Why do we hate/love the millennials? by Boris Gomes

Millenials are like the person you’re really into, but they don’t like you back, and the only way to respond to them now, seems to be hate.

Marketeers

So here’s what happened right, at some point in time, the customer got smart, conscientious and conscious of their reflection in the society.

For the longest time, it was easy to fool the customer, and sell them almost anything. Today, you need more than just a product to actually sell to the customer.

When i say customer, i mean the young, dynamic, intelligent audience that can actually afford “stuff” you want to sell.

When you, as brands and marketers need to work harder to get your customer to buy into your product or your experience, the customer begins to feel like the “evil” side. While we try to connect them to being “young”, the truth of the matter is, they are not a “young” audience, they are actually the smarter, more connected audience that is conscious of how YOU SELL TO THEM.

No, they don’t just fall for a sale for the sake of it, they actually do their research.

No, they don’t just buy your product, they associate with your brand, only if your brand has a voice that they can be proud of.

No, they don’t just sit around and wait for you, they ACT, they respond, they comment and they SHARE.

They are the sign of a new world order, the world of the customer. The world where you need to actually “DO YOUR JOB”. If you offer a service, make it worth their time and effort, if you have a product, the product needs to be of great quality. If it is not, they will let the world know, and you will lose your credibility immediately.

The fundamental truth lies in user experience. We are not open to agreeing that we need to work harder on the experience we build for the customer. The customer is no longer comparing you with another mediocre brand or experience, they are exposed to international companies and brands that are doing a phenomenal job at something you are mediocre at.

What brands hate the most about them, is the fact that they finally figure out a way to sell to them, and boom, out of nowhere, they are not interested in the same things any more.

Employers

For too long, companies were enjoying something i like to call the one sided open and arranged marriage. To elaborate a little, people became a part of a company, a lot of times they followed the footsteps of a family member or a parent, a lot of times it would be one of the select few companies that were suggested by a parent.

Now here’s what happens when you take up a job that is sort of “arranged”, you tend to be cautious and scared to screw it up. You also tend to play safe, safe enough to stick it out for 25 years in the same company, even if your growth has been 3% per year.

Hate to make a sweeping statement, but that also meant that the desperate need to grow was not that strong, because no matter how much you do, large corporations only offered a stipulated salary growth.

Flash forward to today

First off, the millennials are smarter. Yes, i said that. They are way more exposed, way more driven and way more open to learning and growing beyond the boundaries of time and space.

It’s rather strange how so many people call millennials LAZY. It is very hard to believe that when there is a flurry of growing startups, a lot of which are doing extremely well. Some of the large positions in the country are filled by young, dynamic, competent millennials.

So no, millennials are not lazy, they are active and are often multi-potentialites(good at more than one single thing).

This OBVIOUSLY poses a threat to the employers today, because the interviews today are not just the employer interviewing the potential employee, it is also a potential employee interviewing the potential employer. They care about the environment, the potential growth trajectory and most importantly how the employer will invest in them beyond just a salary.

This is a completely fair thing to ask for, but most people see this is as a completely atrocious act of entitlement. But it is not! Is it? How can it be bad, to expect growth based on merit, hard-work and past knowledge.

Some of the baby boomers i know, working in a company at high positions, have just sailed their way up, with no effort to actually “get with it”, instead they have continued to criticise the new ways? Millennials do not function with that mindset at all, they understand the value of constant change that demands constant learning.