Dairy checkoff dollars are at work each day looking to influence the next generation of consumers. For them, that is Generation Z, also called “Gen Z.” Dairy Management Inc. explains why that generation is so important to the industry.
“Because that’s your next generation. So that is a generation of dairy consumers, and we know that each generation that comes along is further away from understanding where their milk comes from. It’s very important for us to find new ways to be able to engage with that next-generation consumer,” said Marilyn Hershey, Chair, Dairy Management Inc.
They say they have had to get creative when trying to market dairy to a generation where 9 out of 10 people are focused on online gaming, and that includes bringing in some big names in areas where they do find interest.
“They don’t receive their news and their information in the same way we did in the past ten years. So we’re looking at new kinds of influencers. So you know an interesting statistic for me, is 9 out of 10 Gen Zers are gamers. They will either game or watch games. And to me, that’s just unfathomable. You know to think of that, but that is an area where they’re involved, and so we work with one of the strongest gamers in the country. He has over 100 million followers, so 100 million Gen Zers follow him and we have been working with him. He is currently writing our sustainability, the dairy sustainability story, into his game, and so that’s just one of the new ways that we’ve been looking at. Trying to reach that next generation with the good things that we’re doing for the environment, so that’s one way.”
Hersey says their biggest goal is to show Gen Z that the dairy industry does care about the environment. They say this generation makes purchases based on core beliefs, so it is important to sway them with statistics.
