Millennials must die
That’s right. Millennials must die.
But I don’t mean the people. I mean the concept.
Clearly, ‘targeting’ millions of people on the basis of their age is madness.
The category is stupidly broad, and there’s absolutely no reason why all the members of it should share any particular beliefs, principles or preferences.
On top of that, the millennial traits that people suggest are pretty inane. For example, apparently millennials hate queuing.
First of all, everybody hates queuing. Or, at least, nobody particularly likes it.
But more importantly, if your product shortens queues, you’re looking at a product for queue-haters. Not millennials. And your marketing should focus on the preference rather than the people.
If you insist on targeting millennials, all you’re doing is narrowing your focus to the subset of potential customers who happen to be a certain age.
So why do we see millennials as some sort of weird alien species, with unique traits that have never been seen before?
In a weird way, I think it’s a compliment.
We reflect on our own Boomer greed or Gen X apathy, and we don’t like what we see in the mirror. If the next generation really are different from us – altruistic, discerning, non-materialistic – maybe the future will be different from the past.
We can only hope.
(If you like this, there’s a whole chapter on knowing your reader in Copywriting Made Simple.)