Age Targeting
Age Targeting:
A Marketing Point of View
Chris O’Malley
BUS340A Marketing for Managers
Professor Valerie Charles
Warner Pacific College
November 12, 2013
Age Targeting: A Marketing Point of View
Effective marketing to specific age groups can leverage brands and products to create value and lift demand based on how individuals and groups within age groups perceive that the brand or product meets or exceeds both seen on unseen expectations. I personal fall into an age category called Gen-X. According to the website, hospitalityupgrade.com (2005), Gen-Xers are “sandwiched between the baby boomers (born 1946 and 1964) and Generation Y (born between 1981 and 1994). Gen X is the best educated and first technologically savvy generation in history. These people tend to have realistic expectations and a greater tolerance for diversity. Generalities aside, they do not see themselves as a collective force.” In my personal quest of brand and product selection, I find that my generational grouping influences my decisions, but so does my behavioral style and personal preferences, some of which are not always “lumped” into a Gen-X grouping. On the surface, my awareness and expectations of brands and products can be classified into over-arching categories: retail shopping (online and in-person), family and social experience, work-related and personal finance and banking. These categories may not be germane to most within my age group. There are also many sub-categories that can be further defined within each category. Retail shopping is expansive and marketing messages inundate me from every possible medium that there is – radio, television, print, internet, billboards, email blasts and word of mouth. For me, which definitely falls into the Gen-X classification, I find that my definition of value transcends price. I need to see benefit. Benefit creates service and convenience, so that I can spend more time with my family or doing
A Marketing Point of View
Chris O’Malley
BUS340A Marketing for Managers
Professor Valerie Charles
Warner Pacific College
November 12, 2013
Age Targeting: A Marketing Point of View
Effective marketing to specific age groups can leverage brands and products to create value and lift demand based on how individuals and groups within age groups perceive that the brand or product meets or exceeds both seen on unseen expectations. I personal fall into an age category called Gen-X. According to the website, hospitalityupgrade.com (2005), Gen-Xers are “sandwiched between the baby boomers (born 1946 and 1964) and Generation Y (born between 1981 and 1994). Gen X is the best educated and first technologically savvy generation in history. These people tend to have realistic expectations and a greater tolerance for diversity. Generalities aside, they do not see themselves as a collective force.” In my personal quest of brand and product selection, I find that my generational grouping influences my decisions, but so does my behavioral style and personal preferences, some of which are not always “lumped” into a Gen-X grouping. On the surface, my awareness and expectations of brands and products can be classified into over-arching categories: retail shopping (online and in-person), family and social experience, work-related and personal finance and banking. These categories may not be germane to most within my age group. There are also many sub-categories that can be further defined within each category. Retail shopping is expansive and marketing messages inundate me from every possible medium that there is – radio, television, print, internet, billboards, email blasts and word of mouth. For me, which definitely falls into the Gen-X classification, I find that my definition of value transcends price. I need to see benefit. Benefit creates service and convenience, so that I can spend more time with my family or doing
References: Retrieved November 6, 2010 from Old-Computers.com (2001) http://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?c=252 Miller, A. (2010). Death of a Salesman. In A. Booth, & K. J. Mays, The Norton Introduction to Literature 10th ed. (pp. 2128-2193). New York: W.W. Norton & Company, In http://www.hospitalityupgrade.com/_files/File_Articles/HUFall05BuildingGenXLoyalty_Fitzpatrick.pdf