The Secret to Multigeneration Marketing

In my call for ideas for new topics, reader Arnold Howard suggested “How the generations differ, and how they are the same.” Great suggestion, Arnold.

Ever since RCA market research head Wendell Smith changed the face of marketing in 1956 with his essay on market segmentation in the Journal of Marketing, the idea of segmenting consumers has been the most influential theory in marketing.

Smith’s idea got a big boost in the early 1960s when ABC owned network television’s last place for viewership. But ABC had something the Eye and the Peacock didn’t own: the youngest audience. So ABC got with Nielsen to cook up a new way of looking at TV audiences: through the prism of age. Until that fateful compact, the basic television audience reporting unit was households, not age groups.

Today segmentation by age, gender, ethnicity, income and by just about every other index of beingness is de rigeur. The trouble is, segmentation by definition is exclusionary. As such, when a marketer divides markets into buckets of differences, he or she will inevitably exclude from marketing efforts potential buyers.

Arnold Howard’s topic suggestion is a good one because in today’s marketplace, with its almost infinite diversity, segmenting consumers can eliminate a large number of potential customers.

What’s the solution? Not eliminating market segmentation, but using it more mindfully. What do I mean?

New Balance exercises considerable mindfulness with great skill. It’s brand persona projects values into the marketplace that have universal meaning. “Connect with yourself. Achieve New Balance.” Regardless of age, those ideas are appealing.

New Balance mindfully employs market segmentation in its channel management practices. The inventory and marketing collaterals used in Foot Locker are quite different than the inventory and collaterals used in Nordstrom’s.

Hallmark’s marketing is also based on universal values, with love, family togetherness  and friendship heading the list.   

By invoking universal values, a brand’s reach can be extended across generational divides. For many companies being able to do this will spell the difference between continued growth and fading into history. I’ll tell you why in the next post.