If anyone struggles with the issue of the Generation Gap, this article by Ben Fewtrell will have a lot of value for you, particularly the marketing strategies you use in your business.

Over to Ben….

Recently I was chatting with a friend of mine that is 23 years older than me, that makes him 57 years old! He owns a large business here in Sydney and has always been the driving force behind the sales. He would travel a lot to meet prospects, wine and dine them and build rapport until he got the order.

We were chatting about business and he mentioned that in the last few years he was having a problem connecting with his prospects, he said to me “most of the prospects I see are half my age Ben, and I find it hard to relate to them”. So it got me thinking… (After all, I am going to get to the same point eventually whether I like it or not!)

The problem is that he is from the baby boomers and his prospects are from the ‘X’ or ‘Y’ generation. We live in a world where BAD means its good, and ‘fully sick’ doesn’t mean you need a trip to the doctor!

I decided to use my ‘Y’ factor and typed ‘Generation Y’ into the Wikipedia (a free online encyclopedia) to see what results I would find. I found some info from a book called ‘Connecting to the Net. Generation’ by Reynol Junco and Jeanna Mastrodicasa.

Most interestingly were the results of a survey they conducted of 7705 college students in 2007.

97% of the students own a Computer
94% own a mobile phone
76% use instant messaging (a form of real time talking via typing text into your computer)
15% of the instant messaging users are logged on 24 hours a day, 7 days a week ready to chat!
34% use websites as their primary source of news
28% use a blog and a staggering 44% read blogs!
49% download music using peer-to- peer file sharing
75% of students have a facebook account (www.facebook.com)
60% own some type of expensive portable music and/or video device such as an ipod

Even though it has never been ‘set in stone’ it is said that the ‘Y’ generation includes anyone born from 1976 to the year 2000. So how can you use this information to grow your business? Well, I guess the first step, is to make sure you understand how each generation is evolving and to make sure you move with the times. If you made cassette tapes for a living, you would most certainly be out of business by now!

I spoke to my dad recently and he told me he was looking for a database, and I asked him what sort of database he was looking for? He said “one that reminds me to call people”, I replied “dad… you need a CRM not a database!” He then asked if I knew of any good ones and I pointed him to the one I use online. Almost immediately he started asking questions about privacy, security and who else would see or have access to his data, he didn’t like the idea of having his data on the World Wide Web. A generation Y person would not even think there was an alternative; it would be done online, or not done at all!

Make sure your sales process and marketing is geared to include all generations (unless you have a specific market generation). As you can see from the survey above, it would be a benefit for you to have a company blog, a company website and make your own podcasts. Some of you are reading this and may not even know what a podcast or a blog is… what does that mean? Well, you need to catch up!

A company that has been great at marketing to the ‘Y’ generations is Virgin, they made credit cards attractive by cutting off the corners and letting you choose your own, colour. Their airline is ‘fun’ and ‘trendy’ or should dare to say ‘fully sick!’

So next time you run a marketing campaign, ask yourself “Am I appealing to the ‘Y’ generation?” or you run the risk of limiting your sales to a market that is drying up!