Meet Yuccies: The New Millennial You Need to Know About

By Karin Eldor

You might have already gotten acquainted with millennials: the demographic every retailer and brand is trying to target.

After all, there are an estimated 79 million millennials in the U.S., versus 48 million Gen Xers (born between 1965 and 1980).

Now a new subset of millennials has been identified (just don’t call them hipsters – there’s more to them than that). Drumroll, please. Meet: the Yuccies.

It all started in June 2015, when Mashable writer David Infante coined the term “Yuccies” – and the Internet basically exploded with follow-up articles and commentaries.

Mashable defines the Yuccie as a “Young Urban Creative” and explains, “Yuccies are the cultural offspring of yuppies and hipsters.” Yuccies want to “be successful like yuppies and creative like hipsters.”

David Infante continues to explain: “[The Yuccie] is someone who is driven by the same careerist concerns as the yuppies might have been 20 years ago but with the creative drive of a hipster… They want to be known for their craftsmanship.”

From boardroom to chalkboard

Yuccies are leaving the boardroom and going the creative route: they have new creative ideas and they’re not afraid to go for what they want.

Instead of being part of the corporate world’s rat race, they pride themselves on doing what fulfills them – like being part of a start-up, or creating a start-up themselves where they identify a need.

Marketing to Yuccies

If you’re looking to get to know Yuccies a bit more, Buzzfeed listed some of the things that make them tick (of course they did, right?). I teased out a ten to sum it up for you:

Gmail (they basically make fun of anyone still on Yahoo!)
Hot yoga
Netflix. Uber. Etsy.
Beyonce
Half marathons and “color runs”
#throwbackthursday, vacation hashtags, Instagramming the sky while on a flight
iPhones
Juicers and doing cleanses
The Wire, Game of Thrones, Orange is the New Black
Glass water bottles

So now you know who they are and what they like. Here are some tips on how to market your brand to them.

Get visual:

Yuccies are all about Instagram and likely play on Snapchat too.

More from the Mashable piece:

“[Yuccies] are a big part of the reason that 43% of every millennial food dollar is spent in restaurants, instead of at home. After all, what product is more fraught with the politics of money and creativity than dinner? It’s gotta be Instagrammed.”

As a social media platform, Instagram gives brands the opportunity to give audiences a behind-the-scenes peek and really delve into a brand’s lifestyle. Yuccies love this type of creativity, especially when it seems truly organic and real.

If your brand isn’t leveraging Instagram yet, look into whether the channel makes sense for you. This could be an untapped opportunity for your brand to speak to a whole new demographic. And if you’re already on Instagram, work on your strategy to really take your visuals to the next level. Maybe it means focusing on best practices on Instagram, or simply investing more on Instagram initiatives like a contest, for example.

Motivating people to snap and share their own take on your product(s) can be a great way to get Yuccies talking about your brand – after all, this is the demographic that loves snapping selfies and food pics. So create a hashtag and work on a strategy to get more user-generated content and make sure to engage with them once they do share their pics. Yuccies (and most millennials, for that matter), thrive on the ability to share their opinion or point of view about your brand. Let them show you the lens they’re using.

Create a sense of purpose:

According to an article on Inc., brand loyalty is earned via product quality and a positive customer experience, but it’s also earned through a company’s support and work for society.

Millennials and as a result Yuccies, have a bad rap for being “selfie-loving narcissists,” but according to Inc., 75% of them have stated that it is fairly or very important for a company to give back to society.

Millennials love to know that they're making a difference – so give them that feeling.

Be mindful:

Another interesting note about Yuccies: Meditation and yoga retreats have replaced bars and partying.

This demographic is more about doing a detox than getting intoxicated at the clubs. Meditation is more important than happy hour. Doing a spinning class at Soul Cycle – and even networking there at the same time – is what makes Yuccies tick.

According to a WGSN study about millennials: “The priority is not achieving successful work-life balance, but successful work-life integration… The shopping experience gets holistic: the lines between mindfulness and materialism are relaxing and blurring. New retail concepts and websites aimed at Millennials show that designer shopping, luxury beauty products and spiritual wellbeing go hand-in-hand.”

So with this in mind, remember that it's all about the mind / body connection for Yuccies, and most millennials. These consumers crave a meaningful connection to the brands they love, and to them, the shopping experience is more important than the products they buy. Focus on uplifting experiences, and if you can also create content that speaks to the spiritual well-being of the consumer, then even better.

Say yes to Yuccies

It seems that a new cultural subset is being born every minute – you're already one step ahead of the game by getting to know Yuccies.

Keeping an open mind and recognizing the importance of these new demographic archetypes will keep your brand sharper and more successful. So prepare to get to know the Yuccies even more, as they are here to stay – and ready to make their mark.

Resources:

Mashable – Post-Hipster Yuccie
Inc.com – Inside the Mind of the Millennial Consumer