The Millennials: Insights to Brand Behavior for Brand Management Strategies

Abstract

Millennial generation has surpassed generation X and Baby Boomers in terms of population (market) size and standout to be the largest market segment. This demographic change will undoubtedly be an opportunity for marketing and brand managers to reach, acquire, and retain Millennial market to achieve organizational profitability. Prior research has not been successful to provide a detailed understanding of Millennials and their degree of brand loyalty over prior generations. In this article, the authors used Kevin Lane Keller’s work (Brand Resonance Pyramid 2009) to test the degree of brand loyalty of Millennials over prior generations and the degree of brand resonance that predicts the brand loyalty while this relationship is moderated by the generation. In addition, they determined how the elements of the brand pyramid relate to each other. In this study, the authors administered an online survey using SurveyMonkey to reach local (US) and international college/university respondents (n=267) age 18 years and above. The survey was administered using a questionnaire (46 data points). Linear Regression and Partial Correlation were used for analysis. The authors find that Millennials and Generation X/Boomers are not significantly different in terms of brand loyalty, brand resonance is a strong positive predictor for brand loyalty, and finally, the relationship between brand resonance and brand loyalty is weaker for Millennials than for Generation X/Boomers.