generation y focus groups

Of the three generational groups, Generation Y proved to be the most difficult to recruit. Although 26 volunteers agreed to participate, only 14 actually did so, two of those being last-minute referrals from other participants. Due to the low turnout in the two focus groups scheduled in April, a third focus group was planned and volunteers were recruited from a variety of sources, including another college campus (Milligan College, Tennessee). However this session too had barely half the expected turnout. Even with the three sessions, there are still fewer Gen Ys represented in this study than Gen Xers or Boomers.

According to the responses given, Gen Y prefers their advertising funny and simple. They are quickly repelled by ads which are too wordy--such criticisms were plentiful in these sessions--or which they consider to be obnoxious or unnecessarily sexual. Web ads, pop-ups in particular, drew distinct and unrestrained ire. Also, ads which seemed phony or patronizing were quickly dismissed as such.

One interesting observation surfaced in respect to gender: Gen Y females seemed to enjoy advertising, or at least, would admit to enjoying it more readily, than males. The first two sessions were mostly female: the first was entirely female, the second included one male. These sessions were upbeat, even jovial at certain times. The participants seemed to enjoy the discussion and had many positive comments to offer about the ads shown. In contrast, the third session--although responding volunteers were male and female--was ultimately comprised entirely of male participants, and the males' comments were almost uniformly negative, or at best, restrained and qualified praise. So the comments given may be tempered by peer influences of the individual groups. (The male/female asymmetry of responses might make for an interesting study in the future.)

One finding seemed universal among all the Gen Ys participating: they feel almost entirely immune from advertising. They acknowledge advertising's entertainment value, and are scrupulous and savvy about marketing messages and techniques employed by advertisers. But none of the Gen Ys would admit to being influenced by advertising when it came to purchase decisions, except when it comes to pure factual information (such as price, or the appearance of a new product). These responses were typical:

I found it interesting that although Gen Ys would not admit to being swayed into purchases by advertisements, some of the ads presented to them evoked just such an impulse. Most of the participants, after being shown the Pop-tarts ad and being asked whether the ad made them want one, confessed that, yes, the ad somehow reminded them of the experience of eating them when they were younger, and many of them agreed that the ad made them hungry for a Pop-tart, for example:

And the presence of a coupon in the Stridex ad was strong enough to elicit this response:

So although Gen Y may be loathe to admit it, they are just as susceptible to influence from advertising as other demographics, the other demographics just don't claim to be as immune.

The automotive ads provoked much of the expected results: Gen Ys gravitated more toward the Edge ad than the Mercedes Benz ad. Many of the comments regarding the Edge ad were positive in the initial two groups, although the third group (males) criticized the nonsensical, "pointless" visual pun of the vehicle on the railing. The second group had mixed reactions, some criticizing it as "dumb" and "unrealistic", another making the claim that the pun was "dorky". Others however praised the ad's creativity and strategy. The first group (females) was consistently positive regarding the Edge ad.

The Mercedes Benz ad, on the other hand, drew criticism for wordiness and lack of visual interest. More positive responses about the Edge ad, particularly about its eye-catchiness, were elicited by the Benz ad. Interestingly, the most positive comments about the Mercedes Benz ad came from the all-male third group, but not in reference to themselves:

So it would seem these participants recognize that while they are not the targeted demographic the ad is attempting to appeal to, it appears "old-fashioned" and therefore is appropriate to an older demo. However, it still had plenty of detractors among Gen Y for being boring, verbose and colorless. One participant was annoyed by the volume of copy:

This is telling, in that it seems to indicate that this particular Gen Y feels her attention is valuable and not to be abused by advertisers expecting her to read [too much] copy. When an advertisement challenges her with a relatively long passage of copy (and the Mercedes ad's copy isn't particularly tedious, really), she is emotionally provoked, however mildly. This individual was hardly alone among Gen Ys in voicing criticism of wordiness in print ads.

Another deliberate dichotomy was set up between the L'Oreal ad and the Stridex ad. L'Oreal was targeted to Gen X, with its austere design and no-nonsense writing style. The Stridex ad, in contrast, was about the Unique Selling Proposition of the product, presented in simple iconography and in "language" Gen Ys can readily understand [as their own]. As expected, the Gen Ys were drawn to the ad targeting them, and although a few had good words for the L'Oreal ad's design aesthetic, most were unimpressed, calling it "boring". One individual pointed out that while the headline promises an "upgrade", the body copy makes the claim that only the bottle has been upgraded, making the impression given by the headline misleading:

Another criticized the ad for being too wordy, and pointed out that the body copy repeats what is already legible on the product bottle itself, unnecessarily.

With this ad, and with the Mercedes Benz ad, I started to notice that responses to the ad were very strongly influenced by whether or not the product or service being offered was accessible or of any value to the participants discussing it. In this case, in a session full of women, the L'Oreal ad was uniformly panned for being unattractive, wordy, boring and disingenuous. However in the third group, credit was given for its simplicity and "dignity" when compared with Stridex. Although none on the all-male panel admitted to thinning hair, perhaps being male they understood that someday they might need this product, or even knew people who already did. Likewise, the Mercedes Benz marque was considered well out of reach by Gen Ys, and this probably contributed to the poor reception the ad received among this generation. Even Gen Xers and Boomers were intimidated by the name brand itself.

The Stridex ad was much more warmly received by Gen Ys. Something which was quite interesting was the response to the coupon: Gen Ys responded very favorably to it being there, across the board. One even said that the ad might stop them from flipping the page based on the coupon's presence alone. This wasn't particularly significant (as I had no expectation about how they would react to the coupon one way or the other) until it was put into context by feedback from Gen Xers and Boomers, who assumed almost as a matter of course that Gen Ys wouldn't respond at all to a coupon. When informed that the Gen Ys actually responded with excitement to the coupon, most of the older participants were taken aback.

