Studies indicate that 66% of consumers, regardless of age, will purchase from a brand they feel is sustainable and trustworthy. The numbers are even higher once the Millennial cohort is isolated; at 73%. When companies and brands tailor their advertising with trustworthy information for their target customer, conversion rates are boosted 30%.

Demographics Are Everything
Baby Boomers, the generation born between 1946 and 1960, were once considered the largest generation to ever live. This generation, for decades, has been the foremost influence driving business’s marketing efforts and product lines. But, all that’s about to change.

In the next few decades, the largest transfer of wealth, over 30 trillion dollars, will take place—from Boomers to the Millennial generation and their little brothers and sisters; Generation Z. Demographics are everything, and the aging of the Boomers and the rise of Millennials and Gen Z is going to severely change the marketing and business landscape.

Millennials and their younger counterparts look at companies, brands, and businesses through an entirely different lens than Baby Boomers, and brands are starting to feel the pinch of their critical gaze.

The Millennial generation is far more risk-averse than their Boomer elders. Millennials are more likely to value experiences over things, and will spend their money accordingly. They are not investing in real estate, and are far less likely to buy a car new and on loan, or even own a car at all. Furthermore, this generation is more skeptical of brands than their predecessors.

Trust Is Visceral
While trust has always been an important metric and component driving customer buying decisions, with Millennials, trust is now a key component, not a peripheral, nebulous concept. For them, trust is visceral, and necessary. Despite their young age, this generation and the one behind it are jaded toward the business and advertising worlds.

It’s hardly surprising. While Boomers came of age during the post-war boom, when housing prices, relative to income, were still affordable across socio-economic status, for Millennials this is not the case. Furthermore, this generation witnessed and experienced the massive fallout of the housing crisis of 2008. Since then, this generation’s trust in institutions and brands and businesses was severely crippled and eroded. To earn Millennials coveted trust in the business world, brands are required to operate in a trustworthy, and sustainable fashion. And, brands who are perceived as civically responsible will be more likely to obtain those depreciating Millennial dollars in the coming years.

So, how can a brand appear trustworthy to younger consumers?

• History: By sharing the company history or brand’s personal story, offering social proof
• Accountability, i.e.: ‘money-back guarantees’ or offering free trials
• Affiliations: Proving authority through affiliation with other trustworthy brands in the sphere
• Relatability: Approaching from a sympathetic angle by understanding the customer’s pain points. Telling stories in an informal, casual tone
• Subtlety: Offer value first without requiring anything in return

Businesses will have to compete in this new generational ethos. Boomers will not be the largest holders of disposable income soon, and in order to stay competitive in the new market, brands that build trust with their customers will reign supreme.

Marketing companies have been competing for the minds of millennials fiercely over the last few years – and for good reason.

Millennials represent about a quarter of the entire US population, and have over $200 billion in annual buying power. Though they have less discretionary income than Baby Boomers and older generations, they have a lot of influence – and are hard to reach with traditional marketing methods.

But are millennials still the hottest consumers out there? Or should we be focusing our efforts on a new generation of consumers? Here’s the scoop.

Millennials Are Still The Most Important Consumer Generation – For Now

Millennials are defined as individuals who were between 18-34 in 2015 by the Pew Research Center. They are just now entering the prime of their lives as consumers.

As millennials age, their income continues to grow as a generation. Most millennials are now out of college and working in professional careers, and millennials are the most educated generation to date.

This means that the buying power of millennials is only going to grow in future years, as they begin to start families and earn more discretionary income.

However, millennials will not stay at the top of the heap forever. As time goes on, Generation Z continues to grow – and a new generation of consumer is born.

Gen Z – The Largest Consumer Generation In History

Generation Z is defined as the “post-millennial” generation. While most definitions vary, it’s agreed that most Gen Z individuals were born around the year 2000 or later. This generation already makes up 25% of the population, and is forecasted to continue to grow.

As Gen Z becomes older, and younger people begin to enter the consumer market, they are likely to become the most highly sought-after consumer generation, just as millennials were before them.

Focus On Millennials In Marketing Efforts – But Don’t Forget About Gen Z!

