This newsletter discusses how Millennials have become passionate about food and cooking. It notes that Millennials spend a disproportionate amount of their income on food, enjoy casual cooking, and are interested in gourmet meals and high quality ingredients. The newsletter also discusses how Millennials have become enthusiastic wine drinkers and consumers, accounting for much of the growth in wine sales in recent years. Millennials favor wines with interesting stories and are more open to new varieties compared to older generations.

1. All things
Millennial
Newsletter 1 Q4, 2009
by Steven Conway
As a professional career focus of mine, I have taken on the monumental task of learning, studying, and
understanding the generation known as the Millennials – born between 1978-1995. In an effort to pass on this
knowledge to you, I have created a quarterly newsletter called All Things Millennial. Each issue will be focused
on different topics that personally relate to or have been affected by the Millennial Generation. My goal for A.T.M.
is for you to become better educated about this consumer segment and to share with others who might be interested
in learning more about this diverse generation.
THE RISE OF THE FOODIE GENERATION.
As the first topic of this Millennial focused newsletter, I wanted to write about
something that is near to my heart and the rest of my generation’s – Food. That’s right,
the generation known as Y, Millennials, or Gen C have one thing in common, we all
LOVE FOOD. Not just eating it, but cooking,
watching, talking, and thinking about it.
HERE ARE JUST SOME STATS AND FACTS
THAT SHOW WHY THE MILLENNIAL
Millennials are leading the way in becoming a generation GENERATION HAS BECOME A GENERATION
of food connoisseurs. According to market research from OF FOODIES:
Mintel, Millennials are emerging as
casual cooking enthusiasts. They find • Two out of three are classified as “casual cooking
enthusiasts” (Source: Mintel)
cooking as a “pleasurable hobby” and
cook an average of 4.4 “elaborate” or • 55% agree they are willing to spend more money
for the highest quality ingredients
“gourmet” meals every six months, more
than four times as many as those who • 40% consider themselves ‘foodies’
(Source: Millennial Marketing)
“avoid cooking” or are “non-enthusiastic
• 22% of 18-24 year olds agree they “try to eat
cooks.” As Millennials’ interest in gourmet foods whenever they can”
gourmet cooking is rising, they are also
• 85% of 20-24 year olds visit a sit down casual
starting to have different attitudes restaurant at least once a month
towards food and cooking. Carol Phillips, (Source: Millennial Marketing)
a Millennial expert and blogger, posts her • 48% visit a “fine dining restaurant” (meals over
findings on the conversations she has with $20) at least once a month
Millennials on this very topic. According (Source: Millennial Marketing)
to her own research, Millennials are • They spend a disproportionate amount of their
starting to consider cooking a hobby and income on food, food away from home, and
alcoholic beverages
describe it as a passion of theirs.

2. “Cooking is my passion.
I love doing it”
“I love watching the food network”
“I’ve seriously gotten into cooking”
“I now intend on taking classes
to learn how to cook”
If you wonder where this desire for being a culinary savant comes from, you have to look at the internal and exter-
nal forces that make up the Millennial Generation.
The Millennial generation the most diverse generation in history, as 33% are non-
Caucasian, 80% claim to have a close friend of a different race or ethnic origin and
33% under the age 18 are immigrants or children of immigrants. On top of that,
this generation grew up with ready-made access to international cuisine, from the
grab and go sushi rolls to the proliferation of Indian, Thai, Latin American options
that are found from the grocery aisle to fast food. We have been taught the
importance of food sourcing, free-range animals and organic vegetables
growing up. We prefer to shop at farmers markets, to buy local and fresh produce
and enjoy shopping at non-traditional grocery retailers like
Trader Joe’s for everyday items. Even our definition of
comfort foods is different than other generations, ranging
from burritos and ramen noodles to sushi and fruits. We are
interested in bolder, more complex taste and flavors, and have
no qualms about eating Swiss chocolates one day to Hershey
bars the next.
Additionally, the foodie phenomenon is only strengthened through the many entertainment
channels we consume. Reality food shows like Top Chef and Hell’s Kitchen have taught us
that anybody can be a cook, while informational programs like No Reservations have taught
us how to become food snobs. We have iPhone apps like Kraft’s ifood assistant that teach us
how to cook. We join online communities like food porn for those who love taking pictures
of their creations. And for the real foodie, we have niche websites like Food2.com specifi-
cally targeted to our generation.
Food2.com is a creation of the Food Network geared to the twenty-something Do It Yourself
cook. The site offers instructional cooking webisodes, with Top Chef contenders and
youthful Food Network personalities. The website launched in May of 2009 and already has
a million unique visitors each month. The site does a good job of incorporating web 2.0 tools
(blog, videos, and Flickr) to make it easy to upload and share recipes and tips among the
Food2 community. It’s a natural fit for this generation, as they typically like to express
their life’s passions online.

3. The interest in food has also influenced
Millennial’s Quick Service Restaurant
behavior, as this group has been
traditionally trading up from traditional
QSRs to fast casual restaurants in the
past few years. Between 2007-2008,
18-24 year olds were the only age
group to show a decline in the
average number of meals eaten at
QSRs (Mintel). The one fast casual
restaurant that has had the biggest
influence on this generation recently
has been Chipole. With a
reputation for food integrity and
freshness, Chipotle has become the
number one casual restaurant among
Millennials. Specifically in
California, three out of five 20-24
year olds visited Chipotle in the past
year – the highest penetration of any
fast casual chain (Brand Amplitude).
Chipotle stands firm with its “food
with integrity” vision which seeks
out better food not only from using
fresh ingredients, but also
ingredients that are sustainably
grown, naturally raised and ethically
responsible towards the animal, land
and farmers. Chipotle’s message not
only resonates with Millennials,
but also speaks to their values of
sustainable products, freshness and
most important, quality.
A series of billboards calls out their messages of “gourmet” and “ethical farming”.

