Going Long

The ability to leverage brand equity via extensions is among the most oft-cited reasons for having a strong brand, and with good reason. Brands that can occupy more flavor or design slots demand more mind space with customers and more shelf space with retailers. This virtuous circle makes it easier to successfully jump categories, driving sales and further enhancing brand equity.

Millennials are driving a new type of fusion -- of company culture and brand -- as they seek meaning in the products they buy and the companies where they work. No brand is immune from the responsibility to do no harm and consumer pressure to do good, not even the mighty Apple. In our classes, students say the current labor practices publicity has caused them to question their future loyalty.

Today, it’s rare to find a Millennial who doesn’t self-identify as a Millennial. Even a few short years ago, this wasn’t the case.

“self-identify as a Millennial” http://www.examiner.com/generation-y-in-national/why-we-are-called-millennials

Just 2-3 years ago, students in my classes or at conferences were typically unfamiliar with the term, Millennial, or even the more widely used term, Gen Y. Young adults were unaware of their impending importance to marketing experts, HR executives, politicos and media mavens. Some, who knew the word, were put off by the idea of being stereotyped, rather than valued for their individuality. This was understandable, as the prevailing stereotypes were pejorative: ‘entitled’, ‘distracted’, ‘tech-savvy’, ‘narcissistic’, ‘delayed adults’ the product of ‘helicopter parents.’

Few others are as dedicated to the art-of-the-deal as young fashion conscious shoppers. Armed with an investigating mindset, more time than money, and an arsenal of online and mobile tools to quickly filter -- and find -- the things they want to buy, they represent a new and elusive type of shopper.  Here are some of the things we have observed about the savviest of young fashion shoppers.

Since the recession began, pundits have foreseen the end of brands. With coupon-mania gripping vast segments of society and even launching reality TV careers – upper crust as well as mainstream, working folks – consumer brands have been following the market, and one another, in a margin-eroding stupor.

At my stage of life, with kids in college and in the midst of a recession, I am thinking more of downsizing than upsizing, paying down rather than taking on. I have just about every non-consumable item I’ll ever need, and I prefer to ‘repair’ over ‘replace’ unless absolutely necessary. The economic engine will have to look elsewhere for a jumpstart.