How the target audience is formed according to the period of birth
Brand promotion, as well as the success of the company as a whole, depends on how well the target audience is defined. Every product has its own customer – with its own needs, values, problems, and peculiarities. By drawing up a portrait of the ideal client, and understanding it, you can pick up the ideal tools and ways to promote products and implement strategies to build a brand.
Experts advise beginning studying the consumer with the segmentation of the target audience. And in this case, it will be useful to use the theory of generations, which was developed by William Strauss and Neil Howe. It is based on the principle that the cycle of generations lasts about 15-20 years, and they repeat each other. Scientists have distinguished 4 cycles:
- High, or Boomers. The audience shows weak traits of individualism, but they are strongly influenced by social institutions.
- Awakening, aka Generation X. The X’s focus is on individual needs, and social institutions have virtually no authority over them.
- Unraveling – Millennials. Even more focused on their own desires than on social foundations.
- Crisis – the Zoomer generation. Institutions are completely destroyed in favor of individualism, and people have to come together again to create new social interactions and principles.
Strauss and Hove’s concept is called the theory of generations X, Y, Z, and it relates people to this or that cycle depending on their worldview, the social conditions in which they were born and grew up, and the prevailing mode of communication. On this basis, certain types of target audiences and the tools to influence them are formed.
In today’s reality, experts are interested in three generations – the X’s, the Millennials, and the Zoomers. The first group is people who were born between 1964 and 1983. They are self-sufficient but conservative, confident that if they follow the rules they can achieve success. An important feature of this target audience for marketing is its desire for stability and confidence which can provide the company’s products if presented correctly. Generation X believes in advertising and shows a high degree of trust in brands, but takes a long time to compare options before making a purchase.
The target audience of Cycle Y includes people born between 1985 and 2002. They value freedom of choice and require regular motivation to perform this or that activity. This generation is not tied to material things, the Y people do not rush to buy an apartment or a car, preferring to rent. Their first priority is their own dreams and self-development, so millennials start a family late. They can be pushed to buy not by beautiful advertising, but by clear and useful information about the product, which should preferably follow modern trends – climate preservation, automation, and others.
Generation Z are people born between 2003 and 2023. Their main tool for information and communication is the Internet and mobile devices. Optimal brand exposure to the target audience of this group will be social networks and virtual reality. Emotions are important for zoomers, they are visuals, who willingly spend money on travel, clothes, and technology.
By understanding which generation your target audience belongs to, you can build an effective strategy for promotion.
