Age

Age is perhaps the most frequently used variable in segmentation. Targets are usually described in terms of age categories that are used in the census survey. These include 20-24, 25 -29, 30-34 etc... While age is used because it is an indicator of product and brand usage, current knowledge about specific age categories is also of value in deciding whether or not segmentation is warranted.

Age and Cognitive Development. As kids' cognitive development progresses, their response to advertising changes. Children under the age of 6 have limited processing abilities. The absence of prior knowledge makes it difficult for these children to elaborate on incoming information or to retrieve the information that they have previously processed. At the same time, the absence of existing knowledge makes memory fertile ground for rote learning and verbatim recall. Young children show an uncanny ability to play back advertising word for word. This is information that has a problem-episode-outcome structure. Thus kids under the age of 6, have the ability to learn ad messages word for word as well as the ability to learn the content of ads that have a story structure.

Between the ages of 6 and 10, kids develop the ability to rehearse information so that it is represented in memory, and they have the ability to organize the information they store so that related information is represented at the same location in memory. In addition, this age group exhibits the skill to retrieve related information before accessing information about some disparate topic. However, kids under 10 do not reliably use these skills, apparently because they do not activate information storage and retrieval strategies spontaneously. When they are prompted to rehearse incoming information or to retrieve everything they know about one topic before moving to the next, they exhibit adult-like processing and retrieval capabilities, though their capacity is more limited than is that of older people. Children under the age of 6 are much less affected by such prompts. The implication is that for those aged 6-10, reminding them of the rules for effective processing and retrieval of message information as part of the persuasive appeal is likely to facilitate their message processing.

Elderly adults represent another age segment. Older people comprise a substantial number of people. They include the most affluent people in the population. With the attrition in their life space because of retirement, death of their spouse and cohort members, older adults rely on mass media for information to a greater extent than do their younger counterparts. Yet, with the exception of products that are specifically of interest to the elderly, little marketing attention is devoted to attracting them. Indeed, most marketing plans include people who are 49 years of age or younger.

Even when advertising features older people, the appeal often does not reflect an understanding of the elderly consumer. They are treated as if there is one elderly segment. This practice is not consistent with the data suggesting that the knowledge and lifestyles of those under 75 are quite different than their older counterparts. Elderly, and particularly those under 75, typically view themselves as being healthier and younger than younger people do. Indeed, the elderly's self-perception is that they are 10-15 years younger than their chronological age. Thus, when advertising targeted to say a 70-year-old, it is appropriate to show a 55-year-old rather than a person who is the same age as the target member.

The conventional wisdom that elderly people's ability to recall information is diminished with age is not supported by evidence. The findings are that older people retain proficiency in previously learned tasks and suffer deficits primarily when the tasks are ones that require skills that have not been learned earlier in life. For example, today's elderly have a difficult time when television advertising employs quick cuts--rapid movement from one scene to another. In addition, limitations in learning that do occur generally do not start at age 65, but rather there is a diminution in learning ability that becomes somewhat more pronounced after 45.

Social Class

The availability of demographic information, and particularly the educational attainment of the target, can be used to infer social class. This factor may be important to consider in segmenting because there is evidence that social classes differ in the types of offerings and persuasive messages they are likely to find appealing.

Downscale people value functionality and believe that luck is critical to success. They exhibit greater reliance on major brands than do other social classes, perhaps because they lack confidence in their ability to make appropriate brand choices.

It should be noted that upscale people often engage in downscale consumption. They shop at Saks and Kmart. By contrast, downscale people typically confine their consumption to downscale products and services. This asymmetry in social class behavior may explain why there is little advertising focused on downscale consumers: There is also a market for these products among more upscale individuals and so mass advertising is used for these products.

Notions of social class can be applied not only to consumers, but also to products. Products that are plentiful or used in large quantities and lack potency are considered more downscale than ones that are consumed in small quantities and are potent. For example, in the context of beverages, liqueurs, and champagne are perceived to be more upscale, whereas beer is perceived to be downscale. Advertising needs to consider the social class of the user as well as the social class of the product category in developing persuasive messages. (For further analysis of social class, you might consult Sidney J. Levy Marketplace Behavior, AMACOM, 1978.)

Finally, brands sometimes have social class associations. Cartier watches have an upscale association whereas Timex is more downscale. Science Diet is upscale whereas Alpo is more downscale. Levi's dropped its line of coveralls in an effort to elevate the social class of their brand. At the same time, there are other brands that are not specifically associated with a particular social class. McDonald's for example is perceived to be relevant to a wide spectrum of social classes.

