Categorizing Gen Z and the Rise of “Micro-gens”

In business, we often attempt to categorize people. Customers are segmented by various demographics or psychographics. Employees are categorized by their position within the company, their diversity status, or their performance. Partners are categorized by size. In fact, categorization, grouping, and labeling are inherent to human nature. Teachers label students in school as “gifted” or not, while parents may label their children as “the athletic one,” “the musical one,” or “the funny one.” Without categorization, we would be overwhelmed. It helps us organize things, people, and places in our minds. However, the downside of categorization, especially concerning people, is that it can oversimplify the variation among individuals within a category.

For decades, businesses, and marketers, in particular, have been categorizing and labeling generations. For the past 20 years, those in marketing have focused on studying and targeting Millennials. Older generations, such as Baby Boomers and Gen X, have often vilified millennials, attributing negative traits to them — they’re lazy, entitled, overparented, and incapable of independence. Now it's Gen Z's turn. How often have you heard people complain about them? Or perhaps you've complained about them yourself? There's a reason for this. As noted in an interesting article in The New York Times by Tom Vanderbilt titled “The Psychology of Genre,” “When we struggle to categorize something, we like it less.” I hypothesize that, in reality, we had difficulty categorizing millennials (and now Gen Z), leading us to identify these negative traits that then disproportionately influenced our collective perception of who these younger generations are. More recently, we've started defining micro-segments, such as Xennials, who were born between 1978 and 1983. Xennials don't fit neatly into the stereotype of either Gen X or Millennials. This micro-generation had an analog childhood, a moderately digital adolescence, and now navigates full-blown digital adulthood. They possess a blend of experiences and characteristics from both their older Gen X counterparts and their younger Millennial siblings. This represents a step in the right direction.

I still hear people refer to millennials as if they’re still the “youngins”, the “kids”, the up-and-comers. Did you realize that the upper reaches of the millennial age range are nearing 44?! They are fully immersed in adulthood. Undoubtedly, millennials still constitute the largest and most significant generational cohort for most businesses, but not for long. A Bloomberg analysis of United Nations data indicates that, in 2019, Generation Z represented a slightly higher percentage of the overall world population (32%) than millennials (31.5%). So where are we in understanding and “categorizing” the next generation?

Generation Z, born roughly between 1995 and 2010, have fully entered the workforce. Research is emerging, and many are attempting to categorize, box, and label them as we did with millennials. Listicles are published daily, expounding the top 10 traits of Gen Z or the 5 things Gen Z cares most about. They're often portrayed as safety-conscious, frugal, entrepreneurial, and great multitaskers. However, I’m pleased to see that, for now, most portray Gen Z in a positive light. But I officially call for a “time-out” on all this broad categorization and the development of Gen Z stereotypes. Let’s start considering Gen Z in terms of micro-segments. They comprise many unique micro-segments, all born within the same 15-year span.

One indisputable aspect of Gen Z is its ethnic diversity. Depending on where you define the start and end, Gen Z is on the cusp of becoming the most diverse generation in history. In the U.S., all children born after 2007 will be part of a minority-majority generation. In other words, no single ethnicity will constitute 50% or more. So technically, Gen Z is the last generation with Caucasians slightly above 50% of the cohort (in the US). This fact should make us skeptical of any broad statements attempting to pigeonhole the entire generation into one stereotype. It’s time to delve into micro-categories.

As Tom Vanderbilt described in “The Psychology of Genre,” when we like a category, we tend to delve deeper and create sub-categories. One example he gives is music. Historically, there were only a few macro-categories: rock, pop, country, classical, etc. Now, there are dozens of sub-genres, some initially defined by just one artist. Ever heard of solipsynthm or freakbeat? Me neither, but they’re real sub-genres of music.

As you recruit, hire, train, and manage members of Generation Z and now Gen Alpha, keep the music example of sub-genres in mind. They will become the future leaders in your organization and your greatest asset. Allow them to be as unique and original as possible, and resist molding them into the shape of previous generations. They will enter your organization with diverse experiences, perspectives on work, and varied career objectives. It may require adjustments to your organizational culture, but please make room for them to be themselves. It will drive innovation and growth within your company.

Similarly, if you’re marketing and selling products or services to Generation Z or Gen Alpha, treat them as individuals. This approach contradicts the conventional segmentation and targeting of large, relevant groups. However, given that they live their lives online, and with the technological ability to target and customize messaging at an individual level, this is not as challenging as it seems.

With Generation Z and Gen Alpha, let’s not merely identify high-level characteristics and consider them sufficient. Let’s avoid boxing them in and labeling them as we have with past generations. Let’s delve deeper, acknowledge this generation as the most diverse in history, and shift our thinking away from the neat, compartmentalized groupings and stereotypes of previous generations. Whether approaching them as employers or customers, view them as diverse individuals with much to teach us about the future.