Marketing Minute: Revisiting Millennials – June 2024

By Paul Friederichsen

The Millennial generation is now at its midpoint and is arriving at the prime floor purchasing age of 35. What does this milestone portend for the industry going forward?

THE SETUP
Five years ago in this column, I explored the promise of Gen Y, born between 1981 and 1996––now better known as the Millennial generation-and its impact on flooring (see “Marketing to the Next Generation of Flooring Buyers,” January 2019). Over the course of the next five years, we experienced a global pandemic, a supply chain catastrophe, a war in Ukraine, a historic rise in the national debt, ballooning college loans, unchecked inflation and climbing interest rates. All of these events were unforeseen or unnoticeable with their looming future impact back in January 2019.

In the 2019 article, we observed that Millennials began their young adulthood with the Great Recession and most lived out their early adulthood with a job that needed no college degree, while residing in mom and dad’s basement. At that time, over 20% were still living at home.

Fast forward five years: In 2024, Millennials have progressed in homeownership-a prerequisite to flooring replacements-as they have matured. In 2019, with their average age of 30, 40% of Millennials were reported as homeowners. Today, with the average age of 35, it’s just over 50%. However, that milestone took longer to achieve than with any previous generation, and, as a group, there is a growing pessimism that their American Dream will ever be realized. In 2019, just 15% expected to always be renters, but by 2022, that swelled to 25%. Unless economic fortunes change dramatically, ownership hope will continue to diminish among the younger half of the Millennial generation.

Coincidentally, The Washington Post in 2023 also reported that the U.S. birthrate is at its lowest in history, and, of those who do have children, most only have one. On a macro level, fewer births equal less demand in single-family residential, and, as any flooring retailer will tell you, “active families” (kids in the home) can be a challenge to the durability, performance and indoor health concerns of young families and their flooring. Kids and pets are drivers of this need for flooring.

THE OPPORTUNITY
Given that there are fewer Millennials in the market for flooring, manufacturers and retailers need to take advantage of every opportunity that presents itself. The simple answer would be to invest more in R&D and marketing aimed at Millennials, so that those who have their own place will choose your brand over a competitor’s. In 2019, Coretec did just that with an aggressive trade campaign aimed at flooring retailers to position its brand as the choice of Millennials, just as Pepsi did with young Baby Boomers decades earlier as “the choice of a new generation.” It worked, and rigid core flooring is now the hottest category in the industry, catapulting to dominance resilient’s share of floor in the home.

The emergence of the “home office” (thanks to the Covid lockdowns) is another opportunity to appeal to Millennials. According to Business Insider, as a culture, Millennials are redefining how we “office” by evolving the hybrid approach. “Work-from-home intensity, measured by the percent of paid full days worked from home, is highest (51+%) among people in their 30s and early 40s.” Builders, realtors, and even HGTV shows like “Unsellable Houses,” with Millennial hosts Lyndsay and Leslie Lamb, are touting converting rooms into home office space. Thinking outside the box may be aligning with office furniture brands or tech companies and transforming those old-fashioned “mainstreet” offerings into fresh home office aesthetics and functionality.

Speaking of “home fix-up” cable shows, gone is the stigma about vinyl flooring. Vinyl (LVP, sheet and rigid core) is popular among Millennials, whose average home is priced at $350,000, according to investment advisory service The Motley Fool.

THE SHOPPING PROCESS
From our own Marketing Minute research of Millennial females, in 250,000+ dual-income households with one or no children and homeownership (or planned purchase), we received these responses.
• “I would first look for farmhouse/rustic/modern home finishings-based Instagram accounts that featured looks I might like to emulate.”
• “I would try to narrow it down to two to three looks that I really liked based on photos, then I would take those ideas to a retailer to look at samples.”
• “I would take a gander at stores around us to get myself familiar, like Home Depot, Floor & Decor, etc.”
• “Armed with a little knowledge and idea of general choices, availability, prices, durability, etc., I would drive to a specialty store.”
• “My style would be more on the transitional/modern/minimalist side.”
• “My top concerns: 1) aesthetics, 2) durability, 3) price.”
• (On doing online research) “I found many times that I can kind of get myself down a never-ending, window-shopping, hour-upon-hour rabbit hole. If I go somewhere, I can ask questions.”
• “I would definitely look online and read lots of reviews and watch YouTube videos.”
• (On the importance of sustainability) “I was shopping for a cutting board and found two nearly identical products. One made a big deal about being recycled. The other cost less. I bought the one that cost less.”

Understanding generational psychology as it applies to marketing direction sets up guiderails for strategy. There is a danger of using general data to create specific applications. And there’s also a danger of ignoring it.

THE TAKEAWAYS
Marketers should always keep the following in mind when reaching out to their Millennial customer base, courtesy of the University of Southern California:
• They prefer personalized appeal.
• They consume content across multiple platforms.
• They have the highest ownership of smartphones compared to all other demographic groups.
• Mobile-friendly websites goes without saying.
• Content and links access should be easy to navigate.
• A Google ad strategy is useful.
• Be consistent and coordinate messaging deployment.
• Think in campaigns, not “one-offs.”
• Social media for brand engagement is an important purchase driver. Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, LinkedIn, Snapchat, X and Pinterest are the most popular platforms.
• 86% of Millennials use YouTube at least once a week.
• 33% of Millennials use TikTok (TikTok is really a Gen Z platform).
• Millennials reject brands with inauthentic messages.
• Avoid hyperbole. Keep it real.
• Provide compelling reasons to believe.
• One in three use blogs as the top media resource to validate preference before purchase.
• Millennials continue to show affinity for brands that support social causes. Mohawk (Susan G. Komen) and Shaw (St. Jude) set excellent examples and are very active on these and other causes. These and other brands are highly supportive and innovative on the sustainability front, as well.

Copyright 2024 Floor Focus

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