1. careers

ROUNDTABL E
You don’t know what you
don’t know about millennials.
Kids Today
What is your
favorite insight into
millennials?
A
R oundtable
F eaturing
Rob Lynch
Arby’s
Lisa Baird
The United States
Olympic Committee
Rob Lynch: With millennials, you
can’t create brand superiority or
differentiation where it doesn’t
exist. When I started my career at
Procter & Gamble, my job was to
create superiority where there was
none. It’s easy to market a product
when it has a specific attribute
that is better, different, or unique.
It’s tougher when you’re marketing
paper towels and they look just
like all the other paper towels.
Access to information forces
Fisher-Price
Dee Mc Laughlin
Forever 21
Capital One
Geoff Walker: At Fisher-Price,
we appreciate many aspects of
their lifestyle values, but the one
that really stands out is how they
value ‘meaning.’ Millennials are in
touch with what they want, how
they want to live, and how they
want to be treated. This is more
true of millennials than of any
other generation. This has really
inspired us and impacted the way
we do business.
Access to information forces marketers
to be more disciplined about actually
delivering on their promises.
Geoff Walker
Sherri Gilligan
conversation we have around the
Olympics shows that they really
ascribe to the purpose, mission
and values of the Olympics in a
real, authentic way.
ROB LY NC H
marketers to be more disciplined
about actually delivering on their
promises. Brands that are trying to
reach millennials can’t be successful
over the long-term without
authenticity and transparency. This
consumer group is just too savvy
and has too much information.
It has caused us to re-look at our
brand promise. Quite frankly,
it has made us better because
we were really a genX-targeted
company that has been moving
towards a millennial-targeted
company. We have to be able to
add value to their lives.
Lisa Baird: I’m always incredibly
gratified and appreciative to find
out how genuine their values are.
We certainly see this amplified
because of our brand. The
Dee Mc Laughlin: My very
favorite insight is their creative
energy. When you think about
the YouTube stars, the ‘maker’
revolution, Pinterest — millennials
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are such great creators and they
want to create with brands they
love. At Forever 21, we have close
to 6 million fans on Instagram,
where we co-create with our
millennial customers. It’s mostly
user-generated content, and it
really humanizes our brand by
connecting with them at that level.
It helps validate their style choices,
and certainly adds a very personal
touch to our posts, as well.
Sherri Gilligan: My favorite insight
is that millennials have embraced
their individuality more than any
other generation. Because of the
financial challenges of recent years,
they are slower to get married and
buy homes — but they do intend to
reach those milestones. They just
tend to question the traditional
pathway because they are developing
their own lifestyles and identities.
That emphasis on individuality
carries through into how they
define success, which is not the
same as how those who are older
define success. It’s more about being
in control of their lives, but also
spending more time on experiences
like travel, entertainment,
restaurants and such.
The real insight is that we need
to respect their uniqueness as
individuals. In fact, it’s kind of
ironic that we try to clump them
into one group. Millennials
really want us to embrace them
as individuals and not label them
as a group. This is influencing all
of Corporate America to embrace
everyone as individuals and not
labels. I love that.
Are millennials harder
to understand than
other consumers?
Lynch: I don’t believe that any
particular consumer group is that
different from any other. I believe that
they may have unique experiences, or
are in an environment that changes
the way they think about things.
With millennials, it’s really about
understanding how their daily life is
different than the daily life of a 40or 50-year-old. It’s about figuring out
how those differences affect the way
they perceive the world and the way
they consume your communications
and your products or services.
We use the same type of methodologies
to learn about millennials as we use
with our other customer bases.
Baird: There is more texture and
depth to understand because of what
we know about millennials. They are
willing to share a lot that perhaps
other generations never will, so there
is a lot more to understand and craft
into insights that we can address. You
have to take that in, and understand
how to translate that into marketing.
You can’t project that they will move
together as a group, either. There are
a lot of differences among them. We
all grew up with simple insights about
boomers, but those old insights don’t
apply anymore. They can surprise
you.
Walker: If we listen, millennials
are not hard to understand, but a lot
of people don’t want to listen. We
really want to know exactly where
we stand first-hand and always be
listening. The great part about that
is that it’s genuine. The feedback
is honest; it’s open. If you are
willing to listen to that, you can
really use it to your advantage.
One way we do that at FisherPrice is with a Millennial Board.
