Those long arguments lasting for more than an hour where you both try to prove your point, you think she doesn't understand you and only obtrude her decisions, you don't talk to her for days and finally this cold war comes to peace when she comes to you with all her love in eyes and gives her agreement on what you want.
Well, some of you have already started thinking about quarrels with your girlfriend, but don't WhatsApp her because here I am talking about your Mom. We all have faced this situation with not only with our mom but also with our dad and the extreme case is with our grandparents.
Generally this war of words is followed by a long speech by our respected orators on the subject of respecting elders and the phrase which each one of them uses to arouse some sense of guilt in their auditors is "Old is Gold".It left us speechless and we question to ourself, "If old is gold, then what is new"?
This dissension between our elders and us is never ending because its root cause is something which can never be quashed and only be minimized, which is 'generation gap'. When there is so much trouble in our real lives due to this 'generation gap' then just imagine how big pain in the a** it is for companies, particularly for marketers.
The marketers are always in a dilemma of either focusing on our parents or us, as it is strenuous to cover everyone. Today, Earth is the home to more than 1.8 billion youth (10-24 years of age) out of 7 billion total population and according to a UN report, 28% of India's population is youth, making India the youngest country of the world. Every third person in India is youth which is going to be increased to every second person by the year 2020 taking the median age of country 29 years of age. After all these facts and figures if any company decides to focus on our parents and grandparents, I am sure that company is in the business of adult diapers only.
The world population is grouped into generations on the basis of cohorts, and the three generations which are the most active buyers are:
There was a time when more years you spend on the Earth, more experienced you were considered, but now higher the age, higher constrained your thinking is considered.
In the era of Generation Y and Generation Z, most companies' senior executive posts in the discipline of marketing are occupied by Generation X, which is only suitable for understanding wants of Generation X not of Generation Y & Z. This is the major reason, most companies are still in an abyss of focusing Generation X and not Y & Z.
India is a young country with major population lying in Generation Y and Z. These two generations are the present of the country and will be the future in another 10 years.
Relationship between Age and Loyalty
Pick up any study measuring risk taking ability and age of an individual and you will find same results. With growing age of a person, his risk taking ability decreases. There is an inversely proportional relationship between both,
Risk taking ability (RTA) ~ 1/ Age (A)
There is also a relation between risk taking ability and loyalty. Higher the risk taking ability, lesser loyal a person is to his choices, whether brands or girlfriends. There is an inversely proportional relationship between both,
Risk taking ability (RTA) ~ 1/ Loyalty (L)
That means, There is a direct relation between a person's age and loyalty,
Age (A) ~ Loyalty (L)
Leser the age of an individual, less loyal he is to his things. In childhood days, we want new games every day and something new to eat in our every meal. We are least loyal to anything and we are only focused on wasting things we got in order to get new things quickly.
As time passes and we join youth force of our country, we become somewhat loyal to some brands in some categories. But real shift comes when we reach the age of 35, avoid changes and have decided what is good for us for the rest of our lives.
Relationship between Age and Inquisitiveness
There is a similar relation between age & inquisitiveness as that of age & risk taking ability, inversely proportional,
Age (A) ~ 1/ Inquisitiveness (I)
The younger we are the more inquisitive we are, and as we climb up the stairs of aging, our inquisitiveness comes straight down the ladder and finally on the ground.
Generation Gap
When we talk about Generation X, it has the median age of 44.5 years, that means most of the people who belongs to this generation have lower risk taking ability than those in generation Y and X. Moreover, the former one is far less inquisitive than the latter and thus they restrict to pre-tested things and do not readily try new things. It can be said that generation X is far more brand loyal than generation Y and particularly generation Z.
Due to this rare characteristic of loyalty, companies loves generation X and try to attract these honey bees to their nectar. But one thing they fail to realize is they already have a favorite nectar and now it is a waste of resources to try for these honey bees.
On the contrary, Generation Y & Z are much more inquisitive and have need of trying out different things, which makes them less loyal or it is better to say negligible loyal. Both the generations, particularly Z, frequently changes its brands and keeping this in mind companies do not try to focus on these generations. But they again fail to understand,
For becoming generation Y & Z centric, the first thing a company has to take care is of its leadership. The person holding a lantern for the whole team should understand the importance of Gen Y & Z and then the only rest of the company will follow him. Next level comes of functional heads of the company, who guides the path of a function, be it Marketing, Sales, HR or finance. It with the mutual consent of all the functional departments, a company can be on the top priority of Gen Y & Z.
