Week 3 EOC: My Demographic

In the book Marketing: An Introduction, millennials are mentioned a few times and are often described as being one way or another. That said, those instances seem to involve generalizations that may or may not be true, depending on the item or items in question as well as the behaviors described. For instance, in chapter 6 and on page 197, millennials are brought up in a discussion about car sales as follows: “The young Millennials are an expressive, hypercreative bunch who are setting out to establish their independence. They value things built just for them, with lots of room for personalization. Finally, these younger buyers grew up with the Web, blogging, cell phones, text messaging, and social networks. They’re a uniquely social group, with both the need and the technical savvy to stay in touch—anywhere, anytime.” While many millennials, including myself, would like to identify as hyper-creative and independent, an argument can be made that some of the technology we possess can make us rather dependent on luxuries like the internet or cell phones, and that we are drained of creativity at times due to this dependence on what is factually stated on the internet. In that regard, though, the book is correct in establishing the idea that at least the vast majority of millennials have experience with technology as a necessity for modern life, even if not all people of that age identify as being particularly “tech savvy.”

One completely true acknowledgement that the book makes on page 73 (in chapter 3) is that millennials are constantly being bombarded with marketing messages. It is true that now, more than ever, companies are taking advantage of a relatively free market and seeing consumers flock to the highest bidder. Corporations have a large degree of control, but it should be noted that still-living baby boomers, gen-x-ers, and those who are a part of the newest generation (whatever that may be called) are also receiving those marketing ploys whenever possible.