AGE SUBCULTURES
Age and Consumer Identity
General marketing strategies are often modified to
fit specific age groups. Why?
Age exerts a significant influence on identity
Consumers undergo predictable changes in their
values, lifestyles, and consumption patterns as they
move through their life cycle
Marketers need to know how to communicate with
members of an age group in their own language.
Age Subcultures
What is an Age Cohort?
people of similar ages who have
undergone similar experiences.
How would you segment the Canadian market by age?
 Children
 Preteens
 Teens
 Generation Xers
 Baby Boomers
 The Elderly
Age Structure of the Canadian
Population
 under 25:
1996 34%
25 - 64 years old 1996 54%
65 years or older 1996 11%
2002: 31.9 %
2002: 55.4%
2002: 12.7%
50% of youth under the age of 25 or 4,831,650
people reported an origin other than British,
French or Canadian.
CHILDREN AS
CONSUMERS
Children in the Marketplace
How do Children impact the Marketplace?
1. Directly influence the
spending of their parents.
2. Indirectly influence the
spending of their parents
–necessities
3. also have substantial
spending power and
purchase several products
Parental Yielding
Shopping With Kids
A man observed a woman in the grocery store with a three year old
girl in her basket. As they passed the cookie section, the little girl
asked for cookies and her mother told her no. The little girl
immediately began to whine and fuss, and the mother said quietly,
"Now Monica, we just have half of the aisles left to go through; don't
be upset. It won't be long." Soon they came to the candy aisle, and
the little girl began to shout for candy. And when told she couldn't
have any, began to cry. The mother said, "There, there, Monica, don't
cry--only two more aisles to go, and then we'll be checking out."
When they got to the check-out stand, the little girl immediately
began to clamor for gum and burst into a terrible tantrum upon
discovering there'd be no gum purchased. The mother patiently said,
"Monica, we'll be through this check out stand in 5 minutes and then
you can go home and have a nice nap." The man followed them out
to the parking lot and stopped the woman to compliment her. "I
couldn't help noticing how patient you were with little Monica," he
began. Whereupon the mother said, "I'm Monica -- my little girl's
In 1997 US Children ages 4 to 12: spent or influenced the
spending of over $500 billion ( includes necessities such as
food, clothing and housing)
spent almost $25 billion of their own money.
Directly influenced $188 billion of their parents' spending
indirectly influenced another $300 billion.
average of $12,500 for each of USA’s 40 million kids
In 1998, kids aged 12-19, spent roughly $94 billion of their
own money.
Children's spending has roughly
doubled every ten years for the past
three decades
Children as Consumers in Training
Consumer socialization: process by which people
children acquire skills, knowledge, attitudes relevant to
their functioning as consumers in the marketplace.
How does it Occur?
 observation
 television
 direct experience
 Parental influence
 shared shopping
experiences
How does Television Influence Children to be
consumers?
Teaches the culture’s values, myths, and idealized images.
average child sees between 20,000-40,000 commercials every year
Smartees
Caitlin The Chef
Taylor The Teacher
Ashley, The Attorney
$2 Billion annually is spent
marketing to kids
Channel One -- the advertisingdriven, in-school TV network -- is
in about 40% of US secondary
schools.
It got there by giving free video
equipment to financially strapped
schools.
Schools give their students as an
audience in exchange.
Channel One now has daily captive audience of 8 million kids in grades 6-12.
New math
"Will is saving his allowance to buy a pair of Nike shoes
that cost $68.25. If Will earns $3.25 per week, how many
weeks will Will need to save?“
A: 21
Oct 1998 ZapMe! Corp. provided 230 schools in the
USA with free computer labs with free Internet access,
computers, tech support, and maintenance.
In exchange, the schools had to promise that a student
will use each computer for at least 4 hours daily while a
banner ad appears constantly on the screen.
The computers monitor students' Internet browsing
habits and break down the data by gender, grade level,
and zip code.
Another 6,000 schools have applied to the program.
With a large captive audience schools offer an
efficient, inexpensive locale for polling large numbers of
children.
Opening schools to marketers is also an attractive
way for schools to raise funds.
What do you think about Market research companies
doing research in schools?
Bullwinkle plugs
Trix in 1960.
Ritz Bits S'Mores
Sumo Wrestling
Advergame
Because children differ from adults in cognitive development,
knowledge, experience, and ability to comprehend concepts of
increasing complexity, they do not react the same as adults to the
efforts of marketers.
Young Kids’ cognitive defenses are not
yet developed enough to filter out
commercial appeals.
