The success of a communication plan lies not only in an attractive message or in a great story behind the product or service. But, it is important to understand the following:
The idea seems common sense or a bit weird. However, the media revolution in which we live, the changes in behavior in new consumers and the cultural clash between baby boomers, generation X, millennials, and generation Z force us to build relevant and specific contact points for each audience.
Baby boomers and their particular way of understanding the world
The new older adults generation has radically changed the way of living the retirement: every day they are more dynamic, participatory, economically active and with a high level of loyalty to brands and products. Additionally, they do not stop breaking the stereotypes inherited by their predecessors: the greatest / silence Generation.
How do they consume content?
According to data from the University of Colorado, 87% of the baby boomer population (52 to 64 years old) uses Facebook as their main social network and 60% of them use blogs and digital articles as basic information media. In contrast, this generation spends about 3 hours per day on entertainment television.
That first percentage (87%) clearly shows us that Facebook is this generation favorite network, but this doesn't mean that the majority of its users are baby boomers. In fact, it has users of all generations, especially Gen Z, who sometimes run into their parents in it. What happens is that Facebook is the only network where baby boomers participate because people "understand them" more than others, such as Twitter or Snapchat.
The forgotten generation X
It seems that people born between 1965 and 1980 have a curse of identity that to date they have not been able to break. While older people feel an enormous empathy and similarity with the baby boomers, the younger ones identify with the way of living and thinking of the new generations, which leaves a gap when building communication focused on this part of the population.
How do they consume content?
To the surprise of many skeptics, Nielsen's latest report found that xers are more addicted to digital platforms than any other generation: spend, on average, 7 hours a week on social networks, an extra hour compared to their predecessors; not only that but also have the highest rate of television consumption.
Millennial overexploitation
About Millennials, people have said EVERYTHING: that they hate working, that they don't have a strong level of commitment, that they don't know how to relate outside social networks and that they are practically guilty of all the social ills. However, the truth is that by 2019 they will become the largest population group in the world, which will represent a huge source of consumption.
How do they consume content?
Last year, Nielsen released a study in which he estimates that traditional television is still the first media used by this generation to spend their free time (around 66%), while devices such as video game consoles, VCRs, and streaming is 23%. At the end of the list are computers with 8%, smartphones with 2% and, finally, tablets with 1%.
Something to highlight is that this group of people tend to get bored very quickly or get distracted very easily, which makes the experience very dynamic when consuming any content.