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.
In other words, consumption patterns change
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?
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Children
Preteens
Teens
Millennials1982-Present
Generation X (1965 and 1980)
Baby Boomers (1946 – 1964)
The Elderly
Age Structure of the Canadian
Population
 under 25:
 25 - 64 years old
 65 years or older
1996 34% 2002: 31.9 %
1996 54% 2002: 55.4%
1996 11% 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.
 2001 Calgary had the second youngest census
metropolitan area with a median age of 34.9 (Saskatoon
was youngest (34.4 years)
 Oldest was Trois-Rivières, Quebec, median age 41.2
CHILDREN AS
CONSUMERS
Children in the Marketplace
How do Children impact the Marketplace?
1. Directly influence the spending of
their parents.
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67 percent of families buying a new car base the
purchase decision on advice from their children
80% of the time when parents purchase a brand
their children have heavily influenced the final
decision?
1. Indirectly influence the spending of
their parents –necessities
2. 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 name is Tammy."
Zazoo
“tweens” (8- to 14-year-olds) spent or influenced the spending
of $1.88 trillion globally 2002 (Martin Lindstrom Brandchild )
spent almost $200 billion of their own money.
Children's spending has roughly
doubled every ten years for the past
three decades
Why are kids able to influence their
parents so heavily?
Parents are trying to stay trendy for
much longer and will look to their
child to be the opinion leader for
what brands to look for
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
an 18-month-old can recognize corporate labels
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
Six core values drive all successful
marketing to tweens
1. Fantasy
2. Mastery
3. Love
4. Fear
5. Stability
6. humour.
Today's tweens thrive on upgrades. In marketing planning, the
luxury of time has gone - product evolution needs to happen over
weeks and months, not years.
Belonging to a group is a crucial part of tween life.
Tweens look up to their leaders and inspire each other.
Peer-to-peer marketing will play an increasingly important role in
creating successful tween brands.
tweens spend 60% more time watching TV each year than they do
in school.
the typical American, Australian or British child will see as many
as 40,000 TV commercials each year.
Product placements in movies and TV are likely to become the
primary vehicle in tween marketing in the future.
Another opportunity is in the interactive world. 50% of tweens log
on each day,
70 percent of all European tweens send text messages every day.
The effect is that trends spread rapidly, with brands carried along in
the flow.
To reach the tweens, online games, chat rooms
and virtual worlds will become key components of
marketing plans within five years.
M-branding, or ads on mobile phones displays,
will also be an important way to reach tweens.
Assume your company manufactures and sells
bicycles targeted to the 10-12 age group. How
would you reach your target audience?
Ritz Bits S'Mores
Sumo Wrestling
Advergame
http://www.nabiscowor
ld.com/Games/game.as
px?gameid=10013
Bullwinkle plugs
Trix in 1960.
$2 Billion annually is spent
marketing to kids
Channel One a 12-minute inschool "news" program shown in
about 30% of US secondary
schools. (12,000 schools, 7 million
teenagers) that has won numerous
awards.
Channel one gives free video
equipment to financially strapped
schools.
Schools give their students as an
audience in exchange.
Channel One now has daily captive audience of 7 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. By mid 2000 over schools were using
the program
In exchange, the schools had to promise that a student will use
each computer for at least 4 hours daily while a small banner ad
appeared constantly on the screen.
The computers monitored students' Internet browsing habits
and broke down the data by gender, grade level, and zip code.
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?
Under pressure from anti-commercialism groups the program
ended Nov. 2000
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. 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.
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. 2005 40% of movie tickets bought by teens
 the number of kids and teens online increased 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
 2005 teens influenced $400 billion of parents spending in US
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
 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.
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.
Girls Central Intelligence Agency
Los Angeles-based marketing firm
"Slumber Party In A Box" -- "40,000 secret
agent influencers and their closest friends . . .
Your product only, all night long . . . Behind
enemy lines -- GIA gets you into girls'
bedrooms . . . Obtain immediate, candid data
from the trenches."
For 8-13-year-old girls,
where fitting in is
paramount, this is a chance to be cool, to be a
trend-setter, to get free stuff, and to be
"special":
As a "secret agent," you tell GIA what your
friends think.
