Brands versus the Millennial; Millennial Aspirations

Hey great people. Hope you’ve been well and inspired. Let’s waste no time to dive into today’s discussion.

The traditional marketing funnel focused on 5 key areas. Awareness, Consideration, Decision, Adoption and Advocacy. The rise in digital has enabled marketers to narrow down individuals by their online habits. This not only leads to more conversions but also higher Return on Investment based on the accuracy of targeting. That being said, habits are driven by aspirations and that is our conversation today; millennial aspirations.

To give you a bit of statistical context, Africa’s population pyramids have a wider base than top. This shows we have a larger population of young people which is not only a growing workforce but also an increasing consumer base for products and services.

75% of Kenyans are below 35 years and millennial make up 25% of this. Having grown up in the era of the internet, they tend to be curious, job hoppers and tech-savvy. Curiosity makes them quick learners and confident enough to challenge the status quo.

Aspirations.

When speaking to millennials, we need to understand that they have diverse interests and come from different socioeconomic backgrounds. One thing they have in common, however, is they are “aspirational”. They seek to be better, successful and are willing to break all barriers to achieve that.

Now that we got here, let’s break aspiration down. Google defines aspiration as a strong desire to achieve one’s ambitions. Millennials seek to be the best in their craft. Passion enables them to try out new paths but passion alone can’t sustain them to the end.

For them to achieve their goals, they need three things-;

Curiosity, creativity and boldness.

Curiosity pushes millennials to try different things, learn new skills and walk unpopular paths. This is the phase where they discover their passions, interests and what intrigues them. Curiosity pushes them to creation.

Creativity Here, they use their imagination to come up with something new. The first creation will not necessarily be the best. Deepal, my colleague, says you have a hundred bad drawings in you and you can only get better once you’ve let them out. The challenge is to ensure you get past the first hundred.

Boldness is taking risks and acting with confidence & courage to not only showcase your craft but defend it as well.  It’s holding on when everyone tells you to let go. It’s creating on the good days and bad days. And finally when it’s good enough, selling it.

Case studies

Millennials are aspirational. The question, however, is ‘what about brands?’  Brand2D has helped a few brands with this and here are a few of them.

1. Feeding Curiosity: Augmented Reality by Qwetu

To create extreme Fear of Missing out (FOMO) for millennial, we helped Qwetu create an immersive experience for the invitees on their media tour. We designed an Augmented Reality invite that transformed a printed E-invite into an animated video where we could blend new information. This was to arouse millennial curiosity into who and what Qwetu does.

2. Arousing Creativity; Unga Battle of the Chefs

The objective was to drive product awareness of a new product offering under the UNGA Company – Amana. We hosted a Battle of the Chefs competition online and a cook-off later. The prize? A kitchen makeover! 8 people qualified for the final round and this was the winner.

Using the same ingredients, every contestant made a different meal. That right there was creativity.

3. Dare to be Bold; NIVEA The One

NIVEA needed a cover model to grace its billboards. We set out to find her and in 10 days, 450 submissions and over 60,000 web visits later, we found #TheOne. This campaign won MSK’s award in the category of Best Digital Campaign 2014.

We dared the millennial to be bold enough to take up the challenge.

So there you have it, Millennial 101. If you are selling to the millennial, feel free to say hello and let us help you in arousing their curiosity, feeding their creativity or daring them to be bold with your product or service.

Until next time, be Curious, Creative and Bold. These are the keys to being an aspirational brand.