It’s a group of employees that I
have coffee with every month and
pick their brains about what is
Is it dresses? Is it jeans and a top?
What are their fabric choices?
What are their dress lengths? We
really worked with them — getting
at that creative energy and their
need and want to co-create.
Gilligan: All generations span
lifestyles and life stages. No
generation should be boxed in, but I
If we listen, millennials are not
hard to understand, but a lot
of people don’t want to listen.
GE OF F WA L K E R
going on in the world. What they
are doing? Where are they living?
We talk about new social-media
platforms because that landscape
changes every couple of months.
On the work side, you have to
embrace entrepreneurism. They
appreciate self-starting more than
we do. I think that’s because
they watched their parents lose
their jobs. So, we created an
intrapreurship platform called
Mix Faire, where any employee
can present concepts or ideas to
senior-level executives across any
brand or business unit.
Mc Laughlin: Millennials are very
easy to understand because they
are so connected. For millennials,
it’s not a question of online or
offline; it’s online versus asleep!
Connections are super-important
to them. They want to be friends
with brands that are real and
make a contribution to their life.
We have instigated consumer
panels where we proactively
check with them on our next
products or services. So, for
example, we were wondering
about what they wear when they
are going out. We have sections of
our store with ‘going out’ attire.
think millennials really are bound by
a notion of optimism and ambition.
They are also more connected,
and technology is the driving force
in their lives. They have access
to everything from major news
events to what their friends had for
breakfast, which is very different
from any previous generation.
They grew up during a global
recession and that’s influenced how
quickly they go into new life stages
because they really want to make
sure that they are in control. This
whole notion of sharing is also new
— they love great experiences that
are sharable. I love millennials. They
push us to think differently, just as
all younger generations always have.
Are millennials
more important than
other consumers?
Lynch: Millennials are particularly
relevant for Arby’s because younger
guests tend to frequent quick-serve
restaurants more often than older
guests. The 18-to-35 age group has
about a 30 percent higher average
frequency than those over age 35.
So, our industry has always been
very focused on that demographic.
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MAY/JUNE 2015 THE HUB
Millennials are also so important
to us because they are a big part
of our workforce. Quick-serve
restaurants are a great place for
young people to get their first job,
learn about the value of hard work
and the empowerment that comes
with earning your own paycheck.
We try to make sure that within our
products and our communications — as well as within our employee
engagement and service models — that we are delivering the coaching,
teaching and development that is
most relevant to them, as well.
Baird: Research has shown us
that Americans — across all age
groups — love the Olympics and
support Team USA, but we do need
to emphasize our marketing efforts
to develop the next generation of
fans. They will be the thought
leaders and influencers of tomorrow.
A lot of brands try to change what
they are because millennials
present different marketing
challenges. In that sense you could
say they are more important, but
30-40 years ago you would have
said the same thing about baby
boomers. They are complex and
hard to figure out, so they occupy a
lot of attention among marketers.
Walker: For Fisher-Price,
millennials are the key. We are a
mom-targeted brand, so we start
talking to them at minus three
months, in their third trimester,
until their child is about five years
old. Millennials represent about
83 percent of all births around
the globe right now, so they are a
massive part of who we talk to and
how we think.
Mc Laughlin: To Forever 21,
millennials are most important.
I love them because they are so
optimistic about the future. The
recession really hit them the
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hardest — something like only six
in 10 of them have jobs, and that’s
including part-time. But they’re
generally a very happy generation.
They don’t ever limit their
imagination and they really feel
that technology or ingenuity will
overcome everything. I love that
you can appeal to their aspirations.
Gilligan: At Capital One, all of
our customers are very important!
Millennials certainly are coveted,
the 18-34 demographic is 80 to 90
million strong and spending now
to break out of this roast-beef
lock and become something more
relevant.
What we needed was to be more
Arby’s. Arby’s was built on
delivering superior sandwiches, so
we focused on that. At a time when
a lot of folks are trying to do a lot
of different things to deliver on the
most relevant fad of the time, we
are saying, “Look, we are a place
for big, meaty sandwiches.” That’s
what we’ve always been, and that’s
what we want to stand for.
There is more texture and depth to understand
because of what we know about millennials.
L ISA BA I R D
about $200 billion to $400 billion
by 2020. They have influenced the
older generations and have made
their mark on a lot of places: film,
music, and media.
