There has been much talk about the impact that Millennials “consumers reaching young adulthood around the year 2000” will have on brands’ Loyalty Programmes.
We have compiled some interesting thoughts for you to consider when dealing with Millennials and Loyalty, to build or refine your loyalty programmes to reach this elusive demographic.
THOUGHT 1 – EMBRACE DIGITAL
Millennials have really embraced the digital world – so it is not surprising to hear that brands are heavily focusing on enhancing their digital loyalty strategies to get noticed by this segment. Millennials mainly interact with brands through digital platforms with 49% using social media such as Facebook and Twitter and 54% of them visiting brand websites. Millennials quickly adapt to new digital gadgets, loyalty mobile apps, loyalty in-app messages and online purchasing methods.
THOUGHT 2 – INFLUENCED BY THEIR SOCIAL MEDIA FRIENDS
Social media friends have a massive impact on Millennials who eagerly watch what friends are following, sharing, tweeting and liking. 26% of Millennials are more loyal to brands their friends interact with and 30% of Millennials continue to like and share branded loyalty content shared by their friends. In today’s digital world, it is even more important for brands to have a strong social media presence, to make it easy for Millennials to find them and to interact with them. 31% of Millennials look for branded loyalty content that is authentic and adds value with no sales message.
THOUGHT 3 – WANT LOYALTY PROGRAMMES
Millennials are more willing to participate in Loyalty Programmes than ever before and are looking for Loyalty Programmes that are easy to understand, that give them access to tangible rewards with valuable relevant content, through a quick and simple loyalty mechanic. Brands are very quickly adapting their Loyalty Strategies to offer Millennials the value they are looking for, but with the added challenge being that value now means different things to different people. Today brands are focusing on understanding Millennials attitudes towards technology, data privacy, value, content and rewards in order to build strong relationships and to retain customer loyalty.
THOUGHT 4 – WANT IT RIGHT HERE AND RIGHT NOW
Millennials are extremely busy and they don’t want to work hard to find the right value content for their purchasing needs. Millennials want to be able to search at home, winding down after a hectic day, in their PJ’s with a cup of tea in one hand and their mobile phone in the other, ready to make that important purchase. Brands need to match this by making it easier for Millennials to find them and to spend.
THOUGHT 5 – UNDERSTOOD BY BRANDS
We are now part of a generation where measuring, understanding and segmentation of customers is much more challenging. Therefore, we need to layer on more complex measuring tools to understand our customers better and to be more relevant to Millennials. Brands are shifting their Loyalty Strategies to focus around becoming more customer-centric and are starting to measure the challenging metrics around Customer Experience through brand content social media likes, comments, shares along with measuring customer interactions with Brand Loyalty Apps and their responses to brand loyalty in-app messages/offers. With the above in mind brands need to understand that in order to engage the Millennials they need to be forward thinking, brave and constantly find ways to do things differently in order to grab the attention of Millennials and to keep them loyal. Are you up to the challenge?
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