Are You Marketing in the Right Place

In the mid 90's I was working in the financial planning industry and was introduced to David Foot's book, BOOM, BUST, ECHO. If David Foot is to be believed, and I believe he is, then the marketplace depends a lot on demographics. He looks at 3 generations, the boomer generation, the X generation and the Y generation, their numbers and how that will effect the economy.



The Boomers: Recent history shows the effect that the boomers had on the marketplace. Throughout every stage of life the baby boomers, like a huge bump, have created bubbles in economic industries. Insurance Rates, housing, investements, and recreation have all been effected at some point by the increased demand. I don't think I have to go into examples here, as everyone of us can think back to when something was popular and expensive and then wasn't.

The boomers are the brick and morter consumer. The large majority of them are not computer savy, many are computer literate, but most do not trust the internet. They make their purchases at store, which is why big box stores became so popular. Try to explain owning an online store to them or an affiliate store and watch as their eyes glaze over. The bulk of this generation use the internet for information purposes only.

The X generation are the transistion generation. This is where I come in. We were introduced to computers in school, many of us never had a computer at home. The internet was a pipe dream, so was windows. I remember when the internet was a dos based program where the school computer would talk to a computer in San Alto California and you'd get such a small amount of information it was hard to write the report we were assigned. Libraries and books is where we got our information. It wasn't until our later school years that we looked to the internet for information.

The Generation X's are brick and morter and internet consumers. There are a larger percentage of us that use the computer to make purchases then our parents, but we still like to go to the big box stores to buy stuff. More of us are computer savy and there are a larger percentage of the x generation that makes a living via the internet. Problem is, there are less of us then the generation previous, we are in our 30s and had to get degrees to get jobs because only now are the boomers vacating them. We paid dues and had large student loans to prove it. The good news is there are a large number of generation Ys coming up behind us.

The Generation Ys are the computer savy, internet gurus. They were introduced to the computer in elementary school and almost every home had a computer by the time they hit Jr. High. They don't use libraries and books to get information, they use the internet and computer encyclopedias. They trust the internet and use the internet every day. The generation Ys are now in their 20s getting jobs before they finish school because the boomers are vacating and their is a labour shortage. They get offers the 30 somethings only dreamed of getting 10 years ago, and the good news is their are lots of them, not as many as the boomers, but more then the generation Xs.

The Y generation buys on the internet, they get their information from the internet and a greater number of them will make their living via the internet. They trust the internet and will go to the brick and morter stores less. They want what is different, what is unique and they know where to find it. They want to have fun and party, not spend time driving all around the city to find what they are looking for, the internet makes it fast, fun and efficient for them.

So where are you marketing? What are you doing to ensure that you are going to be in front of the next large number of consumers? Think about the generations that are coming, kids that had computers in there homes when they were in elementary school, kids like mine who were born with a mouse in their hand playing baby sesame street. Where is the next marketplace going to be? Is it the big box stores with large overheads and retail mark ups in the 3 digets? or is it going to be on the internet with little overhead and lower margins?

Just look at the demographics on facebook and you'll see the generational divide. My mom's generation, the boomers, are represented by a few and it's harder to find friends because they aren't there. When I search for friends from high school that are a couple years older then me it's very hit and miss, more miss then hit. Searching for friends my age is a little more hit but still a lot are not there. Then comes my brothers age, 2 years younger, there are a lot more of them and they are connecting at a much higher rate. My cousin's who are younger still have all their friends connected on facebook and myspace and every other network site. They all have yahoo, msn and skype identities, if you don't know what they are you must be 34 plus.