The term millennial, is it useful in marketing speak?

Just 7% of marketers believe terms like Gen X, Gen Z and millennial are a very effective means of segmentation. In fact, 55% say such demographic groupings are not very effective or not effective at all.

Vodafone head of youth and mass segments Daniel Lambrou explains he would not use such terms to define behaviours or people.

“I wouldn’t use them as part of my marketing strategy, but I would use the generic terms in conversation if I’m trying to articulate a particular point about an age group,” he states.

Similarly, MoneySuperMarket’s head of customer insight, Jonathan Wood, disagrees with “stereotyping” people into a certain group based on the year they were born.

“Attitudes, needs, behaviours and motivations – not to mention life stages – are all very diverse and so, for us, it does not make sense to group people into a collective, just because they happen to be born within a few years of each other,” he adds.

Marketing and insight director at Digital Cinema Media (DCM) Zoe Jones explains that her team avoids what she sees as overly broad labels such as Gen Z or millennial. When researching the 16- to 34-year-old audience, her team was careful to acknowledge the significant differences between someone born in 1984 and 2002.

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