Generational Marketing: What Is It and Why It Matters

1
Generational Marketing What Is It and Why It
Matters

• Generation marketing is exactly what the name
  suggests. It is when a business markets products
  and services to a specific generation such as
  Baby Boomers, Gen X, and Millenials. Part of your
  marketing plan involves knowing your Audience and
  sometimes that means knowing characteristics of a
  whole generation or a mix of generations.
• Generational Marketing has been used all the way
  from classic print media to the more recent
  targeted social platform ads.
• Generational Marketing matters because your
  product will have a specific audience for it.
  Knowing which generations you are targeting will
  give you a better understanding of their general
  buying behaviors and attitude.
• Heres a quick guide

2
Pre-Depression GenerationBorn Before 1930

• Buying Characteristics Conservative, Value
  others and their community over material
  possessions, prefers face-to-face buying and
  selling, value one-to-one conversations, and more
  inclined to traditional advertising and marketing
  practices.

3
Depression Generation a.k.a Silent
GenerationBorn 1930-1945

• Buying Characteristics Stick to what is tried
  and tested, they listen to who they deem as an
  authority, they value consistency and may dislike
  change, value family and home life, like their
  independence and being able to make their own
  choice.
• Often grouped together into a generation called
  Traditionalists

4
Baby Boomers GenerationBorn 1946-1964

• Buying Characteristics Buy based on personal
  values and convenience, more tech-savvy than
  previous generations, values financial stability
  and security, values responsibility for family,
  likes to have options when purchasing or making a
  decision, prefers direct language, likes
  attention and responds well to marketing
  strategies directed towards what they deem as
  important in their lives.

5
 Generation XBorn 1965-1976

• Buying Characteristics High brand loyalty, less
  traditional than previous generations, considers
  hard work as a necessity, prefers directness and
  results-based data, more informal, likes to be
  engaged with humor, appeals to family-related
  messages, prefers short, direct to the point
  messages.

6
Millenials a.k.a Generation YBorn 1977-1995

• Buying Characteristics Strong beliefs in making
  their future better, skeptical about brands and
  their authenticity, grew up around digital
  advancement and consider that a normal part of
  life, prefers emails or social media over
  telephone conversations for the first contact,
  self-absorbed persona, respond well to companies
  who are genuine about change for the better, more
  child or career-oriented generation, values
  honesty from brands.

7
Generation ZBorn 1996 onwards

• Buying Characteristics Never known a time
  without technology and the Internet, value
  fast-paced information exchange, prefers short
  burst messages, they will look for and validate
  information via multiple channels and sources,
  they respond better to companies who are seen as
  real, genuine, and credible, they find
  information about products and companies faster
  as they are more tech savvy.
•  
• There will be a lot of occasions where you may
  need to market your product across
  multi-generations. This should be part of your
  marketing plan and creating your audience
  profile.
• What you need to remember is that each generation
  is different and doing your research on what they
  value and how to appeal to generations will make
  a lot of difference. Generational Marketing very
  important for online busineess.