The real question may be are they paying attention to you? Millennials, as they are often referred, is an incredibly important segment to any B2B company interested in their brand’s continued success. This is a very large and particularly aware segment of the population born between 1980 and 2000, or thereabouts. Generation Y are those born from the baby boomer generation. So why is this generation so important? Consider some key facts:

  • Approximately 76 million Millennials live in the United States today;
  • Often referred to as the Net Generation, because they have never lived without the Internet at their fingertips;
  • They are far and away superior at handling technology and adapting to software, website behavior and harnessing its power than all other generations.

In short, Generation Y is completely comfortable analyzing your products and services and breaking them down into sound bites, product features, business briefs, and creating a deep product comparison with little effort.

As a result, they are not influenced by hollow marketing efforts designed to create leadership positioning when the facts do not support a company’s claims. And if they find that you have exaggerated the truth, they will tell the hundreds, or thousands of their friends, contacts, and those that follow them what they think of your products. And this information can spread in days and can never be erased.

Add to these facts that they will represent 36% of the work force by 2014 and 46 percent by 2020. Now that’s good news for B2B companies who are designing their products and services to meet this generation’s needs and are communicating with them using the technologies they most often use.

So are you in sync with this generation? Give your company a quick test:

  • Is your brand-marketing program fully established on multiple media platforms optimized for laptops, smartphones, tablets, video, and related e-broadcasts?

According to UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School, Millennials switch their attention between media platforms 27 times per hour while working. To older generations, usually the ones running B2B companies, they might say they were not paying attention or properly applying themselves! But to Millennials, anything else would be considered doggedly old school and outdated. Just ask them and listen to what they have to say.

It might explain why your product launches haven’t been taking off the way you would like and why it has become increasingly more difficult to bring one of your products successfully to market. Perhaps you’ve missed this growing segment and are relying upon traditional strategies that have outgrown their efficacy? Perhaps it’s time to re-tool your strategic brand marketing along with your product development. Today, the two go hand-in-hand, and companies that keep them separate are going to have an increasingly difficult time staying relevant.