AGE SUBCULTURES

General marketing strategies are often modified to fit specific age groups. Why?

Age and Consumer Identity

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

Children Preteens Teens Generation Xers Baby Boomers The Elderly

How would you segment the Canadian market by age?

people of similar ages who have undergone similar experiences.

What is an Age Cohort?

Age Structure of the Canadian Population

under 25: 1996 34% 2002: 31.9 % 25 - 64 years old 1996 54% 2002: 55.4% 65 years or older 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

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

Children in the MarketplaceHow do Children impact the Marketplace?

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."

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

Consumer socialization: process by which people children acquire skills, knowledge, attitudes relevant to their functioning as consumers in the marketplace.

Children as Consumers in Training

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

Ashley, The Attorney

Taylor The TeacherCaitlin The Chef

Smartees

$2 Billion annually is spent marketing to kids

Channel One -- the advertising-driven, 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

http://www.nabiscoworld.com/Games/game.aspx?gameid=10013

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?

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.

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.

Assume your company manufactures and sells bicycles targeted to the 10-12 age group. How

would you reach your target audience?

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

Marketing to Kids

Teenagers in the Marketplace

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

Teen Facts

Teens also influence substantial additional family spending by expressing their preferences for certain products or brands that their parents then purchase

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

Teens are trendsetters both for their peers and for younger children who emulate them

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 MailBecause 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, teen-oriented 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 InternetTeenagers in Canada spend more time online than watching TV.Teen sites or through emailobtain 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 T-shirts, distributing flyers or postcards with the marketing message, generating word of mouth.

College Students

College-age ChildrenAbout 15 million in USA Market estimated between $35-60 billion and

$200 billionAdvertisers Spend $100 Million a Year to

Influence ThemUsually 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?

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

Products

                                

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..

Advertising to this age group has typically been very frivolous, emphasizing things like personal freedom and expression

Promotion

Baby Boomers

1. John Belushi (12)

2. Bill Clinton (3)

3. Michael Jordan (9)

4. Spike Lee (39)

5. Madonna (14)

6. Roseanne (10)

7. Clarence Thomas (46)

8. Howard Stern (44)

9. Ben Cohen (16)

10. Bill Gates (7)

11. Bruce Springstein (18)

12. Steven Jobs (2)

13. Hilary Clinton (24)

14. Oprah Winfrey (5)

15. Steven Spielberg (1)

16. Karen Silkwood (40)

17. Oliver Stone (33)

18. Michael Milken (4)

19. O. J. Simpson (35

20. Rush Limbaugh (11)

21. Michael Jackson (42)

22. Stephen King (30)

23. David Letterman (29)

24. Mike Ovitz (17)

1960

1990

2020

Baby boomers (born betwwn 1946 and 1964 (40-60 yrs old) have had an important impact on consumer culture? Why?

They created a revolution in style, politics, and consumer attitudes

Power in NumbersThe 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

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 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.

The Gray Market

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 friends2. Get information

–especially news and weather

3. Buy products

What values motivate the Gray market?

Autonomy

Altruism

Connectedness

Personal Growth

Keep Language SimpleKeep Language Simple

Use Clear, Bright PicturesUse Clear, Bright Pictures

Use Action to Attract AttentionUse Action to Attract Attention

Speak Clearly, and Keep Word Count LowSpeak Clearly, and Keep Word Count Low

Use Single Sales MessageUse Single Sales Message

Avoid Extraneous StimuliAvoid Extraneous Stimuli

Guidelines for Effective Advertising to the Elderly