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The Wise Marketing Staff
Through a special arrangement, presented here for discussion is a summary of a current article from The Wise Marketer, a website and newsletter serving the global loyalty industry.
Marketers need to stop treating Millennials — who range from college co-eds to minivan driving parents — all the same, argues Maritz Motivation Solutions in a new report.
Covering an estimated 80 million individuals born between 1981 and 1999, Millennials are the most diverse generation of economic significance in the U.S., the report states.
“The media likes to represent all Millennials as carefree and entitled wanderers, fixated on social media and just beginning to dip their toes into the workforce,” Maritz Motivation wrote in the report. “But subscribing to that notion can be very dangerous for any company who wants to be relevant to this demographic five years from now.”
Maritz Motivation believes the secret to effectively leveraging this generation of consumers lies in targeting one specific group. They are known as the HENRYs: “High Earner, Not Rich Yet.” A HENRY is defined as: “a household under 55 years old with an annual income between $100,000 and $250,000, but that has not amassed investable assets of $1 million.”
While HENRYs technically span three generations, Millennial HENRYs are where brands need to focus on building out loyal customers for two core reasons:
- They have a significantly higher budget for discretionary spending than Gen X or Baby Boomer HENRYs.
- Young HENRYs are the most likely to become a brand’s most valuable customers, both in terms of money spent and influence given over their lifetimes.
- Focus on experiences: Tap into their sense of adventure. Your brand doesn’t need to offer the experience itself, but showcase your products elevating an experience or making it easier to attain.
- Leverage scarcity: HENRYs love being “in the know,” and when they see novel content, they are more likely to share within their sphere of influence.
- Keep communications simple: Growing up on the internet, they expect to find instant answers to whatever they are looking for.
- Be available 24/7: Half of Millennials spend over three hours a day on their smart phone, so make sure you are meeting them where they are — on their phones.