We've heard a ton about millennials—where they want to live,
what they love to eat, what's most important to them in the workplace, and so
on. It's time to set the record straight.
In some ways, it’s foolish to make broad generalizations
about any generation, each of which numbers into the tens of millions of
people. Nonetheless, demographers, marketers, and we in real estate can’t help
but want to draw conclusions about their motivations and desires. That’s
especially true when it comes to the young people who conveniently came of age
with the Internet and smartphones, making it possible for their preferences and
personal data to be tracked from birth.
Naturally, everyone focuses on what makes each generation
different. Sometimes those differences, however slight, come to be viewed as
hugely significant breaks from the past when in fact they’re pretty minor.
There’s a tendency to oversimplify and paint with an exceptionally broad brush
for the sake of catchy headlines and easily digestible info nuggets. (Again,
we’re as guilty of this as anyone, admittedly.) The result is that widely
accepted truisms are actually myths—or at least only tell part of the story.
Upon closer inspection, there’s good reason to call these five generalizations
about millennials into question.
1. Millennials Don’t Like Fast Food
One of the most
accepted truisms about millennials—easily the most over examined generation in
history—is that they are foodies who love going out to eat. And when they eat,
they want it to be special, with fresh, high-quality ingredients that can be
mixed and matched according to their whims, not some stale, processed
cookie-cutter package served to the masses.
In other words, millennials are huge fans of Chipotle and
fast-casual restaurants, while they wouldn’t be caught dead in McDonald’s. In
fact, the disdain of millennials for McDonald’s is frequently noted as a prime
reason the fast food giant has struggled mightily of late.
But guess what? Even though survey data shows that
millennials prefer fast-casual over fast food, and even though some stats
indicate millennial visits to fast food establishments are falling, younger
consumers are far more likely to dine at McDonald’s than at Chipotle, Panera
Bread, and other fast-casual restaurants.
Last summer, a Wall Street Journal article pointed out that
millennials are increasingly turning away from McDonald’s in favor of fast
casual. Yet a chart in the story shows that roughly 75% of millennials said
they go to McDonald’s at least once a month, while only 20% to 25% of
millennials visit a fast-casual restaurant of any kind that frequently.
Similarly, data collected by Morgan Stanley cited in a recent Business Insider
post shows that millennials not only eat at McDonald’s more than at any other
restaurant chain, but that they’re just as likely to go to McDonald’s as Gen
Xers and more likely to dine there than Boomers.
At the same time, McDonald’s was the restaurant brand that millennials
would least likely recommend publicly to others, with Burger King, Taco Bell,
KFC, and Jack in the Box also coming in toward the bottom in the spectrum of
what millennials find worthy of their endorsements. What it looks like, then,
is that millennials are fast food regulars, but they’re ashamed about it.
2. Millennials Want to Live in Cities, Not Suburbs
Another broad
generalization about millennials is that they prefer urban settings, where they
can walk or take the bus, subway, or Uber virtually anywhere they need to go.
There are some facts to back this up. According to an October 2014 White House
report, millennials were the most likely group to move into mid-size cities,
and the number of young people living in such cities was 5% higher compared
with 30 years prior. The apparent preference for cities has been pointed to as
a reason why Costco isn’t big with millennials, who seem to not live close
enough to the warehouse retailer’s suburban locations to justify a membership,
nor do their apartments have space for Costco’s bulk-size purchases.
But just because the percentage of young people living in
cities has been inching up doesn’t mean that the majority actually steer clear
of the suburbs. Five Thirty Eight recently took a deep dive into Census data,
which shows that in 2014 people in their 20s moving out of cities and into
suburbs far outnumber those going in the opposite direction. In the long run,
the suburbs seem the overwhelming choice for settling down, with roughly
two-thirds of millennial home buyers saying they prefer suburban locations and
only 10% wanting to be in the city. It’s true that a smaller percentage of
20-somethings are moving to the suburbs compared with generations ago, but much
of the reason why this is so is that millennials are getting married and having
children later in life.
3. Millennials Don’t Want to Own Homes
Closely related to the theory that millennials like cities
over suburbs is the idea that they like renting rather than owning. That goes
not only for where they live, but also what they wear, what they drive, and
more.
In terms of homes, the trope that millennials simply aren’t
into ownership just isn’t true. Surveys show that the vast majority of
millennials do, in fact, want to own homes. It’s just that, at least up until
recently, monster student loans, a bad jobs market, the memory of their
parents’ home being underwater, and/or their delayed entry into the world of
marriage and parenthood have made homeownership less attractive or impossible.
What’s more, circumstances appear to be changing, and many
more millennials are actually becoming homeowners. Bloomberg News noted that
millennials constituted 32% of home buyers in 2014, up from 28% from 2012,
making them the largest demographic in the market. Soaring rents, among other
factors, have nudged millennials into seeing ownership as a more sensible option.
Surveys show that 5.2 million renters expect to a buy a home this year, up from
4.2 million in 2014. Since young people represent a high portion of renters, we
can expect the idea that millennials don’t want to own homes to be increasingly
exposed as a myth.
4. Millennials Hate Cars
Cars are just not
cool. They’re bad for the environment, they cost too much, and, in an era when
Uber is readily available and socializing online is arguably more important
than socializing in person, having a car doesn’t seem all that necessary.
Certainly not as necessary as a smartphone or broadband. Indeed, the idea that
millennials could possibly not care about owning cars is one that has puzzled
automakers, especially those in the car-crazed Baby Boom generation.
In many cases, the car industry has disregarded the concept,
claiming that the economy rather than consumer interest is why fewer young
people were buying cars. Whatever the case, the numbers show that the majority
of millennials will own cars, regardless of whether they love them as much as
their parents did when they were in their teens and 20s. According to
Deloitte’s 2014 Gen Y Consumer Study, more than three-quarters of millennials
plan on purchasing or leasing a car over the next five years, and 64% of
millennials say they “love” their cars. Sales figures are reflecting the
sentiment; in the first half of 2014, millennials outnumbered Gen X for the
first time ever in terms of new car purchases.
5. Millennials Have a Different Attitude About Work
As millennials
entered the workforce and have become a more common presence in offices around
the world, much attention has been focused on the unorthodox things that young
people supposedly care more about than their older colleagues. Millennials,
surveys and anecdotal evidence have shown, want to be able to wear jeans and
have flexible work hours to greater degrees than Gen X and Boomers. Young
people also want to be more collaborative, demand more feedback, and are less
motivated by money than older generations.
That’s the broad take on what motivates millennial workers
anyway. An IBM study on the matter suggests otherwise, however. “We discovered
that Millennials want many of the same things their older colleagues do,”
researchers state. There may be different preferences on smaller issues—like,
say, the importance of being able to dress casually on the job—but when it
comes to overarching work goals achieved in the long run, millennials are
nearly identical to their more experienced colleagues: “They want financial
security and seniority just as much as Gen X and Baby Boomers, and all three
generations want to work with a diverse group of people.”
What’s more, IBM researchers say, millennials do indeed care
about making more money at work, and that, despite their reputation as frequent
“job hoppers,” they jump ship to other companies about as often as other
generations, and their motivations are essentially the same: “When Millennials
change jobs, they do so for much the same reasons as Gen X and Baby Boomers.
More than 40 percent of all respondents say they would change jobs for more
money and a more innovative environment.”
Sourced from here: http://time.com/money/everyday-money/
