Wade Clark Roof and Jackson Carroll Bridging Divided Worlds

Wade Clark Roof (on the right) is a sociologist of religion, teaching religion and society in the religious studies department at the University of California, Santa Barbara. He’s known for his work on the spirituality of Baby Boomers, published in 1993 and 1999.

Bridging Divided WorldsJackson Carroll (on the left) is another sociologist of religion. He carried a similar position at Duke University Divinity School before taking up a position there as director of Pulpit and Pew, a research project on pastoral leadership. He’s well known for his book on the future of main line congregations, published in 2000.

These two authors, together with David Roozen, edited “The Post-War Generation & Establishment Religion: Cross-Cultural Perspectives“, in 1995. The book was based on a collaborative effort across ten Western countries: England, Australia, USA, Sweden, Germany, Netherlands, France, Belgium, Italy and Greece.

About the same time Carroll and Clark Roof were researching the impact of generational change on congregations. At last, in 2002, the research has been made available in their book, “Bridging Divided Generations: Generational Cultures in Congregations“.

I’ll put a post per chapter for this book. It’s certainly worth it. And then maybe back to the one on the Post-War Generation.

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.

Red Meat promoted by singing Australian butchers

Apologies to all vegetarians reading this entry. Meat and Livestock Australia’s Red Meat Feel Good campaign, online at redmeat-feelgood.com.au, features the Singing Butchers TV Advert. In something like a Morris Dancers routine or Hare Krishna dance we see butcher’s in their aprons prancing around the streets chanting the benefits of red meat. Definitely off the edge. It was created by The Campaign Palace and won an AFA award in 2003.

Singing Butchers

Continue reading “Red Meat promoted by singing Australian butchers”

Hummer Commercials

Hummer knows how to present TV commercials online. Go to the HUMMER site, enter the ‘Flash’ environment, choose Hummer World and select ‘TV Commercials’. Today there are 14 commercials available for viewing in Quicktime format. The latest is ‘Nature’. The site lists the music details, with band, song, album and record label, with links to the band’s web site and online source for CD sales.

Hummer site ad

Continue reading “Hummer Commercials”

Generations Course in 2005

Well it’s happening. This D.Min research/project is coming to fruition with the development of a course to be offered to the public in Winter 2005, midyear here in Queensland, Australia. I’ll be offering a week-long intensive as well as a 10 week course. Watch this space.