Overall, the Stridex ad got approval for being funny, interesting, simple and most importantly, relevant to them:

The emoticons got more mixed reviews:

The third group mostly panned this ad, for being "dumbed down" and not as "dignified" as the L'Oreal ad.

The Smith Barney ad was, as expected, one of the least impressive in the set to Gen Ys. Several mentioned its headline being interesting, but the wordiness drew strong criticism, one going as far as to say:

I was waiting to see if any of them would feel that the layout, designed to camouflage the ad as an article page, would offend any Gen Ys as being disingenuous. However most of the criticism centered on, again, the volume of the (very small-sized) copy, as well as the model featured as the dominant visual. One particularly sharp-eyed participant noticed that the model has skulls on his tie. Most participants took shots at him, calling him "creepy", "stuck in the 70s" and "no fashion sense". One interesting comment was that the gears motif in the layout indicated to one participant that the ad would be about some science-related issue, perhaps evoking a textbook page:

The big winner of the set with Gen Ys was the Pop-tarts ad. This ad provoked positive response (laughter, in most cases) almost immediately with the first two groups. The third group admitted it was funny and clever but were quick to assert, repeatedly, that they would not be excusing themselves in order to go procure frosted toaster pastries. This comment sums up the all-male group's attitude succinctly:

The female-dominated groups, by contrast, were unabashed in their shared enjoyment of the ad. They understood that it was designed to appeal to a sense of fun and nostalgia, and the humor in the ad brightened the mood of the chatroom considerably after the serious L'Oreal and Mercedes Benz ads. The women even picked up some of the silliness the ad inspired:

When asked about which ads were considered the most effective and which were the most ineffective, Pop-tarts was the standout champion. For most, the Smith Barney ad came in last, although several Gen Ys singled out the L'Oreal or Edge ads as being the least effective. Two of the males identified the Stridex ad as being their least favorite.

generation x focus groups

The Generation X participants were, by contrast, the easiest to recruit. It was important to me to assemble participants from a variety of backgrounds--and not have them all be my friends--so I enlisted the help of Journalism School professors who taught online classes. These professors were very helpful in passing my invitation along to their students, allowing for a much more wildly diverse set of participants in terms of age, geographic location and work experience. The one criterion where the participants were sadly not as diverse was in gender: as with Gen Ys, the majority of participants was female; only two males actually showed up for their scheduled sessions (even though numerous had agreed to participate). This again probably contributed to a biasing of responses, but if Group 3 of the Gen Ys can be taken as an indication, it also meant very spirited and enjoyable sessions. Two of the Gen Xers even expressed disappointment when informed that their session, which had already run an hour and forty-five minutes, was over.

With Gen Xers, it started becoming apparent that many of the participants had never conversed via a chat room before. Several of them were in their late 30s, one was 40. While the Gen Ys were comfortable with the Web-based chat environment, some Gen Xers had difficulty getting their software to work, and more than a few admitted this being their first experience with an online chatroom. In spite of this, there were more Gen Xer participants than Ys or Boomers.

Gen Xers have a generally accepting view of advertising in their media. They readily admitted to being influenced by it, and although they remain skeptical and critical of all advertising they come across, they understand its role and the service it performs in the economy:

Gen Xers are brand-loyal and accept advertising as a means of informing them of new and existing products. They may not choose to make a purchase because of exposure to an ad, but the exposure may prompt them to do further research, such as on the Web or in Consumer Reports. They also admit to advertising's influence in small impulse purchases, for example:

Magazine ads are taken more seriously than television ads; they will spend more time reviewing ads in magazines than watching them on television, unless they are suitably entertaining or are about a product or service they're specifically interested in.

For Gen Xers, ads with humorous or emotionally poignant appeals are the most resonant. Many comments were made in favor of Geico's campaigns (the cavemen, and the gecko character), Bud Light, Dairy Queen and Dove for their "Real Beauty" campaign. They also appreciate sarcasm if it's used intelligently. Gen Xers are turned off by stupid humor, condescending messages and sleaze.

Both groups independently mentioned pharmaceutical advertising as examples of that they did not like. Some mentioned the untrustworthiness of doctor-type figures used to sell pharmaceutical products. One person said she felt that pharma ads should be banned entirely, because they are inherently disingenuous.

The automotive ads hit Gen X just a little differently than they did Gen Y. Some Xers responded more positively to the Edge ad, while others dismissed the concept as "lame" and as "too much work to understand." Interestingly, as with the Ys, many of the positive comments were elicited out of comparison to the Mercedes Benz ad: clearly the Edge ad is targeted correctly for this demo.

The Benz ad took numerous hits for its lack of creativity, as before, and Xers were far less willing to read the extensive body copy:

Gen Xers gave Mercedes Benz, as a brand, much more credibility than Ford. They agreed the ad was much more trustworthy, due to it being Mercedes Benz and due to the fact that there were no visual gimmicks used. They also agreed that photo of the vehicle was better than that of the Edge, describing it as powerful and sexy, the kind of photo one might clip from the magazine and tack on their wall as their "dream car." Two people admitted to liking the Edge ad better not because they thought it was a better ad, but because they knew they could not afford a Mercedes Benz in the first place and therefore saw no value in the ad for them. However, many of the Xers preferred the Benz ad, because of its straightforward message and classy, sophisticated design. There was a noticeable shift of preference for Gen Xers: while the Edge ad was still preferred overall, many more positive comments were elicited by the Benz ad than were given by Ys, indicating an emergence of more positive response to the austerity of the Benz layout and message. This would become even more pronounced among Boomers.

The L'Oreal/Stridex pairing elicited a similar ambivalence. The Stridex ad was criticized as being cheesy and simplistic, but some Xers understood the message (and understood more quickly that they were not the intended target) and the "catchiness" of the design concept, and so gave credit for function over form. The L'Oreal ad was faulted for being drab, and was dismissed as soon as it was identified as being for a product intended for men, rather than women, although some gave the ad points for its sophisticated, masculine look. The Gen Xers responded quickly and favorably to the coupon in the Stridex ad, like the Gen Ys.

