Millennial Purchase Power

A new TIME Spring supplement Style and Design addresses the influence the Millennial Generation has over products and even purchase power they have in influencing their Baby Boomer parents.

The first piece, a feature article, claims that Millennials seek the luxury and name brand products their parents do but they want them without the financial stability their parents have worked their lives to build.

"According to Resource Interactive, an Ohio-based marketing company, young adults influence 88% of household apparel purchases. It makes sense since members of the millennial generation—those born between 1980 and 2000—are closer to their parents than are members of any previous generation."

I'll agree with this. We first saw the influence of the Millennial Generation in the 1980's and 90's when suddenly kids got their parents to start recycling and being more environmentally conscious. Happy Earth Hour tomorrow...

But a sweet story about mothers and daughters shopping turns suddenly when it decides to talk about the lap of luxary that Millennials revel in without so much as a degree.

"The millennials' appetite for luxury is good news for retailers because, as Harrison points out, "it wears off on the parents around them." One look at a college parking lot full of Audis, Saabs and BMWs demonstrates that this generation isn't waiting to "earn" its luxury products and services; it already feels entitled to them. "There's an expectation that they deserve luxury now—it's not something you wait for and earn," says James Chung, president of Reach Advisors, who is working on a survey of purchasing behavior of young women. "I call them the prematurely affluent generation."

First, I want to know which parking lot they are looking into, because my college parking lot was filled with some pretty sketchy cars that look like they were being held together by duct tape. If its an Ivy then maybe.

Secondly, I think characterizing an entire generation as "prematurely affluent" and filled with "entitlement" is unprofessional for someone claiming to be a pollster.

Its hard to read articles like this written by people who are out of touch with the generation and far removed from their own lives as a student or post-grad. The piece cites the Millennial Generation as young people born between 1980 and 2000 which means that more than half of them are under 25 and potentially still in college or even high school. These are years in which young people are growing into their own adulthood and thus their own world of responsibilities.

They are making that transition between paying for their own expenses and the perks of parents. It doesn't surprise me that when parents are involved that is where pollsters see young people getting the best, because its when parents are splurging on those silly little things like sunglasses and handbags. And of course their kids want the best because that's what they've grown up with and they sure as hell can't afford it in this economy on their own salary.

Most Millennials are still in that transition period where post-grads don't have the financial security to splurge. If its going to happen, it has to happen at the hands of parents. And if Mom and Dad are loaded empty-nesters - what else are they going to spend it on? There's only so many times you can redecorate, right?

The second short piece that is mostly charts and graphs is not in the online version of the magazine - you have to shell out the bucks for the pics. But I'll tell you that it goes through statistics about the desires of Millennial purchasers. They want designer, they seek the coolest, the most in style, they don't care about quality. These stats are all over 95%.

And while pie charts are pretty, the stats don't talk about the extent to which those "desires" equate actual purchases by millennials. I think if you want to poll people and ask them if they would rather get a Ugo or a new BMW you're going to get a bunch of people who say HELL I want the Beemer!

The rest of the pieces talk more extensively about this topic and manages to only splice a bad sample and ask questions that lead people to the answers the pollsters want to write about and not an actual study or scientific examination of purchasing attitudes or ways to understand and entire generation.

As with everything, particularly these articles, I would encourage Millennials or curious Boomers to read these pieces with a speculative eye. Think about your own experience and think about what is logical. Just because its in TIME doesn't mean its reasonable. Don't feel negatively about yourself or our awesome generation just because the piece is kinda snarky.

The important point glazed over is: we are the most powerful purchasing demographic because many aren't burdened yet with settling down and saving for families and children. We hold the cards, and maybe other generations just don't understand why because they never got this kind of attention. Its a new and foreign marketing world for many. Maybe some older folks are frustrated they must adapt.