Sweep Millennial Women Off Their Feet

Ready for lovely profits from your Valentine’s Day shoppers? Results from a survey sponsored by the National Retail Federation and conducted by BIGinsight say that the dollar value of Valentine’s Day purchases will be up about 8.5% over last year and at the highest level for at least ten years. More than 9,300 consumers were polled for the survey.
     It’s the men whose hearts and wallets seem to be throbbing harder here. They’ll be spending nearly twice as much as the women to sweep their sweeties off their feet.
     How about helping the other side by sweeping the ladies into your store for Valentine’s Day and beyond? For tips on that, let’s turn to another survey, this one conducted by comScore on a sample of about half a million female consumers.
     The thrust of the findings were that Millennials—women ages 16 to 29—are different sorts of consumers than other age groups. The others in the project were classified as Generation X (ages 30 to 44), Baby Boomers (45 to 59), and Seniors (at least age 60).
     Here’s what’s important to know about Millennial women from the comScore study and other research:

• Because of Millennials’ comfort with technology, they are more likely to be persuaded by the internet than by television.
• Because of Millennials’ multitasking preferences, you need to command their attention more quickly and dramatically than is necessary with the older age groups. Use colorful, stimulating content.
• Because of Millennials’ sensitivity to social cues, stories told by the retailer can be influential, especially when each story kicks off with a surprise.
• Advertising professionals refer to the “lift” of persuasive communications: We want to lift consumers from awareness of your store and merchandise through favorable attitudes, and on to an intent to purchase from you. The lift from awareness to favorable attitude is more challenging with Millennials than with the other adult age groups. However, the lift from favorable attitudes to purchase intent is easier with Millennials than with the others. Millennial women are more likely than other women to retain a favorable impression from an ad.
• All consumer groups are price sensitive now. As a group, female Millennials are especially price sensitive. Still, they’ll seek out stores where staff sweep them off their feet, even if those stores happen to have higher price points on merchandise or services.
• As with the other age groups, trustworthiness is fundamental.

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