How to Approach Marketing to Gen Z and Millennials

The most common mistake in marketing to Gen Z is treating them as the same audience as millennials, and the gap between the two has widened considerably.

They are now separated by more than a decade. Millennials are in their thirties and early forties, running households and careers. Gen Z spans teenagers to people approaching thirty. Any campaign addressing both as young people is addressing neither.

This guide covers where the two genuinely differ, what has changed as both have aged, and how to reach each in person.

Key Takeaways

• They are not one audience: millennials are 30 to 45 and Gen Z is 14 to 29, which is a different life stage rather than a different taste.
• Their combined spending share is growing fast: millennials and adult Gen Z now account for 32 percent of consumer spend, up eight points since 2020.
• Discounting works differently on each: promotional offers pull millennials more reliably than they pull Gen Z.
• Values alignment matters, specificity matters more: vague commitments read as marketing, while a concrete action reads as a position.
• In-person is the shared advantage: both generations respond to experiences they can attend, photograph, and share.

The Definitions, Corrected

Getting this wrong undermines everything downstream, and the boundaries have shifted since most marketing content was written.

• Millennials were born between 1981 and 1996, making them roughly 30 to 45 in 2026.
• Gen Z were born between 1997 and 2012, making them roughly 14 to 29.
• Gen Alpha, born after 2012, is now entering the picture and is not part of Gen Z. The practical consequence: the oldest Gen Z consumers are now approaching thirty, employed, and spending like adults. The youngest are still in secondary school. Treating that span as one segment is as unhelpful as treating millennials and boomers as one.

Why They Matter Commercially

The spending shift is measurable rather than anecdotal. Millennials and adult Gen Z now command 32 percent of consumer spend, an eight-point increase since 2020, while older cohorts have seen a nearly ten-point drop over the same period. 

That trajectory is the argument for adjusting now rather than later. The share is moving in one direction, and the brands establishing relationships with these audiences today are doing so while acquisition is cheaper than it will be.

Where the Two Genuinely Differ

Life Stage Before Anything Else

Most of what gets described as generational preference is life stage. A 38-year-old with a mortgage and a 22-year-old sharing a flat behave differently regardless of when they were born. Start there rather than with a personality profile.

Response to Discounts

Promotional offers reliably move millennials, who came of age through a recession and treat a good deal as a genuine reason to act. Gen Z responds less predictably to the same lever, weighing whether the brand is worth engaging with at all before the price enters the calculation.

Where They Encounter Brands

Millennials adopted social platforms as adults and use them alongside search, email, and traditional media. Gen Z has never known anything else, and discovery happens inside platforms rather than through them. That changes where a campaign has to appear, not just what it says.

What They Consider Credible

Both generations trust people over institutions, but Gen Z applies that more strictly. A recommendation from someone who seems to actually use a product carries weight that a celebrity endorsement does not, which is why creator partnerships outperform traditional endorsement for this audience.

What Has Changed Since Most Advice Was Written

• Gen Z has entered the workforce. The oldest are approaching thirty with real income, which invalidates most content written when they were teenagers.
• Millennials are the establishment now. They are the parents, the managers, and the homeowners, and marketing that addresses them as young adults misreads them entirely.
• Platform behavior has shifted. The platforms cited in older guides are not the ones dominating attention today, so any advice naming specific channels dates quickly.
• Values expectations have hardened. Both generations expect brands to hold positions, and both are now practiced at spotting a position taken for marketing reasons. Our guide to brand activation displays covers designing a build that reads quickly, which matters more for an audience that decides in seconds whether something is worth their attention.

On Values, and a Warning

Both generations weigh values in purchasing decisions, and both expect brands to stand for something. That is well established and worth acting on.

The warning is about how. A brand should align with values it can actually demonstrate, and stay out of positions it cannot back with action. Vague commitments read as marketing. A concrete action, a partnership, a donation, or a product decision reads as a position. The gap between the two is exactly what these audiences are practiced at detecting.

This also cuts commercially. A brand taking a stance it has not thought through reaches an audience that will research it, and the correction is more expensive than the original campaign.

Case Study: How Calvin Klein Reached a Young Audience in SoHo