In the financial sector, they are
open to things like peer-to-peer
finance models. We’ve introduced
things like a credit tracker app,
which enables them to track their
credit, which is so important.
Tracking their credit helps them
get better rates on home or auto
loans. That’s huge for them.
Have millennials
changed your
brand story?
Lynch: They have. When I arrived
at Arby’s 16-months ago, we
were known as a roast-beef shop,
and yet we had so much more to
offer. Our biggest strength, our
roast-beef sandwich heritage, was
also our biggest hurdle to future
growth. To get where we aspire to
be, which is a top-five restaurant
company in the country, we have
That’s the story we are telling,
and by staying true to our brand it
resonates with milllennials.
Baird: The fun part for the Olympics
is that we are very committed to
building our relationship with
millennials socially. This is so
gratifying because it’s a two-way
conversation. You are genuinely,
in real time, engaging with these
fans. We’re shaping our brand and
who we are in real time.
We’ve invented a new, youngerfacing brand called Team USA in
concert with the millennial fan
base. Team USA represents an ideal
that’s much more accessible to
Americans, and particularly teams.
It’s more than just Olympians. It
includes Paralympians and the
national teams that are the pipeline
for Olympians. That’s one of the
reasons we wanted to invest in it.
We also recently tweeted the famous
Miracle on Ice game between the US
and the Soviet Union in Lake Placid
on its 35th anniversary. We tweeted
it as if it were happening live, and
the engagement we got included
a broad swath of millennials. It
was amazing how thankful they
were that we did this and that they
were so interested in it. It really
was a transcendent event and now
millennials have their own memory
of it, as if they were there.
Walker: Our brand story at FisherPrice has always been about early
childhood development. That’s
the principle the company was
founded on 84 years ago. The
founders set out to transform
the toy industry by focusing on
enriching the lives of families
with young children through
developmentally appropriate play.
In recent years, we moved away
from that core purpose, but
millennials have forced us to be
more holistic and consistent in the
way we play our role. Clarity and
upping the emotional quotient, in
traditional or social spaces, has
brought new passion to what we’re
saying about supporting a child’s
unique individual potential.
To help us tell our story, we were
also looking for someone who
lived the same principles we do.
We signed a partnership with
Shakira at the end of last year.
A lot of colleagues looked at me
and said, “Why Shakira — she’s a
music artist?” Well, Shakira also
has a one-year-old son. We wanted
her for her ‘mom side’ and linking
that mom side to her Barefoot
Foundation, which is all about
building schools for disadvantaged
children in Latin America. She’s
resonated extremely well with
millennial parents around the world.
Mc Laughlin: We have changed
our story over the last year
based on our interpretation of
millennials. We feel very strongly
that millennials want to make a
difference. In order to be truly
authentic, Forever 21 established
a corporate social-responsibility
component. Don and Jin Sook
Chang, who founded the company,
are incredibly humble people who
give a lot to charity, but they don’t
like to talk about it. Actually, one
of the Forever 21 core values is
giving back, but we really don’t talk
about it. So, we wanted to create a
framework for charitable giving.
We started last year with breastcancer awareness month. We put
together a collection and partnered
with the Keep A Breast Foundation,
which we chose because they are
very youth-focused and global. We
launched it in Canada, China,
Japan, UK, US and France. Our
internal tagline is: Give to Love,
Love to Give which we made
external. A dollar from the sale of
each item went to Keep A Breast.
We also started to talk about the
community work that we do locally.
One of our initiatives last year was
to construct one of the largest single
rooftop solar power systems in Los
Angeles county. It’s the third-biggest
in California. It powers 1,450 homes
and is the equivalent of taking
1,200 cars off the road. Millennials
are a force for good. The good will
and goodness is very real and
comes from a very authentic place.
We spend a lot of money making
sure that the credit application can be
completed online and in mobile. The
number of credit-card applications
we now get on mobile is astonishing.
Because millennials value audacity
and irreverence, we also try to
make them laugh with our ads.
Which brands or
retailers are doing the
best job understanding
millennials?
Lynch: Twenty-five years ago,
emotional connections in advertising
were created by jingles. People
couldn’t get the jingles out of their
heads. Today, you see a lot more
stories and emotional connections
driven by what the brand stands
for and what the brand is outside
of what it does every day. One
brand that is doing it real well
is Patagonia. Their products are
fantastic, but I also feel great about
the fact that everybody in their
company cares about what that
company stands for. Their story
creates an emotional connection.
