Millennial loyalty toward traditional blockbuster brands is rapidly disappearing before our marketing eyes. Many of the brands that Generation Xers and baby boomers adore often don’t resonate as well with the younger generation. And while they may recognize the brand names of their parents’ world, they simply don’t put the same stock in the brands’ heritage and equity.
It’s a shame. As a marketer who started his career targeting boomers, then Xers and now millennials, I hate to see years of all that brand-building start to fade. But, at the same time, it’s an incredible challenge.
As heritage brands wrestle with how to stay mighty and relevant, what’s a marketer to do? Particularly when you’re an entrepreneur and run a small business?
1. Recognize the new brand loyalty.
Back in the day, loyalty meant coming back to the same brand time and time again, almost in default mode. When you loved a brand, you just automatically deferred to it with no questions asked. That kind of loyalty doesn’t exist with this generation, so you have to shift your definition if you want to gain their business.
Now, brand loyalty means actively choosing the brand each and every time after careful examination of the experience. Millennials aren’t automatically loyal out of default, but they will stay with a brand when the experience is rewarding each time. They will actively decide to buy again based on that positive experience, or actively decide to go to another brand if the experience didn’t live up this time around.
So, you need to actively work to…
