An Open Letter to My Fellow Marketers

As an ad professional, I make it a personal goal to stay on top of industry news. I do so by reading a few Smart Briefs and on occasion a few articles from AdAge.com. One topic that usually catches my interest is marketing to Millennials. And it usually raises my ire.

I have my gripes about my generation. We’re not perfect for sure. But it seems like marketers (presumably from a few generations before mine) have an overly simplified, negative view about us that they back up with studies that they conducted.

I know we’re not the first generation to experience this pre-conceived “generationism.” The Baby Boomers weren’t too popular in their time. But that doesn’t make it right.

The article on AdAge.com that prompted me to write this post is titled “Want to Reach the Millennial Market? Start with Snooki.”

Really?

The article itself is a recap of a panel made up entirely of MTV employees. To paraphrase the article in one sentence, we Millennials are superficial, self-entitled, sluts who deeply value “reality” and humor, and are only accessible via interactive media like social networks.

Again, really?

So, here’s an open letter to my fellow marketers:

Dear Marketers,

STOP IT.

I know my generation has its flaws. I’m the first to admit it. Are we a little self-entitled? Yes. But you can blame the child psychologists of the ‘70s and 80’s and yourselves, for believing them, for that one. Through college, we were in a little self-esteem building bubble where nothing was ever our fault because we, your children, were perfect. You told us as much. But then, you released us into the world, and we learned the hard way we can’t be winners all the time. This reality smacked us in the face and hard.

Now here’s where you get lost on us. There are those of us that dealt with this realization well and there are those that didn’t. Those that didn’t are the ones you focus so intently on and make your generalizations off of. This group is so tiny, though, there’s no way you can accurately judge us all.

The kicker? You’re alienating a majority of the market segment you so desperately want to reach.

As a Millennial and a friend to many other Millennials, I can tell you the picture you have so tediously painted of us is inaccurate.

Yes, we value authenticity and humor. They are our coping mechanisms. But we’re not mindless drones that will buy anything you put in front of us because the message you used to sell it made us giggle. We don’t want to be your brand’s friend. And we certainly won’t buy your product just because some MTV “reality” star says your product is the best thing since sliced bread.

Talk to your co-workers and employees in our age bracket. Ask them about their interests or what they plan to do over the weekend. You’ll get to know us better that way than through overly simplified studies that tell you what you already believe about us.

We like things sophisticated. We like things smart. We value honesty. At the end of the day, we’re people. If you can market to us using these values, it won’t matter if your message is digital or in print. We’ll hear you.

Sincerely,

ST

 

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