I recently spent a weekend with friends visiting wine country in Walla Walla Washington. Never having been there before I was surprised by how sophisticated the little town was and well prepared it was to meet the surge of influential well-heeled tourists. There are over 37 tasting rooms alone in the downtown area serving up their finest offerings to a clearly obvious older, affluent clientele. Almost everyone we saw was over 50, and smartly dressed.
The tasting rooms we visited were stylishly presented and clearly designed to sell wine, A real retail experience. This is what we are recommending, why you should be interested in drinking it, and how you would pair it at home type of experience. On our third and last tasting for the day we struck up a conversation with the manager of the tasting room for Forgeron Wines. He mentioned that he had come back from a seminar on the future of the wine business and how to market to Millennials as the demographic was going to completely reshape the industry and he wanted to be prepared to meet the future successfully.
Anyone born between 1981 and 1996 (ages 23 to 38 in 2019) is considered a Millennial, and anyone born from 1997 onward is part of a new generation. There are 83.1 million millennials in the United States, making them the largest generation in the country’s history.
Different than the older generations Millennials don’t collect wine they drink it. They don’t have the money to spend on expensive wines for everyday use like Boomers so in the future a $50 wine for the dinner table most likely won’t be an option or even desired by many. His conversation got me thinking about our industry and how it is changing and what should we expect and do to stay relevant now and in the future with this generation. After all, like wine aesthetics are a choice not a necessity and there are lots of choices on the shelf.
Millennials are poised to be the nation’s biggest spenders, as they move into their prime earning and spending years, so they dominate conversations around product strategy, marketing, and the economy at large. This generation is different, and so brands must see and interact with them as a unique consumer in order to draw their attention and business. Let’s look at Millennial spending habits and why they buy.
Most of these young people have less than $1,000 in their savings accounts, and a significant number have no savings at all. They have less credit card debt and car purchases than previous generations, most likely because lenders have tightened the requirements for granting credit and loans. More than 65% of millennials don’t have a credit card at all.
Ironically, 60% of millennials state loyalty to brands they currently purchase from if treated well through customer-centric experience. To ensure allegiance, companies include loyalty programs with custom discounts as well as active courtship. (Source: Millennials Are Not Aliens)
As Millennials prefer experiences over things, they heavily weigh a brands customer experience into their perception of a brand. With 74 percent of Millennials reporting that they will switch to a different retailer or brand if they have a negative experience, it is important for companies to focus heavily on making sure their customer is satisfied. Therefore, having secret shoppers come into your spa and provide feedback on their experience and your training is important in addition to monitoring and recording your incoming calls making sure conversations are correct, confident, and closing sales. Training on skills and dialogue once does not guarantee retention or use of knowledge.
Other values that our industry should center upon are authenticity, local sourcing, ethical production, a great shopping experience, and giving back to society. 75% of Millennials consider it fairly or very important that brands/businesses give back to society instead of just making a profit.
It should also come as no surprise that Millennials prefer brands that interact with consumers on digital channels. Nowadays, it’s almost customary for brands to have their own Facebook, Instagram and Twitter pages. Millennials want brands to be participative in terms of their experience. They want to engage with brands to learn more about the products. We are looking to create an Omni-Channel consumer who not only comes in for service, but follows us on our social media channels, receives our digital newsletter, buys online, and attends our special events. Consumers like the above spend 18-36% more than the person who just comes in for a service.
Hire a millennial to help you with your social media.? Only if they are trained with a plan and strategy. This is officially an expertise, and there are a lot of variables that doctors just don’t get. Posts must be fresh, enticing, and appear to be “real.” Before/after pictures must be sharp, consistent, and should carry a watermark to prevent theft. Your feed should look elegant and have a flow. You must stay current, fresh, and tell a story. You should interact with your followers by commenting, answering, and polling. You should cross promote with other local businesses in the beauty and fitness industry. In short, you may not have the time and energy to provide good patient care all day and work on your social media after hours. Most importantly, be real and be you (i.e., make sure that the person managing your social media is being you).