Consequently, serious ethical issues
surround marketing to children.
If you were a government official
responsible for protecting children from
unscrupulous marketers, what advertising
guidelines would you set?
Rules For Advertising to Kids In Canada
1. Advertisers must not use words like "new," "introducing" and
"introduces" to describe a product for more than one year.
2. Advertisers are not allowed to exaggerate (eg. bigger or faster )
3. Advertisers may not promote craft and building toys that the average
kid can't put together. Also, the finished project should look like the
picture of the finished product that appears on the box.
4. Advertisers are not allowed to sell products that aren't meant for kids
(eg. vitamins or drugs )
5. Advertisers are not allowed to recommend that you have to buy their
product, or that you should make your parents buy it for you.
6. Advertisers may not use well-known kids' entertainers (including
cartoon characters) to promote or endorse a product. Although
advertisers can create their own characters for kids, like "Tony The
Tiger" or the "Nestlé Quick Bunny," . This rule does not apply to
packaging,
7. Advertisers can't make you believe that you're getting everything that's
shown in the commercial.
In their ads, advertisers have to tell you exactly what you are getting when
you buy the toy, and what it will cost. Advertisers are supposed to clearly
state:
•The complete price of every part of the toy they are showing, whenever the
price is mentioned in an ad.
•Any parts of the toy shown in the commercial that cost extra.
•Any other toys in the commercial that are sold separately.
8. Advertisers are not allowed to show kids or adults doing unsafe things
with the product.
9. Advertisers can't suggest that using their product will make you better
than other kids or make kids think that people will make fun of them if
they don't use the product.
10. Advertisers cannot show more than one commercial for the same
product in a half-hour period.
Assume your company manufactures and sells
bicycles targeted to the 10-12 age group. How
would you reach your target audience?
Marketing to Kids
 ratings for traditional Saturday morning television programming
fell 50 percent from 1994 to 1998.
 At the same time, radio became more popular
Kids who say they “like listening to radio a lot”
Age 6-8 45%
Age 9-11 70%
Age 12-14 80%
 In many families, it is the school aged children who are the
computer experts, rather than the adults.
 Web sites with special “kid-friendly” graphics may attract
their attention to your company
Teenagers in the Marketplace
Teen Facts
 Teenage Marketing and Lifestyle Survey found children 12 to 19
spent more than $153 billion in 1999, up from $140 billion in 1998
 Teens also spend $56 of their own money and $28 of their parents’
money per week.
 Most can be spent on discretionary items like movies, CDs, and
electronic games
 the number of kids and teens online is steadily growing, up from
26.6 million in 2000 to 34.3 million in 2003. In fact, the under-18
demographic now comprises over 20% of the US online
population
Teens also influence substantial additional family
spending by expressing their preferences for
certain products or brands that their parents then
purchase
Teens are trendsetters both for their peers and
for younger children who emulate them
Teens are future consumers.
By winning the business of a
teen, a company may be able to
create a lifelong loyal customer.
Teens are a growing market;
last estimate 29 million; expected
to be 35 million by 2010
1. 91%- going to the
movies;
2. 90%- internet;
3.
86%- going to college;
4. 86%- having a
boyfriend/girlfriend;
5. 86%- dating;
6. 86%- "partying";
7. 86%- computers;
8. 86% on-line computer
services;
9. 86%- playing sports;
10. 85%- shopping
How would you
characterize teenagers in
terms of their:
Needs
Values
Lifestyles
Attitudes
Interests
What are the implications of these things for the
marketing mix?
Marketing to Teens
 Teens are savvy about marketing
and likely to reject messages perceived
as patronizing or trying too hard to be
“cool,” so that marketing to teens calls
for more subtle methods.
 Advertisers have found that teens
have little patience for hype or
pretentious ads and prefer ads that
talk to them in realistic ways and focus
on their actual lifestyles.
age aspiration”
 Children watch their older siblings, those
ahead of them in school, older children in the
neighborhood etc. Generally, youth “aspire up”
in their consumer behaviour, trying to “live a
step or two ahead of where they really are.”
 Marketers take advantage of children’s
behaviour to link their strategies for marketing
to the teen and tween cohorts by presenting
older teens in the media, and desire aspects of
their lifestyles and behaviours.
 For example, to reach 12- to 15-year-olds,
advertisers might use 17-year-old actors, who
will appeal to children their own age as well as
to younger children,
Direct Mail
Because teens do not receive the volume of mail that adults do,
they may be more attentive to direct marketing offers
“go where they are.”
