Millennial Women Live Life On Their Own Terms With An Impressively Pragmatic Approach [INSIGHT]

CafeMedia shared the high level findings of its recent study of more than 3,000 millennial women, including a super-sized Hispanic sample of more than 900 Latina millennials.  The study, called “The Kaleidoscope Generation,” brings to life the depth and complexity of the most diverse generation in history. The high-level findings will be followed by 16 interconnected studies, providing comprehensive insight by specific demographics, categories, and more.  CafeMedia, formerly CafeMom, is already #1 with the mom audience, and announced its expansion into the millennial women’s market with the launch of Vivala.com last August, and Revelist.com this month.

“Rather than painting a monolithic picture of the 37 million millennial women in the United States, we wanted to unpack the vast differences between millennials,” explained CafeMedia SVP of Strategy & Insights and lead researcher on the study Rachel Parkin, PhD. “We compared moms to women without children, multi-cultural Latinas and African Americans to a general market audience, and much more.  There are so many different layers to millennial women that the picture shifts every way you look at it, which is why we named the study ‘The Kaleidoscope Generation.’ ”

A key finding of the study across sub-demographics is that the millennial woman is fiercely independent, self-directed, and looking to live life on her own terms.  Rather than focusing on traditional markers of success, most millennials define accomplishment through the pursuit of their own personal passions and experiences.

•     Eighty-four percent (84%) of millennial women aren’t afraid to chart a different course from their friends.
•     Sixty-one percent (61%) cite enjoying their work as one of the 3 most important aspects of career, more than compensation, benefits or any other aspect.
•     Only 35% of millennial women would prefer to spend money on something material over an experience.

Impressively, the millennial woman is also pragmatic and organized in order to achieve the ideal self-directed life she envisions. Not only is the millennial woman responsibly tackling finances, career and household management, she is highly disciplined in doing so.

•     Eighty-seven percent (87%) like to be well-organized and follow a routine.
•     Eighty-two percent (82%) are putting a lot of effort into achieving their goals.
•     Sixty-nine percent (69%) are actively saving for the future.

Additionally, the study found staggering statistics around the millennial woman’s evolving media consumption, which is increasingly trending towards online and on-demand.

•     More millennial women subscribe to streaming services (67%) than cable or satellite (60%).  Twenty-one percent (21%) more expect to cut the cord in the next six months.
•     Netflix outperforms all broadcast networks, with millennial women being three times as likely to say Netflix is “one of her favorites.”
•     More than half of millennial women are not reading print magazines or newspapers at all.

Millennial moms’ behaviors varied significantly from those of women without kids.

•     Moms are more likely to post on social daily (34% vs. 22% for non-moms), and to post things that are important to her.
•     Women without kids are 38% more likely than moms to prefer content that broadens her horizons (26% for women without kids versus 19% for moms).  Moms are drawn to content that is honest, funny and empowering.
•     Moms are more likely to have tattoos: 49% of millennial moms have tattoos, versus just 29% of millennial women without kids.

The study also revealed implications for brands, as it asked millennial women how they felt about 174 major brands across categories.

•     Only eight of the 174 brands had more than a third of millennial women say they “love” the brand.  The overwhelming reaction to most brands was indifference: the average brand had 58% of its audience that was indifferent to it.
•     Amazon was ranked #1 most loved brand among millennial women, followed by Google and Netflix.  Victoria’s Secret came in #7, while Apple ranked #8.  

“We are thrilled with the depth of insight the study yielded.  We believe this study has profound implications for brands and media companies looking to win with this critical demographic,” explained CafeMedia CEO, Michael Sanchez. “We are already applying the key takeaways to our efforts to serve the diverse millennial women across the country.”