A discussion paper for professional and industry association communications managers.
In business, including NFP organisations, you are likely to be communicating with up to four different generations. These will be represented among your staff, members and volunteers. This raises unique communications issues, particularly due to the dichotomous nature of the management chain which may feature an unbalanced selection on each side of the staff/volunteer divide. This demographic segmentation has achieved popular credence and has promoted much academic research, particularly about changes in behaviour.
In this paper we consider the differences in communication style for each group and their more likely preferred methods of communicating. From this we can draw some guidelines for gaining attention, getting the message across and generating action.
Your four generations are:
* Veterans or seniors – born before 1945
* Baby Boomers – born 1946 – 1964
* Gen X – born 1965-1979
* Gen Y – born after 1980
Each has a different communication need, based on their lifestyle characteristics and personal communication styles. So, how do we identify the key differences? And how do we tailor the communication for each group when we sometimes have to talk to all of them together?
Each demographic has a distinct set of values, view of work / life balance, concept of loyalty and expectations from the work environment and those they do business with. Each group also has a unique communication preference in an escalating technological world.
You will need to use the appropriate language – based on their lifestyle characteristics – together with the appropriate communication tools ranging from old fashioned letters through emails to texting and social media channels. Only by doing this will you be able to attract and keep members in each of the categories and engage with them to generate activity.
Let’s take a look at each category:
Seniors
Remembering the privations of the Great Depression and the Second World War, these hard working people have firm ethics, high standards of personal behaviour and have learned, and often continued, to live on modest means.
They prefer direct communication and usually read – and believe – what they see. Most are users of traditional media including newspapers, radio and television and they usually share the social, political and emotional values of the media they consume. To say they are change resistant would be an understatement. They expect you to be truthful but with ‘sensitive expression’ that doesn’t offend. Some are suspicious of or unused to technology while others have embraced it wholeheartedly. Many octogenarians – like my mother in law in New Zealand – use the internet daily, email regularly and upload their own digital photographs. I’m used to text messages during rugby tests and this group will also use Skype if you show them how.
Your communication style with seniors must be clear and straight forward. While they will believe what they read in the newspaper they may be more suspicious of the internet, so websites must be kept clear and really easy to navigate.
Baby boomers
Baby boomers have reinvented every decade of their lives, and continue to do so. Born into post Second World War food rationing and massive social restructuring, these children had little and invented much in the 1950s and into the 60s. They were able to develop powerful imaginations and the education system gave them grammar and language. Television was in its infancy.
Major changes occurred during the rebellious 1960s and, for Australia and New Zealand, the early 70s – rock music, political protest, sexual freedom and the beginnings of prosperity. Boomers enjoyed geographic mobility as they travelled east and west, listening to rock anthems such as Pete Townsend’s “I wanna die before I get old”. Tertiary education became more accessible and the general level of education and awareness rose.
Boomers have experienced recessions, personal successes and failures, a complete change to the pattern of family relationships and are now looking at their 60s being the new 40s – much to the ongoing despair of the Xers who just want them to retire! Some will and some will stay working for a long time yet as health is better and life expectancy has gone well over four score.
Open minded and rebellious in their teens and twenties, many boomers are now rather conservative. Perhaps it’s the weight of running the world for so long or merely the fear of losing what they have managed to build up – families, businesses, property empires, superannuation and investments. Most certainly want to hang on to their status symbols including property in the right suburb, brand name consumer goods and the ability to maintain a hedonistic lifestyle.
Boomers still love direct mail (which really started in earnest in the 1980s) and love the ‘information search and evaluation’ stage of the consumer decision making process. While many have embraced the internet and mobile phones, print is usually required to reinforce communication. They will often undertake copious research before making a buying decision.
There is a specific group of boomers who have not used computers in their working situation and have not kept up with their children technologically. This group is often quite set against the internet and mobile telephony, a little scared to show their ignorance. As this group ages and retires it is likely that they will, in turn, embrace this technology and the non users will become a very small minority.
