US millennials a popular but elusive target for brands

NEW YORK: American millennials—the generation of people aged 17-35 — are a popular target for advertisers and brands, but companies risk missing out by approaching them as one homogenous population. From Gillette razors to McDonald’s and American Express, every major American company is touting its efforts to attract these young people, considered the workforce of tomorrow and the new generation of consumers.

ExxonMobil and Chevron no longer hesitate to highlight their late and forced conversion to the fight against climate change, a subject important to millennials, who will suffer its most serious consequences. “I think it’s a good idea to focus on millennials in the sense that it’s a huge market,” said Ajay Kohli, a professor at Georgia Tech University. “But I don’t think it makes sense to play millennials as a homogenous group of people who want the same products or same services, or believe in the same values, or are equally price sensitive or equally responsive to give a message,” Kohli said. — AFP