We slice and dice millennials, trying to figure out who they are, and why.
What do they want, how do they shop, what sorts of in-store strategies will best grab their attention?
That’s a good thing, mostly. Too often, in the past, retailing has been accused of ignoring social and cultural trends and not adjusting.
Or, sometimes, adjusting too vigorously. As a young magazine editor, I remember writing about the values and attitudes of the new generation – anti-materialistic, rebellious and mistrustful. Who could have anticipated that those same anti-materialistic hippies would become yuppie stock traders, junk bond barons and M&A millionaires?
So who really knows who these millennials will become by 2025? But for today, I think, too much attention is focused on the abstract psychological nature of this generation, some vague disillusionment with their parents, institutions, government.
We’re inundated with white papers about “Understanding the Millennials.” We try to CAT-scan their feelings. How did September 11 affect their views on security and the future? How does climate change influence their consumer choices? How has the government’s fiscal irresponsibility colored their views on investing or buying a house or having a family?
Economist Steven Rattner suggests that many of the questions are far less abstract and staring us right in the face. It isn’t unconventional feelings about the durability or worthiness of possessions that drive millennials to H&M. It’s – say it all together – the economy, stupid!
“Some of this may be cultural,” Rattner wrote recently in The New York Times (“We’re Making Life Too Hard for Millennials,” Aug. 2, 2015). “Younger Americans seem less interested in major possessions like cars and homes. But they are also delaying marriage and having children, which I believe is [purely] an indicator of strapped finances.”
This is the most well-educated generation we’ve produced and yet the one finding the hardest time getting good, permanent jobs. That education has also come at a cost – they’re drowning in debt. And their incomes don’t keep pace with their expenses, wiping out any possibility of saving. No wonder they’ve come to doubt the Great American Promise.
Retailers have responded to the generation’s perceived “quirkiness” by promoting green building practices, sponsoring age-appropriate culture fests and shooting promotions directly to their smart devices instead of advertising in the Sunday newspapers.
Every store is wired, in a wireless sort of way.
And that’s all good. But appealing to their interest in sales and bargains, access to information, easy-to-navigate stores and messages related to social media isn’t some great psychological insight, it’s just smart retailing.
Remember good-old-fashioned, unadorned smart retailing? It didn’t require a Freudian analysis. Marshall Field did not say, “Give the lady what she thinks she wants in order to overcome her resentment of her parents.”
As a journalist, writer, editor and commentator, Steve Kaufman has been watching the store design industry for 20 years. He has seen the business cycle through retailtainment, minimalism, category killers, big boxes, pop-ups, custom stores, global roll-outs, international sourcing, interactive kiosks, the emergence of China, the various definitions of “branding” and Amazon.com. He has reported on the rise of brand concept shops, the demise of brand concept shops and the resurgence of brand concept shops. He has been an eyewitness to the reality that nothing stays the same, except the retailer-shopper relationship.