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Selling to the Different Generations: What to Look For and What to Avoid

Guest post by: Kiven Wenman

Article Overview: It really amazes me on how differently the generations behave in terms of their buying motivations and their spending habits. Although everyone is unique, we can clearly see a generalization among age groups. I believe these differences come from peoples surroundings and their influences consequently we are a product of our environment. Let’s have a look at some of the trends we see in the last few generations assuming a breakdown as follows:

Selling to the Different Generations: What to Look For and What to Avoid

It really amazes me on how differently the generations behave in terms of their buying motivations and their spending habits. Although everyone is unique, we can clearly see a generalization among age groups. I believe these differences come from peoples surroundings and their influences consequently we are a product of our environment.

Let's have a look at some of the trends we see in the last few generations assuming a breakdown as follows:

Baby Boomer 1946-1964

Generation X 1965-1980

Generation Y 1981-2000

Baby Boomer 1946-1964	Generation X 1965-1980	Generation Y 1981-2000
Motivated by hard work and success	Motivated by WIFM (what's in it for me?)	Characterized by self esteem
Loyal to company: good job with salary and benefits = set for life	Loyal to profession	Loyal to self
Live to work	Work to live	Work/life balance
Make up 42% of the workforce	50% less than baby boomers	Echo Boomers
Grew up in a tough but stable post war world	Grew up with the dissolution of the family	Grew up with technology and the internet
Independent and rebellious	Self sufficient at an early age	High performance and high maintenance
Focus on civil rights and individual liberties	Focus on music, clothing & environment	Focus on multitasking & multiculturalism
Live to work	Work to live	Work/life balance

Knowing this, one thing that we have to understand is that everyone is unique and everyone has different motivators, wants & needs. These generational differences act as a guide i.e. we don't want to sell the benefits of a good job with security and benefits and a job for life to a Gen Y. They would go crazy working with the same company for 35 years.

It used to be appear to be a benefit to show long term stability in a job. Someone would look at your resume and see that you have been with the same company for 25 years and think that you show great loyalty and stability. Now when someone sees that on a resume they wonder why you have no motivation to do anything else. In today's standards if someone is to stay with a job for 3-5 years, that is seen to be great loyalty.

So how do we sell to these very different types of people? We know that we can't take the cookie cutter approach. What then will appeal to each group?

Study the differences in the generations and look at the products and services that you are selling. Who do they appeal to? Who is your target audience? Can you appeal to all of the generations or should you focus on one or two of them. These are decisions you have to make as every product or service is unique in its application.

If you read this article and it causes you to make any changes in your marketing procedures, please let me know.

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Article Tags: age groups, baby boomer, generations, motivations, spending habits
Referred by: http://jaykubassek.com



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