The Stridex ad prompted some interesting conversation from the Xers in regard to the use of the emoticons. While many Xers understood their meaning immediately, a few admitted to not even having noticed them until they were pointed out. One interpreted the :-))))))))) as someone smiling, but with numerous chins, as though he had a weight problem. Another commented that the emoticons gave the ads a techy, "antisocial" appeal, as though the ad were designed to appeal to "poor computa geeks." This was ironic, because while this ad came from a teen magazine, the L'Oreal ad was taken from Wired.

The Smith-Barney ad was received much more favorably among Xers than Ys, but there was still some discussion over the message and the purpose of the photo:

While some Gen Xers felt the ad was relevant and thought-provoking, others derided the layout and there was discussion over the message's subtext, that a financial planner could offer parenting advice. This was provocative to some participants.

The layout style being that of an advertorial was noticed quickly as well. One participant commented:

The Smith Barney ad was another instance of the intended audience--by age--did not respond well to the ad's message because it was intended for those of a different socioeconomic status, namely, wealthy people. Although the age/generation of the target is the same, this ad and the Mercedes Benz ad are specifically targeted to those of a certain income level. Those parents concerned over their children's work/wealth ethic, i.e. those parents whose children are growing up in financially comfortable households, will readily understand the headline and would conceivably be drawn into the ad's copy by it. The financial status of the audience was not taken into account when the ads were selected, but emerged as an important factor in determining how certain ads would be received, and came up again in conversation with the art directors later in the study.

Once more, the Pop-tarts ad was the standout favorite. Gen Xers understood the humor immediately, and the discussion was much more animated and lively concerning this ad. By this time in the session, the participants have had ample time to get comfortable with the medium and each other, and after three rather serious (in tone) ads, the Pop-tarts ad seemed to give the participants a kind of break. Its simplicity and light-heartedness received much praise, and participants again were infected by its inherent silliness. A few poignant remarks were made before conversation descended into jocularity:

This ad clearly demonstrated that Xers indeed respond most positively to well-crafted humor in their advertising.

A final aside: One of the Gen X sessions was "audited" by a researcher from Horizon Research Services, who was interested in the methodology and wanted to investigate it for possible adoption at her firm. She was introduced when she arrived but did not otherwise participate. As of this writing I have not had time to visit with her about her thoughts, but I felt it was important to mention that this particular methodology is very new and many professional researchers are still unfamiliar with it.

Baby Boomers Focus Groups

The Boomers group had the greatest difficulty with the chat software itself. As the transcripts show, the difficulty with the "push" functionality of the chat program was problematic for many of the participants, and made it more challenging to run the session smoothly while still collecting valuable responses from Boomers. However, the participants were patient with the new technology, and turnout was nearly 100%. The Boomer groups had the best mix of males to females out of all the focus groups.

In general, Boomers were greatly skeptical of advertising. When first asked, several Boomers refused to acknowledge any advertising that they actually enjoyed. Elements that were positively received were humor, innovation, creativity, and strong emotional appeal. Drama and graphic uniqueness were one participants' response.

However there were many more negative general comments than positive, for example:

Nostalgic appeals received mixed commentary. One participant pointed out that while she enjoyed ads that appealed to themes of "yesteryear", another was ambivalent about the use of music from her childhood, as she felt that was transparently manipulative:

One Boomer participant was particularly cynical:

For the most part, Boomers agreed with the statement that "advertising is an annoyance unless it is useful in some way."

Not all Boomers were pejorative of all advertising. Some said they could appreciate ads that were intelligent, funny, creative and innovative. They understood that advertising offsets the costs of publication (or broadcast) and in that light could concede its presence in their media, especially when they were actively looking for information about a particular product or service. On some occasions, Boomers will allow for advertising to influence their purchasing decisions, but other Boomers were radically opposed to the idea. As noted above, one Boomer noted having reconsidered buying a product after being offended by its advertising.

The Boomers were fairly judgmental of both automotive ads. One of the most common criticisms was that the text in the ads was too small and difficult to read (this was a complaint about almost all of the ads shown, save for Pop-tarts). The Ford Edge vehicle as pictured in its ad was derided as being ugly, lame and fake-looking, and several people commented that it ruined would would otherwise be a very appealing photo (the couple walking on the boardwalk in the city). Most of the discussion on the Edge ad centered on the failure of the concept to resonate:

Meanwhile, most of the discussion on the Mercedes Benz ad focused on the near illegibility and wordiness of the text. However the Benz ad received much of the preference when Boomers were asked to compare it to the Edge ad. The Benz ad was described as sophisticated, classic and credible. The lack of the visual pun indicated to some Boomers that the ad was more trustworthy than the Edge ad. However there was much conversation, in both Boomer groups, that there was too much copy in the ad. One participant said the amount of copy "scares my eye away from the ad" and on to the next page. Several indicated that they prefer bulleted lists to better digest a lot of textual information.

The L'Oreal ad got a healthy share of criticism as well, mostly for being boring and uncreative, but what really disturbed Boomers the most about this ad was its treatment of copy:

Boomers seemed to appreciate the L'Oreal ad more in light of the Stridex ad:

Although the Stridex ad took hits for legibility as well, the Boomers' main problem with it was that it as confusing. Boomers didn't readily understand the emoticons, and they were quick to dismiss it as being aimed for a different (younger) generation than try to figure out the ad's message(s). Several pointed out that they were unaware that [other] acne pads were alcohol-based solutions that would burn the face when applied.

Reactions to the Smith Barney ad were unexpectedly negative. While younger demographics presumed it was intended for older ones, the Boomers found the ad to be too complex, to difficult to read, "lame" and unclear. One participant asserted that the ad was probably targeting Gen Ys ("millennials"). This individual may have been basing that judgement on the presence of the model in the ad. Reactions to this ad also gave credence to the concept of socioeconomic status as a crucial criterion in targeting advertisements, as virtually none of the Boomer participants identified with the issue described in the headline:

None of the Boomers commented on the ad layout being article-like or otherwise deceptive. The only comments pertaining to layout were about the small size of the text.