In terms of retailers, Dick’s Sporting
Goods is doing a great job, and has
also created an emotional connection.
For millennials, it’s not a question of
online or offline; it’s online versus asleep!
DE E MC L AUGH L I N
Gilligan: Capital One’s brand
values, our vision and mission,
are core concepts that remain
steadfast. However, the tools
and how we are translating our
story into different mediums is
different. Millennials are absolutely
influencing how we think about
convenience and using technology
to make things seamless.
They’ve gone from traditional
retailing that was all price- and
merchandising-driven, and brought
a whole different way of doing
sporting-goods retail. Their ads tell
stories, and anybody who loves
sports can’t help but be drawn into
those stories. When you walk into
their stores, you feel like you are at a
place where athletes come together.
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T HOUGHT L E ADER S
They create an environment that
makes people care about them as a
brand.
ROB LYNCH is brand president
and chief marketing officer of
Arby’s, leading all research and
development, product innovation,
brand marketing and positioning,
advertising and media.
LISA BAIRD is chief marketing
officer of the United States Olympic
Committee, directing the sales and
marketing division and overseeing
corporate sponsorship, properties,
media, events, consumer products
and direct marketing.
GEOFF WALKER is executive vice
president of the Fisher-Price global
brands team and HIT Brands, where
he oversees worldwide strategy,
product innovation, production,
marketing, and global distribution.
DEE MC LAUGHLIN is vp of global
marketing for Forever 21, leading
the marketing, social media and
public relations initiatives in 47
countries. Dee was previously an svp
with MTV Networks and vp marketing
with Virgin Entertainment Group.
SHERRI GILLIGAN is svp, card
brand marketing for Capital One,
leading acquisition, strategy,
segments, retention and partnerships.
Previously, she was svp of marketing
and advertising at MGM Resorts
International.
Baird: Nike deserves to be called
out. For a brand that was invented
40 years ago, it’s pretty astounding
how they have remained so relevant.
They continue to reimagine their
relevance to new audiences and
they do it really, really well.
Everybody makes mistakes at
times, but it’s rare that Nike does.
Their fundamental strategies
remain the same.
Nike believes in the athlete, and
they’ve continued to make sure
that their athlete relationships are
very strong and authentic. They
really understand their brand and
yet they are not afraid to take
risks and put that brand in new
THE HUB MAY/JUNE 2015
Mc Laughlin: A few years ago,
Ford did a really good job when
they put their cars into the Zipcar
college program. I thought that was
kind of genius — where they got
college students to drive their cars.
They funded a scholarship program
at the same time.
You can’t not talk about Kmart,
and Ship My Pants. That was
brilliant — and then the follow-up,
Jingle Balls. That was pretty good,
too. The reason I love those is that
they were short and creative. So
clever. Another one I like is Target’s
Archer Farms, their private-label
food brand. I like that it is sort of
artisanal in its imagery, and I think
that really appeals to millennials
Millennials really want us to embrace them as
individuals and not label them as a group.
SH E R R I GI L L IGA N
situations that can make people
look at them in a different way.
The product also continues to get
better and really hit at what the
consumers want.
Walker: I have a lot of respect for
Angela Ahrendts for re-creating
Burberry. When I arrived at FisherPrice, it was a heritage brand that
wasn’t adapting quickly enough to
the new generation of millennial
parents. Angela was able to make
heritage cool at Burberry. As
fashion, it’s relevant, it’s cool, it’s
hip. It’s digital.
Tom’s Shoes is the other one. One
of the things that brands have to
respect today is cause marketing.
Brands need to give back. Tom’s
has created a great business model,
but it’s authentic to who they are. It’s
20
not just something that’s scripted.
Millennials care about that.
who want that premium feel
without the sticker shock.
Gilligan: Patagonia is really
compelling not only because of
their sustainability efforts, but
because they talk about how they
maintain their responsibility. Their
trust factor goes way up because
they admit when they weren’t
responsible and explain what they
did about it. That really resonates
with millennials.
My millennial daughter turned me
onto an app called Hopper, where
you enter information about your
travel plans and it sends you push
notifications about the best time
to book your flights. It goes back
to the importance of experiences
to millennials, and how to get the
most out of your money. n