Turns out the Baby Boomers and the Millennials may have more in common than they thought.
The two generations are together the biggest “foodies” — “a subculture of gastronomically adventurous individuals who are a smorgasbord of shapes, sizes, ethnicities, and principles.”
Foodies are, in essence, the personification of the very culinary diversity that has come to define the Foodie movement, according to Foodies in the U.S.: Opportunities for Restaurants and Retail, 2nd Edition, a report by market research firm Packaged Facts.
And while the basic assumption seems to be that most foodies are Millennials under 35, that’s not the whole story.
Indeed, even though many food retailers and foodservice companies persist in focusing their marketing efforts on foodies to Millennials, Baby Boomers also represent a key market segment for food retailers and restaurants. "Foodies have an above-average likelihood of being under the age of 35, so there is good reason for marketers to ramp up efforts to attract Millennial foodies,” says Packaged Facts research director David Sprinkle. “However, marketers need to be cautious about assuming that the only foodies who count are Millennials.”
While the demographic characteristics of the foodies highlighted in the report reflect those of various age groups as a whole, the psychographic profiles of Millennial and Boomer foodies are remarkably similar.
For example, whether they are Millennials or Boomers, foodies share a common underlying desire not only to seek out new food experiences and products but to try new things of all kinds — whether shopping at a new store, wearing new clothing styles or buying new gadgets.
Moreover, there is a strong similarity in the eating habits, food preferences, food shopping habits and attitudes toward cooking at home.
Specifically, foodies in the Boomer generation are about as likely as their Millennial counterparts to usually only snack on healthy foods, look for organic or natural foods when shopping for food, only look for the freshest ingredients when they cook, view their kitchen as the most important room in their home, and really enjoy cooking.
The report analyzes the attitudes and behavior of Foodies from two perspectives.
The first is based on self-defined foodies per the April 2015 Packaged Facts National Online Consumer Survey. And the second perspective is based on a Packaged Facts analysis of Simmons NCS trend data, highlighting a core group of "Trendsetter Foodies" who agree that they like to try out new food products and also try new recipes.
Packaged Facts, a division of MarketResearch.com, publishes market intelligence on a wide range of consumer market topics, including consumer demographics and shopper insights, consumer financial products and services, consumer goods and retailing, consumer packaged goods, and pet products and services.