There is substantial evidence that men and women differ in how they respond to persuasive messages. Women tend to be slower to make decisions, they exhibit greater uncertainty about their decisions, and they are more persuadable. These findings are thought to reflect differences in how men and women process information and make decisions. In part, these differences probably emerge because of socialization that is particular to each gender. In part too, they are thought to be biological.

Women are encouraged to be communal, which involves a consideration of self and others in decision making. By contrast, men tend to be agentic, which entails a self-expressiveness and goal-directedness. Support for these characterizations comes from a wide variety of studies. In investigations of children's activities, it is observed that boys are frequently asked to go to the store or to achieve some other goal on their own that requires goal-directedness. Girls are often given tasks that require them to coordinate with or navigate among the other members of the household, which enhances the development of their communal skills. Similarly in studies of parent-kid play, such as those involving the solution of puzzles, boys are sent off to complete a part of the puzzle by themselves, which enhances the development of their agency, whereas girls and parents solve the puzzle together, which enhances girls' communal skills. Instructions given to girls are often particular to the task (put the dogs with the dogs and the cats with the cats), whereas boys are given more general rules (put things together that share common features). General instructions are likely to be more useful than particular ones when attempting to achieve goals beyond the immediate context and thus promote agency. Finally, in assessments of adult speech, it is found that women are likely to exhibit community ("isn't it warm in here?") by expressing a concern for others as well as self. Males' responses tend to be more directed toward achieving their own goals ("turn on the air conditioner").

It is important to note that these gender differences emerge in a limited set of circumstances. In many situations, these differences are swamped by contextual factors. Under time pressure, women are likely to invoke the same heuristics as those used by men, and when a decision is important, men typically exhibit the same use of disparate types of information as those used by women. (A reasonably accessible treatment of the topic is reported by Joan Meyers-Levy, "Gender Differences in Information Processing..." in Cafferata and Tybout, Cognitive and Affective Responses to Advertising, Lexington Books, 1989. Meyers-Levy and I offer a more technical treatment in our 1991 Journal of Marketing Research article.)

As is the case for social class, brands often are perceived as either masculine or feminine. For example, Burger King is perceived to be more masculine than McDonald's and Nike is seen as more masculine than Reebok. These perceptions reflect the heritage of the brand. Burger King was initially positioned to appeal to the big appetites of men, whereas McDonald's was positioned as the all-family restaurant. Reebok was introduced as a woman's fitness shoe, whereas Nike was marketed as a man's running shoe.

In the United States, consumer products firms with national distribution typically cover the country with national media such as national magazines and network television. They then use local media including segmented versions of magazines and spot (local) television to heavy up in areas where there is opportunity either because of market dominance or under-performance. Alternatively, some advertisers target one or several geographical regions where the opportunity is greatest for their brands. These efforts can be facilitated by the use of geo-demographic services such as PRIZM. For example, Lexus might use PRIZM or a similar service to target those areas of the country (zip codes) that have high incidence of people who earn $200 thousand or more per year.

While geographic segmentation is common in the U.S., it seldom takes the form of different advertising strategies in different geographic areas, even when the brand might be a leader in some markets and ranked a distant third in other regions. One exception is Miller Beer's use of a different campaign in Texas, where they have particular strength than is used for the remainder of the US. The reluctance to segment in response to different competitive positions in different areas of the country is justified by the fact that multiple advertising executions add considerably to the advertising production costs and the use of non-national media adds substantially to the media cost. Indeed, the budget that would be required to cover the entire country with a network buy would cover only about half the country if the purchase were made on a market by market basis. There is also a concern that such localized strategies would undermine a national strategy, though it should be noted that the consideration of a geographic segmentation strategy emerges because disparities in markets have already emerged.

Segmentation by region is done as a matter of course when the geographic locales are different countries, perhaps because a media savings is often not available through blanket coverage of different locales as they would be within a country. There is a growing trend toward using a common strategy in different countries and developing executions that are local. For example, Pantene is positioned as the shampoo that makes your hair shiny, but uses nationals from the country in which advertising is aired to illustrate this benefit.

While there is validity to the argument that using different advertising strategies in different geographic regions of a country may be too expensive, it should be recognized that this is an empirical question. To answer it requires an assessment of the benefits of tailoring campaigns in relation to the added media and production costs of following a geographic segmentation strategy. Test markets are typically needed to make a judgment about the cost benefit of geographic segmentation. This involves yet another cost. Rather than incur these costs, a frequently used alternative approach to geographic segmentation via advertising involves varying the promotions by region. However, promotions are much less flexible than advertising in supporting different positioning strategies.