Generational Marketing

In essence, the mission of the financial services business is helping people — individually or through their businesses — achieve the "good life." That is, lifetime personal financial security, the pursuit of which is a core-value transcending generations.

While each of us has his or her own definition of the "good life" (after all, that's what fact-finding forms are for, and why they're blank), different "generational cohorts" approach personal financial security in their own unique ways — much as different religions follow different paths to spiritual fulfillment.

Generational Cohorts:
The More You Know, the More You Can Do

The generational cohorts are familiar to most of us:

• The Matures — The generation that came on the scene between 1909 and 1945.
• Baby Boomers — The enormous surge of people born during the period of unparalleled economic prosperity between 1946 and 1964. Their buying patterns change as they age — service providers pay attention. Or else!
• Generation X — The 40 million or so people born in the Boomers' shadow — between 1965 and 1976.
• Generation Y — The second-largest crop of kids in America's history, offspring of the youngest Boomers — 76 million of them, nearly 26 percent of the population — entering their teens and early 20s.

Familiar, too, are the generational "markers" that have made up each group's formative experiences, creating what sociologists call their "peer personality," and shaping the way they think about personal financial security planning. By understanding what makes them tick, you can build personal connections with your clients and prospects.