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From baby boomers to Gen Z: What generations have to do with personas

Whether values, buying behaviour or media use: every generation has its own character. Why and how companies use this to their advantage and what role personas play: 5 questions and answers that help!

What are generations?

Simplified, the so-called generations are age groups whose childhood and youth have been shaped by certain cultural and historical events. Such events include, for example, wars, financial crises, natural and environmental disasters as well as inventions, trends and influential personalities. The definition of a particular generation includes, among other things, character, values, habits, consumer and media use behaviour.

2. what are the generations?

The most important generations today include the baby boomers, Generation X, Generation Y and Generation Z . However, assigning generations to specific cohorts only works to a limited extent. So-called intergenerational variations ensure that although a person's year of birth falls into a certain generation, he or she takes on many characteristics of another generation. Even in surveys and studies, there are always variations in the age range of a generation. The fact that it is nevertheless possible to make well-founded statements about the characteristics of a particular generation is shown by the so-called intergenerational difference. It refers to the mean values of the respective age groups that differ significantly from each other in different areas of life.

Each generation is characterised by different characteristics, values and needs. In particular, views around career and leisure often diverge: while baby boomers live to work, Generation X acts in the opposite way. Instead of hard work, the focus is on work-life balance. This trend continues in Generations Y and Z with the difference that work and private life increasingly merge. The flexibility to work in a home office, earn a lot and have fun at the same time is a demand that more and more companies have to face.

 

3 Who defines generations?

Why are there baby boomers, the Golf generation or Gen Z? And who gives the age groups their names? Basically, the names of generations are often related to a historical event, a trend or the attitude of a certain target group. There are also often several names that describe a generation. These sometimes come from photographers, cultural scientists or they have become established in the language over time. The term Generation X, for example, goes back to the photographer Paul Cappa, who published a book of the same name about young people. Millenials, on the other hand, are also referred to as Generation MTV, as well as Generation Y, because they grew up with this music channel.

 

4 Why do generations need it?

Generations define age groups primarily in a historical and cultural context. This is important in order to better understand the characteristics of certain age groups and to make statements about how generations will develop in the future. Thanks to knowledge about generations, companies can better adapt to existing as well as future target groups and make statements about how society in general is changing. This in turn facilitates decisions - whether it is about developing new products, marketing strategies or opening up new markets.

 

How do persona and generations differ?

While a generation is defined primarily by cultural influences and historical events, the persona profile describes in detail existing or potential customers or users from the target group. In practice, this means that in addition to general demographic data, the persona profile is based on other data and insights. data-driven persona is based on further data and findings. For example, the persona provides information about where your customers work, how they organise their everyday life and leisure time, what interests they have or in which supermarket they shop. Thus, depending on their social environment, their education and their profession, personas can belong to one generation but still be fundamentally different. An example: representative data on the baby boomer generation paints a comprehensive picture of the target group. From this, the persona Hans is a prototypical representative.

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