generational marketing

Generation Y – people born in the 1980s to mid-1990s – makes up a large part of the health and fi tness industry workforce

ACROSSTHE DIVIDE

SIMON WALKER OFFERS HIS ADVICE ON MANAGING GENERATIONAL DIVERSITY IN A HEALTH CLUB ENVIRONMENT, BOTH AMONG STAFF AND MEMBERS

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f course I understand young people – I remember what it was like when I was

young.” We are all probably guilty of this when thinking about the expectations, preferences and needs of our younger customers and staff, the so-called Generation Y. But can we rely on this assumption when thinking about how we manage younger staff, or how we meet the needs and expectations of younger customers? Some things do hold true across

generations. For example, many young

men in their late teens and early 20s act as if they’re immortal, perhaps taking risks that, as we get older, do not seem worth taking. This is pure biology and was probably just as true thousands of years ago as it is today. But age, or maybe ‘life stage’ is

a better term, is just one factor in generational preference. The other two factors are the conditions in which we grew up – including social, cultural, economic and, importantly now, technological conditions – and the common experiences a whole generational cohort lives through.

Read Health Club Management online at healthclubmanagement.co.uk/digital

The commonly used labels for

groups that share values, attitudes and preferences are: Baby Boomers, born between World War II and the mid- 1960s; Generation X, born between the mid-1960s and 1980; Generation Y, born between 1980 and the mid 1990s; and teenagers and younger children born since the mid-1990s, sometimes known as Generation Z. Each group has clear preferences, expectations and common viewpoints created by the conditions and experiences through which they grew up. When talking about generational preferences we are, of course, talking

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