Millennials (currently 24-39) have tremendous purchasing power… 

As a millennial myself, I know the stereotypes first-hand. 

They downplay the purchasing power of this generation. In other words, we’re not all eating avocado toast, watching reruns of The Office, making meme’s in our parents’ basements, ordering $12 cold brew delivery online, and playing with fidget spinners… 

Although sure, some of us are.

To better understand millennial consumer behavior in 2020 for multiple categories, our client Roth Capital conducted a proprietary survey leveraging MFour Mobile Research. 

This is actually their eighth annual millennial survey, which looks at spending patterns, data trends, as well as top brands across major consumer categories including apparel, home furnishings, health, beverages, healthy snacks, and even cannabis. This in-depth 209 questionnaire was completed by 2,500 U.S. millenial men and women. 

While, the meat and potatoes of the insights are kept for their own use, here are 10 surface-level statistics that they were comfortable with us sharing publicly...

• 73% of millennials are Amazon Prime members.
• 53% of millennials will pay 10% or more for socially responsible brands.
• 47% are more likely to purchase digitally native brands that begin in-store. 
• 74% of millennials own either a Yeti, HydroFlask, or Contigo reusable water bottle.
• 47% of millennials buy second hand items for sustainability and affordability reasons.
• 63% of millennials who buy online prefer to make returns in-store, and then 76% of those who return stay and shop after making an in-store return.
• Dollar Shave Club is the most used subscription, followed by Chewy, then Target.
• While millennials prefer traditional mattresses, Purple is more popular than Casper.
• Nike is the favorite brand in multiple categories including activewear, outdoor apparel, outdoor footwear, fashion footwear and climbing. Followed by Under Armour, The North Face, Adidas, Timberland, Vans, and Black Diamond.

It’s time to take millennial consumers seriously. 

David Bain, managing director, senior research analyst at Roth Capital Partners summarized it well when he said “Millennials will make up nearly three-quarters of the workforce by 2025 and are rapidly redefining consumer patterns … [The] study of millennial consumer behavior and preferences is an essential factor to projecting business earnings…” 

At MFour, we over-index on under-represented consumers such as millennials, Gen Z, Hispanics, and African-Americans, so you can get the accurate representation you need.

If you want to understand your millennial consumers, let's chat. 

Here’s a statistic consumer insights professionals might consider memorizing: Pew Research Center now reports that 20% of adult Americans rely solely on smartphones for their internet access. That’s up from 13% who reported relying on mobile phones alone in a Pew study in 2015.

Your own data needs to be representative across whatever demographic you’re trying to understand. Which means you need to reach the public where it lives. Just as railroad stations gave way to airports as the main hubs of physical journeys, personal computers are giving way to mobile for consumers' digital journeys. That’s especially true for crucial, traditionally “hard to find” Hispanics, African Americans and young-adult consumers. Reaching out to them on a personal computer for consumer surveys is barking up the wrong device. Data from Pew studies conducted in January, 2018 and in 2015 shows why:

• Hispanics: 35% are now smartphone-only, up from 23% in Pew’s 2015 study.

• Ages 18-29: 28% are smartphone-only, up from 19% in 2015.

• African Americans: 24% are now smartphone-only users, up from 19% in 2015.

• Whites: 14% are smartphone-only in 2018, up from 10% in 2015.

• Age 65 and older: Even among these slower adopters, smartphone-only use is now at 10% of the senior population, up from 7% in 2015.
  

One obvious takeaway is that in order to reach the representative slices of the public that market research requires, it has be done with mobile. But what you need to know is a bit more nuanced than that. We'll tell you why in our next blog post, so stay tuned. In the meantime (or at any time), you can have a personal, one-on-one info session and demo on state-of-the-art mobile research capabilities, simply by clicking here. 

Are you ready to join the wave of consumer insights professionals who are diving deep into mobile research? If the answer is yes, then congratulations on making that transformative decision.

But taking the dive is just the first step. No methodology will work if the execution is poor. With that in mind, here are eight key questions any savvy mobile-insights buyer should ask. And be sure not to settle for anything less than answers that are authoritative, assured and completely specific to the kinds of projects you need to accomplish. 

• Is the mobile research you're selling the same as your online research, only more portable?

• What specific research capabilities does mobile bring to the table?  

• Where's the sample coming from?

• What level of representation and responsiveness can I expect? 

• Is it true that mobile surveys need to be kept extremely short? 

• I've heard the way to go is "mobile optimized." What exactly does that mean? And is that really true?

• There's lots of talk in the insights industry about how important it is to give survey-takers a quality experience. How does your mobile system accomplish that?

• Can you give me some validation about response rates and respondents' satisfaction with your mobile surveys?

You can get the fast, authoritative answers you need to these questions and more by setting up a one-on-one demo that will focus on meeting your projects' specific needs, and how they align with mobile research capabilities powered by proprietary technologies such as GeoIntensity^® and GeoNotification^®, which enable state-of-the art location-based surveys.

