Keeping up with Millennials

At Traffic, one of the key philosophies we live by is the idea that ‘standing still is the fastest way of going backwards’. The world is changing at a nanosecond pace and with it, the ever-evolving needs of the contemporary consumer. If brands fail to keep up, today’s customer will lose interest and switch to a brand that meets their new and often perplexing needs.

On this note, I recently came across a great story on CNN Business Traveller that reports on how Millennials are transforming the landscape of business travel. Accordingly, Millennials are already accounting for half of hotel bookings and by 2020, this segment will make up half of business travellers. As a result, hotels and airlines have no choice but to revolutionise the service experience to meet their needs.

So what are the needs of Millennials? The story reports that Millennials want spontaneity and connectivity. Making and changing plans at the last minute, Millennials wait til the 11th hour to make a booking. And once they’re travelling they want to be connected 24/7, socialising, collaborating and sharing with their network throughout the travel experience. They look to social networking apps such as Facebook and Instagram to find the best places, or Tinder to meet a date and network with the local social chic that share the same interests, career ambitions and entertainment likes and dislikes.

A select number of hotels have already picked up on the trend and are transforming their service experience to meet these new needs. Starwood Hotels, for example, has launched Aloft, a new hotel concept aimed at Millennials. The hotels provide digitally enabled open spaces where the customers not only socialise, but can also control the music and the lighting. In response to emerging needs, hotels such as Aloft are no longer about privacy and discretion, but instead are putting the customer at the front and centre of the service experience, enabling them to control and share their experiences.

Even in the air, jets are now wired to the needs of Millennials. If the food is bad it will be photographed, commented on and spread instantly across social networks to like minded peers. Generally, you get one chance to impress this group and if you piss them off with bad service, coffee or food you will be deleted and never given a second chance. This cohort have a huge array of choice at their fingertips with recommendations coming from their Millennial mates minute by minute.

My god, am I a Millennial? This behaviour sound all too familiar? Has the networked world turned me into one as well?

A Qantas business class breakfast on todays flight – are you serious? A boiled egg slice of ham and a hard olive with a block of cheese? Who knows maybe this is what Millennials have requested via Qantas’s online surveys into aircraft food.

What can we learn from this? As a brand agency it’s essential for us to have our eyes on the future. Rather than relying on what worked in the past, we endeavour to analyse customer trends and predict future behaviours. In doing so, we create sustainable brand strategies that meet the long-term objectives of the business. No brand can risk being left behind. Traffic is ready for the Millennials. Are you?

http://edition.cnn.com/2013/11/19/business/millennials-the-new-face-of-business-travel/