It goes without saying that people born in the 1940s were raised in different circumstances than those brought up in the 1980s. Generational marketing acknowledges these differences and aims to analyze the consequences they can have on your marketing efforts.
Although some might argue over the definition of each generation, people are generally divided into the following categories; the Silent Generation, Baby Boomers, Generation X, Millenials, and Generation Z. Each of them have their own characteristics and general trends when it comes to purchasing.
By focusing on generational cohorts with shared experiences, values, and preferences, you can reach your target audiences in the best way possible and provide your customers with a more personalized marketing experience.
Let’s take a look at how it can transform your marketing strategy and discover how you can connect with your audiences better!
Advantages of customizing marketing strategies according to generational differences
There are many pros to curating your marketing tactics for each generation.
Positive brand perception and increased relevance
Understanding similar tendencies among generations helps you to craft marketing messages that align with the generation that you’re interested in connecting with.
For example, Boomers are often thought to be more likely to embrace content promoting traditional “family values”, whereas Millennials and Gen Z are often connected with environmental messages.
By dissecting your own data and identifying the generational similarities across your customers, you can select key messages and boost your brand perception by demonstrating your similar values.
Enhanced customer engagement and satisfaction
In addition to values and beliefs, each generation was exposed to different levels of technology in childhood.
Older generations are less likely to engage with you on digital platforms. The Silent Generation (born before 1945) and the baby boomers remain more likely to engage with TV ads. This is why pharmaceutical companies spent 11.8 billion dollars on TV advertising in the United States in 2021.
On the other hand, Millennials and Gen Z will expect you to be on their preferred social media channels. Creating campaigns on places like Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok will go a long way toward generating engagement.
Sustainable growth and adaptability
Different groups will hit milestones around similar times. Today, Boomers are retiring and investing. Millennials are looking to buy their first home and are having children. Gen Z is still waiting to or just entering the job market.
Each cohort will move into the next phase of life together. As your target audience continues to live their lives, you can adapt your strategy around what’s currently relevant for them. As each cohort ages, its shared preferences and values can evolve
Image sourced from pewresearch.org
In the early days of social media, brands could mostly ignore Boomers. That said, Pew Research has shown that by 2021, 73% of those aged 50-64 and 45% of 65+ use at least one social media site. Brands who want to retain and acquire these customers will need to adapt their marketing tactics accordingly.
Boomers represent a very loyal group of consumers. But for most brands to continue to nurture customer retention, marketing has had to shift with the evolving behavior of its target audience. A generational marketing approach sets you up for sustainable business growth.
How to connect with a multi-generational audience
Looking into your customer’s generational characteristics can be a great way to make sure that you connect with your audience and get the most out of your marketing spend. Here we’ve compiled a list to help you understand your audience and get the most out of these insights.
Define specific generational groups relevant to your industry
When you sit down to plan a new marketing strategy, always start by defining your buyer personas. Start by identifying which generations are ideal targets for your brand and its products.
The main generational cohorts for you to analyze will be:
- Boomers: Born mid-1940s to early 1960s. Grew up in a time of prosperity and growth. Now retirees and empty nesters they are often looking to spend big on brands they trust.
- Gen X: Born mid 1960s to late 1970s. This is the smallest cohort. Generation X grew up in an economic recession and are seen to make purchase decisions based on heavy research and value.
- Millennials: Born in the 1980s to late 1990s. Grew up with technology but less prosperity than Boomers. They prefer the convenience of online shopping and have been shown to like brands that value sustainability.
- Gen Z: Born in the late 1990s to early 2010s. This is the most diverse generation. Gen Z has grown up in the digital age. As the youngest group to join the workforce, they tend to have reduced spending power, but they are even more likely to engage on social platforms and support brands that promote social causes.
Develop detailed customer personas for each generation
Once you’ve tallied up the generations relevant to your brand, it’s time to dig deeper. Gather customer data from sources such as Google Analytics, your CRM and ERP platforms, SEO social media channels, and any offline statistics you have available to you. This should help you to further highlight your ideal customer profiles for each generational cohort.
