The Mythical Millennial
Telstra
Uncovering a new way of thinking about Millennials
The Situation
In order to improve Telstra's long-term market position in the under-25 segment, we set out to understand how Millennials live their lives, what their needs are, how they think about their world, and what matters to them. Given seismic changes in technology over their lifespan, it was hypothesised that this research would provide lead indicators to help unlock significant growth across generations.
The Challenge
Uncovering a new way of thinking about the target audience - one that shifts from age based segmentation to behavioural motivations - meant adapting methods for exploring their needs and habits. To this end, we enlisted set of Millennials to become active investigators of their own lives. Acknowledging that Millennials are far from an homogeneous cohort, we sought to create a rich data set that would provide an empathetic understanding of the goals, desires and needs of Millennial Australians.
“I like to show people that I go out and do things other than club & take drugs like everyone else ... but I hate flaunting anything on the net. At the same time, I hate being someone who posts very very frequently about everything that I’m doing.”
Approach
Using mobile ethnography, we followed the lives of 20 young adults as they moved through the everyday acts of connecting with others, organising and
entertaining themselves. Individuals were tasked with creating ‘life blogs’ - capturing what they were doing and why they were doing it - using the popular blogging tool Tumblr, with a 100% completion rate. This provided a depth of reflection not possible through other methods.
Results
Each Tumblr post was analysed using the Jobs to be Done framework. With a focus on the situation and motivation behind the job - not to mention barriers and anxieties along the way - this framework enabled the team to deconstruct over 700 jobs into a set of 12 key behavioural attributes that drive the everyday activities of Australian Millennials. These attributes 'bust' a number of widely held myths, providing us with more realistic insights into their lives. For example, the myth of narcissism was, in reality, a result of image-consciousness necessary in a world where their online persona and social life are intertwined.
We also discovered that young adults bestow very different meanings to traditional constructs that strategically inform Telstra’s products and services. These findings are being used to develop new products, services and experiences across segments.