Millennials start to make their mark

We thought we’d start off with a joke from the Edinburgh fringe festival this week, which appropriately is about change.

“I’m not a fan of the new pound coin, but then again, I hate all change”.

Certainly Australian accountants must be getting used to seeing change as a constant in the social media, newsletters, emails and various other media assaulting their inboxes and vying for attention.

But over to the topic of this week’s blog, which is to take a look at many of the changes happening in Australia as the Millennials start to have a financial impact. These topics have been coming into our news feeds more constantly since 2016, but they are gathering pace as the impacts are felt more.

And it’s not just smashed avocados and the overheated property marketing taking a beating. The changes are pretty far reaching, and include:

Declining popularity of bar soap (ok, not so exciting)
Less interest in diamond rings
Less interest in hand me down furniture and other heirlooms, except for the terrace just outside the CBD
Forgoing vacations ’cause they’re working and slaving too hard
Less interest in running, as they are taking up other sports
Other impacts include the golf industry, and breakfast cereals (this one quite interesting)

In fact, here’s a somewhat interesting though flippant article on 28 things millennials have impacted.

Certainly there are longer term impacts that will be felt as the millennials move into mainstream, and there are going to be lots of changes.

At the same time, there is lots of misinformation (or fake news) as to what is working and what isn’t working. It’s likely you’ll see an article one day that open offices work extremely well, and within the same hour will see in your twitter feed on the top 5 startup companies that don’t have open offices, or the disadvantages of the open office.

We’re certainly living in times of change, and part of any businesses future is moving from understanding millennials to accepting that any business must have a clear strategy on engaging with millennials.

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