Generational Marketing

Background
As we grow older, our needs and preferences change, often in unison with others who are close to our own age. For this reason, a consumer’s age exerts a significant influence on his or her identity. The method of marketing to a specific generation will always affect the way in which we promote and sell products and services. We all have a specific product which will relate to 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.

Which are you!?
· Mature Citizen: Born between 1909 and 1945
· Baby Boomer: Born between 1946 and 1964
· Baby Busters (or Generation Xers): Born between 1965 and 1980
· Millennial (or 2001er): Born after 1980 (ME!)

The diagram inserted above outlines a basic human lifecycle. We (hopefully) will go through all these stages in our lives and depending on which stage of our lives we are in, marketing aimed at us will vary significantly.

Our task for the remainder of this class was to prepare a presentation which described in detail a specific generation. Magda and I decided to choose generation Y. You may be wondering what exactly ‘Generation Y’ is?

Below I have inserted each slide from our power point presentation which will give you lots of insight into those born between the second half of the 1970’s and the first half of the 1990’s.
Enjoy!

• Generation Y includes those born between the second half of the 1970s and the first half of the 1990s
• Also called: Echo Boomers, Millenium Generation, iGeneration, Einstein Generation and Google Generation.
• Young Adults in the US and Western Europe have a total income of US$798 billion, making them an important group to target despite their falling share of the population. There are a great many stereotypes and myths about marketing to Young Adults, but most of them are false or at least, only true to a certain degree.

SIZE
• 13% of UK population (2,952,719 – age 20-24 and 3,268,660 age 25-29) total: 6.1 mln people
• Generation Y makes up over 70 million people in the U.S.

THEY LIVE IN A WORLD WHERE:
• Self-expression is valued over self-control.
• Respect is only given after it has been received.
• The fear of living poorly outweighs the fear of dying.
• Violence is an acceptable alternative.
• The end justifies the means.

TIME LINE
• Berlin Wall is the first major event that older Generation Y’ers will remember, separating them from Generation X. The fall of the Soviet Union and the First Gulf War serves as the midpoint and the 9/11 terrorist attacks as the endpoint.
• Other important events include the death of Princess Diana, the return of Hong Kong to China, the Monica Lewinsky scandal, the SARS epidemic and the avian flu.




• The Reagan administration accelerated the War on Drugs, publicized through anti-drug campaigns including the Just Say No campaign. In spite of the sentences imposed by the Reagan administration, new drugs such as Crack cocaine appeared in the country.

BRANDS
· When forming opinions on brands, Generation Y pays particular attention to more modern ideas (such as their green credentials). They like brands that "present themselves in the right way", with companies like Apple, H&M and Adidas having previously come out in the top 10 lists of their favoured brands. Being an image conscious generation means that brands that appear to be cool (like Apple) will always appeal more than other brands that may provide a similar service.

· The constant struggle to keep up with ever changing fashions means that if a brand can appear desirable to a substantial quantity of young people then many others will follow. There is far more exposure to advertisement, so in order to stand out advertising towards generation Y tends to be more humour based. Brands like Cadbury's manage to raise awareness and stay the topic of conversation by using humour to their advantage.





ATTITUDES
When marketing to Gen-Y it is important to remember:
• Nine out of 10 Gen Yers own a PC and 82% have a mobile phone
• The Web is more popular than television for Gen Y-ers, who spend more time online than watching TV
• They want to be entertained, not informed.
Gen-Y use digital media to promote what is important to them:
• Creating
• Customizing
• Sharing
They are also environmentally and socially conscious.

HOW GROUP Y SPEND THEIR TIME
• Since we each have a fixed amount of time in a given day/week/month/lifetime, we all probably (I know I do!) want to spend it wisely. As such, when we are online we tend to spend more time on sites that are worthy of our attention. After all, who wants to waste time? So, the big question is, where DO we spend all our time online? Which websites are more successful in capturing our attention compared to others?

ONLY 20 DOMAINS CAPTURE A WHOPPING 39% OF ALL OUR TIME SPEND ONLINE!

Surprised at the figures above? I know I was…

This was by far my favorite class so far this year!! I found making my own power point with a friend was much more enjoyable than just taking notes in a lecture and I definitely learned a lot about Generation Y.