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What do Millennials expect from brands?

Millennial shoppers are clear about what they want from companies. Morning Consult explored this in their recently released What Millennials Expect from Your Brand report.

We will highlight key findings from this report. We will focus on Millennials’ expectations related to brand ethics/values, politics and what factors would make Millennials more loyal to a brand.

Ethics/Values

Millennials are interested in how companies treat their employees, if they are charitable and which values they espouse. All these issues factor into whether or not Millennials regard a brand favorably or not.

These are the values that Millennials rank as most important:

• 77% honesty

• 74% reliability

• 74% helping family

• 72% compassion

• 72% commitment

Just 1 in 4 Millennials will buy a product or service from a company even though they are aware that the company has labor practices that they don’t support. The following practices would endear Millennials to a brand:

• 51% pay employees well

• 40% known to be a place where employees like to work

• 40% gives away a large share of profits to a good cause

• 39% produce goods in America

• 38% gives away a small share of profits to a good cause

• 37% transparent about labor process

• 36% make an effort to hire a diverse staff

• 32% produce goods in state

• 32% make an effort to promote women in leadership roles

Politics

Weighing in on political issues is a risky move for any brand. Nike’s stock sank 3 points when the market opened after launching its controversial Colin Kaepernick ad. The ad campaign features the NFL player who began kneeling during the national anthem 2 years ago as his way to protest racial inequality.

Even if a brand isn’t running a controversial advertising campaign, Millennials are paying attention to see if companies are publicly commenting on or taking stances on ethical and political issues.

38% of Millennials pay some attention and 15% of Millennials pay a great deal of attention to the ethical and political matters relating to companies that they purchase goods or services from. 29% won’t buy from companies if they are aware that the company has political positions different from theirs.

Millennials are somewhat divided on how they feel about seeing brands take political positions.

These percentages of Millennials would like a company either much or somewhat more if they took stances on these issues:

• 61% advocate for civil rights

• 43% advocate for gay rights

• 35% advocate for stricter gun control

• 31% support Democratic lawmaker campaign

• 30% advocate for stricter immigration policy

• 26% advocate for stricter abortion policies

• 23% support Republican lawmaker campaign

However, these percentages of Millennials would like the company either much or somewhat less if they took stances on the same issues as above:

• 5% advocate for civil rights

• 12% advocate for gay rights

• 17% advocate for stricter gun control

• 14% support Democratic lawmaker campaign

• 23% advocate for stricter immigration policy

• 26% advocate for stricter abortion policies

• 23% support Republican lawmaker campaign

Loyalty

Are Millennials loyal to a specific brand? Almost 7 in 10 have considered alternative products before purchasing from a brand they already know and like.

The top factors that contribute to Millennials’ brand loyalty are:

• 68% reliability/durability

• 54% high quality given the price

• 50% positive interactions with customer service team

• 43% it’s the best available

• 42% ethical and moral standards of the company

• 30% rewards program

• 25% matter of habit/routine

• 24% cheapest price

The top ways to lose brand loyalty to a Millennial:

• 74% poor customer service

• 70% they don’t pay their employees well

• 69% they rely on unethical labor practices

• 64% they took a strong political stance on an issue that the Millennials disagree with

• 62% they issued a major product recall

• 61% they ended a customer loyalty program

• 56% made a public remark about a political issue that the Millennials disagreed with

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