Image sourced from statista.com
Once you have your data, the first thing to identify when building your customer personas is where they are spending their time. Research has shown that 81% of Baby Boomers are shopping in stores compared to only 65% of millennials. At the same time, it appears everyone is shopping with online retailers in similar proportions.
Use differences you identify to develop more detailed personas. For example, let’s say you identify that your business has a large appeal to millennials. Based on the above data, you can add a preference to make purchases in-store and using an online retailer to the customer profile.
When it comes to developing your own personas, use industry-specific tools to help you to look for other generational habits so you can continue to paint a more granular portrait of your target audience.
A retail ERP system, for example, will mean you can analyze your sales and will integrate with your loyalty and rewards programs. Combining the data from both will give you a detailed view of which generations are interested in which products and who your most valuable customers really are. Helping you to focus your marketing and forecasting efforts in the future.
Curate messaging and communication as preferred by segments
Do your due diligence and make sure you understand your target cohorts. Your messaging needs to align with your customer’s shared values and beliefs. This includes promoting certain types of lifestyles or social movements depending on generational characteristics.
A CRM helps businesses manage their customer communications and marketing from one space. It should help you to identify insights about your customers as well as collect data and responses from your communications, so you can gradually refine what resonates with different generational audience segments.
Customize content formats and marketing channels
Additionally, you need to build campaigns around the communications preferences of each generation. This means pulling reports from your marketing campaigns and identifying which content is resonating with each generation and where they are more likely to interact with that content.
For example, you might find that Gen Z are more likely to engage with videos on Tik Tok, whilst Gen X are more likely to engage with polls on Facebook.
Leverage marketing technology and automation tools
With targeted marketing and more personalized campaigns, use a customer relationship management (CRM) platform and enterprise resource planning (ERP) software. These two tools can be used together to give you insights into your products and audience.
This is because a CRM system will help you to manage all of your customer data, whilst an ERP system will then help you to place these insights in the context of your business as a whole.
So, when it comes to generational marketing, you’ll be able to gain insights into how each generation might be interacting with your product and use automated financial reports and forecasts to help you plan product launches and marketing campaigns.
When it comes to marketing and advertising campaigns, you will need social media management tools and/or email marketing platforms. Tools like Hootsuite and MailChimp streamline communication and provide you with a boatload of marketing automation, analytics, and reporting.
Image sourced from pixpa.com
Web builders like Pixpa help tailor your website experience for visitors with features like a WhatsApp widget. This makes it easier for your ideal customers to connect with you on their preferred channels.
Stay current with evolving generational characteristics and trends
There will always be another generation around the corner (Gen Alpha is already waiting in the wings). Older generations will fade away over time. Targeting relevant cohorts now doesn’t mean the job is done. You will need to have processes in place to stay up to date with:
- Evolving characteristics of current target generations
- The defining traits of fringe generations that are shifting into your market
Celebrate diversity and ensure inclusivity
Always remember that generational characteristics are highly general. Each cohort will be made up of diverse groups of people. This means that you need to curtail over-generalizing or typecasting your marketing content. Promote inclusivity by using people from all backgrounds to create and promote your messages. This includes written copy, imagery, and website design.
Image sourced from deloitte.com
This will ensure that you widen the generational nets for each buyer persona. Not to mention inclusivity is trending upward. Deloitte found that Gen Z are 2 to 3 times more likely to notice representative advertising than older generations when making a buying decision.
Final thoughts
Generational marketing isn’t duct tape for poor marketing tactics. If you neglect to see your customers as individuals with many preferences and motivations, you will fail to convert them. That said, generational marketing is an essential building block to digital marketing.
As a part of a healthy foundation, generation-based customer profiles will help you better connect with your target audience segments. Add generational context to your next campaign and see for yourself.
