Abstract:

In the last few years, the natural evolution of the post World War II "Baby Boom" generation has accounted for the explosion of the 25-54 and 35-64 key media age buying groups in the United States. This significant shifting of the "epicenter" of mass consumer spending suggests that marketers and media planners need to reevaluate their targeting strategies, particularly the popular notion of pursuing younger consumers in the hope of establishing early brand loyalty. The predisposition within the advertising community toward targeting younger demographics has been rationalized by several "logical" perceptions of consumer activity that may have had some basis of fact in the past, but has had no recent empirical validation among modem consumers. These old perceptions have taken on a life of their own and have, for all extent and purposes, become "marketing gospel" to many consumer marketers and media planners. Some of these perceptions, or more accurately misperceptions, include:  Older consumers do not represent significant sales opportunity because they live in smaller households. Older consumers are more "set in their ways" or brand loyal and they are unlikely to switch brands. Because of their brand loyalty, the cost of converting older consumers to a different brand is too high. Younger consumers are in the process of forming their brand preferences and are more experimental. Younger consumers live in larger households and tend to buy more. These commonly held impressions are, for the most part, inaccurate, yet they are frequently viewed as tenets within media and marketing circles. Why marketers persist in targeting women 18-49, at the expense of all other adult demographics, is one of the great mysteries of advertising.