Debunking the ‘youth are different’ marketing myth

The underlying theory behind segmentation is that, if the market can be partitioned into homogenous subsets of consumers with distinct attitudinal, emotional, and behavioural dispositions, then products and services can be designed and delivered in a differentiated manner that appeals to discrete character sets.

Because these dispositions cut across gender, age, ethnicity, nationality, religion, income, and other hard edged segmentation parameters, they provide a softer and hence more malleable lens through which sellers can view and proposition prospects.

This way of thinking about consumer segments suggests that the notion of youth as a distinct segment to be pursued with generational marketing strategies is misplaced. To illustrate this point, we have assembled data which illustrates that the stance taken towards products and marketing does not differ significantly between people aged 15 to 50 years old. While the level of agreement may differ with regard to each statement, it is only after age 50 that we observe pronounced variations in responses between the age bands.

The message here is market to the youth as you would to the middle aged.