Here’s a riddle.  When is the minority, the majority?

I’ve written about the boomers as the huge demographic impacting the US consumer spending.

For many years, the focus of many consumer marketers was on the baby boomer generation.

Don’t get me wrong, there still is a huge buying group of boomers, but now it’s definitely time to shift focus to the millennials… and the group that is actually younger than the millennials!

The boomers (born around 1950 to 1965) are retiring at the rate of something like 10,000 people a day. And millennials, also known as the internet generation, are coming into the workforce and making a huge impact. But it is the next generation that are really changing the face of the U.S. Demographics.

Yes while the “Millennials” are a huge demographic.  Born in the 1980’s/90’s and 2000’s they are the internet generation. And it’s the partly the millennials, and also the next generation that are becoming the new majority demographic.  The majority this group are minorities.

Minority groups account for 50.2 percent of U.S. residents age 5 and under, 47.8 percent under the age of 20 and 46.4 percent under the age of 30.

In contrast, only 23 percent of those age 60 or older are from minority groups.

This may seem obvious to some people, but I continue to see very few minorities represented in many of the major consumer brand advertising and marketing.  When you look at demographics in the US, this shift is something that marketers must do more than just consider when selecting photos for websites, brochures and casting for videos.

The descriptions of minority and majority will blur for marketers with regards to the United States Demographics.

The answer to the riddle is the melting pot: The minority is the majority if your target market’s birthday falls after 2010!

I’m not really sure what this group of people will be called yet. Generation Z?  (I’ve heard “Homeland generation” but I don’t think that name is going to stick. ) Maybe this group seems a little young to worry about this now, but the time to look at your marketing is now!

So if you’re promoting a consumer brand, particularly if it’s a consumer brand focused on American under 30 years old, take a good hard look at your marketing visuals.

Do the visuals reflect the changes in the US Demographics and the marketplace?