Have you been to buy any dog food lately? Do you remember
days when you just picked it up in supermarket and kept walking?Walk into any pet “box store” today and it’s a whole new experience. Prior to purchasing today’s canine’s lunch, you need to know age and size of your dog. If you don’t know these two critical facts, shopping experience could be a very frustrating one. In a store I recently visited in UK, actual merchandising was based on age of dog. Generational marketing has hit pet store.
Generational Marketing! Generational marketing is big business, days of targeting lifestyle groups is being replaced by setting your store up to market to a specific age group. Toy retailers and some bookstores have been into generational marketing for many years, as has fashion industry, but this concept of marketing is now spreading across all retail sectors.
So how do you split up your merchandising to attract specific age groups? Firstly, what groups are out there that you need to be aware of?
Generational Marketing- The Main Groups Researchers are now splitting community into very specific age groups for marketing purposes.
Generation Y This group are today’s teenagers and those in their very early twenties. They are very specific in their purchasing decisions and need to perceive a retail business and its product range as “cool.” It is difficult to integrate desires of this group into most retail stores and as a result, in many retail sectors, companies have set up specific stores just to attract this target group.
Music, mood, colour and style are all very specific to this group to ensure they have right retail experience.
Generation X, IKEA Babies This mid twenties to mid thirties age group is a big “power house” when it comes to buying. IKEA, Swedish furniture lifestyle company built a global business targeting this group and as a result, their founder is now richest man in world.
IKEA babies are happy to spend for value. Their idea of value is that it is a lifestyle statement that literally comes in a box. They can take it home and create an instant statement. They are looking for lifestyle fashion statements and expect retailer they frequent to be in tune with latest fashion colours, styles and trends.
This computer literate group expects quality customer service. Talk down to them and you’ll probably lose them for life.
The Jones Generation This 35 to 49 year old age group is a busy lot, they want an experience when they go shopping, but are time poor and if you waste their time you’ll be crossed off their visit list.
They are experimenters; they are shopping for new and exciting ideas and quickly get bored with retailers who, in their view, are not keeping them entertained with new ideas and new ways of putting old products together.
Present right products to them and they are prepared to Do It themselves (D.I.Y) A recent survey in UK in home improvement sector indicated they are still prepared to spend large amounts of money on D.I.Y sector.