We'll talk about tailoring solutions to your needs, whether it's a custom-research project where MFour provides everything from design and programming through analysis, or taking advantage of the fast insights you can get from a proprietary, mobile-only automated research solution such as Path-2-Purchase™ Platform and  MFourDIY^®. Just get in touch by clicking here.

Consumer insights professionals need to understand today’s consumers in their natural environments, and by now they know that means reaching them on mobile.

Recent readership statistics reported by the Assn. of Magazine Media affirm just how big and necessary the mobile ecosystem has become for anyone who needs to engage consumers. The study shows that mobile devices continue to achieve separation from desktops and laptops as U.S. consumers’ choice for magazine content.  

• The association's Brand Audience Report for March says that 32.2% of the month’s 553.6 million magazine readers arrived via mobile, up 8.5% year over year.

• Only 11.6% of magazine site visits occurred on PCs, down 8.9% from March, 2017.

The report also shows that, of the five most-read publications, three received their greatest audience share from mobile. And all five attracted far more readers on mobile than they did on PCs. Here are the comparisons:

• WebMD Magazine: 59.1% of 60.8 million March readers were mobile; 21% arrived via PC.

• Allrecipes: 60.7% of 46.2 million readers were mobile; 19.9% PC.

• ESPN the Magazine: 43.7% of 96.5 million readers were mobile, 25.7% PC.

• People: 36.8% of 78 million readers were mobile; 8% used PCs.

• AARP magazine: 14% of 49.4 million readers were mobile; 7.9% used PCs.

In fact, of the 116 titles for which the Assn. of Media Magazines provided comparisons, only five attracted more readers on PCs than on mobile: Automobile, Car Craft, Flying, Hot Rod and Street Rodder.  Prestigious titles in which mobile access dominated over PCs include The Atlantic, Car and Driver, Cosmopolitan, Elle, Esquire, Fortune, GQ, Money, National Geographic, The New Yorker, Smithsonian, Time, and Vogue.

Print readership + subscriptions to digital editions of print publications retain an overall lead, according to the study, at 51.3% of total magazine readership. However, that category continues to drop, with a 1.7% year-over-year decline compared to mobile readership's 8.5% rise. This suggests that established mag readers and, perhaps most important, new readers, are turning to mobile.

The key takeaway for market research and marketing is that following mobile consumers into their natural environment is crucial to growth for virtually any business. Which is exactly what MFour has been urging since 2011, when it pioneered mobile market research by introducing Surveys On The Go^® as the nation’s first all-mobile research app.

For insights professionals who are ready to dive into mobile, these are the questions that need fast, authoritative answers: 

• What are the best practices in mobile market research? 

• What are the most advanced capabilities for obtaining the most relevant, accurate and insights-rich data?

• What sample quality and representation should I expect?

• In going mobile, does gaining access to consumers mean having to dumb down my research and sacrifice data quality?

You can get all these answers and more by setting up a one-on-one demo that will focus on meeting your projects' specific needs with proprietary, mobile-only research products such as Path-2-Purchase™ Platform and MFourDIY^®. Just get in touch by clicking here.

The answer is that, until now, reliable consumer insights obtained by identifying real people’s actual, validated buying journeys have been out of reach.

The new solution, Path 2 Purchase™ Platform, gives clients a panoramic window on real consumers’ journeys along their paths to purchase, both historically and in real time. The key is a first-party cohort of consumers who’ve downloaded an advanced survey and data-tracking app and can be observed as they move among locations relative to your research. And, thank to proprietary GeoNotification^® technology, you can approach them with a survey at times and places of your choosing.

Path 2 Purchase™ gives you easy, one-stop fulfillment of all fundamental requirements for accurate, validated consumer data. Among them are:

Representativeness: Reach that reliably includes groups that are hard to access with online surveys. There’s strong representation of Hispanic consumers (20%), African Americans (14%) and Millennials/Gen Z, including ages 18-34 (66%).

Quality Experience: The consumers  you’ll reach are gathered around and engaged by Surveys On The Go^®, the highest-rated consumer research app. It earns glowing reviews and a 4.5 stars out of 5 rating on the Apple iOS and Google Play stores that reflects some 100,000 individual ratings. There’s no better indicator of the kind of smooth, rewarding panelist experience that’s at the heart of obtaining accurate, trustworthy data from representative respondents.

Right Research Environment: Apps are the mobile environment of choice, accounting for 92% of the time U.S. consumers spend with their smartphones. Meet them where they want to be met, with an excellent app experience that secures the engagement and panel stability needed for trustworthy consumer insights.

For a one-on-one demo to learn how Path 2 Purchase™ and its first-party consumers can power your specific research needs,  just get in touch by clicking here.

MFour had a great time helping out at Second Harvest Food Bank on Tuesday, November 10, raising awareness for hunger in the OC.

While we were there, we helped sort approximately 15,000 pounds of carrots and onions into packages for hungry OC families.

A great day for a great cause!