One would think that a cohort that consists
of 80 million persons with a spending power
of $172 billion would be the ideal target market
for American companies. Yet the millennials
generation—those born between 1982 and 2000
and also known as gen Y—is proving to be one
of the most difficult of any segment for marketers
to reach in decades. Marketers have referred
to this group as “the cheapest ever,” “stingy,” and/
or “disinterested”—among other not so endearing
terms—when describing their buying behaviors. It
seems they just don’t want to buy. At the same
time, the cohort is just too large in size and has too
much buying power to ignore: They are expected
to spend over $10 trillion in their lifetimes. As a
result, a number of companies, rather than ignoring
them, are attempting to better understand them
in an attempt to develop marketing programs that
might attract their interest.