Do Good, Eat Well: Millennials and Voting with Your Dollars

“Value, is what I’m talkin’ ’bout, take two of these and walk it out.” – Andre 3000

If you’ve ever been to a sales seminar, training workshop or even the old weekly sales meeting then you’ve likely had a balding man, red in the face, yelling at you about the need to “build value.” To be fair to the our red-faced friend, value is really important. If people perceive it, either real or otherwise, they are generally willing to pay more for a product – Cough Beanie Babies Cough

This is the key to profitability right? The more value your customer sees, the more they are willing to pay and the higher your profit margins – #paid. The trick is understanding what your customer values and why.

This is all much easier in the age of the internet. We have mountains of data and metrics taken from surveys and social media to tell us the who, what, when, where and why of pretty much everything. Deloitte’s latest study which, is backed up by Nielsen and Maru/Matchbox, show us exactly what’s motivating the largest generation since the dreaded Baby Boomers.

There are 76 million of us and growing. Who are us? People born from ’82 until around ’98 or rather, those ages 19 to 35 (High-Five – What up guys?) So what drives us? Why will Millennials pay more?

Not surprisingly, the key motivating factors are the ones you see pop up most often on social media. People want to work with a company that shares their world view and\or core values. One that makes a high quality product which is good for, or at least doesn’t actively destroy, the environment. They also want companies that work on improving business practices to make them less exploitative and more transparent. Millennials are tired of the bullshit runaround like: GMOs, Pink Slime and trade\business practices that strip mine the landscape both literally and figuratively. We feel a certain obligation to help build and maintain a world we want to live in and pass on.

Millennials understand that business touches the global community and environment in a very direct way. We are willing to pay more for stuff because we realize that sacrifices are made for the common good and we can vote with our $$$.

At Brojo Coffee Co it is our duty to help set the example. We are uniquely positioned because the coffee business is so reliant on the environment and small rural businesses. That’s why we only work with fair-trade coffee growers\importers that use sustainable farming practices. We are also forming partnerships with charities that share our core values. Lastly, our coffee is only $1.99 a bottle and each bottle can make two cups of coffee. That’s value you can see no matter what your age.