The Pop-tarts ad was received well, characterized by most as funny, cute, simple and likable. A few Boomers commented that they didn't get it, but that their kids most likely would. The perception from Boomers toward Pop-tarts was more critical of its [lack of] nutritional value. One Boomer took this to an extreme:

Several others had very unusual responses to this ad as compared to Xers and Ys:

Boomers seemed to be the most literal-minded of the generations when viewing this ad. They acknowledged that it was not intended to appeal to them, but their comments on the ad's concept were less about the comedy and allusion to fun, and more about what was literally being presented, as the above comments illustrate. Only one of the Boomers admitted to be appetized by this ad; a number of them stated that they do not like Pop-tarts.

Concordant with the literature, the Boomers' comments were the least accepting and the most condemning of the advertising shown them. It is possible that some may have been influenced, however unconsciously, by their frustration and unfamiliarity with the chat software as a medium of communication (if this is the case, it would be consistent with the theory that less fluency with the medium--in this case the Web site chat software--correlates to increased negative feelings toward it and by extension the messages being sent via such medium). A number of Boomers had difficulty getting connected and even staying connected as ads were sent to them. Others were unaccustomed to the pace of the room's conversation as other participants were rapidly keying in responses and moving the dialogue forward; for slower typists, this meant that by the time a contribution had been fully typed into the text field, it was conversationally obsolete. While many Gen Xers and most Gen Ys were familiar with the conventions, functionality and typical pace of a chat room--and those who weren't were quick to orientation--Boomers (in general) seemed to have the greatest difficulty participating in the online space in this way. This can be seen reflected in the chat transcripts by the amount of time spent making sure all the participants had stabilized their connection to the room and could successfully receive the ads to be discussed.

However most of the Boomers did not struggle with technical difficulties, and the skeptical and judgmental tone was shared across both focus groups. This is consistent with existing research predicting a highly critical mindset in Boomers' responses to advertising.

interview 1: raul vilaboa

Raul's interview was unique in that it was the longest, in terms of time spent with him, and it was also at his home in the evening, whereas the others took place during the day in the interviewee's office or, in another instance, at a coffee shop in the building. The extra time spent with Raul was needed, as Raul was not a native English speaker and at times, his diction was difficult to follow. He seemed to enjoy the conversation and was extremely generous with his thoughts and his attention.

Raul's process when trying to reach generational target audiences is to immerse himself as much as possible in the use of the product or service before the creative process begins, involving members of the target demo, if necessary. The example he gave was how he might, conceivably, start a creative process for a new automotive campaign. He would find a car to rent or borrow that he was going to be developing creative for, bring some people from the target demo (his children, in his example), and go for a day trip to the Keys and back.

However, I didn't get the sense from Raul that he discerned the generations from each other. In talking about the focus-grouped ads, he needed to be reminded what the generations were and their current ages, and finally admitted that he did not use those labels himself in conceiving of his target audiences.

Raul identified many of the ads shown as being positioned to target Boomers. I felt this was interesting, as he included the Stridex ad and, to a lesser extent, the Pop-tarts ad (he claimed, more or less correctly, that the Pop-tarts ad would appeal to everybody). The Ford Edge ad was the only ad that he identified as being aimed at Gen X, on the basis of the apparent age of the people in the ad:

He praised the concept for being different and clever, although he said he probably would have taken it in a different direction, creatively. He said that in order to sell this or any car to Gen Y, price should be the primary factor in the ad, but it wouldn't need to be modified at all to pitch the car to Boomers.

The L'Oreal ad impressed him immediately. He identified the target demo as definitively Boomers, but claimed that the ad was perfectly crafted to deliver its message:

When told that the Gen Ys in the focus groups responded negatively to this ad, he was surprised, especially when told that the reason they did so was because they felt the ad was boring. He rationalized it by guessing that the Gen Ys didn't want to relate to their hair thinning, thus the ad had nothing to offer them, so they derided its lack of visual interest. (Perhaps tellingly, the male participants of the Gen Y focus group had said upon seeing it for the first time:

Perhaps the Gen Y males wouldn't be so much dismissing the ad (by quickly turning the page) but instead looking to escape its unwelcome implication.)

He identified the Mercedes Benz ad as being targeted at Boomers and, to a lesser extent, Gen X. He was fairly confident that the car was not salable to Gen Y. Even though he was less confident in the ad's appeal to Gen X, he said he would make no changes to the ad to tailor it to that generation. His reasoning was that the strength of Mercedes Benz is in its brand reputation. Both companies (Mercedes Benz and Ford) enjoy widespread recognition, but in America, Mercedes Benz is the brand recognized as being superior in the automotive marketplace, one of the most respected brands in the industry. Therefore it is up to Ford to compete with them not on the merits of their own brand, but through other devices. It is not enough--nor is it credible--for Ford to run an ad making the same claim Mercedes Benz does ("Once you've driven a Ford Edge, it's hard to drive anything else"); they must compete on innovation, features and price. However, Mercedes Benz needs only to show their product and remind people that they are Mercedes Benz, and that is enough; anything more would be merely gilding the lily.

When presented with the Pop-tarts ad, Raul admitted he might not have used the same illustration style, but the concept was solid and had a nearly universal appeal:

In explaining why the Boomers didn't respond as positively to this ad as Xers and Ys did, he argued that it wasn't that the concept was off, but that the illustration style was too modern for them, and that he might use one of his own colleagues to draw the ad in a more traditional style.

