FINDING YOUR IDEAL CLIENTS may feel a little like searching for the holy grail. Every business is seeking out these ideal prospects, but the traditional methods for identifying them may not always be the most effective. Conventional approaches involve examining the profile of the top 10 percent of your most profitable customers. Next, you would identify the demographic qualities they share as a group so that you can look for other prospects that share those demographics. This method is called customer profiling. While this can pay off in the short run, it’s not enough. You may be missing a bigger opportunity. Who are the ideal customers that will support your business in the future? In order to be successful, you also need to attract the next generation of clients. It is easy to focus on the customers who love you the most now, but you must also pay attention to the generation that is coming next so that you can maintain your position in the marketplace. However, the same tried-and-true marketing strategies you’ve used in the past to attract Baby Boomers may fall flat with Gen X — and Millennials are a whole different story. There are fundamental experiences we share as a collective generation: experiences that shape our values, how we prefer to communicate, what we buy, and what factors influence our purchasing decisions the most. These shared experiences color each generation’s world, shaping their behavior. Wars, the economy, scientific or technological advancements, social tragedies, memorable moments in entertainment, changing political structures, or sociological shifts influence and transform each generation in profound ways. Marketing with these differences in mind will allow you to frame your product or service’s benefits in a way that aligns with a unique generation’s values and preferences. Generational marketing not only increases your ability to connect with each generation in a meaningful way, it also leads to increased customer loyalty and a stronger return on your marketing investment. Levis-Strauss learned about the importance of generational marketing the hard way in the late 1990s. Baby Boomers had always loved their jeans, and the company had gotten accustomed to being on top. They weren’t paying attention to the needs of Gen X and the Millennials. Before they knew it, Levis had become “your parent’s jeans.” As you might imagine, this didn’t appeal to the younger generations, and their market share dropped accordingly. How can you make sure your brand is relevant to your best customers of tomorrow? Can you reach these prospective customers before it’s too late? Never take your eye off your future customers, speaking to them in their own language and reaching them where they live.
