THEN LIFE HAPPENED_ResourceAmmirati_Rollins

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Millennials’ Formative Events

1998

Clinton

Impeached

2001 9/11 Start of Afghanistan War

2003–2006 Iraq War

2005 Hurricane Katrina

2007–2009 Great Recession

1999

Columbine


Portrait of a Split Personality

Multicultural & tolerant

Open-minded & inclusive

Information-adept

Network-empowered

Entrepreneurial

Civic-minded

Globally engaged

Persistently optimistic

Narcissistic

Self-entitled

Impatient

Stressed

Lax work ethic

Extreme moral relativism

Lack of empathy

Poor coping skills


Paradoxically, They…

1.  Were dubbed “prematurely affluent” as adolescents yet suffer from “financial melancholy” as adults.1

2.  Established early notoriety as the so-called trophy generation but are now trying out “medium chill”– working toward good-enough in lieu of the ideal, provided there are social compensations.2

3.  Are the cohort most associated with social media obsession but it has morphed—some say out of necessity—into “professional narcissism.”3

1 Neil Howe, The New York Times, March 26, 2013 2 David Roberts, grist.org, June 2011 3 Alissa Quart, Frontline, June 21, 2013


Archetypes Help to Unfold a Multi-Faceted Generation

OPEN brands believe it is the consumer who is the real protagonist in a life they are making for themselves and others using age-old, mythical patterns, icons and characters as well as contemporary cues and content.

Marketers consequently need insights into consumers’ life ambitions, self-concepts and sources of tension, and Jungian archetypes are ideally suited for generating these.

© ResourceAmmirati 2014

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Methodology

Proprietary

iCitzen

Persona

Methodology

Ongoing Study

-literature reviews

-ethnography studies

-surveys

Carol S. Pearson

Carl Jung

Archetypal Theory Secondary Literature


Among the first wave of millennials, ages 18-33, 22% are more likely than the general population to identify with the Hero/Warrior archetype, 20% more likely for the Explorer, 15% more likely for the Creator, and 11% more likely for the Lover.

Millennials’ Four Dominant Archetypes

Source: ResourceAmmirati proprietary methodology


The Hero/Warrior

Goal: Win, get own way, make a difference through struggle

Fear: Weakness, powerlessness, impotence, ineptitude

Response: Slay, defeat or convert it

Task: High-level assertiveness; fighting for what really matters

Gift: Courage, discipline, skill

“Warriors live by, and when necessary, fight for, their own principles or values even when doing so is economically or socially costly.” -- Carol S. Pearson, Awakening the Heroes Within


Life Context of the Millennial Hero/Warrior

Millennials’ stress level is a 5.4 out of 10; 3.6 is considered healthy. (American Psychological Association and Harris Interactive, 2013)

Two-thirds of recent bachelor’s degree recipients have an average of $27,000 in student loan debt, almost double what it was two decades ago. (Urban Institute, 2013)

Seven in 10 Americans say today’s young adults face more economic challenges than their elders did. (Pew Research, 2014)

Millennials are becoming parents and professionals in a world marked by deepening ideological and financial divides. Their Hero instinct tells them to use their education and attitude to overcome the deep- rooted problems facing this generation.

A third of older millennials have a four-year college degree or more—making them the best-educated cohort of young adults in American history. (Pew Research, 2014)

Forty-nine percent of millennials say the country’s best years are ahead of them, compared with 42% of Gen Xers. (Pew Research, 2014)

LIABILITIES ASSETS


No portrait of the Millennial Hero is complete without considering the ultimate warrior modality of our age: capitalism, both its competitive version and the patrimonial variety making the news in the wake of Thomas Picketty’s best-seller, Capital in the Twenty-first Century.

In response to the Great Recession, the collapse of the dotcom bubble and today’s growing income equality, many millennials are defining success in less materialistic

terms, opting for experiential riches. It’s not about owning more than the Joneses but about doing more with the Joneses—and then sharing the tales.

Source: Thomas Picket, Capital in the Twenty-first Century


Toms

Millennial Heroes expect a cultural perspective that is backed by action. Marketing is deeds more than words, and for this cohort, brands are businesses with social contracts. Seventy-four percent of millennials believe businesses can do much more to address society’s challenges in the areas of most concern: resource scarcity (68%), climate change (65%) and income equality (64%). (Deloitte, Millennial Survey, 2014)

TOMS matches every pair of shoes purchased with a pair of new shoes

for a child in need. According to Toms, “What began as a simple idea has evolved into a powerful business model for helping address need and also advance health, education and economic opportunity for children and their communities around the world.”