He wasn't sure the Smith-Barney ad was even an ad at first glance. Once assured that it was, he wasn't impressed with the art direction of the ad:

Although he admitted to being exactly the demographic the ad was trying to reach (in terms of age), he did not have much appreciation for the ad's concept or execution. He felt the ad's entire composition was built on a trick:

The Stridex ad struck Raul as being a very retro design, from the use of color to the layout to the choice of typeface. At first he said it was designed to appeal to Boomers, but since that was incongruous with the product, he explained that the use of retro colors and style must have been done deliberately, since after enough time passes, what was considered trendy fades into obscurity and then returns to trendiness.

Raul also identified the coupon as being a strong addition to the concept, as the matter of price is a "universal thing," or an incentive to any demographic. While certain comments were made in the focus groups about coupon use being specific to a generation, Raul said that a coupon would appeal to all generations. However when asked how he would tailor this ad for a Gen X market, he said he would start over completely, as the Xers would be old enough to have been exposed to the fifties design aesthetic, and see it as old-fashioned and dated. He did make note of the emoticons, and admitted that Boomers would not identify with them, that those were singularly a Gen Y nomenclature.

In the course of his interview, Raul identified six distinct types of generational appeals in the ads discussed: identification with models used in the ad (Edge), depth of information in copy (Mercedes Benz), illustration style (Pop-Tarts), parenting (or other specific) topic (Smith Barney), trendy retro design style and text-messaging vernacular (Stridex). However he admitted he does not knowingly employ them when he does ad creative (by "dupla," in cooperation with a copywriter), preferring to let the core idea drive the process, and letting it evolve organically from there. However overall, the generation of the audience was not typically part of that process.

interview 2: marcus moore

The second interview took place in the offices of Carol H. Williams, an ad agency specializing in African-American audiences. His conceptualization of audience was therefore very conscious of race segmentation, but Marcus introduced an important concept into the study, and that is that target audiences cannot be segmented by age or race alone, but that the socioeconomic status of the audience must be known as well in order to correctly target a message. This was all-important to Marcus; he found it impossible to do creative for an audience without also knowing their spending power:

This comment pulled a lot of focus group commentary into focus, particularly about the Ford Edge, Mercedes Benz and Smith Barney ads. While the other ads were for commodity products, these three were about high-dollar purchases (or service, in the case of Smith Barney). Audiences related to these ads according to their own perceptions of how accessible the product or service was. Much of the focus group reaction to these ads seems to support Marcus' belief that an ad designed to appeal to a higher income bracket demographic will not also appeal to those of a lower income bracket; in fact it is likely to elicit a negative response instead.

This belief was central to much of Marcus' discussion about the ads presented to him. The Edge ad wasn't particularly impressive to him--he called it stupid--and he didn't feel the ad would be effective in reaching its intended target. Interestingly, when asked to identify which generation the car was intended to reach, he said Gen Y, based on the price of the vehicle:

He went on to say that the Edge ad was off-target because the visual pun, while creative, wasn't meaningful in terms of the vehicle itself or the vehicle's tagline ("Bold Moves"). He felt that there was a much smarter, less gimmicky way to present this car to the audience, but that this missed the mark and didn't seem to be based on a perceivable strategy. He was a little more flattering of the Mercedes Benz ad, because it had a classier presentation, but he remarked that the headline was too open-ended: one could make that claim of "anything high end." He felt he related to it more (although he identified its target audience as higher-income Boomers), but when pressed for a judgement, he admitted the ad didn't stand out on its own merits. Its design and layout was dated, "safe" but ultimately uncompelling; there was nothing in it that teased him into reading the body copy. When compared to the Edge ad, he admitted the Mercedes ad was boring and one-dimensional, although he was loathe to criticize it too harshly.

The personal hygiene ads were derided much more freely. While he was dismissive of the L'Oreal ad in terms of its tepid message and bland design, he was enthusiastic in his criticism of the Stridex ad. To him the Stridex ad was cheaply produced and amateurish, and insisted that no teenager would see value in the coupon. The L'Oreal ad was panned for its poorly written copy, but when compared to the Stridex ad, he conceded that it was competently executed, whereas he blasted the Stridex ad for a litany of design gaffes. When asked to compare the strategies of the two ads, he grudgingly admitted that the message of the Stridex ad was more accessible, and said the L'Oreal ad was more of a poster than an ad.

He made a similar comment about the Smith Barney ad, in that he felt it would be more effective as a poster, but as an ad, it was unexceptional. He identified its target as higher-income Boomers. When asked about the advertorial design style, he admitted that some ads don't have the luxury of the quick-hit message, that they have to be copy heavy and that the advertorial layout was an acceptable way to bring an audience into the copy, and the design of the ad successfully conveys that this is an ad about information. He felt the headline was condescending in its tone, but qualified his criticism by saying he was judging the ad as a professional art director, and speaking as such, he felt the ad did its job.

He responded warmly to the Pop-tarts ad, praising its crystal clear message and its unusual style. Interestingly he judged that it was designed to appeal to Gen Xers, theorizing that:

The message which he felt "screams across the page all day long" was that Pop-tarts are good enough to be sought out, to look for even when they try to hide. Although this is a perfectly reasonable conclusion to draw, I found it interesting and amusing that he'd been the only one, after six focus groups and an interview, to actually put it in those words. Marcus did not recognize the illustration style and had never heard of "Rejected."

Marcus' interview was actually split into two sessions on the day we had scheduled to meet, and consequently he gave me more time than most to visit with him. Ultimately the most important concept that surfaced here was that of income level as a critical dividing line between disparate audiences within a given generation, and he based most of his judgments of generational appeal based on the product or service itself: he judged the L'Oreal ad to be for Boomers based on the product and who he envisioned would be using it. Of particular interest is how he determined the Pop-Tarts ad's target: by lack of information. While numerous study participants readily identified Mercedes Benz and Smith Barney ads as Boomer-centric based partly on the length of the copy presented, Marcus was the only participant to pinpoint an ad's target based on parsimony of copy, on the assumption that Gen Xers--more so than Ys--already know all about Pop-tarts, and therefore don't need any more information other than that they're "crazy good."

interview 3: matthew spett

Matt's interview was later in the day, around 3:00 P.M., and he didn't have very much time to spend with me so his answers were somewhat abbreviated, and the pace of the interview was a bit hurried. This was unfortunate, as I didn't get the kind of depth to the answers that I was hoping for, but we still had a meaningful conversation on the subject.

