 2 others

@Milnsy14 God I hate that word. Lazy marketing. Such a wide group. Think @TheWriteGuyUK agrees

2

10:15 AM - Nov 14, 2016

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Joe Stevenson@WhatDoYouJoe

Replying to @Milnsy14

In all honesty, I would've said the first two options

9:39 AM - Nov 15, 2016

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What do you think? Do you use the term ‘millennial’ when working out your target audience and if so, how do you segment to make sure your communications are accurately targeted?

Don’t forget to join us next Monday for the next instalment of #MilnsysMondayMusings.