4. GENERATION Y-INE
For my second topic, I wanted to write about something that has been my generation’s
new love and hobby – WINE. Millennials are wine’s next big consumer and represent
the fastest growing core wine drinking population in the United States today.
Millennials are on track to becoming the biggest consumers of wine and according to The Boston Globe,
“have the potential to become the next generation to embrace wine in numbers not seen since the baby boomers.”
Unlike past generations, Millennials wine preference, attitudes and behaviors toward wine are quite different.
Typically, this group has been willing to spend more money on different types of wines and have developed a new
definition of wine sophistication. Whereas their
Boomer parents value an expensive bottle of high
profile wines from the Bordeaux or Napa regions, HERE SOME FACTS AND STATISTICS THAT SHOW
Millennial wine drinkers gain prestige by buying a HOW MILLENNIALS ARE BECOMING THE NEXT WAVE
bottle from Croatia, which might have an OF WINOS:
interesting story attached to it. Millennials’ high
frequency of purchases indicate that they have • Millennials accounted for 46% of new wine growth in
made wine a part of everyday life, whereas past 2008, followed by 23% of Gen Xer’s (Wine council)
generations may have only relegated wine drinking
to special occasions. • Incidence of wine drinking increases from 23% among
21-24 year olds to 32% among 25-34 years old
(Wine Council)
Even the way Millennials buy wine is different
from other generations. This generation is less • Millennials who drink wine are twice as likely to belong
likely to go to wine tastings or wineries and to a wine club (20%) and to drink at wine bars in the past
is more interested in word of mouth three months (38%) as older groups (Wine Council)
recommendations, online reviews, or “discovering” • 40% of 25-34 year olds agree that more expensive wine
a bottle that is unique or interesting. Millennial tastes better compared to 31% of adults on average
wine blogger Leah Hennessy makes some good (Mintel)
observations on how Millennials navigate through
• 41% of Millennials who drink wine say they drink
the wine category:
imported wine most often vs. 31% of Gen X and 24%
of Boomers (Wine Council)
• At the same time, Millennials tend to favor more familiar
wines and wines with fun, casual names (Mintel)
• 55% of 21-24 year olds purchase wine based on brand
and 48% decide by price (Mintel)
• Millennials spend about $10 more per bottle than
average (Mintel)

5. “We get our first apartment and realize that with 2 buck chuck, we can
actually buy wine! After we get used to buying wine for $2, we start in
on the Yellow Tail. After some time with Yellow Tail, we now know we
enjoy wine and are comfortable spending more than $10 on a bottle of
wine. Now we’re serious wine consumers, but the only place we really
feel comfortable buying wine is in the supermarket. Somehow we’ve
gotten to the point where we’re getting $15-$20 everyday drinking wine,
but we have never been to a tasting, never been to a winery, and feel
like we have no idea what we’re actually doing. It doesn’t stop us from
buying, but it does keep us in our comfort zone of the same familiar
aisle at Trader Joe’s.”
Even when I look at my own wine consumption behavior I really only
consume it at home and typically purchase from local grocery or liquor stores.
Trader Joe’s is my ideal wine retailer, due to their highly competitive prices
and variety of selection. They even make wine easy to buy with their nice
little write-ups consisting of food pairings and description of flavor notes.
For me, it has been the place where I have discovered some of my favorite
bottles and has given me the ability to raise my own wine credentials as I now
can recommend good bottles to friends and family. With that said, if
you do find yourself in a Traders Joe’s anytime soon, look for a bottle of
Chariot Gypsy; a great California blend that has a complex flavor, is
extremely smooth and priced at a steal for $5.99.
This next wave of wine consumer isn’t going unnoticed. Companies
have taken note and are now marketing to the Millennial consumer on their
terms. Two wine brands that are getting it right with the Millennial generation
are Sacre Bleu and Fat Bastard.
Sacre Bleu Wines is a company that has embraced social media as the
way to reach wine-hungry Millennials. Their website features a rotating
display of lifestyle articles and social media links. Their wines aren’t
even displayed front and center and are instead tucked away in the
website. Even Sacre Bleu wine advertising has a Millennial look and
feel as it incorporates lifestyle imagery and colors, focusing on
the fun of the wine.

6. Fat Bastard is a French wine that has been around since the 90’s and
overall is a pretty good selling wine in the U.S. Online, the label offers
several ways for Millennials to engage with the brand such as links to
contests and promotions, an invitation to “share your story,” a place to
send photos of you and your fellow partygoers drinking Fat Bastard,
food pairings, recipe ideas, and of course social media links and tools.
There is even a nice cause marketing effort for the altruistic-minded
Millennials with $.25 donated for each bottle sold.
Fat bastard does a great job marketing a product that could be
perceived as pretentious and markets the fun of the product. With an
obscure brand name and a luxury theme “Are you Living Large?”
Fat Bastard lets their consumer know they don’t take themselves too
seriously with a fun persona and a light hearted, witty tone – all factors
that hit the mark when marketing to this consumer group.