Matt was fairly unfamiliar with the generations. He didn't self-identify with any of them. He'd heard of the Baby Boomers and Generation X, but Gen Y was an unfamiliar term, and he wasn't sure how old those people were. When asked how he conceptualized his age demographics, he responded that target audiences are much more complex than just their age:

He also brought up the same cyclical phenomenon of on-again/off-again fashion and trends that Raul Vilaboa described, in connection with the mindset of teenagers and how marketing messages might be tailored to meet them. More often than not, Matt's responses were brief and restrained, and I had to prompt him a number of times to try to better articulate his thoughts.

Matt was fairly critical of all the ads shown, with the exception of the Pop-tarts and Mercedes Benz ads. He didn't care for the Edge ad, because he felt the visual concept, while creative and unexpected, was cluttered with unnecessary elements. He identified the ad's target demo as the couple shown in the ad, but then commented that they weren't (perhaps shouldn't be) necessary. The Mercedes Benz ad, on the other hand, he described as elegant. He preferred it over the Edge ad, but when asked which he thought was more effective, he grudgingly admitted the Edge ad was probably better at connecting to its target audience then the Mercedes Benz ad, because of the unusual visual; he felt that because there was an unexpected image, it would better stop people from turning the page better than the Benz ad would.

Neither the L'Oreal ad nor the Stridex ad impressed Matt. The L'Oreal ad to him appeared cluttered and dated, and believed based on its dated appearance that it was designed to appeal to Boomers:

The Stridex ad was a disappointment to Matt as well:

The coupon was a turnoff to Matt as a design element, primarily from the perspective of being an art director and being forced to shoehorn coupons into his designs. He also didn't believe that people actually used them. Further, the emoticons were confusing to him at first. Not only was he not familiar with the term "emoticon", he also was unable to grasp their meaning without help:

Once he identified the meaning of the emoticons, he saw them as superfluous to the smiling faces themselves in the ad, not adding any new meaning to the ad than the faces themselves did. When asked to compare it to the L'Oreal ad, he felt the Stridex ad had a more straightforward and coherent message, in spite of its cluttered layout.

Matt had much of the same reaction to the Smith Barney ad as did Raul; he wasn't sure at first that he was actually looking at an advertisement and not an article page. Once assured that it was in fact an ad, he said he thought it was a waste:

The message of the ad was too difficult to discern in his opinion. The photo of the model in the ad seemed like space-filler, and he didn't feel the question in the headline was worded well. He felt the ad would be improved if the photo was removed. He also didn't understand the use of graphic elements like the gears, and felt that the number of design elements (such as the gears) lent to the same cluttered layout he criticized the L'Oreal ad for.

Interestingly, he didn't feel the Pop-tarts ad was targeted to Gen Y, because he felt the humor was more intended for adults. But overall he felt the ad worked well, because of its unique concept and design:

Matt was the only art director who knew of the short film "Rejected". However he hadn't recognized the illustration style of the Pop-tarts ad as being derived from it.

He identified design style (as in using a dated style to appeal to an older demographic) and humor as two ways of appealing to generations. It's likely he could have gone into greater depth on the issues had we been able to spend more time, and if it was perhaps held at another time of day.

interview 4: ed zimkus

The fourth interview took place at Burrell Communications with Creative Director Ed Zimkus. Burrell is similar to Carol H. Williams in that its primary audiences are African-American, but this didn't seem to be as central to Ed's mindset in discussing the ads and advertising in general (perhaps because he is not black himself). Ed had a very composed and thoughtful grasp of the concepts I presented to him, more so than any of the other interviewees up to that point. He understood that one of the key differences among the generations had to do with the ability they had to control their media:

He felt that this power over customization would eventually lead to greater polarization and uniformity of thought, as savvy audiences continue to choose to listen to ideas that conform to and reinforce their own worldview, to the exclusion of all others:

Ed was so impressively conversant on the subject that I asked him if it was because this was something discussed routinely in the course of admaking at Burrell. He responded by saying it was more informal, water-cooler discussion, but that it was expected that the professionals developing ad creative were cognizant of it:

The Edge ad didn't excite him at first blush. He described it as corny and dull, in spite of the ad's own headline. Although he readily identified the target audience as Gen X based on the models shown in the ad, he felt the ad's design was more traditional, skewing older. He seemed confident that the same ad could sell a car to Boomers if the right models (and car) were substituted in. He ultimately theorized that the ad could have been designed to span a much wider target age group than just Gen Xers alone.

In contrast, he felt the Mercedes Benz ad was "a Boomer ad if ever there was one," by virtue of the excessive copy. He also touched on the level of financial comfort of the market:

Based on the bulk of its copy, the design and the photo of the man in the Benz ad, he felt this was much more targeted than the Edge ad, and therefore the more effective ad. He was the first participant to assert that this ad was designed to reach men rather than women, a conclusion also reached by Tristen George in the following interview.

As for the personal hygiene products, he was more impressed with the L'Oreal ad than the Stridex ad, although he admitted the Stridex ad was appropriately "stupid" for the target market, and was quick to assert that he was not being pejorative. The L'Oreal ad won praise for not showing a thinning scalp getting thicker, because that allowed for a broader target audience (since having a model, regardless of age, would have necessarily narrowed the target of the ad closer to the apparent age of the model). However based on the product itself, he judged the ad to be for Boomers. He also liked the very masculine black palette having a countereffect on the normally feminine L'Oreal frame design element.

