Roye Mazumdar

It’s easy to see why there is so much confusion about generational cohorts.

If you’ve ever felt muddled by this "alphabet soup" of names — you’re not alone. The real frustration hits when you realize that Millennial consumers represent the highest-spending generation in 2020 — with a projected $1.4 trillion tab.

And though their current wealth has been dragged down by not one but two “once-in-a-lifetime” economic crises during their most impactful career years, Millennials stand to inherit over $68 trillion from Baby Boomer and early Gen X parents by the year 2030, setting them up to potentially be the most wealthy generation in U.S. history.

Generation Z isn’t far behind, projected to hit $33 trillion in income by 2030 — that’s more than a quarter of all global income — and pass Millennials in spending power the year after. 3

And coming up last but not least is Generation Alpha, the name given by social analyst Mark McCrindle to the youngest children on the planet. By the year 2025 there will be nearly 2 billion members of Generation Alpha across the globe.

No matter how you slice the data, the younger generations have never been more critical to your financial institution’s future.

Unless you understand who they are and what they want, you won’t capture a dollar of their money.

A common source of confusion when labeling generations is their age. Generational cohorts are defined (loosely) by birth year, not current age. The reason is simple — generations get older in groups. If you think of Millennials as college kids (18 - 22), then not only are you out of date — you’re thinking of a stage in life, not a generation. Millennials are now well out of college, and that life stage is dominated by Gen Z.

Another example, a member of Generation X who turned 18 in 1998 would now be over 40. In that time, he or she cares about vastly different issues and is receptive to a new set of marketing messages. Regardless of your age, you will always belong to the generation you were born into.

The breakdown by age looks like this:

The term “Millennial” has become the popular way to reference both segments of Gen Y (more on Y.1 and Y.2 below).

Sometimes labeled with the moniker “Zillennials”, those wedged at the tail end of Millennials and the start of Gen Z are sometimes labeled with this moniker — a group made up of people born between 1994 and the year 2000.

Originally, the name Generation Z was a placeholder for the youngest people on the planet — although Generation A has now taken over that distinction. However, in the same way that Gen Y morphed into Millennials, there is certainly a possibility that both Gen Z and Gen A may adopt new names as they leave adolescence and mature into their adult identities. While the label Gen A makes discussion easier, it may not be the last word on this group of humans.

It started with Generation X, people born between 1965-1980. The preceding generation was the Baby Boomers, born 1946-1964. Post-World War II, Americans enjoyed newfound prosperity, which resulted in a "baby boom." The children born as a result were dubbed the Baby Boomers.

But the generation that followed the Boomers didn’t have a blatant cultural identifier. In fact, that’s the anecdotal origin of the term Gen X — illustrating the undetermined characteristics they would come to be known by. Depending on whom you ask, it was either sociologists, a novelist, or Billy Idol who cemented this phrase in our vocabulary.

From there on it was all down-alphabet. The generation following Gen X naturally became Gen Y, born 1981-1996 (give or take a few years on either end). The term “Millennial” is widely credited to Neil Howe, along with William Strauss. The pair coined the term in 1989 when the impending turn of the millennium began to feature heavily in the cultural consciousness.

Generation Z refers to babies born from the late 90s through today. A flurry of potential labels has also appeared, including Gen Tech, post-Millennials, iGeneration, Gen Y-Fi, and Zoomers.

While some say Generation Alpha is named for the first letter of the Greek alphabet and denotes the first of a series of items or categories, Generation Alpha may also just be an easy way to round the corner into a new alphabet.

Javelin Research noticed that not all Millennials are currently in the same stage of life. While all Millennials were born around the turn of the century, some of them are still in early adulthood, wrestling with new careers and settling down, while the older Millennials have a home and are building a family. You can imagine how having a child might change your interests and priorities, so for marketing purposes, it's useful to split this generation into Gen Y.1 and Gen Y.2.

Not only are the two groups culturally different, but they’re in vastly different phases of their financial life. The younger group is just now flexing their buying power. The latter group has a more extensive history and may be refinancing their mortgage and raising children. The contrast in priorities and needs is stark.

The same logic can be applied to any generation that is in this stage of life or younger. As we get older, we tend to homogenize and face similar life issues. The younger we are, the more dramatic each stage of life is. Consider the difference between someone in elementary school and high school. While they might be the same generation, they have very different views and needs.

