The purpose of this exercise is to broaden your understanding of different consumer groups by bringing you face-to-face with an individual from a different age group (Younger Generation Y, Generation X, Baby Boomer I, Baby Boomer II, or Mature age 55+). You will need to find an individual who falls into your assigned generational cohort. You will conduct a “depth interview” with this individual with the objective of understanding his or her value system, lifestyle, attitude toward brands, media, and advertising, resources, sources used for making purchase decisions, and spending habits. This exercise should help you to develop a deeper understanding of how consumers differ and get you to think about how to best serve these groups of individuals.
A list of questions is provided to assist you in conducting your depth interview. This list is designed to help you structure your depth interview and to provide broad guidelines. Your goal should be to try to stimulate a lively and open discussion around the key objectives outlined above. There is no need to strictly adhere to the questions provided because they do not represent a complete and exhaustive list.
After conducting the depth interview meet with your teammates to discuss your observations. Following this meeting prepare your own written summary of the key insights from this experience. Consider the following questions when writing your summary:
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How do the values, lifestyle, attitudes, needs and behavior of this group differ from you? |
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What similarities did you observe? |
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What can marketers do to better serve this group of consumers? |
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Attitudes |
Where is your favorite place to shop for clothes?
What is your favorite restaurant?
What kind of car would you like to own? (What kind of car do you own?)
What products/brands do you feel a strong sense of loyalty toward?
How do you feel about (insert media) advertising? Would you describe it as informative, annoying, humorous, etc?
Can you think of any recent ads that you think stand out as particularly good or bad?
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Time and Resource
Allocation |
Can you describe a typical weekday for me?
How about on the weekend?
What do you like to do in the evenings?
How many hours a week do you spend at work, with your family, with friends, by yourself?
Which is more important to you saving time or saving money?
How do you feel about watching TV, listening to the radio, reading magazines and newspapers, surfing the Internet? Which are your preferred media? How much time do you spend in a typical week with each?
If you had an extra two hours in your day how would you spend the time?
Time allocated toward: Leisure ____ Work ____
If I were to give you a $100 dollars how would you spend it?
Dollar amount allocated toward: Entertainment ____ Necessities ____ Savings ____
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Trusted Sources |
When seeking advice, whom do you turn to?
How regularly do you rely on the Internet as an information source?
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Spending
Habits |
In a typical month, what portion of your income is spent on housing & utilities, food, clothing, medical care, transportation, and entertainment?
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Value System |