Baby Boomers, Millennials and Gen Xers and Gen Z- how relevant are they and who will have the most influence for your food/drink business

how relevant are they and who will have the most influence for your food/drink business

By Irina Gujabidze

Today I want to draw your attention to the concept of consumer psychology in various generations and their importance from a marketing perspective.

Whatever is your business, you have the opportunity to gain new clients from different generations. The problem arises when we give the same message, with the same language to different audiences. 

The biggest struggle is that we tend to position our marketing messages in a way that is natural and engaging for us, but what you really need to do is to work on your communication methods and messages to structure and speak to your audience in a way that is easily understandable and engaging to them.

 In our data, we found that different generations respond to the same research questions asked differently. Different generations are motivated differently, and they find different things appealing to them. Our, job as marketers, is to shift and be smart to meet the needs of each generation and generate a two-way communication; brand to consumer and consumer to brand relationship.

 So, today I will be breaking down for you the different generations and their psychological types and how important is to know their psychological types for your business.

 Each academic institution has their own views on birth years, but the worldwide acknowledged ones are:

1.  Boomers: Born before 1960, we call them “builders”
2. Generation X: Born between 1960-1982, they are doers
3. Millennials: Born from 1982 to 2000, known as adapter
4. Generation Z: 2000 onwards, they are brilliant generations

Boomers – they process information through talking and verbal communications. They love words, but smart words, meaningful ones.

They love research-based marketing and it is the best to engage with them with tangible communication messages, for example, if there is a bold claim on your product you better back it up with a statistic. Boomers are not particularly our target consumers considering the brands we have now, but the perfect example is ‘Compare the Meerkat! adverts. 

GenXers– the generation who enjoying processing information visually. If you want them to understand you, talk to them with image-based messages. They love pictures , literally.

 They do not want a marketing pitch. They do not like the idea of something being sold to them. They hate the idea of being ripped off, more than any other generation and are really value driven. It is all about relationships for them and gaining value. What is the best marketing tool for them? make them believe that they pay less and getting more value from your product or service, push the product to them via sales promotions to really make them hooked on it. 

 Millennials – in other words, the adapt, adopt and improve generation.

They are fully transparent, fearless, motivated and technology lovers. Think of the apps such as Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, etc we share everything, sometimes too much. A connection is our soothers and a way to distress.

Millennials don’t think in terms of the words or pictures, unlike the previous two generations, we think in terms of the actions.

We do not care what you say about your product but care more about what your clients say. Millennials are not interested in product showcasing, but what your brand or a product does to a greater community because the overall social impact is what means the most. 

GenZ – First generation who grew up totally immersed in technology. Technology is their soothers. Why ? because when they were crying babies, they were given gadgets and computers to entertain and calm them down. They reach their phone to soothe their stress by connecting with people in the online world. 

Now keep in mind that this is a generalisation of each generation. For instance, Millennials from Europe will do things slightly differently from Millennials in Latin America or Asia, this is because the environment we live in, influences on our perception, needs and reaction towards the things.

Hope you all enjoyed reading the article.

Until next time 🙂

Irina xxx

Baby Boomers, Millennials and Gen Xers and Gen Z by Irina Gujabidze

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