Why Use Age for Market Segmentation?

In this age of behavioral, attitudinal, and lifestyle segmentation, how important is age as a segmentation variable to identify consumer groups within a market?

Pew Research Center has an excellent analysis, titled "The Whys and Hows of Generations Research," that explains how members of generational cohorts (think "Millennials" and "Baby Boomers") are influenced by the same world events, music, technology, media, product fads, and other elements.

Clearly, the attitudes, actions, needs, and priorities of one generation are typically not the same as members of another generation. Even when multiple generations adopt a particular technology (smart phones or activity trackers), their reasoning and usage will vary by age. So age continues to be a key variable for market segmentation.

Interestingly, Pew found that Millennials don't like to call themselves by that generational name. What Millennials do say about themselves is that they are idealistic. For more on Pew's studies of Millennials, check here.

Kellogg's Segments the Breakfast Market

Here's a rear view of the Kellogg's Corn Flakes cereal package currently on local store shelves. It features a promo for Kellogg's to Go products, including ready-to-drink breakfast shakes and ready-to-mix breakfast shake powder.

Kellogg's is battling to regain its momentum in an evolving market where packaged cereals continue to lose ground, a problem for the industry overall. Marketing on the basis of health and nutrition is helping some Kellogg products, including Raisin Bran, to hold their own. Still, many consumers see breakfast bars, smoothies, yogurts, and other items as more convenient and speedier to eat than sitting down to a big bowl of cereal and milk.

The CEO points out that a good-sized segment of the market craves protein--and milk (in cereal or a breakfast shake) can satisfy that need. Another segmentation variable is lifestyle. As a result, the company's "to go" product slogan is "Rise and shine. In no time." The positioning is fast and easy and nutritious (need-satisfaction/benefit orientation), just right for today's on-the-go lifestyle (lifestyle orientation).

Kellogg's uses marketing research to segment the consumer market for breakfast by understanding what people eat, when, where, with whom, and why/why not eat. "Segments created in this way often tend to be far more insightful than just clustering consumers or their needs," says Kellogg's director of insights and planning for Asia Pacific/S.S. Africa. What other breakfast segments and niches can the company identify and target to fuel future growth?