Millennials now bigger than Baby Boomers, recent study suggests

For a long time, the largest market segment by generation was the Baby Boomer: That's anyone born between 1946 and 1964. And, as with any generation, they were born into a set of ideals, values, cultures, and technologies which would ultimately have bearing on their world-view - specifically, their approach to business.

But now, according to the Census Bureau, that's no longer the case. Now, the group with the largest market influence - in terms of purchasing, employment, and business leadership - is the Millennial.

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Millennial attributes

• Adapt rapidly
• Crave change and challenge
• Create constantly
• Resilience
• Committed and loyal when dedicated to an idea, cause, or product
• Accept others of diverse backgrounds readily and easily
• World-centric

Baby Boomer attributes

• Adaptive
• Goal-oriented
• Focus on individual choices and freedoms
• Ability to change in a diverse workplace
• Positive attitude

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Millennials - who've come into the world between 1980 and 1994 - have been born into technology at a point of unprecedented innovation. Unlike Baby Boomers, they don't see iPhones and the Internet, and so on and so forth as great feats; they see them as the foundation - the basic level from which all else stems. For them, these things have always been available. But rather than take them for granted, we've seen exponential growth in connectivity and problem solving - and this has catalysed technology to advance at an incredible rate.

Combine that with their world-centric attitude, where everyone lives in a global village, and the only brands and products that matter are ones that have a cause behind them... truly, they offer the potential to radically influence the way the planet works for the better.

The biggest challenge for business owners is making the shift from this Baby Boomer mindset, into one which caters to these ideals. Whereas the Baby Boomer was focused on the road in front of the individual, the Millennial is focused on the road in front of the planet. In order to really cater to these tribes, you need to delve deep into the way you do things.

We could get into usefulness metrics, and purpose, and tribal leadership, but we'd be typing away for hours. If this is a challenge you'd like to embrace for your brand or business, there's no better time than now. 

Book an illumination session today, and we'll show you that you've had the means to make the change all along.

Magento + folk = great success

There has been a great deal written about Magento in recent months following the launch of Magento 2. Here at Folk, we've worked with some of the most discerning brands in the world since 2003 and thought it was time to review why its still the most well-used eCommerce platform:

1. Magento has a huge community of developers working on the platform on a daily basis. Therefore you can rest assured that your Magento site is up to date, secure & fast.
2. Magento is and always has been an open source platform. These are the roots of the platform and why it has been such a success.
3. Magento was built purposefully for eCommerce unlike many of its counterparts. So unlike other platforms that have evolved into eCommerce platforms, Magento has eCommerce in its DNA. 
4. Magento is highly scaleable, We have built websites for emerging brands through to multi-national organisations
5. Integrating Magento with a variety of third party services including payment gateways, database applications, shipment tracking and more is quick and easy. 
6. Easy customisation is at the core of Magento's design. Rather than being focred to use off-the-shelf templates, Magento allows developers to create truly bespoke designs. Consequently, it’s easy to create both a unique and memorable web presence for your business
7. Magento is capable of very fast page load times with the right optimisations. Speed has improved massively from release to release with Magento 2 now being much faster out of the box.
8. Magento has successfully incorporated a number of HTML5 capabilities which ensures your website will always be optimised for whichever device your customer is using.

There are many Magento partners in the world, but there's only one Folk. With our unique blend of brand, creativity, marketing, data and retail expertise we are able to see the big picture, to the day to day, to make Magento flagship stores that are as unique and well-designed as our clients' collections.

If you are searching for an agency that has the perfect blend of creative and technical skills, with a strong understanding of making complex magento stores look elegant, simple and beautiful, come say hello.

Why Connectionism makes Industrialism look old hat

It's often tough to accept a concept until it's put plainly and simply, so here it is: Industrialism is old hat. It used to be that businesses would build assets and use them to measure their growth and success.

(And lets' face it: That doesn't feel so great anyway, considering we're all about the tribe.)