The Stridex ad, on the other hand, was "lame" and "a little insulting to my intelligence even if I'm a teen." He understood the meaning of the emoticons, but like others, felt that they were redundant to the illustrated faces. The layout was unsophisticated and appeared to Ed to have been done by a kid. However the clarity of the message couldn't be avoided, even with the amateurish design:

Ed naturally felt the L'Oreal ad was superior, but when it came to efficacy, he admitted he was biased in this way, and conceded that both were probably effective at reaching their respective audiences.

The Smith Barney ad intrigued him by its headline alone, and praised the ad for presenting its service in terms of a real-world anxiety--what attitudes toward money will my kids grow up with?--to an audience who might not otherwise be thinking of financial services. The first three words, "Will my kids," was enough for Ed to categorize this ad as being targeted to Boomers. With enough qualification, he admitted a similar design style, appropriately dressed, could also appeal to Ys (and by extension, Xers).

He praised the model in the ad too, at first:

I thought this was curious, given that the model was almost universally derided in the focus groups and by several other art directors. I noticed that given the size of the screen he was viewing the ad with, he could not see the full image of the model; the bottom portion was offscreen. So I asked him to scroll down further so he could view the rest of the model. He noticed that the model had a tie:

Ed didn't intuitively understand the Pop-tarts ad at first, but he knew immediately that it was intended for a younger audience and that they certainly would. He felt the illustration style was the main appeal to Ys, likening it to something a high-schooler would doodle in class. He was not aware of the "Rejected" influence. He understood the message of the ad to be, simply, "Remember Pop-tarts," with the Pop-tarts shown in the toaster as a way to remind the reader how they are prepared, and perhaps to elicit a tasty mental image or memory. The ad's humor however seemed to be lost on him, and he asserted that this ad concept would not work at all for Boomers:

One of the most interesting and unexpected aspects of Ed's interview was not so much the generational appeals themselves, but of how the absence of such appeals helped give the ad a broader appeal, for instance not showing a man's scalp in the L'Oreal ad. He also felt the Edge ad had a strong Boomer sensibility to it, even in spite of the couple featured in the ad. However he was impressively conversant in pointing out the factors which targeted specific generations, such as the headline in Smith Barney, the illustration style of Pop-tarts, the layout style of the Mercedes Benz ad, the models in the Edge ad and the text messaging iconography in the Stridex ad.

interview 5: tristen george

Tristen George's interview at the Digitas offices was one of the most interesting. She had an intuitive understanding of the concepts I wanted to explore, and was one of the only interviewees to have looked at the focus group ads prior to the conversation--interviewees were emailed links to the ads on the Web prior to meeting--and so had had some time to "digest" them before we met.

At first she was unsure of the generations' calendrical boundaries. Once these were established, she spoke very capably about issues that influence, inform and differentiate the generations from each other. She had very articulate ways to tell them apart, granting that Gen X and Gen Y were "closer together" than Gen X and Boomers were, based on the similarity of channels, or media vehicles & technologies that could be employed to reach them:

She felt the Edge ad could only be targeted to Gen X, because of the creative approach (she described it as the ad's "tone of voice") and also because of the apparent age of the models appearing in the ad. It also wasn't interesting or dynamic enough to appeal to Gen Ys in her opinion. Speaking as an art director, she felt the ad appeared cheaply produced, as though the advertiser was working with a low budget, and implied that as a concept it was too weak to stand on its own without its audience having been exposed to other pieces in the same campaign to lend meaning to the vehicle's placement. The message of the ad, in her estimation, was simply, "You're cool, this car is cool." This ultimately is an emotional message intended to resonate with aspirational Gen Xers. By contrast, the Mercedes Benz ad was described as rational:

The copy length and the sophistication of the design led her to believe the Mercedes Benz ad was intended for a Boomer audience, along with the make of the car, and the "Wall Street Journal-type of feeling" about the layout style.

Tristen was unimpressed with both the L'Oreal and Stridex ads, although she granted that both ads were probably pretty effective at communicating with their respective audiences (Boomers for L'Oreal, and Ys for Stridex, according to her). She felt the only real point of the L'Oreal ad was to support product awareness, as she felt the headline "Go for the Upgrade" was misleading and meaningless. By the nature of the product (a hair thickener) she guessed the L'Oreal ad was for Boomers.

She was even more derogatory of the Stridex ad, calling it "awful" and "a really poor execution." She gave it points for the copy and headline, and conceded that the headline of the Stridex ad was meaningful, delivering the value proposition clearly, as opposed to the L'Oreal headline. When asked whether the ad concept would work with Gen Xers, she suggested that Gen Xers need more than smileyfaces and a value proposition, they need more substantive information, and then went on to say that if a Gen Xer is [still] having chronic acne issues, the tone of the ad should probably be more serious and respectful because they're dealing with a health issue rather than a cosmetic one.

She felt the overall tone and nomenclature of the Smith Barney ad was pretentious and offensive to people who weren't already wealthy:

However she admitted that she had brought much of this negative sentiment with her from previous exposure to the campaign on outdoor advertising in the Chicago area (which I was unaware of until she mentioned it). Putting her predetermined bias aside, she felt the advertorial layout style was smart, because it had a rational, credible tone about it. She also felt the visual layout was good and the writing was good, making it a strong ad on the merits:

She described the Pop-tarts ad as "tricky" in that it resonated strongly with herself, which inclined her to think that the ad was designed for Gen Xers, and if it hadn't been for her "process of elimination" (by which, she felt strongly enough about her audience judgments of the other 5 ads, and knew that 2 ads to each generation were represented, leaving only one "Y ad" left) she would have guessed that this ad was targeting Xers. She felt the cartoony style and offbeat humor was very much in line with Xers' sensibilities, citing the popularity of The Simpsons, Adult Swim and other Xer-oriented cartoons. She wasn't familiar with "Rejected" but understood how that would appeal to an adult audience, like the ad. She also commented that the ad could very easily target Gen X parents, who would be reminded to buy Pop-tarts for their children. She felt the humor would probably be lost on a younger Gen Y, who wasn't already familiar with Pop-tarts as a product, echoing what Ed Zimkus said earlier about the lack of information--the assumption of familiarity--contributing to the ad's targeting theory. Tristen also pointed out that the ad's creative approach can be justifiably very simple because it can influence impulse purchases, whereas an investment of money in something like an automobile or financial consulting services demands much more careful consideration.

