Survey: Marketers Are Still Struggling to Grasp Generational Differences

Marketers have various interpretations of what their audience desires, and new research shows that they aren’t always on target.

Yes Lifecycle Marketing recently published a report titled “A Blueprint for Using Audience Insights to Inform Marketing Communication Strategies” consisting of survey results from a recent marketing conference. At the event, more than 300 marketers were asked about their understanding of audience preferences.

The majority of respondents believed that Centennials were the most price-conscious generation. However, previous research indicates that Baby Boomers considered themselves the most price-conscious, above Gen X, Millennials and Centennials.

Marketers believed that Baby Boomers were the most influenced by emails, but Millennials considered themselves to be above Gen X, Baby Boomers and Centennials.

In terms of assumptions marketers got right, Millennials were named the top generation to be loyal to brands. This was consistent with how Millennials ranked themselves in previous research.

The majority of marketers (27 percent) said that they can personalize some content to cater to their audiences, but not much. This highlights a key obstacle in satisfying generational needs.

Understanding Generational Preferences for Social Media Marketing

Understanding a generation’s preferences may help when it comes to utilizing social media platforms for marketing, such as YouTube, according to previous research.

The “YouTube’s Generational Divide” report from Strike Social discovered that Baby Boomers, for instance, had a 10 percent higher view rate of marketing videos on YouTube compared to Generation Xers and Millennials. That being said, marketers still dedicate their video advertising budgets toward other generations versus Baby Boomers.

“Some of this difference in ad spend can be attributed to the fact that boomers are a slightly smaller audience,” wrote the authors of the report. “But that doesn’t account for the entire gap. In 2016, baby boomers only received a substantial amount of targeting budget in 56 percent of the industry groups, even though they are much more likely to watch an ad.”