Generational Marketing by Defining Moments

Considering that the financial backing for generational research has come from the marketing sector, it makes sense that there’d be some decent research published in this field. The best I’ve seen so far is produced by Geoffrey Meredith and Charles Schewe with Janice Karlovich in their book, “Defining Markets, Defining Moments“, published by Hungry Minds, New York, 2o02 (now part of Wiley)

Meredith & Schewe, Defining Markets & Managing by Defining Moments

Geoff and Charles provide a useful introduction to the move from mass marketing through sector marketing to one-to-one marketing. They take issue with what they regard as simplistic generalisations about people based merely on the year they were born. They go right back to the origins of generational theory, examining the work of Karl Mannheim on generations and cohorts. Cohorts, they explain, are formed as people experience life-changing events together in their formative years (age 17 – 25).

Their analysis of American generational cohorts leads them to describe:
Depression Cohort coming of age 1930 – 1939
World War II Cohort coming of age 1940 – 1945
Postwar Cohort coming of age 1946 – 1962
Leading Edge Baby Boom Cohort coming of age 1963 – 1972
Trailing Edge Baby Boom Cohort coming of age 1973 – 1983
Generation X Cohort coming of age 1984 – 1994
N Generation Cohort (Millennials, Y) coming of age 1995 – ?

This makes a lot of sense to me. I’ve tested out some of their time lines with colleagues who resonate with the findings. In particular I found the work on the ‘Post war’ generation revealing. Among these people are the ones who actually sponsored the revolutions that happened during the 1960s. The early Baby Boomers provided a lot of the energy but their leaders were a cohort earlier. They place me in the Trailing Edge Baby Boom along with Douglas Coupland.

Charles and Geoff outline the “Lifestage Analytic Matrix” – five crucial factors influencing people’s attitudes, behaviour and buying patterns as they age:

  1. Cohorts (defining moments shared)
  2. Lifestages (a wide range of 25 different points in life)
  3. Physiographics (the effects of aging)
  4. Emotions and affinities (longings etc.)
  5. Socioeconomics (spending power, education, career, marital state etc.)

These five factors allow marketers to focus on specific people groups rather than broad generations.

Geoff and Charles lay down five new rules of multi-dimensional marketing:

  1. Demographics don’t do the job anymore.
  2. Generational cohorts reinterpret lifestages.
  3. New cohorts mean new behaviors.
  4. Values define generational cohorts, and core values don’t change.
  5. Younger generational cohorts are converging globally

The book ends with a reflection on the application of these marketing principles in non-USA settings. Charles and Geoff conclude that the development of cohort values is more likely in developed countries in which mass communication allows a whole nation to quickly experience pivotal events and reflect on them. They explore the impact of pivotal events in Russia, West Germany and Brazil.

The same two authors paired up again in 2002 to write their book, Managing by Defining Moments: America’s 7 Generational Cohorts, Their Workplace Values, and Why Managers Should Care.

Geoff Meredith and Charles Schewe work together as associates of Lifestage Matrix Marketing. Geoff is based in California, Charles in Massachusetts.

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