Marketing to young generations as a single cohort will not be nearly as effective as segmenting your strategy and messaging.

Each generation label serves as a shorthand to reference nearly 20 years of attitude, motivations, and historical events. Few individuals self-identify as Gen X, Millennial, or any other name.

They’re useful terms for marketers and tend to trickle down into common usage. Again, it’s important to emphasize that referring to a cohort only by the age range gets complicated quickly. Ten years from now, the priorities of Millennials will have changed — and marketing tactics must adjust instep. There are also other categories of cohorts you can use to better understand consumers going beyond age or generation.

Remember, these arbitrary generational cutoff points are just that. They aren’t an exact science and are continually evolving.

Whatever terminology or grouping you use, the goal is to reach people with marketing messages relevant to their phase of life. In short, no matter how many letters get added to the alphabet soup, the most important thing you can do is seek to understand the soup du jour for the type of consumer you want to attract.

Before we dive into each generation, remember that the exact years born are in dispute, because there are no comparably definitive thresholds by which the later generations (after Boomers) are defined. But this should give you a general range to help identify what generation you belong in.

The other fact to remember is that new technology is typically first adopted by the youngest generation and then is gradually adopted by the older generations. As an example, 96% of Americans have a smartphone, but Gen Z (the youngest generation) is the highest user.

If you want to know more about Gen Z, check out this deep dive into their media consumption and banking habits.

Younger generations have often led older Americans in their adoption and use of technology, and this largely holds true today.

Although Baby Boomers may trail Gen X and Millennials on native technology usage, the rate at which Boomers expand their use of technology is accelerated.

In fact, Boomers are far more likely to own a smartphone than they were in 2011 (68% in 2019 vs. 25% then).

Knowing generational trends is important, as they can unveil similar attitudes and behaviors among consumers who experienced world events at the same life stage as their cohorts. And it doesn’t hurt to understand these age groups since marketing tools and audience segmentations generally include age as a factor.

But the generations don’t tell the whole story and their behaviors can be hard to lock down. After all, every generation grows up. So. can you rely on age ranges alone? Here's what we think.

Absolutely, and for several reasons.

Ease of use vs. personal service.

If you think bots are taking over the world, you might be right. But for Millennial and Gen Z consumers, this isn’t necessarily a bad thing. In fact, according to a recent Adobe Analytics study, 44% of Gen Z and 31% of Millennials have used a banking chatbot to answer their questions. And before you think that must be a terrible user experience, over half of both groups who actually used a chatbot said the experience was better than talking to a real person.

However, for more complicated banking tasks, even the younger generations prefer the added assistance of a human representative.

Security still comes first, always. But each generation has their own priorities.

When choosing a new place to bank, “security” was the top-rated concern across Gen Z, Millennials, Gen X, and Boomers. “Reputation” (also known as your brand) finished second for both Gen Z and Millennial consumers.

However, for Gen Z and Boomer consumers, branch locations was the second most popular result, with “reputation” close behind. Younger consumers still care about branch locations but weigh it around the same level as an institution’s digital and app services.

For Generation X, digital and app services were edged out by in-person support. For Baby Boomers, banking local was more important.4 However, before you write off the importance of your online and mobile banking for these consumers…

Technology isn’t just for younger generations anymore.

The trend has long been for each new generation to adopt digital and mobile banking services more readily. But the COVID-19 pandemic has turned on a new wave of late-adopters who now bank digitally, too.

According to a recent Zelle survey, now 82% of seniors age 55+ are banking online more frequently — with 61% and 55% turning to social media and mobile banking more frequently too.5

That lines up closely with the start of the Baby Boomer demographic (currently ages 57 to 75). And while only time will tell how lasting this shift to digital tools and services will be, the more positive your digital experience, the more likely you are to extend your digital reach with this generation.

Today, older generations are behaving more like younger generations. And if you want to succeed in tomorrow’s market, you already need to meet these younger generations where they are. Now is the time to extend your brand of great service beyond the branch.

1 SOURCE: https://www.5wpr.com/new/research/5wpr-2020-consumer-culture-report/

2 SOURCE: https://blog.coldwellbankerluxury.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/CBGL-Millennial-Report_SEP19_FINAL-4a.1-1-1.pdf

3 SOURCE: https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/stocks/gen-z-economic-impact-outlook-spending-permanently-change-investing-bofa-2020-11-1029822486

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