How should brands market their products? Luckily, millennials and Gen Z both share a few common attributes. Consumers from both generations are tech-savvy and have quite a bit of influence on the market – and both Gen Z and millennial consumers do not respond well to traditional advertising methods.

While millennials should be the focus on most marketing efforts, Gen Z should not be overlooked. Brands should be using social media platforms like Snapchat, Instagram and Twitter to reach a younger audience, and should always be on the lookout for hot trends that could appeal to Gen Z consumers.

Conclusion

As time goes on, millennials will become less important as a consumer audience, and the importance of Gen Z will grow. So focus on millennials for now, but don’t forget about the younger generation.

BUT… when it comes down to the heart of what you want the agency to deliver for you creatively, it’s best to keep it short and sweet. The immersion is the key area where we intend to learn anything and everything about your brand, business, category and consumer. This is where the data-dump should take place.

Whereas the actual initiative we are working on should be able to be interpreted in one-page or less. References to examples that you’d consider benchmarks are always a plus.

If you do this and hear crickets, then the agency just doesn’t get it and maybe the long-form is necessary. However, more times than not, the agency will appreciate the synthesis of your objectives, and be able to move ahead much more efficiently with the task at hand.

So the next time you’re getting ready to pull the trigger on that brief, try and remember this tip. It will save you time on both ends.

Thanks for reading, and let us know if this was helpful, or if you need help crafting that brief.

As consumers, we are programmed to intuitively select the products and brands we need based on what looks familiar (e.g., the easiest decision to make). And as marketers, “the goal is to make consumers repeat their purchases by matching the value proposition to their needs.” Consumers don’t want to spend the mental energy when shopping (online or in-store for that matter), so why make them?

The solution for brands lies within understanding the habits of their consumers, and evolving or improving upon them based on what their brains are programmed to be looking for. And unless consumers are absolutely screaming for a change, and the return is solid for your business, then making a dramatic change is no bueno.

Brands like Coke, Tropicana, GAP, and many more have undergone redesigns in some capacity over the years. Consumers didn’t demand it. They weren’t educated on the change, nor provided a real rationale. The result was backlash, and even a decline in sales, which pushed the brands to quickly go back to the original. A lot of time and money lost. However, sometimes it pays off (only if the demand is there), but often times it doesn’t.

There are more examples and insights we could share, but we simply don’t have the time, nor blog post space to do so. That said, we want to leave you with this very simple message: If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. And if you decide to fix it, make sure you do it in a way that doesn’t disrupt the habits of your consumers.

Brands are aware that they must continually evolve in order to stay relevant in a society filled with noise. Gillette is an example of one brand that has already withstood the test of time. They make a testament to that in their new advertisement for their first ever men’s body razor.

The video takes an evolutionary approach to depict the different hairstyles of men over the last 100 years. The spot is a great nod to how Gillette has managed to handle the ever-changing landscape of product development and advertising.

Radioshack on the other hand is an example of a company that hasn’t managed to keep up with the world today, and is currently on the brink of failure. The dominance of e-commerce and competition from internet-based companies such as Amazon chip away at the profits of those companies that can’t keep up. Gillette has managed to do quite the opposite. And no matter how strange it seems that men want to shave more than just their faces, they embrace it.

What Sparks our Fire: The success of a brand that continually faces the changing times and excels at it.

What other brands can you think of that manage to withhold the challenges of change?

I just returned from Florence, Italy where my curiosity for art and fashion were again refreshed and enlivened. A must see, was the Pontormo and Rosso Fiorentino exhibition at the Strozzi Palace and the beautiful leather and suede handcrafted creations by the Tattanelli family.

On the flight back I read my current issue of Vanity Fair with Jon Hamm on the cover. Now, I find out that because I’m an avid reader of this magazine, I was “born curious.” This is the current mantra for their new branding campaign promoting the print, digital video, and online editions. Interesting.

I’ll review my family tree to see if this trait is genetically grounded or a product of my environment. That should be fun. Meanwhile I checked out their online video to see where they were going. Pretty darn smart. Thanks Graydon Carter and company for making this branding message “curiously rewarding.”

