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Bridging the trust gap: The new thinking on customer lifestage and lifestyle

MyCustomer.com, 7/3/08

Abstract:

Pigeonholing consumers into lifestage is a pretty reasonable gauge for needs: Shakespeare’s ‘seven ages of man' still elicits wry smiles, whatever our age. But today’s ‘lover sighing like furnace’ is more likely to check his mistresses views on climate change before texting his ballad. Each generation has life shaping values, and astute companies monitor these contextual factors to guide their value propositions.

As the world enters a new economic stage, now is a pertinent time to evaluate how trends in values are playing out with different generational lifestages. To start, we should differentiate between lifestage, values and lifestyle – all of which drive customer behaviour.

How are the ‘freedom protesting’ baby boomers approaching their retirement, will they differ from today’s austerity pensioners? How are generation Y coping with their mobile lives, and are emerging teenagers ‘hoodies’ or ‘greens’?

1. Lifestage – is based on demographics (age, and family situation). Young families naturally have different needs to young singles, empty nesters from older families.
2. Values – are what people aspire to and spring from two sources, upbringing and culture. Generational values are laid down in formative years and shape our life view, even as cultural values shift. For instance, how does the 60s generation react to the green values of today’s culture, and does this differ to the 80s generation?
3. Lifestyle – the way people actually behave given their environment.

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