Industry Trends

Gen Z and Millennials Don't Actually Want the Same Label

"Younger consumers" isn't one group with one taste. It's two generations who grew up on completely different internets.

"Millennials came of age curating an aesthetic. Gen Z came of age skeptical of anyone trying to sell them one. Those are not the same shopper."

Two Generations, Genuinely Different Instincts

Wine Market Council's own generational research has tracked a real shift — Millennials now represent the largest cohort of U.S. wine drinkers, surpassing Baby Boomers, while Gen Z entry patterns into the category look meaningfully different again (Wine Market Council, Statistics). Treating both generations as one interchangeable "younger consumer" segment flattens real differences in what each actually responds to.

Millennials Respond to Curation, Gen Z Responds to Candor

Millennials, who came of age during the rise of aspirational social media curation, tend to respond to the same "Instagrammable," aesthetically considered packaging covered in this Journal's Instagrammable branding article. Gen Z, who grew up more skeptical of polished marketing generally, tends to respond better to transparency and directness — the same authenticity principle covered in this Journal's nostalgia marketing article, just calibrated toward honesty over heritage.

Don't Design for "Young People." Design for One or the Other, Deliberately

A genuinely effective brief names which generation it's actually targeting and why — this Journal's target consumer article covers exactly this discipline, and "younger consumers" is precisely the kind of vague target that discipline is meant to eliminate.

Sources

01Wine Market Council, Statistics

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