#17 Generational motivations – Baby Boomers and Generation X, Y and C
July 25, 2009 by Jake Pearce
Today we are talking about the motivations of generations and talking about why it’s important to look at what motivates a generation (as human beings) rather than what their behaviour is (as human doings).
This video is 3 minutes 46 seconds long and covers the following:
- A quick definition of Generation C
- Why we need to understand the motivations of different Generations – Baby Boomers, Generation X, Y and C in order to be target generations effectively
- A summary of the motivations of Baby Boomers, Generation X, Y and C
What do you think are the motivations of these generations and does it matter?
#16 Why Generational stereotypes are incorrect
July 21, 2009 by Jake Pearce
This week I’m looking at why generational stereotypes are incorrect.
Generational studies usually focus on a demographic or age based analysis and define each generation by what they do.
For example when thinking about the Boomer generation, they talk about their activities – music, protests, hippy movement etc.
The key is that they are missing the point – to understand a generation the key is to look at the motivation that defines them. After all we are human beings not human doings 
For Boomers it’s all about freedom or being free and they demonstrate this by the music, hippy movement, political protests that their generation are noted for.
So Generation C isall about Control and show this by wanting to have the power to choose how to define their environment, be heard and share with other people in the digital world.
The video is 3 mins 48 seconds. Hope you find it useful.
How do you think generations should be defined?
#15 Quick definitions – Generation Y, X, Z, Boomers & Generation C
July 13, 2009 by Jake Pearce
This video is 4minutes 30 seconds long.
There is a lot of confusion over the the differences between all the different generations and how Generation C fits with them.
To start defining them, I look at the demographic/age based generations briefly, Boomers, Generation X, Generation Y and Generation Z. Unlike Generation C, which is a psychographic generation that is ageless, the following generations are typically defined in generational studies based on common experiences in their late teens/early twenties.
A quick and useful start to check what generation someone belongs to, is to ask them what their formative music format was
- Boomers – Vinyl was their format 33’s and 45’s
- Gen X – Tapes were dominant format
- Gen Y – CD’s for older Gen Y
- Gen Y – mp3’s/itunes for younger Gen Y
- Gen Z – Work In Progress as they are ‘generationally’ born from 2001 onwards and haven’t hit late teens yet!
- Gen C – like digital online formats and enjoy sharing and comparing for example to Last FM
Generation C is the global, ageless Digital Generation – no accident then that they love Twitter
In short, Generation C is more important than any other generation because it’s not defined by a narrow demographic – do you agree or disagree?
#7 Generation C steals share from other Generations – but they still talk more than they type…
April 6, 2009 by Jake Pearce
Generation C is a growth Generation stealing share from Generation X, Y, Z and Boomers.
Why?
Well that’s because more and more people use a range of digital media and become ‘adopted GenC’. The Pew research shows that effectively a wide range of demographic generations are ‘converting’ and debunks the myths that Generation C is all about the ‘young’. For example….
• Gen X – are most likely to bank, shop on line
• Boomers are most likely to book travel on line
• Silent Generation (64-72 years old) are up there with Gen Y on e-mail
• The biggest increase in internet use since 2005 is in the 70-75 age group
Check out Pew Research on generations online – it’s great info.
In effect – Generation C started out being those who were really into matters digital and were young but that’s rapidly changing. For example Mitch Olson co-founder of
Small Worlds – told us the average age of those in Second Life is 35. The net result is that those who were the digital influencers are becoming cross generational influencers – and ironically influencers used to be hard to find and now are often openly accessible on digital mediums like twitter.
So what are the implications? Well I feel one will come – a digital backlash because of the demographic blurring inherent in Generation C. One key point that seems to be forgotten is that 80% of all ‘Word-of-Mouth’ comes from the gob not the keyboard.
In short the importance of ‘matters digital’ for marketing people is growing but right now may be overhyped. Generation C talk more than they type and that’s a fact that has been lost on many people.
Watch this space for video footage exploring this fascinating ‘non-demographic’ generation.
#2 response to Jaffe Juice ‘talking about my generation’
October 14, 2008 by Jake Pearce
Hi there!
After a few technical challenges (getting used to my new website back end!!) here’s my posting which is our podcast response to Jaffe Juice #111 ‘talking about my generation’ http://www.acrossthesound.net/
Many thanks to my co-creators:
http://simonyoung.co.nz/generation-c-changes-the-world-part-3/ – Simon Young
http://www.bridgeellis.com/Pages/home.htm – Provider of Gen C datatrawl for deep web (99% of web unseen by Google)
Here’s a quick summary of what’s in this 12 minute podcast:
- Generations – It goes Boomers, Gen X and then gets as confusing as drunken bird song
- ‘GenY’ is after X and is also known as Millennials, Generation Next and Generation Why. What they are like depends on who you talk to but they are all the same demographic 1982-2002 roughly. (See References and links below)
- Gen Z http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Generation_C – is a demographic after GenY
- GenC – digital natives – is a psychograpic generation (like gen-i) and it is growing as people get into living digitally.
- There are lots of C’s describing what C ‘do’ being banded about – their motivation is CONTROL
- We want to clarify with Joseph Jaffe what the i in gen-i means – Joseph???
- Wikipedia has erroneously lumped GenC into GenZ – we’ll be tackling that soon!
- The implications of GenC are, in our view (Simon Young and myself) profound – it means in the future people will have a both psychographic generation and a demographic one – in other words, DUAL PASSPORTS
- So people will describe themselves as X/C or Boomer/C or C/C
- This psychographic generation (GenC) is more than being part of Apple tribe or VW tribe. It means people will be harder and harder to target as the fragmentation of media creates even more complexity around generations. And of course, this makes marketing much tougher
- The role of this blog is to debate the implications of GenC. In other words, find out who they are, what their needs are, relate to them and ultimately know how to converse with them. And, critically, from there, know the opportunities and threats for marketing that flow from that.
Our references for this podcast include…
Gen C versus Gen Y
- Peter Sheehan GenY – http://www.petersheahan.com.au/cpa/htm/htm_home.asp
- Howe and Strauss http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Strauss also known as ‘don’t label us’, Generation Y, Why, Generation Tech, Generation Next, Generation.com, Generation 2000, Echo Boom, Boomer Babies and Generation XX (p7 Howe and Strauss Millennials rising)
- Then comes in GenC first identified by trendwatching.com – a forward thinking outfit who identify trends http://trendwatching.com/trends/GENERATION_C.htm
- Eric Chester Generation Why http://generationwhy.com/
- Don Tapscott Gen N – Growing Up digital http://www.growingupdigital.com/
- Organisations showing interest in geny http://www.jakepearce.com/trendgate/
- Wikipedia : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Generation_Z
- Wikepedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Generation_Y
- Wikepedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Generation_X
- Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baby_boomer
Gen C
- Simon Young http://simonyoung.co.nz/generation-c-changes-the-world-part-3/
- Jake Pearce GenC books http://www.jakepearce.com/gen-c-centre/key-books/
- Jake Pearce GenC articles http://www.jakepearce.com/gen-c-centre/key-articles/
- Jake Pearce bloggers with an interest in GenC http://www.jakepearce.com/gen-c-centre/key-blogs/
- GenC podcasts http://www.jakepearce.com/gen-c-centre/podcasts/
- GenC interest groups http://www.jakepearce.com/gen-c-centre/organisations-with-an-interest-in-gen-c/
Enjoy!