Earlier this summer, home appliance maker Midea recalled 1.7 million window air conditioner units due to potential mold exposure. It was a major bump in the road for the company, and a wake-up moment for many of its core consumers– millennials.
“To see that it got recalled, it was a big letdown,” Janel Strachan, a 31-year-old New Yorker and Midea lover, told Business Insider.
Midea isn't the only millennial-beloved company going through a rough patch right now. While not every brand is struggling with mold, the outlet says many of them are finding that defining features are finally being identified for what they really are– marketing ploys– rather than the cutting-edge offerings they had claimed to be.
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There is a handful of qualities that mark brands as distinctly millennial. A direct-to-consumer approach, think DirectSmileClub, which abruptly shuttered at the end of 2023, is a prime example. A do-good model, like at Bombas, where a piece of clothing is donated for every item sold, and the pastel packaging and winky copy of brands like Glossier are other defining aspects of a classic millennial brand.
Whatever their defining feature, many of these companies are now realizing that they may not be as immune to the perils of rapid-fire growth or the changing winds of retail as they had once thought. Attaining longevity requires more than just capturing the attention of a singular generation, Business Insider says. It involves developing a quality product that people of all ages want.
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This cycle of generationally-associated brands is nothing new. Dhananjay Nayakankuppam, a marketing professor at the University of Iowa, points to brands like Buick as proof. The car brand was popular among members of the silent generation and baby boomers, but has since fallen off as younger generations have come to see it as old and stuffy.
"If you have brands which get too tightly tied to a particular cohort or a generation as that cohort and generation ages, it can leave the brand high and dry,” Nayakankuppam told the outlet.
Buick has been one of General Motors' (NYSE:GM) best-selling brands in China for years. According to GM, Q2 2025 sales of the Buick GL8 family were up 70% year-over-year, and two SUV and sedan models have seen sales triple and double, respectively.
The millennial companies that are thriving are the ones that have recognized this truth and adjusted accordingly.
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Take Glossier, for example. Once the epitome of millennial branding, with its sugary pink packaging, exclusivity, and immersive shopping experience, the company shifted direction bit by bit over the last few years. Now, it's well-recognized as a solid makeup brand with quality offerings that are sold at both national retailers and from its own website and physical stores. As a result, it now has a wide customer base, ranging from Gen Alpha to Baby Boomers and beyond.
“What this is suggesting is that you have a small time window of maybe 10, 15 years where you have to somehow get beyond just being a brand of that generation in some sense," Nayakankuppam told Business Insider. “You have to become mainstream enough that your appeal goes beyond just that generation.”
Other millennial brands hoping to stay afloat as Gen Z outpaces millennials as the generation with the highest spending power would do well to heed that advice.
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