Gen X
More resourceful and resilient than their elders, this generation is sometimes known as the ‘lost generation’ squeezed between the boomers and Gen Y. They have been regarded by some as ignored and misunderstood. Well educated and qualified, Xers are sceptical of authority and have a focus on outcomes and skills. Many have been waiting a decade for the management responsibility the boomers took as their right. They want effective leadership and many despair of the mess some boomers have made of companies, business, politics and the social order. They want to work for someone who knows what they are doing and not all are patiently waiting their turn!
In a business context they will want to know the benefits to them of their involvement and action. This is particularly true in a NFP volunteer context and they can quickly get involved or get out if they don’t see the return. Loyalty must be earned and is a disposable product. Xers can be churned if you provide them with a good reason.
Relatively late to partner, marry and have children Xers as a group carry the biggest financial burden in society. Families, big mortgages, huge demands from children, and the costs of keeping up appearances and lifestyle with their friends and family cause financial and emotional stress.
Xers are good researchers, using the internet extensively. They love interactive communication and. their intelligent use of search engines means that marketers have to put the right bait in their way to get a hearing. Needless to say they are time poor, so if you are not easily visible to them you may not even be considered. Television is a medium that is well used, but selectively. In many ways this group is the most challenging to reach as they are so busy in all aspects of their life that ‘information overload’ is a constant state for them.
Gen Y
Sometimes called the Millennials, the Google generation or the iPod generation, these are perhaps the hardest for other generations (and specifically management) to understand. They are generally optimistic, highly social and rather moralistic. Described as overly ambitious and impatient by some, this reflects the way they have always been treated as ‘special’. They competed with fewer siblings and enjoyed economic stability and growth in their formative years. They wanted for little. Now, they want prosperity and work on their own terms.
While Gen Y is “all about me” they share some interesting moral views with seniors, often criticising their boomer parents (sometimes all four of them!) for their loose approach to morals and relationships. Growing up in the “respect the children” era they seem to have scant respect for their own parents, one factor in their ability to live at home for so long without a conscience! Most, of course are unmarried and unencumbered with children. Their conscious decision to delay this process will lead to a likely boom in the next decade.
At work, Gen Y wants authentic relationships – and authentic inspiring leadership. The key to managing this group in the workplace is in asking them how they can contribute, changing the ‘command and control’ model to one of ‘inclusion and collaboration’. This requires a mindset change in communication style for most boomers.
This generation thinks and acts differently to the others. They have a complicated and strong tribal social structure. Divisions between work and social life are blurred as their lives are often out there for all to see. “It’s not real unless it’s on Facebook” is a common observation and the speed at which they communicate and tell their peers and the world how they feel is quite disturbing to older people and seems open to the point of naivety. This is a generation committed to the idea of change and fragmentation, described by Hugh Mackay as the Kaleidoscope generation.
Multi tasking comes naturally to Gen Y people and the peer to peer network is more important than any advertising campaign, however delivered. As the first truly ‘post feminist’ demographic there is little power difference between men and women. To communicate successfully you need to employ and leverage every possible technological medium, backed up by good quality brand support. Honesty is everything as you will be found out and ignored without authenticity. It helps to ensure that members of this generation are managing the communication.
How do I make this work?
Most associations cannot afford to segment all their communication to each segment, nor is it necessary. The key is in using the right language in each media channel for the most likely audience of that channel.
Let’s assume you have a website and the ability to send email campaigns. The design, layout, structure and content of the website should, in any case, be simple, clear and fast to navigate. That suits all users. Cascading levels of detail can help capture both the speeding, multi tasking Gen Y audience while satisfying the more comprehensive research needs of boomers and Gen X.
Email campaigns can be directed to each segment, using appropriate language and highlighting the benefits that will appeal to each segment. Facilitate forwarding and track that.
Direct mail may be targeted more at boomers and seniors, less at Gen Y. The language used in brand marketing should use the ‘authenticity’ requirements of Gen Y which will work with the other segments too.
It’s not about choosing one specific media channel or one level of language… more a strategy of integrating channels and listening to your own voice. And, as we used to say in the 1980s with direct mail – test, test and test again!
Acknowledgments
I have researched widely on this subject and acknowledge concepts and findings from the following sources:
Hugh Mackay, Bernard Salt, Avril Henry, Ann Andrews, eMarketer and numerous blogs and articles. The opinions and conclusions are, of course, my own!
Martin Long
