Brands Are Part of Millennials' Core Values

Earlier in our branding exploration we were tossing around the importance of creating a PacSun initiative that our Millennial customers could get behind. While we haven't acted on it yet, Edleman recently published a study indicating that "taking action on behalf of brands" is part of Millennials' (born 1980-1995) core values. "Taking action" includes sharing brand experiences with others, joining online communities, and posting reviews online. According to the study, more than 8 in 10 have acted on behalf of a brand they support. Here are the study's key findings:

Brand relationships are a form of self expression: Brand preference ranks with religion and ethnicity as top personal identifiers that 8095ers are willing to share about themselves online.

Information is a key to influence: In addition to 8095ers that use four or more sources of information to help them make brand purchase decisions, thirty-one percent use seven or more sources of information.

Taking action on behalf of brands is a core value: Fifty-seven percent of 8095ers would volunteer to try new products from a preferred brand and most would post an online review of the experience.

Reverberation is online, offline and increasingly mobile: For those brands that Millennials love, 68 percent have recommended their products to friends and family and 44 percent have friended/followed that brand on their social network

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I wonder, in the ever-evolving brandscape, what acting in support of a brand can mean in a myriad of ways. What about sponsor or partnerships? For example, I love Tour de Fat, I've been in San Francisco, I'll go in LA. I love bikes and I love festivals. But, as the Tour is sponsored and promoted by New Belgium, does it also mean that I'm acting on behalf of the brand? How conscious of our "brand actions" do we need to be in order for it to count in a study? Does it help or hurt the brand when people are lured to support something they're not aware of? Well, I don't think Edleman answers these questions, but there's more information about the study here.

Happy ponderings!