But today, it's almost irrelevant - especially if you want and need your business to thrive in the future. Consider the following [1]:

1. Über is the largest “taxi” company – yet they own no vehicles and excel at connecting riders with drivers. (Did you know: They booked almost $4 billion in fares in just the first half of last year. [2])
2. AirBnB is the largest accommodation provider – yet they own no real estate. (Did you know: AirBnB, with a hard-earned initial investment, are now valued at $1 billion? [3] I reiterate the point about having ~0 assets.)
3. Facebook is the largest media company – yet they create no content. (Did you know: Despite not making any of their own content, Facebook saw revenue streams of almost $6 billion in 2015, and now has almost 1.6 billion users worldwide. [4] That's almost a quarter of the world's population.)
4. Crowdfunding businesses like Kickstarter and IndiGoGo are expected to surpass venture capital for funding in 2016 – yet they have no funds to invest. (Did you know: Kickstarter reached the $1 billion pledge milestone a couple of years ago. Check out this page for an awesome breakdown of how that looks.)

I don't think it's misplaced to say that these brands are the key to the future of their markets. It's pretty hard to imagine a competitor coming in using an old-school model and surpassing any of them, in any way. 

We've said it before, we'll say it again: These success stories all put the consumer - their tribe - at the heart of everything. They each give the people who believe in them the power to take charge and do things their way, on their terms. This truly is the key to building a successful brand and business for this generation.

That said, there's a whole lot of friction from businesses when it comes to shifting the lens on this. Less so from start-up types, granted, but often people are so firmly rooted in place, that they find it impossible - personally, when talking to the board, and so on - to make change happen.

If you're suffering from this friction affliction, and you need a hand turning the ship, do get in touch: Our free Illumination Sessions are just the tonic. In two hours, either in person or via Skype, we shine a light on what it is you're trying to achieve. In that time we'll dig into your business context, project goals and critical success factors in order to discover the best method of connecting you with your tribe. Please click below to find out more.

Thanks for reading,

Folk

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[1]. Ian Altman. (2015). Top 10 Business Trends That Will Drive Success In 2016. Available: http://www.forbes.com/sites/ianaltman/2015/12/01/top-10-business-trends-that-will-drive-success-in-2016/#39ed3e3e5571. Last accessed 5th May 2016.

[2]. Brian Solomon. (2016). Uber's financials show huge growth, even bigger losses. Available: http://www.forbes.com/sites/briansolomon/2016/01/12/leaked-ubers-financials-show-huge-growth-even-bigger-losses/#11624e9c5c99. Last accessed 5th May 2016.

[3]. Morgan Brown. (2015). AirBnB: The growth story you didn't know.Available: https://growthhackers.com/growth-studies/airbnb. Last accessed 5th May 2015.

[4]. Josh Constine. (2016). Facebook Climbs To 1.59 Billion Users And Crushes Q4 Estimates With $5.8B Revenue. Available: http://techcrunch.com/2016/01/27/facebook-earnings-q4-2015/. Last accessed 5th May 2016.

Have you got an emotional strategy?

In a world where we know from top neurologists that 90% of people's consumer behaviours are driven by their emotional brain, as leaders we need to define what our emotional strategy is before we even touch content, marketing, digital or tech.

It doesn't matter what you are selling - luxury lifestyle or not, if you want brand awareness, engagement and conversion from your tribe, an emotional strategy allows you to break through noise, offer something to belong to and take an action.

This is the shift to mattering over marketing, stories over selling and emotional intelligence over logic and it's what is driving and defining how we at Folk work with our clients to build their tribes.

It's time to do things differently. We can no longer define where we want to talk or find our customers to grow market share. We can no longer only talk eCommerce platforms in the hope that that will change everything for our businesses. We've pivoted so that you can too.

Companies who grow faster than anyone in the future will be the ones with the most emotional intelligence to build and nurture tribes of people who believe in what you stand for.

If you're looking for a new approach to move the needle and you're willing to learn as you go with passionate digital-first tribe of storytellers who want to lead with people-led insights to make things that make a difference, you're in the right place.