The Perennials

generations are not segments, and even segments are too broad today.”

“Companies can target consumers based on much more specific and accurate information, rather than on outdated and unsupported stereotypes … A generation is too broad a category.” Not only broad, in fact, but also fuzzy and potentially misleading.

Either you go more inclusive, don’t define by age, but look at values and similarities between your audience, because there are plenty of things a boomer and a millennial have in common,” notes Sarah Rabia, global director of cultural strategy at the American division of advertising agency TBWA Worldwide. “Or you get laser-focused on this audience,

the granfluencers.

“Life stage and age have been decoupling over the past generation, with milestones like education, marriage, kids, career, and retirement becoming unmoored from traditional age constraints,” writes Jeff Beer in Fast Company. Still, marketing consultants and account managers are told by their bosses to acquire new customers, and those tend to be you

Few brands have yet realized that the category of “ageless consumers”—defined as those who no longer act their age in the sense that they no longer conform to the stereotypes of “old” and “young”—is growing by leaps and bounds.

Ageism is a rampant problem in marketing. Stereotyping and outright discrimination based on age isn’t an innocent by-product but a core element of segmentation. “Ageism in the world of PR, advertising and marketing not only produces slanted messaging, but it’s also bad for business,” says Patti Temple Rocks, formerly of ICF Next, a marketing agency

We humans can’t resist categorization, and with it comes stereotyping at best and bias at worst.

Young consumers thus became the yardstick to measure the future potential of new products and services, especially after the internet, smartphones, and social media took the world by storm. Marketers nearly unanimously bought into the idea that it was essential for brands to capture the imagination of the young, since they were not just the trailbl