Inside the minds of the Millennials
Through a special arrangement, presented here for discussion is a summary of a current article from LoyaltyTruth.com, a blog published by Hanifin Loyalty.
My greatest source of insight into the Millennial mind has been found by working with one on a business improvement project over the past year.
In pursuit of business process improvement for our consulting and marketing agency Hanifin Loyalty, we have sought out tools to help manage social media marketing, accounting, CRM, sales and project management, even language skills. The key associate leading the charge to find new tools in each of these areas is a card-carrying member of the Millennial generation.
The discovery process has been fascinating to me:
- There is no pre-disposition about what we should buy or what should even be in the consideration set.
- Google is the giant pond that we fish in and all things are possible.
- Cloud based services rule the day, and the flexibility of service plans and lower costs associated with these services means that we test, test and test some more before making any long-term commitments.
- Commitments made are based on a blend of experience, satisfaction, and hands-on user testing.
- The rational elements of decision are cemented by an emotional component formed from the holistic evaluation of a product and service offer.
We've landed on a portfolio of tools that includes Buffer, Insightly, Freshbooks, Uber (the conference service, not the taxi operator) and continue to evaluate others, including Sharpspring, Duolingo and Canva.
The thought process that influenced this selection of tools started with an absolute blank sheet of white paper. Transparency and straight talk from vendors were attributes that stimulated our engagement and strong customer service and online tools hastened our speed down the path to making a decision.
In the end, the value of each tool was determined through identification of tangible value, while the elements of time savings and the satisfaction of knowing that we had found something that was slightly off traditional radars were influencers. While we might have thought we were creating competitive advantage by selecting a new toolset, we understand that it is how you put these tools to use rather than the tools themselves that constitutes a competitive advantage. Therefore, we don't mind sharing names here.
There are a number of parallels to draw from this process to put to use in successfully engaging and creating brand loyalty with Millennials. I'll let you connect the dots in your own way, but one lesson is clear: the old saw of "walking in the Indian's moccasins" to truly understand their circumstances was never more applicable than with Millennials. And while I can't exactly walk in someone else's shoes, I can choose to work with them to improve my understanding of their decision making process.