Millennials are a curious bunch. As a generation, they’re certainly the most informed, arguably the least intense and definitely the most fluid in sexuality and beliefs. They’re a demographic of their own, and luxury brands are taking notice of how they consume goods in their own specific ways.
Millennials are older than you may originally think. The demographic is certainly wide-spanning – it starts with people born in 1981 to as late as 1996. The recent crop of kids and toddlers after those inclusive years are not considered millennials, they’re the Generation Z. Similar in taste yet different in the foundation, each is a market that’s yet to reach its full potential.
In 2019, the millennial demographic may not be the group with the most spending power, but they’re the group that’s spending more in volume than their counterparts. Baby boomers are now approaching old age, and their spawns (the millennials) are becoming privy to their consuming abilities.
Luxury brands have seen this growth in the demographic ahead of the curve. With the power of social media, high-end fashion brands are targeting young millennials into spending more. The rise of the smartphone and it’s daily usage for browsing, getting information and communicating were harnessed by savvy businesses in order to create unprecedented markets within the demographic.
So how do they do this? The approach is quite sensory, in the most obvious sense. The power of the eyes, and of touch is simultaneously used with disseminating information in an informal sense. Social media influencers on different platforms are key in completing the experience as well.
Collaboration is the name of the game
While older generations respect the purity of brands, especially in luxe wear, millennials are not so attracted to exclusivity. Brand collaborations are one of the most successful things in the luxury industry today. High-end brands are becoming more urban in style, and they do this by collaborating with innovators and influencers.
Take for example Supreme. What started as a skate shop in Manhattan gained quite a cult following after collaborations with high-end fashion brands like Louis Vuitton, Nike, and Comme de Garcon. The main aggressor in all of this success? Social media.
Supreme employed models and celebrities to promote their brand, not in the conventional tri-media system but in the digital landscape. Instagram, Facebook as well as Twitter were heavily used by their endorsers to promote collaborations, and the rest is history. The collaborations became viral, each one bigger than the next.
Mastery of the aesthetic
The hashtag movement may be fleeting and short-lived, but the effects it resulted made new and more exciting movements. With Instagram in particular, the word aesthetic has seen a resurgence, in terms of fashion, color palette, design language, and self-improvement. Hashtag aesthetic is a thing, and it shows no signs of stopping down.
With Millenials, everything has to be aesthetic. This means that brands should put out a visually pleasing product, presented with top of the line design language, and marketed almost nonchalantly to become a hit. Luxury brands not only use social media to learn millennials’ spending and consuming habits, but it’s also the main mode of communicating with them.
Millennials aren’t only about the craftsmanship of the product anymore – whether it’s branded hoodies, statement tees, iconic watches, or trendy shoes, excellent make is to be expected, but product uniqueness should be present as well. The more unique and singular the product is, the more millennials will flock to it.
Takeaway
As millennials’ spending powers grow, luxury brands are leaning towards this demographic into creating new experiences that will mold the next generation’s spending patterns. With social media not showing signs of slowing down, it’s becoming the main tool in effectively marketing high-end products today.