ON GENERATIONAL DIFFERENCES AND TARGET MARKETING

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I’ve been telling people how old I am a lot lately. I’m a 40 year old proud Gen X-er who gave a talk last night to a bunch of 20 year old millennials on how to target audiences of different generations. Millennials: think 1) have always had the internet; 2) are more comfortable texting or IM-ing than face-to-face talking; 3) are completely fluent in all forms of technology; 4) think nothing of sharing minutia about their lives publicly online.(They agreed with these characterizations of themselves, by the way.)

I’m generalizing, of course. However, generational differences today greatly impact the way people find and process information. As a business owner, knowing who you’re targeting, and what generation they belong to, is more important right now than it may ever be again. Here’s a quick target marketing checklist to reach different generations. Maybe you’ll chuckle as you see yourself.

People who are Veterans (born before 1946) are still, by and large, making purchasing decisions using very traditional information. While many of them may know bare fundamentals about the computer, they still glean much of their information from the newspaper, television, print magazines, books and radio. Trying to reach deeply into this audience with a business Facebook page is likely a waste of time. If they are on Facebook at all, it is purely social, and the information they post about themselves is the barest minimum.

Baby Boomers (born between 1946 and 1964) were in the workforce when the change to computer usage happened in the workplace. Many of these people had to learn to use computers for work as adults and therefore associate coming home and using the computer for leisure with more work. That’s not a bad thing, though, because this generation coined the term “Climbing the Corporate Ladder.” They like to work, and some of them are very technology savvy. By and large, though, this is the group that complains the most about personal boundaries in social media. They don’t understand multiple status updates in one day or why someone would feel the need to share what they had for breakfast. They feel like that much sharing is a violation somehow. Because they are on a few social media outlets, keeping these quirks in mind when using new media tools to sell them something can make the difference between success and failure. Reaching this group with a message requires a mix of very traditional messaging and highly strategic electronic communication.

Gen X-ers (born between 1965 and 1980) were shaped by the launch of the internet and the end of the Cold War. We care more about quality of life than about working hard and are thus frequently termed lazy by our elder generational peers. We’ve seen firsthand how new technology can be a means for finding good information and making purchasing decisions. For instance, I no longer use a phone book, so an ad in the Yellow Pages won’t reach me. I read the newspaper online from content I create. Increasingly, I browse magazines the same way. Still, Gen X-ers struggle with how much sharing is too much, and I’ve found firsthand that it is easy to alienate Gen X-ers online by being too chatty. As a whole, though, Gen X-ers seem to be receptive to electronic communication. In fact, it may reach most of them before anything else will.

Millennials (born after 1980) have always had technology. It was a language they learned from birth, and they are very comfortable using it for everything. They think nothing of posting details publicly about everything (and I mean EVERYTHING) they are doing – all day, every day. A whole new job classification has sprung up from helping these people clean up their online information to effectively obtain employment after college. They wouldn’t think of making a decision without technology. It is ingrained, and they use very personalized tools (meaning that one would have to know generalized personalized tool group types to truly reach a target Millennial.) It was a complete revelation to them that no other generation before them processes information their way, and they were very interested in knowing some things about “old fashioned” tools for reaching a target audience of people outside of their generational group.

I’ve used a lot of words to make a point – generational differences matter right now in reaching a target market. With fewer dollars to allocate to advertising and marketing, all businesses must spend strategic time understanding who their target markets are, how old these people are, and where they are most likely to get information for making decisions. Armed with this data, it is easier to craft a dynamic marketing plan with the right tools that will reach the target, whatever generation they are.

Filed under: small business growth , business growth, business strategy, mix of advertising tools, mix of marketing tools, target market