Generational Marketing refers to marketing to segments of the consumer population that’s separated by the year of birth. These segments sharing the year of birth range, also share both life experiences and life-stage spending. While not all people within then same age range shop the same, there are some similarities that can help marketers with their marketing message.
These generational segments are as follows:
Generation Z
In 2019, this generation includes all consumers, age 22 or less. Sometimes referred to as the Boomlets, this is a large segment in quantity of over 91 million people, mostly children. While this generation doesn’t have much spending power, their parents do spend quite a bit during their childhood.
Generation Y
In 2019, this generation includes everyone age 23 to 38. Gen Y is also known as the Millennials making up just over 72 million people. This segment is a massive piece of the population and will eventually inherit the brunt of the wealth coming from their parents who are Baby Boomers and Gen X.
Generation X
In 2019, this generation includes everyone age 39 to 54. This is a smaller generation with a shorter birth year span. It makes up just over 66 million people in the US.
Baby Boomer Generation
In 2019, this generation includes everyone age 55 to 73. The Baby Boomer generation is the wealthiest generation and consists of over 73 million people.
The Silent Generation
In 2019, this generation includes everyone age 74 and older. While the Silent Generation are older people on a fixed income and maybe not as active as their younger children, there are still over 24 million people within the Silent Gen population segment.
Marketers can easily segment the consumers within their market territory into these segments by year of birth. In doing so, they’re able to then customize the message they send to community with these customers and prospects, hence giving lift to their direct marketing response.
BB Direct recommends starting with your customers to identify which generation(s) acted upon your existing marketing efforts. Typically, the results of such a process reveals a lot about what type of person responses to what type of advertising message. They’re then able to prospect to more, non-customers, with a more focused message that will best resonate with that segment within your market territory.