Rocking the Ages
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Rocking the Ages

J. Walker Smith, J. Walker Smith

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eBook - ePub

Rocking the Ages

J. Walker Smith, J. Walker Smith

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About This Book

For almost forty years, Yankelovich Partners has helped America's biggest companies understand and reach their customers. Their breakthrough MONITOR studies-annual surveys that analyze the values, beliefs, attitudes, and expectations that shape consumer decisions-not only pinpoint current trends, but predict where the market will be in the future.

Rocking the Ages: The Yankelovich Report on Generational Marketing (HarperBusiness; May 21, 1997) by J. Walker Smith and Ann Clurman turns the spotlight on America's "generation gap" and transforms what was born as a political and social rallying cry into a sound foundation for profitable marketing. Defining the essence of three generations-the Matures (born between 1909-1945), the Baby Boomers (1946-1964), and the Generation-Xers (1965-1978)-it explores in telling detail the experiences, life skills, values, personal and professional aspirations, likes and dislikes, and hopes and fears that distinguish each generation. Drawing on this unprecedented data, it elucidates how and why each generation reacts to a vast range of marketplace issues-including technology and cyberspace, healthcare and fitness, media and entertainment, retailing and financial services.

From highlighting generational differences regarding such basic concepts as work itself-Matures regard it as an inevitable obligation, Boomers as an opportunity for self-fulfillment, and Xers as simply a paycheck-and gratification-delayed by Matures, demanded instantaneously by Boomers, "virtual" in the case of most Xers-to describing the widely differing versions of the American Dream each generation harbors, Rocking the Ages offers invaluable insights into how to market a product or service to reach one, two, or all three generations.

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Information

Year
2010
ISBN
9780062039071

SECTION 1
GENERATIONAL MARKERS

1

THE POWER OF GENERATIONS

There is an ancient proverb: “Men resemble the times more than they do their fathers.” Within the wisdom of those words lie the seeds of generational marketing. Marketers who use the principles of generational marketing to understand the factors that influence the values and buying motivations of consumers stand a much better chance of spotting trends way ahead of the competition and reaching customers first in profitable new ways.
Members of a generation are linked through the shared life experiences of their formative years—things like pop culture, economic conditions, world events, natural disasters, heroes, villains, politics, and technology—experiences that create bonds tying the members of a generation together into what social scientists were the first to call “cohorts.” Because of these shared experiences, cohorts develop and retain similar values and life skills as they learn what to hold dear and how to go about doing things. This affects everything from savings and sex to a good meal and a new car.

GENERATIONAL MARKETING

Generational marketing is a strategic business perspective that studies these cohort effects and highlights what’s relevant for better business decision-making. Consider a couple of examples.
  • When Betty Crocker introduced a line of completely ready-to-bake cake mixes in the 1950s, sales were disappointing. Those were the days of the stay-at-home mothers whom today we call the Matures. To Matures, who grew up in the Depression and sacrificed to achieve victory in World War II, hard work was a virtue. Anything too easy was suspect. Convenience seemed like cheating. Eventually, after applying this insight, Betty Crocker found success with a modified version that required adding an egg. This appealed to the Mature housewife’s sense that a little work was a lot better.
  • Seagram found sales of its whiskeys slipping in the early 1970s. The reason: Baby Boomers weren’t drinking as much as their parents. Mainly, though, they were in a hurry. Boomers were too impatient to “learn” to enjoy liquor or to wait to develop a taste for scotch. After some trenchant marketing research determined that young people were looking for something easier to drink, Seagram responded by concentrating its marketing on a new line of white spirits, like vodka. These could be mixed with juices or sodas, and appealed to the Boomer demand for easy access to pleasure and enjoyment. Vodka did not demand an acquired taste.
As these examples illustrate, the marketplace always evolves in response to the different needs of each generation. The values, preferences, and behaviors of consumers can be understood—and shifts better predicted—by breaking down what accounts for them into three distinct elements: (1) Life stage, (2) Current social and economic conditions, and (3) Formative cohort experiences.
CHART 1.1: GENERATIONAL INFLUENCES
  • Life stage is how old you are and, therefore, where you are in your life—physically or psychologically. We need different products and services as our responsibilities and requirements in life change.
  • Current conditions are those events that affect what you can buy. Layoffs, recessions, import/export restrictions, political turmoil, technological innovations, taxes, and so forth, all set parameters within which consumers operate in the marketplace.
  • Most influential, though, are the formative cohort experiences we all share as part of a generation. These create the habits that define and differentiate generations, the unifying experiences through which each of us views the world and participates in the marketplace. These formative experiences shared with your cohorts are the filter through which you interpret all subsequent experiences.
Every generation will pass through the same life stages—getting a driver’s license, going through the joy and pain of parenthood, confronting the uncertainties of retirement. Similarly, no matter which generation we belong to, we all must deal with the same circumstances—economic downturns, wars, or World Series. But each generation—Matures, Boomers, and Xers—responds to these life stages and circumstances in ways determined by that critical third factor—the early shared experiences that helped form the values and life skills of their generational cohort.
We are certainly not suggesting that marketers ignore crucial factors like demographics, economics, or anything else with obvious impact on your business. But we do not believe that you can truly understand your customers without knowing what makes them tick—the generation they belong to is a big part of who they are.
When you develop a marketing strategy, it is important to understand how old your customers are and whether the economy is booming or not. But this is just not enough. Matures and Boomers have responded differently to economic recessions over the last two decades, recessions they have both faced at the same time. Same economic pressures, different consumption patterns. As we’ll see, Boomers will look nothing like Matures when they reach retirement; Xers today look nothing like the Boomers of twenty or thirty years ago. Same life stages, different consumers. Generational marketing won’t explain everything, but it will explain a lot, and help us better understand the ways in which different individuals will react very differently to the very same marketplace.
Borrowing loosely from social science terminology, we call the events that define a generation “markers.” Think of markers as the key set of collective experiences that shape a generation’s values and attitudes. These set the tone for a generation, give it direction, provide it with whatever sense of cohesion it has.
For the older generation, the Matures, some of the most significant markers are the Depression, the New Deal, World War II, and the GI Bill. For Boomers they include the Great Society, general economic prosperity and the expansion of suburbia, Nixon, color TV, and sex, drugs, and rock ‘n’ roll. For the current crop of young people, Generation X, they include divorce, AIDS, Sesame Street, MTV, crack cocaine, Game Boy, and the PC.
Markers help us see why past is not prologue. You make a mistake if you assume that just because your customers are turning a certain age they will behave in the same ways as those who turned that age before them. As obvious as this may seem, it is one of the most common mistakes made in marketing planning.
For instance, a marketer who bases sales and advertising strategy strictly on demographic data, like age, might assume that Baby Boomers will abandon the Rolling Stones and switch from Coca-Cola as they pass their fiftieth birthdays in the years ahead. This would have major implications for the music and beverage industries. However, a smart marketer who considers generational cohorts knows that these deeply implanted preferences are sticking with Boomers as they pass through each life stage.
Don’t assume that Boomers will behave like Matures when they reach fifty. Life stage is not everything. When the Boomers began to turn thirty-five, predictions were rife that they would begin to save and become more conservative, politically and socially, just like their parents. It didn’t happen. The Boomers rolled right on past thirty-five, remaining true to their free-spending, free-spirited ways. The habits acquired and formed early in life continued to shape their behavior. They did change their consuming, of course, but always in ways consistent with the core values characteristic of their generation. Yuppies, for example, were, deep down, driven by the same core values of fulfillment and self-enrichment as hippies.
Another common mistake is something we call “generational myopia,” or the shortsighted application of the values and attitudes of your own generation to the development of strategies for marketing to another generation. We’ve seen this happen a lot—a marketer will misjudge events and motivations by applying the perspective of his or her generation without truly understanding the unique generational experience of a different target group of consumers. This is a recipe for failure. Each generation is shaped by different markers; you must walk with them in their shoes, not walk on them in your shoes.

