When Should Marketers Use Generational Marketing Essay Example

they are now growing more rapidly than traditional households. Each group has distinctive needs and buying habits, creating opportunities for marketers. Generational marketing can be useful but companies must be careful not to alienate potential customers from a different age cohort.

Generational marketing is often used when designing separate product and marketing programs for each market. Generational marketing has emerged as a means of segmenting the population based on various demographic and psychographic factors. It is a strategy that provides a competitive advantage among consumer products companies. This strategy has also been adopted by the financial services industry as a new technique to dig up clients. The method of marketing to a specific generation is affecting the way that we promote and sell products and services.

We are all a product of our generation. Each generation have their own characteristics, because of this as a marketing target we can usually categorize by generations by the way that we act and speak as well as our belief systems. A generational cohort has been defined as "the group of individuals (within some population definition) who experience the same event within the same time interval". The U. S. generation or age cohort is a group of persons who travel through life together and experience similar events at a similar age.

That is, they share a common social, political, historical, and economic environment. There are four popular generational categories that most marketers tend to focus on. They include: 1. Millenials or Generation 2001ers, born after 1980 2. Baby Busters or Generation Xers born between 1965 and 1980 3. Baby Boomers born between 1946 and 1964 4.

Mature Citizens born between 1909 and 1945 America, in 2009, was experiencing this particular constellation of generational dynamics: Boomers, currently 49-66 years old, are just beginning to move out of midlife and into the early stages of elderhood.

The broad generational personality that Boomers experience orients toward vision, values and religion (spiritual discovery). The Baby Boomer generation is on the verge of retirement age and tends to gravitate toward products that bring a sense of nostalgia and a reminder of their earlier years. Even though this generation is the wealthiest of them all, they are beginning to save money and live frugally. Advertisements that are simple and act as reminders to Baby Boomers that retirement is around the corner, will potentially appeal to this audience.

GenXers, currently 28-48 years old, are just beginning to move out of young adulthood and into midlife. The broad generational personality that GenXers experience orients toward liberty, survival and honor. Generation X consumers are mid-way through their careers and tend to have more family-oriented and casual lifestyles. They look for balance and perspective in their lives and make time for leisure activities (Foley and LeFevre, 2001). Advertisements that appeal to the sense of family, more specifically the ‘ideal family’ lifestyle that members of Generation X value, are more likely to be successful with this cohort.

Since they are well-defined within their careers, an established and balanced lifestyle at their current age is very important. Products that are geared towards these beliefs and sell family-values, will appeal most to Generation X. Millennials, currently 7-27 years old, are just beginning to arrive as young adults in the American landscape.

The broad generational personality that Millennials experience orients toward community, affluence and technology. In order to market effectively to a generation you must find a way to grab their attention, by using a message that resonates with them.

Generational determined lifestyles and social values exercise as much influence on buying and purchasing as more commonly understood demographic factors like income, education, and gender do-perhaps even more. To succeed in generational marketing you must understand how the motivation of your consumers correlates with the underlying values of their generation. When you know this you are able to customize your message to cater to the generation when it comes to your products and services. You can then present the message with your products, services, and communication to their needs and desires.

Of course, every generation ultimately will pass through the same life stages, from youth to old age. As the younger generations find their place in society as consumers, employees and parents, it becomes more and more important for businesses to acknowledge these soon-to-be-powerful demographics. Build brand loyalty with them now, and you may reap the results for the rest of their lives. It is therefore a good idea if marketers use generational marketing ant tailored programmes for each age cohort since segmenting a market by age cohorts is very effective and helps to narrow down the most ideal target market for a product or service.

The external factors and events that were experienced by consumers in a specific generation, impact the interests and consumption habits of those specific members of the generation. Understanding the differences in consumption between members of Generation X, Generation

Y, and the Baby Boomer Generation allow for advertisers/marketers to effectively advertise products to those generations. The range of differences found in each generation, shows the need for different marketing and advertising strategies specific to each generation.

Schewe and Meredith (2004) stated that “when such similarities exist, marketers can offer the same (or very similar) products, distribution and/or communications programs to a large number of potential customers who are more likely to respond in the way desired. Efficiency in marketing is realized and marketers and consumers benefit. ” The main benefit of generational cohort segmentation is the potential for specifically-tailored marketing programmes (eg. advertising) and overall effective promotion toward the ideal target market.

Furthermore, Schewe and Meredith (2004) state that events and experiences within a specific generation’s history transform the values, beliefs, and attitudes of its members. These values, beliefs, and attitudes shape the consumption habits and patterns of each generation of consumer. The development of consumer’s interests, attitudes, values, and beliefs does not fully occur until the consumer generation is in young adulthood. Marketers who understand generational cohorts can appeal to the defining moments or events that are of importance to certain generations.

Appealing to defining events in a consumer’s life can influence emotional feelings such as nostalgia, happiness, or youthfulness. Marketers can take advantage of these feelings because the consumer would be more likely to buy a product that invokes these attitudes and emotions. Market segmentation by generational cohort helps marketers to narrow down potential target audiences and find the consumers who would be genuinely interested in the product or service. Understanding this type of segmentation helps advertisers/marketers to determine

what values and beliefs different consumers associate with their product.

Knowing the generation of consumer that is most likely to purchase the product helps companies to effectively advertise. Generational segmentation is one of the more basic segmentation variables, and has helped to develop reliable target markets today. Another school of thought believes that the use of generational marketing and tailored programmes to each age cohort is not a good idea. The school argues that, when marketers talk about a generation of consumers they frequently speak of how consumers at a particular life-stage respond to key events.

Strictly speaking, this is not generational marketing because neither life-stage nor the experience of events is unique to any one generation. Yet, even pure generational marketing is delusional if it assumes a generation will be homogeneous in outlook or behaviour. According to them, behaviour and outlook of a particular age cohort of a generation may not be same. Proponents of generational marketing claim, "Each generation's shared history gives it a sense of context from which it tends to view the world and which becomes enormously significant in understanding it.

As tautological statements go, that is a good one, but the broader point is that something about a "generation's shared history" and not just its age helps explain why people of a given generation do what they do. Therefore, the use of generational marketing and tailored programmes to each age cohort is not always a good idea. Increases in geographical and social mobility, not to mention the dawning of the Information Age, have all contributed to an expansion in the range of experiences lived by individuals, thus

the use of generational marketing and tailored programmes to each age cohort can't do the marketing magic.

In conclusion, marketers must understand that each generation has unique expectations, experiences, lifestyles, values, and demographics that influence their buying behaviors. Generational history be it the economy, scientific progress, politics, technology, or social shocks such as assassinations and terrorist attacks has immense impacts on each generation. Multi-generational marketing is appealing to the unique needs of individuals within more than one specific generational group. Marketers need to respond to the trend of multigenerational marketing and branding by adjusting their marketing mixes and strategies accordingly.

This means that marketers must understand the six U. S. generations: Pre-Depression Generation, Depression Generation, Baby Boomers, Generation X, Generation Y, and Generation Z. Each of these generations is defined and described in terms of the times in which the generation grew up and the characteristics, lifestyles, and attitudes of each generation. Being sensitive to the various generations and age cohorts will help marketers to become more conscious of and responsive to their customers’ needs and behaviors. Generational marketing and tailored programmes have brought to the fore the concepts of market segmentation and target marketing.