These are an international few, ten mega-corporations whose multi-industry holdings create a situation not unlike the coal and iron trusts of Industrial Revolution America: basically, a few large entities own huge chunks of industry, and whoever can outbuy or undercut the competitors. The fact of the matter is that this is a product of a free market economy, where the larger corporations have the ability to diversify the industries they involve themselves in while increasing revenue and industry influence.

While parallels might be drawn to the monopolies of the early twentieth century, the new supercorporations don’t sell under their own names. Rather, they own, own shares of, or partner with hundreds of thousands of brands, which leads to mass appeal based on what Reddit refers to as “The Illusion of Choice”.  This is a deceptive use of terminology because the fact is that while these brands and companies are all associated, they are not companies within companies, like Russian nesting dolls, as the chart leads one to believe. The reality of the situation is much more complicated than a simple infographic can demonstrate.

What it is effective at showing, however, is that there are several very large, very influential corporations behind the multitude of brands that many people use daily. Whether or not this is a good or a bad thing remains to be seen. However, it’s important to know.

What Sparks Our Fire: Knowing the behind-the-scenes workings of corporate America.

Does this affect the way that you view your favorite brands?

Here’s to the great “brand inventors” of our time. They were the inspiration and driving force behind the brands we have come to love. Their ideas are timeless and they fought hard to bring them to life. We like that and are inspired by these extraordinary thinkers and doers…the great inventors. The one’s who followed an unfiltered approach to success. This is the sentiment behind Ideas without Borders, the platform on which Canopy rests.

Following are some you know and some you may not.

Information Overload: Larry Page and Sergey Brinn
Invented the most efficient tool ever known to man for getting information about anything and everything. Google.

Mom’s Solution to Temper Tantrums: Ruth Handler
Invented every little girl’s best friend growing up and every Mom’s solution to a temper tantrum. The Barbie Doll.

Scooped: Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield
Inventive founders who scooped the category with humor, social responsibility and oh so good ice cream. Ben and Jerry’s Ice Cream.

Jeanius: Levi Strauss
A true blue inventor who put the rivets and red tab in jeans for millions worldwide. Levi’s.

Mobile Music: Nobutoshi Kihara
Revolutionized how and where we listen to music. Sony Walkman.

Triple Threat: Elon Musk
The definition of all-in: inventor, businessman, and investor. Tesla Motors, PayPal and SpaceX.

Paris-based art group, Maentis, recently redesigned many classic brand logos in a collection entitled, Universal Unbranding. Drawing upon how American’s really perceive many popular consumer brands, Maentis has created satirical interpretations. For example, McDonald’s “golden arches” have now packed on a few pounds and the IKEA logo is shown deconstructed in multiple pieces humorously hinting some assembly required.

What sparked our fire: How art is used to humorously disrupt and expose truths through culture-jamming.

Do these intelligent parodies more accurately represent what their companies stand for?

Enjoy!

-Canopy Team

Brand awareness is the ultimate objective for most marketers. However, Douglas Van Praet, a marketing and neuroscience expert, recently discussed why traditional research misses the mark on what actually drives consumers to purchase. Ever heard of the term “gut reaction” ? A consumer knows they like something but they are unaware of what, or how, they were influenced. Simply put, we can’t explain what we don’t know, which has been credited as the, “I like it, but I don’t know why” effect. Praet goes on to discuss another psychological idea that effects consumers, learning without knowing. Our brain’s emotional side has the ability to function independently from our cortex, the epicenter of consciousness. This enables us to attribute a positive and/or negative association to a product without knowledge or reasoning.This concept proves why Coke Clear and Crystal Pepsi were huge flops in the 1990’s. Consumers were unaware of the positive association they subconsciously made with the dark brown color of both soda brands. Eloquently put by Praet, “We see with our brains not just our eyes.”

You must be asking, so what does this mean to the marketing world? Praet has constructed a seven-step process to break through the clutter.

1. Interrupt the Pattern.
2. Create Comfort.
3. Lead the Imagination.
4. Shift the Feeling.
5. Satisfy the Critical Mind.
6. Change the Associations.
7. Take Action.

What sparks out fire: The unconscious level of thought involved in the consumer’s decision-making process.

How will this change the way companies market to their consumers?

Enjoy!

-Canopy Team