Market segmentation by generation market segments provides a wealth of information about target market members. Small business owners can use this information to improve their marketing.

Knowing characteristics for each generation market segment enables small business owners to communicate better across generations.

For instance, a Generation X business owner with a product that’s targeted to Baby Boomers, may go wrong in marketing to Boomers. If the Generation X business owner doesn’t know how Baby Boomers differ from Generation X, marketing message may be worse than ineffective. They may actually alienate Boomer target market members.

Market segmentation can help avoid the potential pitfalls of marketing across generation market segments by helping small business owners to understand how concerns and information needs differ by generations.

Some of these concerns and information needs include:

• World War II generation members are concerned with staying young and healthy. Their information needs deal with their concerns, particularly affordable health care.

• Baby Boomer generation members are concerned about their career and finances and an orderly world. Their information needs include how to overcome stress and dealing with a changing world.

• Generation X members are concerned with growing racial disharmony, the environment, and their jobs or businesses. Their information needs include all of these, plus building and maintaining positive relationships.

• Generation Y members are concerned with autonomy, conformity, pragmatism and intimacy. Their information needs evolve around coping with problems and dilemmas.

The reason that generations have different concerns and information needs is because they have different defining moments.

Defining moments mark a moment in time when something happens that forever changes people. Those who live through defining moments look at life differently from then on.

Market Segmentation by generations considers the effects of defining moments. These moments are composed of events that are important both culturally and historically.

Culturally important events are those that people experience primarily through the mass media. They affect people psychologically for a while, but don’t necessarily change the way they live. Culturally important events influence market segmentation by generation, but not as much as defining moments do. The Hindenberg is an example of an important cultural event for the World War II generation.

Historically important events are those that change history although it may be difficult to pinpoint the specific moment when the event occurred. Historically important events also influence market segmentation by generation, but again not as much as defining moments do. The Great Depression is an example of an important historical event for the WWII generation.

When cultural and historical events combine as they did with the bombing of Pearl Harbor, they comprise a defining moment for the generation most affected. Defining moments most affect generations and are thus most important in market segmentation. Pearl Harbor most affected today’s WWII generation.

Defining moments work with other cultural and historical events to make every generation different from others and to enable small business owners to use market segmentation by generations to acquire a wealth of information about their target markets.

Submitted to EzineArticles.com 3-19-08:
Market Segmentation By Generations

Bookmark It