Companies that offer health and nutrition products may think they know what female millennials want, but unless they’ve shopped alongside them and asked, they may have no clue. No clue why female shoppers are buying a competitor’s product, nor how they have learned about products and how the products might fit into their lifestyle.

Green Purse PR conducts in-person shop-along research to understand how health-conscious women around the world shop for healthy products in stores and online. Much of the time, the research is focused on understanding how Millennial women think, behave and buy so brands can better connect with and sell to this group of influential consumers.

Why Millennials are So Hot Right Now

Millennials are all over trade news. While other generations are also important and have money to spend, Millennials are unique from others in their tendency to influence not only other Millennials, but also other generations as well. In the area of healthy, natural and organic products, Millennials are especially important as they can help make or break a brand.

How Millennial Women are Different

Female Millennials are in some cases different from their male counterparts, as well as women from other generations. First, women typically have a much more complex approach to decision making when it comes to buying products, like vitamins, a frozen entrée, pre-made baby food or even a deodorant. A lot of different factors and thought can go into why she buys a product or enjoys staying loyal to a brand. How she learns about products can also be quite different. Many of them are learning about products through social media such as Instagram and sometimes even putting them in their online shopping cart (like Amazon.com) instantly from their mobile phone.

Millennial Women Engaging with Brands and Retailers

Millennial women love to show their natural lifestyles to others—to their networks offline and online, especially on social media. Millennials are more open to having a stronger connection with or perhaps even a relationship with brands, especially the ones with products she is most passionate about. They are often willing to go out of their way to advocate for a brand. A good example of this is Whole Foods Market shoppers. Millennial women who shop at Whole Foods Market interact with the brand online and show how passionate they are about sharing their experiences there with others. It’s common to find moms, for example, who post photos from the store to show a new product, like an eco-friendly thermos that they’ve found for their child. 

Learn more capturing the female Millennial consumers from Lisa Mabe during the How Millennials Are Transforming Modern Marketing workshop on Tuesday, Sept. 26 at 9:00 a.m. at SupplySide West in Las Vegas.

Hear more from Mabe in the SupplySide West Podcast: Connecting with the Millennial Woman.

Lisa Mabe is CEO of Green Purse PR (greenpursepr.com), a boutique research and public relations (PR) consultancy based Washington. She is an award-winning PR expert with recognized expertise in marketing to women, shopper research and social communications. Mabe conducts research and directs marketing communications for companies keen to understand and connect with health-conscious female consumers. She has more than 12 years of experience working with companies around the world, such as KeHE Distributors, Saffron Road, OBE Organic and Edible Arrangements. Follow Mabe on Twitter at @LisaMabe and follow her blog, #GetInHerCart, for more marketing to women insight.