Can McCormick coax Millennials into cooking by partnering with BuzzFeed?

Millennials don't cook much.  Last June UBS published a 82 page report entitled "Is the Kitchen Dead?"  In it they predicted that by the year 2030 most meals would be cooked outside of the home and delivered. (Chong, 2018)

As a company that makes spices for home cooking, McCormick must have been pretty discouraged by that finding.  But 2030 is still a while away and in the meantime they have an opportunity to take advantage of the fact that at the moment some consumers do cook.  But not surprisingly the percentage that does, decreases with age.

Frequency of Cooking at Home by Generation

generation	Everyday	A couple times a week	Once a week	A couple times a month or less	Never
Millennials	49%	37%	6%	5%	3%
Gen X	58%	32%	5%	4%	1%
Boomers	62%	29%	3%	4%	2%
Silent	62%	24%	3%	6%	4%

 

gobranded.com (Miles, 2017)

Which brings us to the question of how to engage Millennials in cooking.  Enter BuzzFeed and Tasty.  In case you missed it, according to the latest data, BuzzFeed has a global audience of 650 million people and reaches 60% of Millennials in the U.S. (Smith, 2019)

While Tasty currently has about 4 million subscribers who are looking at 700 million videos weekly. (2019)

Perhaps more importantly, Buzzfeed has shared data about Millennial cooking and shopping trends and McCormick has used these to develop new Tasty Seasonings Blends with flavors such as Fiery, Zesty and Jazzy, which will be introduced this spring.  (Guaglione, 2019)

I have to admit as a Baby Boomer those designations don't do much for me.  But then again I am not the target for the effort.  But perhaps I should be, as it is easier to convince a customer who is already using your product to use it more, than it is to get a new customer.

Or perhaps Gen X would have been a better target.  They're already cooking more than Millennials, and since they are 39 - 54, their doctors are probably getting on their cases to clean up their eating habits.  And then there's Gen Z, who maybe spearheading a back-to-basics approach to life.

So, what do you think?  Does it make sense to target Millennials given the availability of relevant data and a medium that reaches them?  Or would it make more sense to reach out to a different segment?  Perhaps a different generation?  Or ethnicity/gender?

Chong, A. (2018, June 26)  Millennials Are Ordering More Food Delivery, But Are They Killing The Kitchen, Too?  forbes.com.  Retrieved April 2, 2019, from

https://www.forbes.com/sites/andriacheng/2018/06/26/millennials-are-ordering-food-for-delivery-more-but-are-they-killing-the-kitchen-too/#554f439f393e

Miles, K. (2107, October 24)  To Cook Or Not To Cook? Generational Differences In Cooking Habits.  gobranded.com.  Retrieved April 2, 2019, from  https://gobranded.com/branded-poll-to-cook-or-not-to-cook/

Smith, C. (2019, March 24)  38 Amazing BuzzFeed Statistics and Facts (2019)  dmr.com.  Retrieved April 2, 2019, from  https://expandedramblings.com/index.php/buzzfeed-statistics/

(2019, April 1)  Channel Changes For Tasty.  statsheep.com.  Retrieved April 2, 2019, from

https://www.statsheep.com/UCJFp8uSYCjXOMnkUyb3CQ3Q