Another easy way to make your office social media friendly is to have something “Instagrammable” in your design. A selfie-friendly mirror, an artful display of skin care products, coffee service, or even fresh flowers are all effective attention grabbers. This will motivate patients to photograph, share, tag, hashtag, snap, gram, etc. your office, creating an immediate referral source.
94% of Millennials use coupons and have a preference towards digital formats. [Source: Valassis]
For us this means not discounting service and using retail as the incentive for customers to purchases with us. Buy a $3K series and receive $300 in retail as an incentive for doing so. Retail has no labor cost and greater margins so we can afford to do so.
The Millennial population is projected to spend $1.4 trillion shopping each year by 2020. [Source: Accenture]
Millennials average yearly expenditures totals around $47,112. [Source: BLS]
Millennials average yearly income is around $56,099 before taxes. [Source: BLS]
Millennials spend two thirds the amount spent by Generation Xers and Baby Boomers on entertainment. [Source: BLS]
Millennials make 54% of purchases online. [Source: UPS]
63% of Millennials complete transactions on their smartphones. [Source: UPS]
22% of Millennials have used an app to purchase groceries. [Source: UPS]
83% of Millennials are not concerned about security while online shopping. [Source: UPS]
41% of Millennial smartphone users have completed an in-store transaction with their mobile device. [Source: UPS]
60% of Millennials prefer to purchase generic brands over name brands. [Source: Millennial Marketing]
40% of Millennials refer to online reviews and testimonials before purchasing a product. [Source: Millennial Marketing] get your patients to fill out a review before they leave the spa! Enter them into a monthly product drawing for writing a review here and now.
67% of Millennials believe they have a responsibility to share feedback with a brand about their experience. [Source: Edelman]
74% of Millennials would switch to a different retailer or brand if they had a negative customer service experience. [Source: ICSC]
Millennials are more likely to share positive customer service experiences than negative ones. [Source: American Express]
Millennials are more likely to stay loyal to a brand because of loyalty rewards than any other generation. [Source: Yes Lifestyle Marketing] Make sure to resource our other article on the website relating to VIP Loyalty Rewards Programs.
Millennial Spending Habits – Research results indicate that this generation still puts a high value on luxury products and services. Despite the debt they carry, there was a clear willingness to forego spending in other areas in order to obtain luxury items like jewelry, designer clothing, handbags, and travel experiences.
Millennials consider aesthetic medicine acceptable, achievable, and a part of normal life.
Relative youth notwithstanding, Millennial women are more likely to be unhappy with their bodies than their older counterparts: According to a RealSelf commissioned survey, 91 percent of younger Millennial women (those ages 18–24) and 90 percent of older ones (ages 25–35) say they’re unhappy with at least one aspect of their bodies. And many are willing to look beyond retail to resolve their concerns, with 63 percent of younger Millennials and 67 percent of older ones saying they’d be willing to visit a medi-spa, medical clinic, or plastic surgeon, more than any other age group.
Chalk it up to the proliferation of less-invasive procedures or the parade of celebrities opening up about their age-defying and body modifying efforts; whatever the reason, having some work done is increasingly seen as a natural extension of a regular beauty regimen, not something to be kept hidden from public scrutiny. When RealSelf asked women ages 18–34 if they thought cosmetic procedures ranging from skin treatments to breast augmentation were just a part of life today, more than two-thirds (68 percent) said yes.
Of the 30 million people in the United States who consider getting aesthetic treatments like Allergan’s Botox, only three million people follow through with getting the procedures.
But within that three million, “we see two new groups that are starting to emerge: millennials, which only account for maybe 10, 15 percent of the three million, and males, which also probably account for 10, 15 percent,” Brent Saunders told “Mad Money ” host Jim Cramer. The number of people getting it done is much smaller than most people in our industry think.
In summary providing good service is not going to be enough with this important segment of the population. We are going to have to create a consistent integrative experience that engages with the individual on multiple levels, offers a greater sense of wellbeing in addition to results and is so valued that Millennials will part with their fewer hard-earned dollars to spend on our services and products.
Yours in Success,
Bryan Durocher
Essentials Spa Consulting LLC
Durocher Enterprises Inc.
5110 W. Bismark Ave.
Spokane, WA. 99208
Phone: 406-863-9448
www.durocherenterprises.com