Survey Demographics - Tip from the Pros

Let's face it--good marketing professionals create and utilize a substantial number of surveys. Whether analyzing, testing or measuring impact, research results drive good planning, good strategy and effective creative. So how can we build better surveys?

Here's a tip from the pros. When you are creating your demographic questions, take advantage of a couple of subtle, but powerful formatting tactics.

1- Collecting age data
Don't construct arbitrary age brackets, such as
18 to 20
21 to 30
31 to 40
41 to 50
Etc.

Instead, align your age groupings with cohort groups, as follows:
23 years of age or younger - Millennial / Echo-boomers
24 to 31 years of age - N Generation (aka Internet Generation, Gen Y)
32 to 42 - Generation X
43 to 53 - Trailing Edge Boomers
54 to 62 - Leading Edge Boomers
63 to 80 - Postwar Cohort

In such fashion, you can build insights into your age group findings by turning to cohort theory and psychographic trends for comparison.

2- Collecting income data

Instead of formulating arbitrary income brackets such as-
$50,000 per year or less
$50k to $100k
$100k to $150k
$150k to $200k
$200k or more

Create your income brackets to align with US Census data groupings, as follows-
$34,999 per year or less
$35,000 to $49,999
$50,000 to $74,999
$75,000 to $99,999
$100,000 to $149,999
$150,000 to $199,999
$200k or more

Again, you'll have an immediate basis for comparison, a benchmark in the Census data for the particular community, metro, county or state.

Marketing geniuses, what other research/survey tips would you be willing to share? We'd love to hear from you!

A to Z of Marketing: G is for Generational Marketing Theory

Wouldn't it be cool if you could anticipate the type of photograph that will resonate with your audience?

How great would it be if you could use more powerful or more persuasive examples or stories with a given audience group?

What if you had some insight, in advance, about how a particular audience members will behave as consumers? Who might respond most favorably to a discount? By contrast, who might be more jazzed about a beefed-up warranty?

Looking at this proverbial marketer's wish list, all of these things are possible with generational marketing theory. Cool, huh!

Generational marketing theory, also known as cohort group theory, holds that humans are affected by certain life-shaping events that have a strong impact upon our beliefs, tastes and consumer tendencies. As we share these events at various times of our lives, especially during our adolescent or formative years, it causes us to become more alike with respect to our cohorts or generational peers. Without getting too deep into the theory, it also says that we are affected in similar fashion by government and media practices. Other societal factors play a role in this too: medicine, technology and the economy.

Now, what are some of these cohort groups? You'll recognize several--
Generation X
Leading-Edge Baby Boomers
Trailing-Edge Baby Boomers
Millenials or (Gen-Y)

In short, Generational Marketing Theory says that our world can be sorted into generational groups of people who share common hobbies, interests, thought processes, buying patterns and other behaviors, based upon their shared life experiences.

Consider how different the value systems of those who lived during the Great Depression are from those who lave lived their entire lives during prosperous periods. The theory begins to make sense, doesn't it?

Here's one, quick example: Gen-X versus Boomers - buying habits
Gen-Xers love to shop around and are very price conscious. They are voracious pre-shoppers and are masters at using the Internet to evaluate one offer versus another. In total contrast, Leading-Edge Boomers are very much driven by convenience. They are the utlimate impulse buyers. Big spenders, these Boomers see it and have to have it now.

Before you begin to shout, "Hey - don't stereotype me!" Please understand that this theory is only used for high-level shaping and direction. It is never definitive. Nor is it a replacement for research. The theory certainly understands and allows for individuality. Still, it is very useful.

There's more here on Generational Marketing Theory, should you wish to learn more.

For those marketing geniuses who really want to deep dive, go buy a copy of Defining Markets Defining Moments, by Geoffrey E. Meredith & Charles D. Schewe, PhD. Hungry Minds, Inc., New York, 2002.

Lucy XM-54 Knows Me and My Cohorts

I'm an occasional XM radio listener. Talk radio on AM is my mainstay, for the record. I supplement my listening with public radio (NPR and WV Public Radio). When I am XM-ing, the channel that I gravitate toward is number 54, the channel known as "Lucy." The primary factor for me is the music. Lucy plays the music that I love. The format for Lucy is billed as the killer songs of the Alternative Music era. It's the important songs in the history of alternative music from the '90s, with some '80s flashbacks. It works. I like it. But wait ... there's a bit of marketing genius here to explore.

The marketing genius producers at Lucy know how to utilize cohort marketing, or generational marketing theory, to create messages that resonate with me. They really know how to embrace me, or at least my cohort group. Lucy knows the following:

- That my cohorts and I have been out of college for almost 20 years.
- That my cohorts and I are raising families.
- That we are battling expanding waistlines.
- That we have traded in sports cars for mini-vans.
- That I am dealing with the first signs of aging.

That's me and my cohort group, the Trailing-Edge Boomers (or the Jonesers), described to a tee.

Lucy and its creators accomplish this depth of connection with quirky, clever announcements from the DJ. These run about once every 15 minutes, in between songs. Here are a few examples--some of my favorites:

"Lucy - XM 54. We're the music that weird girlfriend of yours from college turned you on to."

"Lucy - XM 54. We've been with you all the way from the days of your 32-inch waistline to 38. Heck, we were even there for you when you made it back down to 36s on the Atkins plan."

Announcements like these resonate with me. They add depth to the station and its programming. It tells me that Lucy XM-54 gets me. And as long as they keep playing the great music that I love, Lucy will keep me.

Is your product or service aligned with a particular cohort group? If so, do you truly understand their psyche and their shared life experiences? If not, perhaps you should explore how cohort marketing might fit into your overall marketing strategy.

By the way, the definitive work on cohort marketing theory is Defining Markets, Defining Moments by Geoffrey Meredith, Charles Schewe PhD and Janice Karlovich. I highly recommend this book to all marketing geniuses.