• by Jack Loechner , Staff Writer @mp_research, March 20, 2018

Several recent studies have shown that millennials are less brand loyal than preceding generations. A recent Daymon Worldwide global study showed that only 29% of millennials usually buy the same brand, compared with 35% of Gen Xers, says the report.

As a result of this lack of brand loyalty, it is critical for marketers to understand how to reach the millennial generation, concludes the report. Accordingly, Fluent conducted a nationwide survey of 1,769 millennials and 1,191 non-millennials, to better understand millennials’ device usage, and interaction with various digital media channels and their relationship to impacting purchasing decisions.

• Smartphones are the most popular device with millennials as 7 in 8 millennials own one. They spend the highest proportion of their online time using their smartphones (51% spend all or most of their online time), and use them to make purchases as much as any other platform (49% at least monthly).
• Despite the dominance of smartphones, computers remain an important purchase device for millennials. Nearly 1 in 3 (32%) millennials use computers to make purchases at least weekly. Younger millennials, aged 18-24, use computers less often to make purchases than their older counterparts.
• Millennials own smartwatches at nearly twice the rate of the general population. 44% say they own smartwatches compared with only 23% of non-millennials.
• Promotional emails were the most effective digital advertising medium at influencing millennial purchase decisions, says the report.68% of millennials said that promotional emails impacted their purchase decisions.

Apple is the preferred device brand for millennials, says the report. Despite having less disposable income, millennials are more likely than older generations to purchase Apple products across all four device categories studied. Still the top network, Facebook is far less influential with millennials than it is with older generations. 43% of millennials say Facebook is the social media platform they use most often, compared with 61% of non-millennials. Among the youngest cohort of millennials, 18- 24 year olds, other networks including YouTube, Instagram & Snapchat have nearly caught up to Facebook.

Finally, millennials show somewhat less concern about data privacy and security than older generations, says the report.There are double digit gaps between the percentage of millennials and non-millennials who are very concerned about data privacy (37% vs. 51%) and data security (42% vs. 55%), respectively.

For additional information, The Fluent Research Team can be found here: research@fluentco.com