GIA's clients, get a personalized focus group
and can watch their product spread by buzz
into the female youth market.
Controversy - many girls don't see that they
are being used, that their friendships are being
exploited.
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 receive little mail they tend to 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.
Teen sites or through email
obtain consumer feedback while promoting products.
2/3 of teens have either researched 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.
University Students
University-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 University students in terms
of their:
Needs
Values
Lifestyles
Attitudes
Interests
What are the implications of
these things for the
marketing mix?
one in four students (24%) said they had purchased a product this year
(2006) specifically because it was socially conscious
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. University students
usually don't stay in any one place for more
than a year.
University 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..
Advertising to this age group has typically
been very frivolous, emphasizing things like
personal freedom and expression
Baby Boomers
1. John Belushi (12)
13. Hilary Clinton (24)
2. Bill Clinton (3)
14. Oprah Winfrey (5)
3. Michael Jordan (9)
15. Steven Spielberg (1)
4. Spike Lee (39)
16. Karen Silkwood (40)
5. Madonna (14)
17. Oliver Stone (33)
6. Roseanne (10)
18. Michael Milken (4)
7. Clarence Thomas (46)
19. O. J. Simpson (35
8. Howard Stern (44)
20. Rush Limbaugh (11)
9. Ben Cohen (16)
21. Michael Jackson (42)
10. Bill Gates (7)
22. Stephen King (30)
11. Bruce Springstein (18)
23. David Letterman (29)
12. Steven Jobs (2)
24. Mike Ovitz (17)
1960
1990
2020
Baby boomers (born between 1946 and 1964 (43-61 yrs
old) have had an important impact on consumer culture?
Why?
 They created a revolution in style, politics, and
consumer attitudes
 Grew up with Television
 Power in Numbers
 The most affluent section of the population,
controlling over $7 trillion in wealth
 Spend the most on housing, cars, and
entertainment.
 Spend most of any age on food, apparel, and
retirement programs
Baby Boomers (43-63) 80 million strong
Influences On This Group
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Booming birthrate
The Beatles
TV
Expansion of suburbia
Vietnam
Civil rights movement
Women’s rights
Sex, drugs & rock ‘n’ roll
Kennedy assassination
Jan 2006
Impact for Marketing
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Winding down : leisure indulgence
Downsizing everything : minimalising
Make own decisions – think edge
Respect rank : professionalism
Steady relationships - loyalty
Need
 relationship continuity
 organising : options
 safe familiar experiences
 positive group identity
 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.
Baby Boomers – How to market to them
– Nostalgia
• Stay-at-home moms are fashionable again
– Rise in the priority of family and family
activities
– Invented new forms of families
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•
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Divorce
Live-in lifestyles
His and her children
Same sex couples
– Stress
• Eliminate stress through simplification
• Boom in personal services
• Less welcoming of technology because it forces them to
make more decisions
Baby Boomers – How to market to them
– Control
• Provide simplicity along with control
– Demanding consumers – want the whole
story…want data before they buy
– Reinforce strong sense of self-reliance and
individual superiority without a lot of effort
and participation
– Mass customization
– Think of themselves as young
• Consider age 79 as old
• Will avoid products pitched to older consumers
• Be subtle
– Attracted to romance and adventure
– Position brand as the choice of winners
Baby Boomers – How to market to them
– No brand loyalty – brand names are no
longer badges of success
– Let them know they are getting a good deal
– Many won’t retire
• Will begin second careers
• Retirement as work style, not lifestyle
• Won’t have enough money to retire (saving rates
are low)
• Work-centered
• Looking for meaning and fulfillment
– Want products that keep them healthy and
sustain energy and activity levels
– Will remain dominant consumer group in
marketplace for years to come
– Will continue to expect to be center of
attention
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
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
Marketing to the Mature Market
• Will not buy products that show negative
views of older people
• Not influenced as easily by imageoriented ads
• May need to adjust packaging to suit
their changing physical needs:
– Easy open packages
– Print size
What will happen when the boomers become the mature
market?
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