MATURES, BOOMERS, AND XERS

Consumers active in today’s marketplace can be divided, for all practical purposes, into three broad generations—Matures, Boomers, and Xers. Indeed, empirically, our MONITOR data verify that these are cohesive groups of consumers.
The Matures, born between 1909 and 1945, came of age under the shadows of the Great Depression, World War II, Korea, and the Cold War. Their attitudes toward life and work were formed in the crucible of economic upheaval, common enemies, and America’s role as an emerging superpower. Matures grew up in tough times, so they had a more constrained set of expectations. As a result, their core values are what we think of today as traditional values—discipline, self-denial, hard work, obedience to authority, and financial and social conservatism.
These values still determine the way in which Matures relate to the marketplace. They have been slow to embrace new products. They saved their money and saw retirement and leisure time as rewards for hard work. Products that fit their basic values have succeeded—and will continue to succeed—because these values grew out of their shared experiences and still guide their consumption.
CHART 1.2: GENERATIONS AT A GLANCE
Born between 1946 and 1964, Baby Boomers are the most populous and influential generation in America. Born to prosperity in a time of booming postwar economic expansion, Boomers enjoyed unprecedented employment and educational opportunities. They took this for granted, and the shared assumption of affluence shaped their values and embroiled them in the tumult of events that filled the sixties and seventies. The value system of Boomers, the “Me Generation,” was built on the sense of entitlement created by their presumption of continued economic growth. With little else to worry about, Boomers were able to be more self-absorbed, pursuing personal goals and instant gratification.
Indeed, while Matures came of age expecting little because of the sacrifices demanded by wars and the Depression, the overriding marker for Boomers was the economic prosperity of the postwar years, a prosperity that was so internalized that it has shaped all Boomer attitudes about the marketplace. Boomers could, for example, more easily embrace an inclusive social perspective because they assumed there was prosperity enough to make everybody a winner. Boomers believed there would always be plenty to go around—lots now and more and more in the future—so why not share with everyone.
Central to the story of Boomers over the last decade has been that their ingrained sense of entitlement has been overtaken by unmet expectations. This is particularly true for Boomers born in the last years of their cohort, the so-called Trailing Boomers. In general, though, all Boomers have had to learn to do with less, and the impact of this on the marketplace will be continue to be felt for the next twenty years.
The next group, Generation X, or Xers, could be dubbed the “Why Me?” generation. Born in the wake of the dominant Boomers, they have been buffeted by tumultuous political and economic conditions. They are wary and uncertain about America’s position in the world and about their own place in America. Yet, contrary to the image portrayed by the popular media, this is a savvy generation, enthusiastically ready, willing, and able to take...

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