The Explorer

Goal: Search for a better life or better way

Fear: Conformity, becoming entrapped

Response: Leave it, take off, escape

Task: Be true to a deeper or higher truth

Gift: Autonomy, ambition

“The Explorer in each of us challenges us to explore what we fear most, so that by braving the unknown, we ourselves are transformed.” -- Carol S. Pearson, Awakening the Heroes Within


The Life Context of the Millennial Explorer

The underemployment rate is 32.8% among those living at home and 15.4% among those living on their own. (Gallup, 2014)

A strong entrepreneurial streak has emerged, driven by the cohort’s “digital native” skills and their social conscience. Fifty-four percent of millennials either want to start a business or have already started one. (Kauffman Foundation, 2011)

Achieving autonomy is a

goal keenly felt by those

first-wave millennials who

have delayed marriage,

buying a home and having

children. Economic

constraints keep 36% of

18-31 year olds living at

home with parents (Pew

Research 2012), which

prompted research into the

new “emerging adulthood”

life chapter.

Millennials’ trailblazer

orientation is most evident

when it comes to

employment.

On average, millennials stay with a company only two years, compared with five years for Gen X and seven years for boomers. (Millennial Branding, 2013)

Men are redefining their role; the number of men who are the primary household grocery shopper increased to 31% in 2011, up from 14% in 1985. (US Chamber of Commerce Foundation, 2012)

The most racially and ethnically diverse cohort in the US; 43 percent are non-white, so perhaps not surprisingly, 55 percent favor a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants. (Pew Research, 2014)


Millennials going their own way to seek authenticity and spiritual depth? As adolescents, they were described as profoundly team-oriented and not particularly individualistic or introspective. What happened on the way to adulthood? Some of millennials’ Explorer traits are undoubtedly tied to their life stage, an early mid-point on the journey of life that typically sees individuals turn inward to cultivate the Soul after the Ego has been formed.

The Millennial Ego was formed in—and heavily informed

by the—public, as a kind of performance in a materialistic world, so the focus on the interior self, the wellspring of thought and behavior, is nothing if not rife with the tensions marketers love to assuage.


Airbnb

The sharing economy had projected revenues of $3.5 billion in 2013. Millennials have been culturally hardwired to borrow, rent and share not just out of economic necessity but also due to their determination not to be entrapped in the living-to-work cycle of their parents.

AIRBNB offers a more authentic local and shared experience,

as well as a new way to make money.


The Creator

Goal: Creation of a life, work or new reality of any kind

Fear: Inauthenticity, miscreation, failure of imagination

Response: Accept that it is part of the self, part of what one

has created; be willing to create another reality

Task: Self-creation, self-acceptance

Gift: Autonomy, ambition

“The ability to see and name that potential in oneself or another is the primary creative act of liberation. It is only when we begin to uncover who we are—beneath insecurity and grandiosity, beneath ingrained habit and social conditioning, beyond our outer appearance and our persona—that we can have some confidence that our actions are helping to expand rather than shrink our individual, collective and world Soul.” -- Carol S. Pearson, Awakening the Heroes Within


The Life Context of the Millennial Creator

They are in a league of their own when it comes to producing online content—60% compared with 20% for non-millennials. (Barkley, SMG, Boston Consulting Group, American Millennials: Deciphering the Enigma Generation, 2011)

When asked "what word best defines the DNA of your generation?” the most frequent response is “creative" and the second most frequent is “self-expressive.” (MTV’s Innovation Generation study, 2012)

Many millennials are early adopters. Fifty-two percent of millennials rank far above or above average when it comes to being early adopters of technology. (Experian, 2013 Digital Marketers Report)

Newer platforms like Snapchat enable experimental venues for self-expression. Seventeen percent of millennials (18-34) use Snapchat on a monthly basis. (Comscore, 2014)

Thirty percent of millennials’ media time is spent with content created and curated by their peers, which means they are also acting as “always-on” publishers. (Crowdtap/Ipsos, 2014)

Millennials far outpace others with the amount of content they create and consume. They also have “slashitude,” as in “I’m a retail associate/CEO/Techno DJ/food stylist.” The trend toward personal branding and professional narcissism is a method for identifying millennials’ passions.


The challenge for many millennial Creators is to find the right balance between creating and being created by their social conditions. This cohort craves validation and social proof that the self and life they’re creating are worthwhile. But the sheer magnitude of their digital output has enabled them to continuously self-create and recreate, resulting in a generation of “mashionalities,” comprised of the free artistic and information riches of the web and animated by the videogame prerogative to reset and play again.


Etsy

The disintermediating web has made it possible for anyone to promote and sell their own creations. Brands hoping to appeal to millennial Creators can learn from these P2P marketplaces, particularly the manner in which the creative legacy or personal inspiration for the product is conveyed.

