Marketers will want to pay attention to the latest RedPlum Purse String Survey from Livonia-based Valassis, and the insight it gives into the shopping habits of millennials.
Millennials — those born in the 1980s and early 1990s — rely more heavily on print promotions than previously thought. Believe it or not, the digital generation looks to newspapers as its No. 1 source of coupons and promotional deals, just as do 51 percent of 5,100 surveyed consumers across all ages and incomes.
The top five places all respondents get coupons and deals from are newspapers; emails/coupon alerts; Internet searches; the mailbox; and retail circulars. For millennials, in-store promotions exceed their use of retail circulars by four percentage points, to rank fifth.
From print sources, millennials get their deals from the mail (33 percent); retail circulars (21 percent); and coupon books (20 percent).
This doesn’t mean, though, that the smartphone and tablet charged generation is shifting away from digital savings. In fact, they are leading the digital trend. Over the last year, 27 percent of millennials indicated they are using more mobile coupons compared to 17 percent of the overall findings.
“The RedPlum Purse String Survey results are somewhat counter intuitive from what you might expect based on what we know about millennials,” says Lisa Reynolds, vice president of consumer engagement at Valassis. “While they are heavy digital users, this group also embraces tried and true methods for savings as much as any other age group. Promotion sensitive, they are a true testament to the use of savings from both print and digital sources.”
So what type of items are they most interested in? Grocery dominates across all respondents but even more for millennials with 85 percent seeking grocery coupons compared to 78 percent of the overall findings, followed by clothing and dining out.