In the recent past, there are many companies belonging to different industries which have realized the need to change the focus toward gen Y & Z. A recent article of Brand Equity, mentioning one of the homegrown company Dabur focusing now on gen Y & Z and turning the new leaf after peeking into the future.
Gen Y & Z characteristics which should be understood by our modern marketers, to make themselves equip to stand the tough competition are:
On the basis of these characteristics, marketeers favourite concept of 4Ps can be mixed and served according to the taste of Gen Y & Gen Z
Product & Price
For marketers, there has always been a trade off between Product & Price, but for Gen Y & Z, their problems are much less. Focus on product and price will be paid by these generations. These generations always craving for something new irrespective of the price which they would have to pay for it.
The gretes example is of Fogg deo by Vini Cosmetics, which chaged the whole deo category. The price was much higher for their gassless deo, but gen Y & Z walcomed it with their both hands open and and a result every company including hotshots like Unilever had to launch gassless deo to stay in market.
Place
In this technology era, where everything is only a 'touch' away from us, it is inevitable for companies to make themselves present digitally. Whether you are present in a Kirana store or not, you must be present at supermarkets and leding e-commerce sites.
Promotions
Whether you have POPs (point of purchase) at the retail outlet or not you should have google ads
Whether you communicates through TV, banners, print medium or not, Faacebook, Twitter, Youtube and mobile advertisement is must
Rural Youth
All of the things holds good for the urban youth, but what about rural youth? Can it be ooverlooked over the urban and neglected? Well, let us look over some facts:
According to world bank report less than half of total world's population lives in rural, but 68% of India's population lives in 'Bharat', the rural India. Since the major population of country lives in its rural part, so the major part of its youth force breathe in rural area. So it is clear, rural youth is as important as urban one.
Rural Gen Y & Z is moving to cities either for higher studies or for better job opportunities. Highly influenced by their urban counterpart and thus their behavioural characteristics is same as that of urban.
The marketers are always in a dilemma of either focusing on our parents or us, as it is strenuous to cover everyone. Today, Earth is the home to more than 1.8 billion youth (10-24 years of age) out of 7 billion total population and according to a UN report, 28% of India's population is youth, making India the youngest country of the world. Every third person in India is youth which is going to be increased to every second person by the year 2020 taking the median age of country 29 years of age. After all these facts and figures if any company decides to focus on our parents and grandparents, I am sure that company is in the business of adult diapers only.
The world population is grouped into generations on the basis of cohorts, and the three generations which are the most active buyers are:
Generation X
Born: 1961-1980
Age in 2015: 35 to 54
Born: 1961-1980
Age in 2015: 35 to 54
Generation Y, Echo Boomers or Millenniums
Born: 1981-1995
Age in 2015: 20 to 34
Born: 1981-1995
Age in 2015: 20 to 34
Generation Z
Born: 1996-2015
Age in 2015: 0 - 19
Generation MismatchBorn: 1996-2015
Age in 2015: 0 - 19
There was a time when more years you spend on the Earth, more experienced you were considered, but now higher the age, higher constrained your thinking is considered.
In the era of Generation Y and Generation Z, most companies' senior executive posts in the discipline of marketing are occupied by Generation X, which is only suitable for understanding wants of Generation X not of Generation Y & Z. This is the major reason, most companies are still in an abyss of focusing Generation X and not Y & Z.India is a young country with major population lying in Generation Y and Z. These two generations are the present of the country and will be the future in another 10 years.
Relationship between Age and Loyalty
Pick up any study measuring risk taking ability and age of an individual and you will find same results. With growing age of a person, his risk taking ability decreases. There is an inversely proportional relationship between both,
Risk taking ability (RTA) ~ 1/ Age (A)
Risk taking ability (RTA) ~ 1/ Loyalty (L)
That means, There is a direct relation between a person's age and loyalty,
Age (A) ~ Loyalty (L)
As time passes and we join youth force of our country, we become somewhat loyal to some brands in some categories. But real shift comes when we reach the age of 35, avoid changes and have decided what is good for us for the rest of our lives.
Relationship between Age and Inquisitiveness
There is a similar relation between age & inquisitiveness as that of age & risk taking ability, inversely proportional,
Age (A) ~ 1/ Inquisitiveness (I)
The younger we are the more inquisitive we are, and as we climb up the stairs of aging, our inquisitiveness comes straight down the ladder and finally on the ground.
