‘Millennials’ means Little without Segmentation.

Carol Phillips – Founder and President / Brand Amplitude

Marketers should get off the millennial bandwagon, says Carol Phillips, founder and president of Brand Amplitude, an insights-based brand strategy firm. While many in the demographic still have some shared values, there are different life stages, education levels and needs among its members that should be considered. Phillips spoke with eMarketer’s Danielle Drolet about the need to segment the demographic in order to reach millennials more effectively.

eMarketer: Why are you no longer comfortable with the term millennials?

Carol Phillips: It’s increasingly unhelpful to group everybody together just because they fall within a 15-year age span. We’re seeing it in our research. Marketers love it because it simplifies things and it’s a handle. There was a time when you could talk about millennials that way, but that time has passed. As they’ve aged, they’ve become more diverse. It’s a starting point. But unless you dig deeper, it can send you in a really bad direction.

eMarketer: What advice would you give to marketers dealing with that age range? Is it about breaking it up into more distinct groups?

Phillips: Yes, definitely, and specific to your category. What the whole concept of millennials does is provide you with context. That’s particularly useful if you’re trying to connect with values. There are certain values that are very much associated with this generation, but that is about where it stops. After that, you have to define who you’re talking about. Are you talking about young mothers without a college education? Those are millennials, and there are a lot of them. It doesn’t help to lump them together with the young venture capitalists in San Francisco.

“It’s increasingly unhelpful to group everybody together just because they fall within a 15-year age span.”

eMarketer: Have you seen anyone breaking the distinction up further?

Phillips: Yes. There have been some segmentations, but I haven’t seen any really good ones yet. The best segmentation is going to be life stage. There’s a big difference between someone who has a job and someone who doesn’t have a job, someone who has kids or doesn’t, or is married or living with someone and doesn’t. We’ve known for 50 years that how you spend your discretionary money has a lot to do with not just age, but life stage. That’s the first cut.

Then within that you need to get category-specific. Not all millennials drink soda. They are disproportionately soda drinkers, but there are a lot of nonsoda drinkers. Not all millennials eat organic food. Disproportionately, yes. These sweeping generalizations are just not helpful.

eMarketer: We know that millennials are especially attached to their smartphones. Does that make them more willing or less willing to see marketers use those devices as a way of delivering marketing messages to them?

Phillips: We’ve seen that millennials are more comfortable using their cell phones while shopping, but that behavior does extend into other age groups as well. It’s not exclusively millennial. We did a study for Sprint on that, and one of the big findings was that there are people who behave in millennial ways in almost every age group. They’re really the vanguard of the way we’ll all be shopping, essentially.

eMarketer: Can you share an example of that?

“We did a study for Sprint, and one of the big findings was that there are people who behave in millennial ways in almost every age group.”

Phillips: If you take a grocery store, it starts with the behavior of making lists and keeping track of things on their mobile. Then, it’s a short hop to registering for coupons and downloading the shopkick app, which offers customers rewards while in stores. It’s not so much about foursquare anymore, but instead passive ways of receiving coupons. From there, they start to expect Wi-Fi in the store, and then many more things can happen.

eMarketer: How seriously should we take it when millennials “like” or “follow” a brand?

Phillips: Context is everything. They want to connect with brands that they like, but that tends to be only a handful of brands. Again, it’s all about relevance. There are brands that they will engage with online, but a lot of what they’re looking for is unique experiences and offers. They’re not engaging with them for nothing. They need to get something in return.

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