 There are a multitude of media and vehicles targeted at youth,
such as cable music networks, teen-oriented magazines, teenoriented Web sites, and lifestyle special events
 substantial numbers of youth also comprise the audience of media
intended for a general audience, e.g. general circulation magazines
or television shows that are popular with both adults and children.
The Internet
Teenagers in Canada spend more time online than watching TV.
offering free samples T-shirts, CDs etc. teens who spread the word
Teen sites or through email
obtain consumer feedback while promoting products.
 One recent survey indicates that 2/3 of teenagers have either
researched products or purchased products online.
street or lifestyle marketing.
involves making a product a
“natural” part of teens’ lifestyles
The goal is to reach teens where
they “hang out” – at concerts,
coffee shops, arcades, and other
gathering spots.
Specific tactics include hanging
posters, giving away CDs or Tshirts, distributing flyers or
postcards with the marketing
message, generating word of
mouth.
College Students
College-age Children
About 15 million in USA,
 Market estimated between $35-60 billion and
$200 billion
Advertisers Spend $100 Million a Year to
Influence Them
Usually in process of forming brand preferences
and shopping habits - time to build a
relationship with this segment.
one of the most difficult segments to
reach.
How would you characterize College students in terms of
their:
Needs
Values
Lifestyles
Attitudes
Interests
What are the implications of these things for the
marketing mix?
Products
Apparel items, particularly hooded
sweatshirts, and brightly colored
student supplies are the leading
product categories at campus stores
"comfort items" such as stuffed
animals, candles/incense, music, gifts,
snacks/beverages and health and
beauty products are also important
products
computer hardware and software,
home electronics, jewelry, clothing and
concert, theater or event tickets.
Travel
Promotion
Direct mail won't work. College students
usually don't stay in any one place for more
than a year.
College students listen to the radio and
watch TV less than any other segment of the
population
ads in the college magazines or newspapers
on the bulletin boards around campus will
work better.
Best bet will be Internet and on-line services.
35% of college students own a computer and
even more have access to one.
Advertising to this age group has typically
been very frivolous, emphasizing things like
personal freedom and expression
Baby Boomers
1960
1990
2020
Baby boomers, I.e. those in their mid 30s to mid 50s have
had an important impact on consumer culture? Why?
 They created a revolution in style, politics, and
consumer attitudes
 Power in Numbers
 The most affluent section of the population,
controlling over $7 trillion in wealth
 Consumers aged 35 to 44 spend the most on
housing, cars, and entertainment.
 Consumers aged 45 to 54 spend the most of any
age on food, apparel, and retirement programs
 While their parents often took and held jobs for life, baby
boomers are less inclined to do so.
Baby boomers are regarded as the Me Generation.
Many baby boomers grew up with television as a constant
companion, teacher, baby-sitter, and friend.
Many baby boomers are idealists who see their mission as
"changing the world." - concerned with social issues and causes.
Baby boomers married later, divorced more
often, had children later, and often have
families that live together only part of the
time.
A marketer targeting a message to the baby
boomer segment should bridge images of a
rich past, positive images of today, and visions
of what can be.
The Grey Market
The Gray Market
 The Gray Market includes people over age 65
 2nd fastest growing segment, only behind the
Baby Boomers.
 By 2010, one in every seven Canadians will be
over 65.
 Today there are more than 70 million
Americans over the age of 50. By 2015 that
number will grow to 108 million
 This group is more diverse than any other
market segment, spanning those at the peak
of their careers, to active, independent
seniors, to the elderly in need of care.
 They control over 50% of all discretionary
income and in USA spend $60 billion
annually.
According to a 1997
Roper Starch poll:
one in three American adults is
a grandparent
grandparents spent $505/year
on their grandchildren in 1997
(up from $320 in 1992)
55% of grandparents
purchased a gift for a grandchild
in thepast month
grandparents buy one of every
four toys sold in the US.
 Most older people lead more active,
multidimensional lives than we assume.
 Their economic health is good and getting better.
 80% own their own home.
 15% are now on-line and when they do go on line
spend more time than kids
 Their three favorite things to do online – in order
are:
1. Chat with friends
2. Get information
–especially news and weather
3. Buy products
What values motivate the Gray
market?
Autonomy
Altruism
Connectedness
Personal Growth
Guidelines for Effective
Advertising to the Elderly
Keep Language Simple
Use Clear, Bright Pictures
Use Action to Attract Attention
Speak Clearly, and Keep Word Count Low
Use Single Sales Message
Avoid Extraneous Stimuli