Marketing to the Generations - AABRI.pdfVIP

Journal of Behavioral Studies in Business Marketing to the Generations Kaylene C. Williams California State University, Stanislaus Robert A. Page Southern Connecticut State University ABSTRACT Each generation has unique expectations, experiences, generational history, lifestyles, values, and demographics that influence their buying behaviors. Accordingly, many companies are reaching out to multi-generational consumers and trying to understand and gain the attention of these diverse buyers. Multi-generational marketing is the practice of appealing to the unique needs and behaviors of individuals within more than one specific generational group, with a generation being a group of individuals born and living about the same time [1]. This means that marketers need to understand the six U.S. generations: Pre-Depression Generation, Depression Generation, Baby Boomers, Generation X, Generation Y, and Generation Z. When a marketer factors in the different characteristics and behaviors of the generations, it should be easier to build relationships, gain trust, and close business. [2, 3] As such, an understanding of multi- generational marketing is very important to the marketer. The purpose of this paper is to describe briefly the U.S. generations in terms of the times in which they grew up as well as the characteristics, lifestyles, and attitudes of the group. However, the primary focus of the paper is to describe various marketing understandings and strategies appropriate to each generation’s characteristics and behaviors, particularly in terms of segmentation, products and services, and communication. Keywords: Multigenerational Marketing, Generations, Baby Boomers, Xers, Gen Y, Genera