MUMBAI: A survey commissioned by B'lue, a beverage by Danone Narang Beverages in association with Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) and the Key - Consumer Diagnostics Pvt. Ltd., gives insight into a powerful new generation: the Millennial.

The study reveals insights about the millennial generation:

    - A job is not the end goal, the experience is
    - Life-Work balance is the new mantra
    - Being confident keeps the millenials at its best
    - Learning opportunities and growth at work uplifts today's generation

With the young India comprising nearly 31.5 per cent of population in the country (NSS 2008-09), today's millennial generation is one of the biggest generations in numbers and by 2020, its members will represent one out of every three adults. Millennials - the generation born after 1985 are YOLOs who ardently believe that You Only Live Once (YOLO). The study aimed to understand what they think and how they are shaping and being shaped by a fast-paced and radically changing world.

Sponsored by B'lue, The Indian YOLOs conducted by Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) and The Key - Consumer Diagnostics Pvt. Ltd., gives us insight into a powerful new generation: the Millennials. A culmination of a quantitative and qualitative analysis, in Mumbai and Delhi over 2 months, the survey opines the thought of 500 Millenials (300 male and 200 female).

Commenting on the study, Mr. Tarun Arora, Country Head, Danone-Narang Beverages said, "The study on young India was commissioned to understand what uplifts today's millennial generation. The survey brings out several key findings which highlight Young India's outlook on aspects such as life-work balance, life experiences and inclination towards charitable causes. The millennial group is a promising group with positive, group-oriented, can-do ethos. They have high ideals - and a strong commitment to those ideals, values and beliefs. A 24X7 generation who wants to be at their optimal best, anytime, anywhere, a companion is all they want to be at their best hamesha. B'lue has been especially designed keeping in mind today's young India's need for a companion in their pursuit of their dreams, passion and aspirations. B'lue, with its distinctive taste is what every Young Indian ultimately aspires to be - Inventive, unique and surprising."

For the millennials, a job is not the end goal, the experience is

Today's millennial generation is overloaded with information, they have a lot to explore and have a lot of choices. We already knew this. But what emerged new in this study was that millennials believe in exploring all the new opportunities they come across as opportunities fascinate them. They don't see a job as a beginning of a career but a beginning of a new experience. If they don't like it there is another one to experience. And that may perhaps be what's best for them and what they are best suited for they believe in trying to work hard in this journey of experience to ultimately find what they want to pursue in the long run. For Millennials, a job is a means to an end of a new experience. The Experience Generation counts the number of experiences as more important as compared to its previous generations for whom experience was counted in number of years of work put in. That is why perhaps they are not able to stick to any job for longer than a few months and rarely does anyone stretch it beyond a year at the beginning of their work life. Employers read this as poor loyalty but the truth is millennials are signaling through these thumbnail careers, the return of the management trainee system which most employers have summarily dismissed from their training calendars. The good old system of inducting new recruits across all departments of a company is unwittingly being practised by this generation. The survey also highlights that the size of the company is not an important requirement for a potential employer for today's generation. 76% youth give more weightage to a job with learning opportunities and growth.

Life-Work balance is the new mantra, Work-Life balance is passé

"I work to live, I don't live to work." - Today's generation strongly believes in prioritizing their personal life compared to their professional life. Though being more motivated to pursue their dreams and goals, they have a different outlook on what they expect from their employment experience. Being well educated, skilled in technology, self-confident, able to multi-task, they have high expectations for themselves, and prefer to work in teams, rather than as individuals. Millennials seek challenges, yet life work balance is of utmost importance to them. With an approach to live life on their own terms, millennials will not stay in their jobs if they are not satisfied or agree with their bosses or work culture. As per the report around 54% of youth will consider a job with less work time and 89% of youth look for flexible timing while opting for a job. Millennials seek "life-work" balance instead of "work-life" balance. Popularly known as YOLO (You Only Live Once) generation, they believe in living their life to the fullest, pursuing their dreams and passions and focusing more on having a well-balanced life.

It is all about discovery and sharing

Millennials have arrived! With an approach to rethink, redefine and reinvent, they are creating a drastic change in the entire structure. Brought up by helicopter parents, this generation is conditioned to sharing most of their life's accounts with their parents. It was their parents who chose to drop the authoritarian parenting they had experienced when they were young. With parents as good as their friends who comment on their facebook updates, there are very few secrets that the millennials keep. If one is seeing someone, the parents, well mostly the moms, know that. Parents have done their homeworks, their projects and even got them their jobs. Millennials have grown up taking sharing seriously. They share everything with friends and family and even with strangers. And it is not just their money, ideas or time, it could well be their life or a part of it. In corporate set ups they jettison ego and are eager team players. So much so that they expect their employers to help them learn just as their parents did with them. This expectation of helicopter engaging may not go down too well with todays employers who do feel this generation is too much about 'show me how it is done' attitude. But all in all this is a promising group with positive, group-oriented, can-do ethos. Millennials are large hearted, altruistic, passionate about causes close to their hearts and are actively involved in effecting about large-scale social change. Alomost 51.2% Youth across Mumbai and Delhi today express their keenness to work for charitable causes and betterment of society than their parents. They believe that volunteering in the community is highly important and a great way to effect change not just on the local level, but on the global level as well. With a strong awareness of social issues today's youth is passionate about bringing about changes and working towards the betterment of society. They would like to be in the system to make the change they wish to see. The Indian YOLOs - about 38% would like to join politics to bring the change they believe in. Intolerant towards injustice, corruption and crime, the generation has taken it upon itself to become extraordinary and effective champions of change.

"Honesty through actions, not words"

Too much of information overload brings in its own challenges. The need to sift good information from bad is high in this generation. And anybody who can do that is worthy of their respect. Knowledge and intelligence hence become interchangeable terms. Millennials are a generation which respects honesty and transparency. Millennials hate cheaters. Be they in personal relationships or corporate engagement. They feel bad selling false claims of a company so much that they can leave the job for the same. They respect companies that do not short change employees. They disrespect a company that encourages late working, cuts salary when employees are unwell etc. They have high ideals - and a strong commitment to their values and beliefs, this generation is well suited to tackle the seemingly insurmountable challenges before them. Millennials are an optimistic generation. They tend to believe that they and their children will be successful. About 45 per cent youth feel that economic conditions of the country in next 5 years seem much better.

About B'lue:

B'lue is new kind of a soft drink beverage that is enriched with a proprietary blend of vitamins B3, B6, B9, B12 and minerals like potassium, sodium, and magnesium for the body. B'lue has been launched after an extensive consumer collaboration aimed at understanding the consumer's lifestyle, their daily grind and motivations. It is inspired from the success stories of Danone's international portfolio, but co-created with the Indian consumer.

B'lue has been specially created for the Indian palate, after several consumer iterations and extensive consumer preference tests. Danone Narang employed some unique diagnostic tools to identify the mood spectrums and taste profiles of Indian consumers to map the kind of beverages preferred by Indians and the drinking techniques. The insights gained from these tests lead to formulating B'lue, a truly unique beverage customized for the Indian consumers.

About Danone-Narang Beverages:

Danone and Narang group formed a joint venture in July 2010 forming Danone Narang Beverages (manufacturing and marketing) and Narang Danone Access (distribution) to develop the natural mineral water and the beverage market, enhancing new categories in urban India.

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Primary Media Contact: Swati Mirchandani, smirchandani@perfectrelations.com, 91-2224367155

Secondary Media Contact: Kanika Maheshwari, kmaheshwari@perfectrelations.com, 91-2224367155