Millennial Myth Busters

While it's fun to generalize about generations, the College Board (those folks who bring us the SAT, AP Tests, etc.) sent up a loud cautionary note in May. As one of the few organizations who have studied college students over time, they are in a position to know. According to StudentPoll data, an ongoing study of incoming freshmen, CB maintains Millennials are not that different from other generations in their goals, aspirations, values and college choice criteria.

Millennial Myth: Student interest in "making a contribution to society" is on the rise while interest in "having lots of money" is declining. studentPOLL's Freshman Survey data conclusively show that interest in "being financially well off" remains high and at levels comparable to previous generations.

Millennial Myth: Students are more intellectually oriented and less career focused than previous generations.Again, studentPOLL's findings and CIRP's data demonstrate that students are very much career focused, but equally interested in the academic aspects of college that challenge them intellectually.

Millennial Myth: Millennials associate themselves with the name "Millennial Generation." Despite the public and media hype about the "Millennial Generation," only 6 percent of students associated their generation with the name "Millennials." In fact, 43 percent reported that they didn't know or that none of the six generational names tested was the name used to describe their own generation, and as many identified themselves as Generation X or Y.

Millennial Fact: Raising a family tops the list of life objectives that are "essential" or "very important" to Millennials—even more so than their parents' generation. In 2007, 77 percent of the 272,000 students surveyed indicated that "raising a family" was an "essential" or "very important" life objective to them. In 1977, only 59 percent of students gave the same level of importance to raising a family, although this figure has remained relatively constant since the early 1990s.

Millennial Fact: College Bound Seniors welcome parental involvement in college planning. Ninety-five percent of students indicated that their parents were either "very involved" or "involved" in their college plans but, contrary to anecdotal suggestions, the students reported very little unwanted, intrusive behavior on the part of their parents. In fact, nearly 30 percent of students want more, not less, parental involvement.

Millennials: Six Surprising Facts

After three months of blogging about Millennials, it seems appropriate to ask what have we learned about them that differs from common wisdom? While we agree with many of the mainstream conclusions about Millennials - they are more collaborative, tech savvy, ambitious and self-confident than previous generations, I would like to take moment to challenge a few 'myths'.

1. Millennials are cash strapped and debt ridden. (5.22.08) In 2006, households headed by 18-24 year olds had earnings before taxes of nearly $29,057, up from just $20,120 in 2003. Their earnings grew 7.5% 2005-2006 alone compared to a 1.1% jump for total households. While that is not a whopping salary, consider that less than 10% of 18-24 year old men are married, 50%live with the parents. This may help to explain why, according to the BLS, they are heavy spenders in virtually every category other than food and housing. Within many of these categories, they are more likely to purchase the luxury brand, like imported or craft beer, rather than the mainstream brand.

2. Millennials and Boomers make good partners. (5.19.08) While it's true Millennials enjoy stronger relationships with their (mostly Boomer) parents than most other generations, they prefer working with Gen X'ers who they believe have more to teach them in the workplace. In fact, our research shows that Millennials have little respect for tech-challenged Boomers. Perhaps Hogwarts provides a good metaphor; in the Harry Potter books, the kids are the crusading and effective wizards, while the professors seem a little behind the times and inept.

3. The way to reach Millennials is through social media like Facebook. (5.19.08) Social media is more social than media. Millennials do not use social media to shape their buying and tend to ignore commercial messages. MySpace and Facebook lowered their sales goals by 11 and 13 percent respectively. EMarketer has also lowered its forecast for social media ad spending by 12%. Much more experimentation will be needed to bring brands directly into the application experience rather than relegate them to a banner or group, such as Slide's branded 'SuperPokes'.

4. Millennials are no more socially liberally than other generations. (5.29.08) According to Pew (2007), each generation tends to be more liberal than its predecssors, but Millennials are even more socially liberal than Boomers were at a similar age. On Super Tuesday, 58% of younger voters self-identified themselves as 'Liberal'. This is happy news for Brand Obama.

5. Millennials are drinking more beer compared to earlier generations of young drinkers. (5.26.08) Not true! According to Nielsen, U.S. 21-30 year olds are forgoing beer in favor of wine, with beer dropping 12 percentage points in this age cohort over the past 10 years compared to a 6 percentage point drop among over 30's. Instead, Millennials are embracing the wine culture in record numbers. This contrasts with France, where Millennials are losing interest in wine. Mon Dieu!

6. Millennials are cynical and mistrusting of institutions. (5.21.08, 6.04.08) According to Pew, Millennials put more faith in government and business institutions. Their faith in business is growing, while that of other cohorts is decreasing. The gap is even more pronounced when it comes to government effectiveness.

7. The Ultimate Millennial personna is an entrepreneur. (5.12.08) This is more true of Gen X'ers than Millennials, who tend to be more idealistic. Their goal is to 'make a difference' as well as be successful. Clues to the Millennial Persona may be found in some of the TV shows they watched growing up. There are a remarkable number of fifties style through backs and 'princesses' where the kids are smart, gifted, special and uniquely successful - Lion Witch and Wardrobe, Nancy Drew, High School Musical. There are also a surprising number of 'princesses' and average kids by day who become rock n roll stars by night.