The Yuccie and 2 Dozen Other Ways to Categorize Millennials
What do you get when you combine an insufferable hipster with a materialistic, ultra-ambitious yuppie? The Yuccie.
The term, freshly minted in a Mashable post by self-proclaimed Young Urban Creative (or Yuccie) David Infante, applies to a category of millennials who are "borne of suburban comfort, indoctrinated with the transcendent power of education, and infected by the conviction that not only do we deserve to pursue our dreams; we should profit from them."
The Yuccie “is someone who is driven by the same careerist concerns as the yuppies might have been 20 years ago but with the creative drive of a hipster," Infante explained to Yahoo. "They want to be known for their craftsmanship.”
The Mashable post includes a list of behaviors reminiscent of the old Jeff Foxworthy comedy bit ("You might be a redneck …"), only the checklist here is meant to identify the Yuccie. The individual who "takes boozy painting classes," "avoids visible tattoos (not a prudent career move)," and "doesn’t like gentrification in theory; loves artisanal donuts in practice" may very well be a Yuccie. "Brogrammers hawking Uber for weed and Tinder for dogs," as well as "boutique entrepreneurs shilling sustainably harvested bamboo sunglasses," also fit the category, according to Infante.
The term "Yuccie" may be every bit as mockable as actual hipsters and Yuppies, but it's hardly the first attempt at categorizing millennials based on their consumer habits and career ambitions. The acronym HENRY, or a person who is "High Earning, Not Rich Yet," has been applied to up-and-coming millennials by none other than Goldman Sachs.
In 2012, Boston Consulting Group researchers identified "six distinct segments of U.S. millennials." They are:
• Hip-ennials (29 percent)—“I can make the world a better place.”
• Millennial Moms (22 percent)—“I love to work out, travel, and pamper my baby.”
• Anti-Millennials (16 percent)—“I’m too busy taking care of my business and my family to worry about much else."
• Gadget Gurus (13 percent)—“It’s a great day to be me.”
• Clean and Green Millennials (10 percent)—“I take care of myself and the world around me.”
• Old School Millennials (10 percent)—“Connecting on Facebook is too impersonal, let’s meet up for coffee instead!”
Mint.com, meanwhile, said that there are seven types of millennials:
• The Boomerang Baby (lives at home with parents)
• Perpetual Intern (underpaid, underemployed)
• The Grad Student
• The Idealist (active with nonprofits and crowdfunding)
• The Young Householder (loves decorating, being creative)
• The High-Tech Multitasker
• The Startup Kid (highly entrepreneurial)
Yet another list of millennial types was created last fall by the digital advertising firm Exponential. Apparently, it was impossible to limit the list to only a half-dozen or so categories. They came up with 12, including Nostalgics, Culinary Explorers, The Underemployed, The Collectors, and The Exuberants.
As you'd guess, there can be a fair amount of overlap with these groups. The individual Yuccie may very well be equal parts Idealist, Hip-ennial, Multitasker, and Exuberant, whatever that means.
Why are these categories created in the first place? Millennials aren't regularly pigeonholed merely because it's fun. Instead, millennials are placed in boxes by marketers and brand experts because understanding a demographic is the first step to being able to sell stuff to the people in it. The Boston Consulting Group presented its half-dozen millennial types with the straightforward goal of trying to "help companies improve the way they develop their marketing, brand, and business models."