ETSY is one of the definitive marketplaces for the maker

movement, connecting creators with customers who are looking for something special that can’t be purchased elsewhere.


The Lover

Goal: Bliss, oneness, unity

Fear: Loss of love, disconnection

Response to problem: Love it

Task: Follow your bliss, commit to what you love

Gift: Commitment, passion, ecstasy

“We know Eros when we experience a passionate connection to a particular landscape, to our work, to an activity, to a cause, a religion, a way of life. Without Eros, we can be born but never really live; our Souls simply never fall to earth. It is Eros—passion, attachment, desire, even lust—that makes us really alive.” -- Carol S. Pearson, Awakening the Heroes Within


The Life Context of the Millennial Lover

Fifty-seven percent of those surveyed say they tell their friends about their purchases; 44% prefer to “show off” their purchases, even if it’s in subtle ways, seeking constant reassurance. (Moosylvania, 2014)

Millennials are twice as likely as Gen Xers to say that they were influenced by celebrities and four times more likely than boomers. (BCG, 2014)

Seventy percent of millennials are more excited about a decision they’ve made when their friends agree, compared with 48% of non-millennials. (Barkley, 2013)

The real power of this archetype is in the millennials’ ever-present digital togetherness. This generation is connected like no other in search of their chief values: happiness, passion, diversity, sharing and discovery.

Millennials are also charitable and keen to participate in “public life”: 63% of millennials donate to charities, 43% actively volunteer or are a member of a community organization and 52% have signed petitions. (Deloitte, The Millennial Survey, 2014)

When asked what would have the most influence on them, more than 95% of millennials say they want brands to court them actively and have coupons sent to them. (Accenture, Who are the Millennial Shoppers?, June 2013)

Forty million millennials are already parents and 52% of millennials rank parenting as one of the most important things they can do with their lives. (Pew Research, 2014)


The temptation is to treat the fourth most dominant archetype, the Lover, too narrowly, to look at the cohort’s so-called “hookup culture” and conclude their Lover tendencies seem frustrated at best. The Millennial Lover, however, is alive and well, though complicated. Millennials are less trusting of people in general and a recent report shows them subordinating friendships to career advancement more readily than Boomers.

But their digital connection to others creates a diffuse but ever-present sense of “being in this together” that has

translated into a tolerance of and curiosity about other cultures and peoples. And their intimate involvement with digital media turns brands into friends, friends into brands, and the self into a dispersal of passions big and small.


Sephora

Millennials are far more data-disclosive than boomers (Mintel, 2014) because they grew up grasping and negotiating the balance of sharing personal preference and habits in exchange for personal perks and coupons. Millennial Lovers have high expectations of personalized brand interactions.

SEPHORA’s push into personalization, from the sortable “My

Beauty Bag” filled with a fan’s past purchases and favorites to the in-store Pantone and ColorIQ system, reminds customers that Sephora is the go-to brand for creatively expressing one’s persona and learning just what that persona is.


Forge a Social Contract: For this generation more than any other, brands have social contracts. Make your corporate social responsibility initiatives part of your brand, not a sideline, and enable your Hero fans to identify with and contribute to your causes.

Achievement Appeal: Stress levels are high for older millennials so demonstrate to the achievement-oriented Hero how your product, services and business are at the top of their game and will help them get to the top of theirs.

Acts of Independence: Explorers prize autonomy, but the economy has thwarted rites of passage into adulthood for many. Empower Explorers to achieve independence in small acts or unconventional ways.

Freedom Focus: Assure Explorers that in a conformist age, you’re with them as they journey down the road less traveled, and associate your brand with movement, free will and the pursuit of higher truths.

Hero/Warrior Explorer

Let Them Express Themselves: The challenge for many millennials is to create and self-express in order to forge an identity and do work that is authentically one’s own. Align your brand with the Creator’s quest for self-discovery.

New Realms and Reinvention: Millennials are the first generation to have their entire life, juvenile faux pas and all, exposed to the public, but Creators need the possibility of reinvention. Provide ways for your Creator fans to inhabit another world and persona temporarily.

Creator Eros, Not Ego: Millennials are nothing if not egotistically developed, so the Lover brand’s role is to encourage a fuller giving in to Eros (not Ego)—passionate involvement with a cause, culture, place, idea or set of experiences.

(Really) Be There For Them: Millennials expect more from brands than other cohorts: brands should know their Lover fans personally, court them deftly and facilitate more social graph intimacy and interactivity.

Lover


To Learn More:

Contact:

Dr. Nita Rollins

Futurist, Director of Cultural Insights

[email protected]

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THEN LIFE HAPPENED_ResourceAmmirati_Rollins