Tristen identified the use of models and tone of voice (Edge), audience-specific features of a product (L'Oreal), a mature sense of humor (Pop-tarts), layout style (Mercedes Benz), word choice (Smith Barney) and idiosyncratic vernacular (Stridex) as techniques which appeal to the generations. However she distinguished between appeals to the generations themselves and appeals to merely the age of the audience. This is a crucial distinction:

What Tristen has articulated is that while any given generation ages, many of the appeals to them will change/mature over time, but the media used to effectively reach them will not, indicating her belief that once a generation grows accustomed to receiving their media content (e.g. music, television programming, motion pictures, and so on) via particular technologies, it is slower to adopt new ones as they emerge. The younger generation, however, adopts them and then grows to be familiar and comfortable with those media vehicles.

interview 6: michael nwoke

The final interview was conducted in the main conference room of Saatchi & Saatchi X, with their Senior Copywriter. Michael was the only copywriter of the six interviewees, but as he was also an associate creative director, I felt his participation was just as valid.

In discussing the generations, Michael's characterizations were unique in that they reflected more of a sociological/activist mindset, in other words, what the generations are about and what motivates them rather than what symbols and brands are associated with them. He defined the Baby Boomers as "warriors" of the civil rights era, Gen Xers as "opportunists" who " didn't have to work and fight for anything. It's like, silver-spoonfed. I think selfish, and less community. More about self and less community." And he characterized Gen Y as "lazy", born in an overabundance of technology and an empowered consumerism, enabled by internet technologies, services and forums for exchanging ideas. However this empowerment is taken for granted by Gen Y, who may, in their exuberance, end up doing more harm than good in society:

To attempt to reach these demographics, Michael looks for "connectors", things which the generation will respond to, which will resonate with them, such as music or lifestyle trends specific to that generation. He likens it to the act of courting and seducing a woman at a club, paying careful attention to her, entering into a closely studied dialogue which, if she--personifying the target audience--feels respected, listened to and understood, will willingly enter into a committed relationship with the brand. And as long as the "seduction" is done with honesty and respect, and not with false promises or insincere platitudes, that commitment can be sustained.

Michael identified Gen X and Boomers as the target audiences for the Edge and Mercedes Benz ad, respectively, although he felt both concepts could have overlap on those two generational cohorts. He identified the target audience in the Edge ad (the models) as the primary Gen X factor, and the Mercedes Benz product itself, particularly the price point, that identified that ad as being for Boomers. He said Gen Y would not have the attention span for the Benz ad, however they could conceivably be drawn into a similarly copy-heavy ad if it was about an idea, perhaps a social issue, that they cared enough about. He also described Mercedes Benz as having enough brand integrity not to settle for gimmicks or puns on the vehicle names. It would be beneath them, or be a sign of weakness or insecurity, for them to resort to such strategies to sell their vehicles. However the Edge ad, in his estimation, could be used to sell to Boomers with a Boomer-friendly brand such as Toyota. Having said all that, Michael wasn't particularly interested by the Edge design. He said it was a solid, competently produced ad, but wasn't exceptional; it didn't stand apart from the rest or show excellence in any particular way.

The L'Oreal ad got a stronger response from Michael than the Stridex ad, primarily because he felt the visual language was more polished and appropriate to the target than that of Stridex, which he characterized as a "coupon ad". He didn't feel that magazine ads were an effective medium to offer coupons to Gen Y, or even that Gen Y would clip coupons anyway. Based on this, he felt that L'Oreal was more effective, but when the emoticons and the selling proposition in the Stridex ad headline were pointed out, he recanted and decided instead that they were about equally relevant and appealing to their target generations. The L'Oreal was a Gen X-targeted ad (in his opinion) because of the nature of the product, but he felt the design would appeal to Boomers also. He said it was the visual language of the ad that elicited the Gen X characterization, but he didn't find it particularly compelling (he graded it a C). He understood the Stridex ad to be a Gen Y-targeted ad based on it being an acne product, but interestingly he felt the same design style could be used to appeal to Boomers, because of its retro-ness.

Like several others, he needed clarification on the Smith Barney ad at first, because of its advertorial layout style. Interestingly, he felt the ad was targeted to Gen X at first, but then conceded that based on the age of the model in the ad, it could be targeting Boomers as well. This led to a discussion on the relative strength of the headline versus the visuals in the ad in determining the intended audience:

He felt the ad was smart and that it would get his attention if he came across it in a magazine, because he and his wife had been thinking about many issues involved with raising their children, including financial issues. He reiterated that although the content of the ad would not appeal to Gen Ys, the ad's design and layout could be used to market to them if the content of the ad was appropriate and relevant to them (such as a political issue).

He felt the Pop-tarts ad was irreverent and audacious, and that's what made it a Gen Y ad in particular. He also felt the illustration style was more in Gen Y's vein than in Gen X's. He enjoyed that the Pop-tarts were not only anthropomorphized, but portrayed as victims of their own goodness. He wasn't sure, but he thought it was possible he knew the creatives responsible for the "Crazy Good" campaign for Pop-tarts.

Michael's interview was unique in that his characterizations of the generations were based on a cumulative cultural perspective. He felt that Gen Ys were lazy because they learned it from Gen Xers, and Gen Xers were spoiled because the Boomers did all the heavy lifting for them. These being gross generalizations naturally, they nevertheless inform his opinions of how to find connectors to bridge the gaps of language--visual as well as literal in some cases--between his generation and the other two, to communicate with them better. He also described his personal involvement in certain area neighborhoods where he wants to use advertising to make more of a tangible difference in the next generation's lives:

continue »