Each person’s life is a story, unique in some respects, but to a remarkable degree more like every one else’s story than we generally acknowledge. Understanding the commonalities consumers' share in their life stories offers valuable insights into their needs and behavior that most marketing ignores.
Our individual life stories have much in common with the life stories of others because in each season of life our deepest needs tend to be quite alike others who are passing through the same season. I believe that marketing that reflects these universal needs will generally make stronger connections at deeper levels with consumers than marketing based on superficial differences between consumers – the more common path in marketing.
To see how season of life plays a huge role in shaping consumer behavior it helps to understand how human development across four seasons of life shapes the foundations of human needs.
Each season of life has a primary developmental objective that gives rise to a bundle of needs. By -season of life, the primary developmental objectives are:
-Spring (the first two decades of life): acquiring basic intellectual, emotional and social skills needed to enter adulthood with reasonable prospects for success.
-Summer (the second two decades of life): becoming someone socially and vocationally.
-Fall (the third two decades of life): determining the ultimate meaning of one’s life as part of more fully developing the inner self.
-Winter (the remaining years): reaching a transcendent state that deepens life satisfaction and increases resilience in the face of untoward conditions the future may hold.
(Click on the Exhibit to enlarge it.)
It’s important to realize that needs whose satisfaction is necessary to fulfill a season’s primary developmental objective are anticipated in DNA. The presence of those needs is not within our control – only what we do about them is. For example, a teen’s keenly felt need to be part of a “herd” is innate. How that teen responds to that need is (somewhat) a matter of his or her individual will.
Next: The Defining Values of Consumer Behavior Change by Season of Life
David,
Reflecting on the CEO summit you spoke at in Boca Raton 7 years ago, I came away convinced that you were on to something with the seasons of life perspective. Now, that I have a few more miles under my marketing wheels, I'm taking this to the bank! I know that there are subtle nuances that accompany each stage, so my question to you would be; when seeking the heart-mind connection based on these 4 seasons, what other elements should one try to bring into the equation? Your thoughts?
Posted by: John Michael Day | October 29, 2004 at 11:34 AM