GenXers are the biggest spenders.
By Christine Lynch
I work on the creative side of wine packaging, and as a GenXer (and an avid wine drinker) I constantly find myself inundated with sales data and statistics revolving around the marketing dollars spent on advertising to millennials. While they are one of the largest consumers of wine in terms of volume, marketers should keep in mind that it’s the GenXers that will spend more on a bottle of wine.
This article I found from Forbes suggested just this theory: “Gen X was the most likely to spend $70 on a bottle of wine more than once a month,are the most engaged wine club customers and are growing their wine cellars.”
As a whole, we are in an optimal position to have luxury brands marketed towards us. Not only are we receptive to this marketing, but we want these brands to relate to us and our experiences, just as much as the millennials want to be heard and understood. Millennials may be more adventurous in terms of their wine selection, but collectively they do not have the budgets to afford some of the brands that the GenXers have their sights set on (Flora Springs for example, is a favorite of mine).
We do tend to be more traditional as a whole, but we live both in the old and new school of marketing (print/email vs. digital/social media) and look for all the essential quality cues both in the packaging and the wine itself. I don’t have any problem dropping $50-70 on a premium bottle of wine, and possibly more for special occasions. I’m settled in to my life; I love to spend and have the funds to do so — and I love to spend it on wine.
