Chapter 5: Shaping the Generations - Baby Boomers (and Matures) to Gen Yers

Overview

There are so many ways to segment the women's market that it can be hard to know where to begin. But, if we start by examining the different experiences and life-shaping events of women born in different generations, we'll jump-start the process of identifying what is shaping the collective perspective of your women's market.

Tapping into the shared experiences and memories of such large groups can point to what drives these consumers' basic needs and wants. By taking the time to understand a generation of women in this way, and learning just what makes each age range unique, your marketing efforts will better reflect women's priorities. Your female customers will appreciate that your brand knows them, and they will be thankful that the products you are marketing to them are the ones they truly need.

The commonalities of people born within a certain generation, and the social and economic conditions they experienced together, can provide great insight about consumer behavior. Once you've read this chapter, we think you'll agree that the generational elements that shape consumers' viewpoints form a baseline for developing marketing strategies that will reach them.

The Generations [1]
Generation	Born	Age in 2003	Estimated Population	Estimated Women Population
Y	1980 “1997	6 “23	74.2 million	36.2 million
X	1965 “1979	24 “38	62.1 million	30.8 million
Baby Boomer	1945 “1964	39 “58	80.2 million	40.8 million
Mature	Before 1945	59+	50.7 million	28.7 million
[1] The table is based on the U.S. Bureau of the Census estimate of the total population on July 1, 2002, by age and sex (Table NA-EST2002-ASRO-01, National Population Estimates “Characteristics, Population Division, U.S. Census Bureau, Release Date: June 18, 2003, http://eire.census.gov/popest/data/national/tables/asro/NA-EST2002-ASRO-01.php). The estimates were further extrapolated based on the U.S. Census Bureau's estimate of total population on July 1, 2003 (http://factfinder.census.gov/servlet/DTTable?_ts=91919418530), which grew by about 1.0 percent over 2002 ” from an estimated total U.S. population of 288.0 million in 2002 to an estimated total of 290.8 million in 2003 (http://eire.census.gov/popest/data/states/tables/NST-EST2003-03.php). For simplicity, it was then assumed that each age and gender bracket grew by this same amount from 2002 to 2003; and, further, in matching up the census data with the definition of each generation, it was assumed that within each age range in the census data that the population was spread out evenly. The resulting picture summarized in the table is a good approximation of the best information available at this time. For marketing purposes, Gen Y at the moment usually excludes those younger than tweens, that is, younger than age 6 (as of 2003). In a few years , as this generation gets older, Gen Y will probably refer to everyone born from 1980 to 1999. According to common usage as reflected in most dictionaries, Gen X includes all those in the United States born in the 1960s or 1970s (from 1960 to 1979); but for marketing purposes, it is common to segment out those born from 1960 to 1964 as members of the tail end of the postwar Baby Boom. Thus Gen X is confined to those born from 1965 to 1979; and the Baby Boomers those born from 1945 to 1964. Finally, then, we define all those born earlier, or before 1945 and who were age 59 or older in 2003, as the Mature generation.

While the generational insights covered in this chapter are true for large groups of women within each segment, we do not propose that these profiles fit all women within the given generation described. And, of course, plenty of men were also shaped in similar ways by their generational commonalities.