Knowing Your Customers - Marketing To The Ages
by Staff Writer
When London, Ont. based McCabe Promotional Advertising Inc. started working with youth-focused companies like YMCA and the Boys & Girls Club, the company had to think back.
“Our generation is used to rules and tools of the logos — strict rules — typically two colours, but young companies are punching it up,” says Michelle Merrifield, vice president of operations for McCabe.
The Boys & Girls Club ultimately chose lime green and black for their new look.
Likewise, working with different generations also dictates how companies do business in the promotional world.
“A traditional rep used to visit with samples — today you might not even meet a rep. Today’s younger rep grew up always on the computer and works with online samples. This [younger] client says, ‘I found this on Google; can you get it for me?’” says Merrifield.
To find out if you’re considering the needs and likes of your clients, depending on where they fall in the generational timeline — and to help you delve into their psyches — we’ve asked the pros for some age-old advice.
The PR, marketing and social media experts at BurrellesLuce, a leading provider of media outreach, media monitoring, and media reporting services, in New Jersey, have written on the topic extensively. Here’s a recent break down on the generational behaviours, as appearing in one of their recent newsletters.
Identifying Generational Markers
While there is some debate as to the start and end dates of each generation, these are the generally accepted demarcations usually associated with each American age cohort:
• The Silent Generation or Traditionalists (born late 1920s through 1945):
• Baby Boomers (born 1946 through 1964)
• Gen-X (born 1965 through 1980)
• Gen-Y, or Millennials (born 1981 through 1993)
• Gen-Z, or Generation Next (born 1994 through 2004)
BurrellesLuce also provides tips for professionals looking to reach multigenerational audiences, which have been re-printed with permission and updated to include commentary from other industry experts.
Winning Tactics for Communicating with Multigenerational Audiences Today
1. Understand your audience by demographic. Determining the gender, age, and other key characteristics of your core audience is the first step in building an effective campaign. By working with other departments within your organization, you should be able to construct a clear picture of your target market and be confident that you’re proceeding in the right direction. Even a little research can go a long way when getting to know your audience.
2. Consider audience traits in shaping messages. Take, for instance, Gen-X and the gamification of communications via geo-location sites such as Foursquare — understanding the distinctive preferences and values of each group can help you form messages that are precisely aligned with each constituency.
3. Avoid unexamined assumptions about an audience’s preferred media channels. It’s risky to assume that all members of a generation would rather receive, say, an email instead of a phone call, even if their generation is perceived as preferring one over the other. Instead, begin to build your own library of research (including customer surveys and testimonials), which can be a more reliable guide to the preferences of your target audiences. Merrifield agrees that it’s a challenge finding out generational exposure to technology: “The challenge is that some boomers are very technical while others don’t even own a computer…however, their grandkids and kids might have brought them up to speed on certain trends such as new colours,” says Merrifield. But not all are on the same page, she adds. “They may have a Blu-ray player at home but no iPhone.”
4. Identify the generations most responsive to calls to action. It may be that you are aiming a product promotion toward Gen-X, but it is really the baby boomers who are the most responsive. Rather than continue to push the brand on someone who isn’t interested, recalibrate the campaign to focus on those who are listening and engaging. Craig Morantz, vice president of sales and development for Leeds Canada, takes this generalization one step further, saying that their company doesn’t necessarily pay attention to age, or generation profiles, instead, their company creates profiles of clients based on likes: “For example, we have a guy in our office who is 27 years old and carries a briefcase.” Their profiles mean that characteristics of one generation might blur into another: they might encounter someone shopping at Harry Rosen who then goes to the gym or is also very active in eco issues. Which brings us to our next point.
5. Look beyond generalizations. While some millennials, for example, seem to need more attention and praise than, say, members of the Silent Generation, there are always exceptions to the generalizations. Gen-Yer Kristin Piombino, editorial assistant for Ragan.com, challenges people to move beyond “millennial myths and stereotypes.” However, some characteristics are pretty set in stone. For example, it’s hard not to be aware of youth’s affinity for technology when considering promotional items. “Anything that holds tech is good. Neoprene material,” says Merrifield. She points to the fact that every backpack for this generation must have tech traps: It’s an all-purpose holder for various sized laptops or pads.” She adds that these bags must also carry multiple water or liquid holders: from coffee to water, youth want to be hydrated!
Environmental options are also top of mind: “They are also very aware of green environmental products and they want green options.”
And whereas Gen-Xers are fixated on name brands, baby boomers are not. “They are not tied to any name brand. They like it but they are not tied to it,” says Merrifield.
And in terms of apparel, youth are also one-trick ponies. “For example, they’re not going to wear Harry Rosen on the weekend and then switch to Hollister on the week days…they will wear the Hollister all the time,” says Will Andrew, president of Trimark Apparel.
Andrew believes that the older one gets, the more variety of brands they have for various uses: athletic brands, formal wear, business casual, etc. And that extends to the types of occupations and careers they end up pursuing.
“The reality is that if you work outside for a living you need performance wear versus if you’re in an office and wear business casual.”
The challenge for apparel is that companies must appeal to a wide age range within one company: “If you’re buying for youth you might be more fashion forward but then you’re put in charge of ordering for 100 people — then you have to buy for a broader group.” But Andrew challenges this notion that you have to water it down: “You don’t have to bring in the neutrals to replace the orange shirt,” he adds.
Instead, he argues that a younger, more punchier shirt will work if other members of the team see their fellow employees or members of their team wearing it. Instead of going to their traditional neutral, they’ll feel more willing to wear the more youthful colour because they want to feel like part of the team.
Baby boomers are also not necessarily going to want the trendiest, but they are certainly more willing to spend more for quality and durability, he adds. A product sells well to a baby boomer if it matches functionality in an attractive package.
