Millennials and trends

Updated: Sep 14, 2018

Imagine this!

The house that you have seen in this video is yours. You're 26 years old and living with your girlfriend/boyfriend and your husky pup. The life you have is happy and even though you don't have 10-years plan for your future, you're satisfied with what you have. Both of you are working as freelancers, meaning you are working from home. Ok, ok sometimes you don't work at all just because you can stay in bed. And sometimes you are working 12 hours per day, so you want to take a break from your job and your hometown. Instead of packing your luggage you're packing your whole house and in a few hours, you're living on the other side of the country.

Voila! Now back to reality!

This video is 2 years old. When it was created it was just a prototype. Now it's a reality.

This story below the video sounds great, right? It is some millennial's life right now.

No matter if you are not 26 years old and your current house doesn't have wheels, we can't ignore the fact that nowadays Science Fiction scenarios are our everyday reality. With millennials predicted to take over 50% of the workforce globally by 2020, the ability to retain such talent will soon become essential for achieving business success.

So, the question is are the companies finally ready for millennials? Are millennials ready for the "real world"? To answer this, let's take a look on the recent event that took place in European countries. Were the companies ready for GDPR? Probably not 100%, but they needed to align their business with the regulative. Now the same thing is happening with millenials. For some people they are unicorns hard to understand for others they are just young people that grew up with technology and Kardashian family.

Either we love them or hate them, they are real. And the sooner you understand their inner motivation the bigger effect it will have on your business. Let's start with the basics: Airbnb and Uber. Sharing economy and combinatorial innovation.

In 2016., there was 44.8 million adults using sharing economy services such as Airbnb or Uber in the United States. Some sources went so far to forecast the number of users to increase to 86.5 million by 2021. In the UK a quarter of the UK population has engaged in a sharing economy activity. UK’s sharing economy had turnover of about £500m in 2014, and predicted this could grow to £9bn by 2025. London has produced the third largest number of sharing economy start-ups in the world. Sharing economy has changed the customer's perception of consumerism from just buying the product to buying the experience. Statistics point out that 90% of consumers read online reviews before visiting a business. Today more than 67% consumers purchase with decisions based on online reviews. Even more 84% of people trust online reviews as much as a personal recommendation. Younger generations don't trust brands anymore as the generations 50 years ago did. Power of the internet and online reviews has overcome the power of standard advertising. People no longer want to buy product because they need it, but because they feel connected with their community.

Being authentic and transparent in communications has become important now more than ever. Customers don't identify with the celebrities on the huge billboards anymore but rather follow trends created from everyday people that have same struggles as they have. They started to fight stronger, harder and louder for their human rights. The right to work and create wealth, as the most important human right in business world is occupying a lot of headlines in the news. And yet young people tend to find a job harder than ever. No job, no money. No money, no wealth. Simple equation. The less income people have the less they are able to spend. Just 31 per cent of 25-29 year-olds own their own property, a figure that has plunged from 63 per cent a quarter of a century ago, analysis reveals. For 25- to 34-year-olds earning between £22,200 and £30,600 per year, home ownership fell to just 27% in 2016 from 65% two decades ago. Millennials in Italy, Spain and Greece seem the most effected by financial crisis. They now have incomes far lower than previous generations at the same age. In the US, the trend is similar to the European countries, but there it started earlier and also hit Generation X. This trend leads to young people having less house, stuff, and mortgages.

The tiny house movement promotes financial prudence, eco-friendly choices, shared community experiences, and a shift in consumerism-driven mindsets. With statistics on our side we can say that millennials are definitely more educated than previous generations. However, more than 50 percent rent because they can’t afford the initial down payment. As a result, millennials choose to buy/rent smaller houses particularly since many millennials live alone or don’t have children. Just 100 years ago, 7 in 10 over-65s in the United Kingdom were working. Today, about 2 in 10 are. In 2010, British women got their state pension at 60 and men got theirs at 65. By October 2020, both sexes will have to wait until they are 66. By 2028, the age will rise again, to 67. By the early 2060s, people will still be working in their 70s, but according to research, we will all need to keep working into our 80s if we want to enjoy the same standard of retirement as our parents.

So as a part of millennial generation what I have on my mind is that I'm going to work forever. Or...

I can start working as a freelancer from our story at the beginning or for myself. The truth is that young people are more willing to change jobs in a difficult economy and material compensation is often not on the top of the list of the millennial's needs. However, we can't ignore the fact that a lot of young people still have student debt and living costs that are on the rise. Even though it is generally thought that millennials will not work for bigger income job if they don't like it, 50% of all millennials would still change their jobs if they could get a 20% increase in pay. No matter if you belong to millennials, baby boomers or generation Z, at the end we are all human beings that have same human needs. The difference is that we are showing them differently.

Communication has changed too. Everyday people are using GIFs, emojis, emoticons, pictures to visualize their communication to sender. Companies are using collaborative tools, such as Trello, Slack and RealtimeBoard, too. This trend will become even more popular with each company that has international team in their house. Standard marketing is OUT, digital marketing is IN. The era of new influencers has arrived.

It is all about relationship and Apple knows it the best. Kardashian family too. Advertisement (or banner) blindness is a growing phenomenon. The cost of consumer attention is at a rise as brands try to connect with consumers who are otherwise turned off by mainstream marketing. AR and VR have a significant role to play in brand storytelling.

Last but not least, what does all this means for companies?

They need to start thinking about new approaches. Actually, their management should have start it yesterday. Technology is changing rapidly, kids from your street started to become CxOs of the companies and nobody knows where to start or what to do.

By reading this article you made a first step.

Second one is to connect with us.

Leave the rest to us.