You've done the research. You know your customer's income, where he lives, what he drives. But you don't know whether he prefers Bob Dylan or Alanis Morisette. Or Pepsi, or Snapple or tap water. And you don't know why.
Why, for that matter, are Baby Boomers acting nothing like their parents did in their fifth decade? Why does the 40-year-old oftoday have much more in common with her 20y-year-old self than with today's college student?
The hidden force at work in each of these examples and many others is generational. Generational ties link widely disparate individuals of varying education, income and life stage. And let's face it, reliable data about today's three living generations can be a vital element in a marketer's arsenal -- in some instances more important than any sort of demographic information.
To an astonishing degree, your generational cohort -- Mature (born 1909-1949), Boomer (born 1946-1964), or Xer (born 1965-present) -- defines who you are, what you believe and what you buy. You don't need us to tell you this; you know it instinctively.
For nearly 30 years, researchers at Yankelovich Partners, the world-famous research firm, have been compiling comprehensive information about consumers -- their preferences, habits and lifestyles -- mostly for the exclusive proprietary use of Yankelovich's corporate clients.
In order to prepare this remarkable book, two leading Yankelovich analysts have mined that incredibly deep data to generate an unprecedented wealth of marketing information about the three active consumer generations: Generation X, the Boomers and the Matures.
Rocking the Ages provides marketers with the strategies they need to understand and target these incredibly cohesive groups, including specific data on where they live, what they earn, what they buy and what motivates them to buy. Brimming with graphs and charts -- and real-life, real-product examples of families, individuals and their buying patterns -- Rocking the Ages is the definitive guide to targeting your business's products and services to your ideal consumers.
Founded by Dan Yankelovich in 1958, Yankelovich Partners, the nation's leading consumer research organization, has published each year since 1971 a proprietary report on consumer behavior, The Yankelovich MONITOR, and has also provided highly specialized custom research for corporate clients, as well as public opinion research for Time (for 22 years) and Time/CNN (since 1989).
Customer Reviews:
Avg. Customer Rating: 4.0 / 5.0
Fun for non-marketers:
I find myself recommending this book to friends with no interest in marketing. Good, fun info that puts into perspective why you and your parents see things so differently. Highly recommended.
Great way to approach sales:
Rocking the Ages is a beautifully writen book. It takes historical events and explaines how they formed the personality of each generation. This book helped me to curve our marketing and advertising techniques to reach our customers with a positive response. It clarifies how the generations view their lives and what they buy, how and why. It has helped me to understand my customers in a more personal manner. It is easy to get trapped into the needs of one own gereration, but this book clarifies the needs... more info
I'm highly suspicious:
I'm pretty suspicious of the review from the the reader in Harrisburg, PA. It just sounds too much like promotional speak from the Walker Smith and Clurman Public Relations company.
As for the book, I'm only just thinking of reading it. I'll use my local library to find a copy, however.
Wonderful sociology and history of the consumer economy:
An incredibly quick, fun read. Plenty of insight into consumer habits and attitudes based on extensive research. The three categories (matures, baby boomers, and X-gen) may seem overly broad, but this is the first treatment of generalizations about the generations that resonates with me personally.
(As a 27-year-old, it gets a little tiring to be told you're X-gen and to constantly think that the categorization doesn't reflect anyone in my age group I've ever met, never mind me personally. This book... more info