What Generation Is Your Market?
I think that I may be typical of consumers today. I don’t like commercials so I mute them if I am watching TV and I play my Ipod in the car so that I don’t have to listen to them because, to me, they are irritating. I have read reports that the younger generation is a hard generation to reach for marketing because they don’t read the paper, as much as my generation, they don’t listen to the radio and I imagine the only watch a certain segment of TV.
Direct mail is the one way to reach all of the generations. Recently, in Deliver® magazine they defined the generations as; GI Generation (born before 1925) with buying power being negligible, Silent Generation (born 1925-1944) with buying power considered negligible, Boomers (born 1945-1964) with $2 trillion in annual buying power, Gen X (born 1965-1984) children of the Silent Generation who are regarded as technology savvy but do not respond to Internet marketing efforts, Generation Y (born 1985-2004) 100 million Americans, consuming more than 5 times the Baby Boomers and finally Generation Z (born 2005-present) this generation is already more than 20 million strong and is will present a powerful consumer force in the future.
I am in the Silent Generation and the smallest generation in the 20th century. This was due to the low depression-era birth rates and World War II. In fact I was born while the war was still being fought. The good thing about direct mail is that mail is delivered six days a week, for now, to every address in the United States and to every generation from the GI Generation to to Generation Y. It is not intrusive and it can be set aside and read at the recipients leisure. Mailing lists can be purchased with demographics for age groups so that you can reach the generation that you want to target.
Want to target generation Y? There are 100 million of them opening their mailbox everyday. Direct mail is a good way of putting your message in their hands. Even us in the silent generation are opening our mail boxes and responding to marketing offers. I look for local restaurants who are offering specials, discounts at my favorite clothing stores and I never know when there is going to be something new going on in town that I don’t know about. Can’t wait for the mail to run today.
