Population Age Mix In Marketing

National populations vary in their age mix. At one extreme is Mexico, a country with a very young population and rapid population growth. At the other extreme is Japan, a country with one of the world's oldest populations. Milk, diapers, school supplies, and toys would be important products in Mexico. Japan's population would consume many more adult products.

A population can be subdivided into six age groups: preschool, school-age children, teens, young adults age 25 to 40, middle-aged adults age 40 to 65, and older adults age 65 and up. For marketers, the most populous age groups shape the marketing environment. In the United States, the "baby boomers," the 78 million people born between 1946 and 1964, are one of the most powerful forces shaping the marketplace. Baby boomers are fixated on their youth, not their age, and ads geared to them tend to capitalize on nostalgia for their past, such as those for the newly redesigned Volkswagen Beetle or the Mercedes-Benz ad featuring the rock music of Janis Joplin. Boomers grew up with TV advertising, so they are an easier market to reach than the 45 million born between 1965 and 1976, dubbed Generation X (and also the shadow generation, twentysomethings, and baby busters). Gen-Xers are typically cynical about hard-sell marketing pitches that promise more than they can deliver. Ads created to woo this market often puzzle older people, because they often don't seem to "sell" at all:12

■ MB C a Instead of the usual macho men, scantily clad I women, beauty shots of beer and mountain vistas, Miller's new beer ads targeted to 21- to 27-year-olds feature the on-screen legend "It's time to embrace your inner idiot" and images of a frenetic, sloppy hot-dog eating contest.13

■ D Ja Diesel jeans ads revolve around a celebration of the bizarre, and they playfully poke fun at mainstream situations. Called "Reasons for

Living," the ads reverse our code of ethics with images like one of humans serving a roasted girl to pigs sitting at a dining table laden with exotic foods.14

Finally, both baby boomers and Gen-Xers will be passing the torch to the latest demographic group, the baby boomlet, born between 1977 and 1994. Now numbering 72 million, this group is almost equal in size to baby boomers. One distinguishing characteristic of this age group is their utter fluency and comfort with computer and Internet technology. Douglas Tapscott has christened them Net-Gens for this reason. He says: "To them, digital technology is no more intimidating than a VCR or a toaster." See the Marketing Memo "Tapping into the Internet Generation."15

But do marketers have to create separate ads for each generation? J. Walker Smith, co-author of Rocking the Ages: The Yankelovich Report on Generational Marketing, says that marketers do have to be careful about turning off one generation each time they craft a message that appeals effectively to another. "I think the idea is to try to be broadly inclusive and at the same time offer each generation something specifically designed for it. Tommy Hilfiger has big brand logos on his clothes for teenagers and little pocket polo logos on his shirts for baby boomers. It's a brand that has a more inclusive than exclusive strategy."16

Tapping into the Internet Generation

Net-Gens already influence adult purchases more than any preceding generation. The Alliance for Converging Technologies estimates that American preteens and teens spend $130 billion of their own dollars annually and influence upward of $500 billion of their parents'spending.How do you market to this group? Don Tapscott, author of Growing Up Digital: The Rise of the Net Generation (www.growingupdigital.com), advises marketers to keep five things in mind:

1. Options are a must—choice is one of their most deeply held values.

2. Customize to meet their needs. These are the kids who build their own levels in video games and write their own Web pages, and they want things their way.

3. Let them have the option of changing their minds. They're growing up in a world where fixing mistakes takes a stroke of the mouse, and they believe that changing their minds should be equally painless.

4. Let them try before they buy. They're users and doers.They reject expert opinions in favor of forming their own.

5. Never forget that they will choose function over form. "Unlike baby boomers, who witnessed the technological revo-lution/Tapscott says,"N-Geners have no awe of new technology. They have grown up with computers and treat them like any other household appliance. This is an audience that cares about what the technology will do, not the technology itself."

Source: Excerpted from Lisa Krakowka,"In the Net," American Demographics, August 1998, p. 56.

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