Have you seen The Customer Experience Factbook?

In this 180+ page report, you'll find all the information and support you need to build a profitable, effective CX Improvement Program that spans every part of your business. You'll be able to implement and manage meaningful and profitable change, and grow your bottom line despite a slowing economy.

Get it on Amazon (Kindle/Print)

Marketing conundrum: Millennials vs Boomers

Some 80 million Millennials will soon reach peak buying power. At the same time, 77 million Baby Boomers are entering new lifestyle stages - retirement, second career, empty nester - and so in many retail categories, brand loyalty is up for grabs.

It's a seemingly impossible choice: try to matter most to a 65-year-old retiree and the brand risks compromising cachet and 'cool' in the mind of someone as young as 18, but solely target the 18-34 age range and risk alienating an older demographic group with real spending power (40% of total consumer demand) that is simply too big to ignore.

"We wanted to answer some arguably elusive questions facing specialty retailers today: Does cool matter? Does it actually drive purchase? How does a specialty brand define itself without limiting itself?" said Lee Peterson, executive vice president of client services for WD Partners. "So we sought to find out how relevant brands act and communicate with consumers in the marketplace."

The company's research report, entitled 'The Continuum of Cool', explored the changing attitudes and emotional needs among America's Baby Boomers and Millennials, and this generation's vital subgroup: Hispanic Millennials. Among the key findings and recommendations from the study:

• Identify and Prioritize Emotional Needs of Both Generations
  Brands that help them express and define identity; Boomers value specialty brands that make life better, but don't need brands to define who they are. Millennials use brands more intimately at this stage in their lives.
• How Millennials Define Cool: It's All About Identity
  Cool is a social construct: Millennials seek peer approval through the brands they choose and find aspirational specialty brands most appealing. They want brands that allow them to create a personal style; products that signal a lifestyle to others or denote membership in a distinctive social tribe. Technology no longer serves as a way for this generation to signal difference; its ubiquity and thorough lifestyle adoption defines the entire generation, so it no longer serves as a way to define identity.
• How Boomers Define Cool: It's All About Relevance
  As people age, they don't become less concerned about fashion, trends, and what's considered cool; it's just these kinds of constructs become less relevant to how they structure and create identity. Boomers still want to try the latest cup of coffee; dabble in the freshest fashion trends; and stay up-to-date on the technological change. Yet, unlike Millennials, it's less about identity-formation and more about making life easier or empowering communication with family and friends.
• The Common Ground: Health, Wellness and Good Works
  The research showed that broader consumer trends surrounding organic food, local buying, healthier lifestyles, and corporate philanthropy, appeal to both generations. It's the most robust area of cross-generational appeal. Brands that communicate with messages of health, wellness and good works resonate most deeply with consumers of all generations.

Have you seen The Customer Experience Factbook?

In this 180+ page report, you'll find all the information and support you need to build a profitable, effective CX Improvement Program that spans every part of your business.

You'll be able to implement and manage meaningful and profitable change, and grow your bottom line despite a slowing economy. Grab this goldmine of easily adaptable and up-to-date strategies, walk-throughs, trends, technologies, research, suppliers and partners, plus all the supporting arguments you need to build a solid CX strategy.

While most marketers could list maybe a dozen key points for improving their brand's Customer Experience (CX), the researchers and writers at The Marketing Factbook have identified FORTY main 'CX Keys' which will help you drive your customers to new levels of delight, loyalty, advocacy and profitability.

The areas in which customers have direct contact with your organization are perhaps the most obvious places in which CX improvements can be made, and this report addresses all 24 of these 'Direct CX Keys', applicable to offline and online businesses alike.

At the same time there are many other areas that indirectly affect CX (such as the supply chain, policies and processes) in which every business can make simple but far-reaching improvements. This report guides you through the problems and solutions for all 16 of these 'Indirect CX Keys', many of which are often forgotten or under-played even in the best CX strategies.

Get it on Amazon (Kindle/Print)