Summary and Response Essay
Treguer, 2002 emphsizes that instead of considering age from a chronological standpoint, we can
integrate the concept of chronological age with various other perceptions of age. For instance
biological age, social age, cognitive age, subjective age, personal age. On this basis, we can
conclude that humanity has a psychological age, which are directly related from our
environment, all the moments lived and impact of people we come to contact with.
The strategy, therefore, involves examining the consumer behavior of individuals belonging to
distinct "generations." Each group will have shared the same time period and undergone
comparable experiences during their crucial years of adulthood. A significant consequence of
adopting this generational cohort approach is that marketers are provided with insights on what
messages to deliver to each segment of cohorts and how to communicate them, taking into
account the formative events that shaped each cohort.
Belk, 1988 argues that property is a convenient means of storing the memories and feelings that
link our sense of the past, and thus the consumption patterns of generations can be based on
important symbolism.
The main generation, and in some ways the first to be recognized as such, was the generation
born in the years after the Second World War, that is, between 1945 and 1965. This explains the
subsequent separation of generations based on a 20-year interval of generations (i.e., allowing
individual development up to the age of about 20) and the middle of the decade. However, we
are working in the opposite direction, starting with the most recent adult or young generations
born between 1977 and 1994.
Adam Smith Institute, 1998 Those born between 1977 and 1994 were called Generation Y or
Millennium. Sometimes, this cohort is called 'NGen' after the Web and the information
revolution, which have had a huge impact on their development (Cheve and Meredith, 2004).
Many of them have been found to be materialistic, brand-oriented, risk-taking, business,
hedonism, and illicit drugs. They also disrespected politics. Further analysis of Generation Y
was conducted by Shepherdson (2000) and Gofton (2001). If this group were targeted by
marketers, this profile could provide useful clues as to the type of messages and media to be used
and covered. Davidson (2003) describes them as people who aspire to self-expression.
Generation X (or 'Baby Busters'). This group was born between 1966 and I976, and the name
'Generation X' was coined by Coupland (1991). They have become important consumers -
demanding their own products and seeking their own identity. The complicating factor is that
this group has proved to be particularly individualistic and sceptical about marketing activities.
O'Donoho and Tinan (1998), for example, discovered that young people really do own
marketing. Cohland (1991), Bashford (2000) and Richie (1995) analyzed their behavior and
attitudes. Richie, for example, states that the Xers have known a lot more advertising their entire
lives than the older generations. Research International (1996) has also found that these young
people (by then 20 years old) neglect advertising that offends intelligence, knocks out
competitors, or tries to be too cool.
Xers may also be more interested in participating in marketing than being passive recipients,
which gives marketing the opportunity to provide some of what the X generation seeks - more
interactivity and involvement in marketing communications. Indeed, interpreting its research in
35 countries, Research International (1996) suggested that the practical implications of young
people’s perspectives would lead to interactive, complex relationships between advertisers and
consumers.
(Fifield, 2002) The Baby Boomers were involved in a massive social revolution that forever
changed music, fashion, political thought, and social relations. The new generation wanted to
have their own culture, their own fashion and music, and their own social attitudes that rejected
their parents' values. In addition to these desires, the baby boomer generation was also the richest
of all youth markets before their era, so that they were able to participate in the consumer
market, and marketers responded with an explosion of fashion and music that we had not
experienced before.
This group is now 50 years old and the United Kingdom has 20 million people over the age of
50, and by 2021 this figure will be close to 25 million (Ahmad, 2002). . Indeed, in the US, Baby
Boomer turned 50 every 6.8 seconds in 2001. The large segment, combined with its purchasing
power - it became the first consumer to be empowered - means that it is a preferred target for
marketers.
The previous generation was blessed with low housing prices when they bought and a way of
life that was far less materialistic. Many have 'cognitive age' less than their 'chronological age',
and therefore act much younger than their age may assume (Szmigin and Carrigan, 2000, 2001).
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