It’s rare that a brief has landed in our inboxes in recent years that hasn’t relied on generational segmentation to outline a target audience. From Gen Z through to Boomers, these terms are a shortcut to describing who a brand wants to market to.
Anyone in marketing automatically knows that Gen Zs – AKA Zoomers – are digital natives who are adept at integrating virtual and offline behaviours. Gen Z’s grandparents are likely Boomers, who grew up without the internet or mobile phones and still lean into traditional media formats.
However, joining these two generational demographics and the four other well-established age groups are a range of nomenclatures that capture the ‘cuspers’: those demographics born around the category intersections. These newly emerging micro-generational terms indicate that treating large swathes of the population as though they have identical behaviours and traits is too broad a brush. After all, a 27-year-old Millennial is likely to be at a very different life stage from a 42-year-old Millennial.
So, who are these ‘inbetweeners’?
First up are the Zillenials, who, as the name suggests, bridge the gap between Gen Z and Millennials. Roughly aged 22-28, they spent their childhoods in the noughties. They were shaped by events following the turn of the century.
Next are the Xennials, AKA Geriatric Millennials, who straddle Gen X and Millennials – aged between 40-46. This group of cuspers are comfortable with both analogue and digital comms and don’t align themselves comfortably with either of their portmanteau namesakes.
The micro-generation between Gen X and Boomers goes by many names. Generation Jones, Tweeners, and Boomerex – but all three titles describe those aged between 56-57.
Finally, those aged between 75 -81 are described as Shhhoomers, the ‘Shhh’ taken from the Silent Generation at the upper end of the spectrum and ‘Oomers’ taken from Boomers.
However, although these additional demographic segmentations are useful, a generational marketing strategy. Regardless of how thoroughly it is divided up – it shouldn’t be a brand’s only approach to segmenting its target audience. Marketeers should always consider socio-economic factors, such as income or type of job, and geography, to ensure they can hone in on their target audience.