Generation Gap
When we talk about Generation X, it has the median age of 44.5 years, that means most of the people who belongs to this generation have lower risk taking ability than those in generation Y and X. Moreover, the former one is far less inquisitive than the latter and thus they restrict to pre-tested things and do not readily try new things. It can be said that generation X is far more brand loyal than generation Y and particularly generation Z.Due to this rare characteristic of loyalty, companies loves generation X and try to attract these honey bees to their nectar. But one thing they fail to realize is they already have a favorite nectar and now it is a waste of resources to try for these honey bees.
On the contrary, Generation Y & Z are much more inquisitive and have need of trying out different things, which makes them less loyal or it is better to say negligible loyal. Both the generations, particularly Z, frequently changes its brands and keeping this in mind companies do not try to focus on these generations. But they again fail to understand,
- These generations are majority of population and hence potential pool of customers
- These generations will also face the effects of aging and by the time they decide their loyalty, they will still be in majority
- Looking in future and constantly hammer the childish minds of generation Y & Z, so that by the time they become loyal to one brand, it is your brand, not the competitors'.
For becoming generation Y & Z centric, the first thing a company has to take care is of its leadership. The person holding a lantern for the whole team should understand the importance of Gen Y & Z and then the only rest of the company will follow him. Next level comes of functional heads of the company, who guides the path of a function, be it Marketing, Sales, HR or finance. It with the mutual consent of all the functional departments, a company can be on the top priority of Gen Y & Z.
In the recent past, there are many companies belonging to different industries which have realized the need to change the focus toward gen Y & Z. A recent article of Brand Equity, mentioning one of the homegrown company Dabur focusing now on gen Y & Z and turning the new leaf after peeking into the future.
Gen Y & Z characteristics which should be understood by our modern marketers, to make themselves equip to stand the tough competition are:
- Have high awareness about things around them because of their high level curiosity,
- Impulsive in nature and do not ponder much before buying, because of their risk-taking ability,
- Price factor comes last, what matters is the ability of a product to make them feel unique and better than before,
- Communication matters a lot for them, should be reminded about product very often and from different sources,
- Time & convenience is more important than price, thus favors to shop from air-conditioned hypermarkets than a local Kirana store,
- Creative advertisement is more impactful than celebrity claims of making them better,
- Increasing purchasing power as they believes in saving less and living a larger life,
- High aspirations, go out of the way for fulfilling their aspirations,
- Easily influenced by peer group, everything is a fad, not a trend
On the basis of these characteristics, marketeers favourite concept of 4Ps can be mixed and served according to the taste of Gen Y & Gen Z
Product & Price
For marketers, there has always been a trade off between Product & Price, but for Gen Y & Z, their problems are much less. Focus on product and price will be paid by these generations. These generations always craving for something new irrespective of the price which they would have to pay for it.
The gretes example is of Fogg deo by Vini Cosmetics, which chaged the whole deo category. The price was much higher for their gassless deo, but gen Y & Z walcomed it with their both hands open and and a result every company including hotshots like Unilever had to launch gassless deo to stay in market.
Place
In this technology era, where everything is only a 'touch' away from us, it is inevitable for companies to make themselves present digitally. Whether you are present in a Kirana store or not, you must be present at supermarkets and leding e-commerce sites.
Promotions
Whether you have POPs (point of purchase) at the retail outlet or not you should have google ads
Whether you communicates through TV, banners, print medium or not, Faacebook, Twitter, Youtube and mobile advertisement is must
Rural Youth
All of the things holds good for the urban youth, but what about rural youth? Can it be ooverlooked over the urban and neglected? Well, let us look over some facts:
According to world bank report less than half of total world's population lives in rural, but 68% of India's population lives in 'Bharat', the rural India. Since the major population of country lives in its rural part, so the major part of its youth force breathe in rural area. So it is clear, rural youth is as important as urban one.
Rural Gen Y & Z is moving to cities either for higher studies or for better job opportunities. Highly influenced by their urban counterpart and thus their behavioural characteristics is same as that of urban.
With smartphones available at considerable low prices and internet pack prices dropping down, Internet has reached to 350 million population of the country, second largest internet users in world and is expected to reach to 500 million by year 2017 (according to IAMAI-KPMG report). More rural youth is using internet through their smartphones, opening a door for marketers which is common for both rural & urban youth.
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