Gaining a better understanding of the millennial population is among the top priorities of many marketers and their brand teams. Surveys have shown that the millennial segment is similar, in some ways, to other population groups, but also different in some ways that have implications for marketers.

According to a recent survey by Deloitte, millennials are no less ambitious than previous generations, but “their priorities have evolved.” The Deloitte report, “Global Millennial Survey 2019,” can be viewed here.

“More than half want to earn high salaries and be wealthy,” Deloitte noted, adding that the financial priorities of this group have “been delayed by financial or other constraints.” In addition, having children, buying homes, and other traditional signals of adulthood “success markers” do not top their list of ambitions,” the firm noted. “Instead, travel and seeing the world was at the top of the list (57 percent) of aspirations, while slightly fewer than half said they wanted to own a home (49 percent). They also were more attracted to making a positive impact in their communities or society at large (46 percent) than having children and starting families (39 percent).”

Deloitte also found that millennials are “increasingly skeptical of businesses' motives and impact on society, and companies need to take these attitudes seriously if they don’t want to miss out on the younger generations’ potential as consumers and employees.”

 Deloitte found that millennials are not only disillusioned with the economy and technology, but fewer and fewer of them have positive opinions of businesses. Out of the 13,000-plus millennials surveyed, 55 percent of respondents said that business has a positive impact on wider society, down from 61 percent in 2018. Deloitte concluded that this is the result of “growing views that businesses focus on their own agendas rather than considering wider society,” a statement that 76 percent of respondents agreed with.