Author: Darian Nourian
In today’s world, people have a plethora of ways to express and communicate their thoughts, feelings, opinions, and synonyms thereof. Almost everyone with a computer, smart phone, tablet or even a smart watch likely knows this tremendous reality. Whether we like it or not, we have a voice, and it’s being heard and listened to by thousands of people around the globe, including some of the world’s largest companies and institutions.
We’re literally a walking (or sitting if you’re at work) piece of information and with the advent of technology, this data is able to be interpreted, analyzed and applied in order to give us, the consumer, what we ultimately want in today’s marketplace.
We all possess a great deal of power to drive change in the marketplace. Even though that change can take time, it’s easier than ever to catalyze it – all with a little movement of our hands and fingertips.Are you unhappy with your food? Yelp about it. Are you mad your flight got delayed? Tweet about it. Are you pissed off about the way your favorite show ended? Netflix a new one and chill. The millennial view never sees a dead end with a business but rather a new chance to find a solution.
At the time, you may think you’re sounding like a real pessimist or ‘negative Nancy’, but this type of input and more specifically, consumer behavior, provides great value to the companies they’re being addressed at. If businesses could legally read consumers’ minds, they absolutely would, but social media, comment boards, blogs and review sites are the next best things to that, slowly but surely replacing the old-school method of word-of-mouth. In fact, one survey showed that 34 percent of people between the ages of 18 and 35 turned to social media when making purchasing decisions.
Most importantly, we typically have the instantaneous answers to companies’ most prying question – what can we do better? This is why as millennials and for those still catching up to our generation, we possess such a great deal of influence.Think of these enterprises like new cars. They conduct research and development, put together the parts, install an engine and sell them off a lot, but after that process is complete, only we have the keys and man power to make them run.This is why many companies in the digital day and age have abandoned their grassroots and started listening to the millennial view. It’s hard to put a real number to the value of what is now known as the millennial platform, but it sure is worth something, and we’re entering a critical time.
According to Goldman Sachs, the millennial generation, one of the largest generations in history, is about to move into its prime spending years, and we have the capacity to reshape the economy. The simple undertaking of buying and selling for companies will, in turn, be forced to transcend and evolve to those disruptions in the marketplace. As millenials, we hold on to a tremendous opportunity to remold the way in which the marketplace operates and it will surely come into fruition if we continue to utilize the platform that we’ve been fortunate enough to have right at out fingertips.