Blog 2: Demographics That Companies Target

Hey everybody!

I hope you enjoyed my last post. Today I am going to talk about how companies use something called environmental scanning to get information about trends outside company.  It is important for companies to keep an eye on the trends around them because it allows them to see opportunities that are available. There are usually five sources to an environmental trend. They are social, economic, technological, competitive and regulatory sources.

The main environmental trend that I want to focus on is the social force. According to businessdictionary.com a social force is "an element of society which has the capability of causing cultural changes or influences people." The social forces include demographics and culture of its customers and the rest of the population. Demographics is when you describe a population based on "characteristics such as age, gender, ethnicity, income and occupation. Many people categorize peoples age into generational groups. These groups are the Baby Boomers, Generation X, Generation Y and the Millennials. Usually, companies will target one of these specific groups when advertising their product or service.

The Baby Boomers are considered to be people born during the baby boom after World War II between the years of 1946 and 1964. Baby Boomers are considered to be the wealthiest workforce in America because of their size. An example of a Baby Boomer is television personality Si Robertson of Duck Dynasty.

Generation X are people born between the ages of 1965 and 1976. This is the first time that a generation has had lees births than the generation before it. These people tend to be self-reliant, supportive of diversity and are better educated than the Baby Boomers. They have had their lives shaped by Global Issues that occurred during their childhood. An example of someone from Generation X is the actor Charlie Sheen.

The people in the Generation Y include people that were born between the ages of 1977 and 1994. These people have had great influence on music, sports, and technology. They are interested in memorable experiences and creating a work-life balance. The members are also passionate about the environment which make sense because many companies that raise awareness of environmental issues were born between this time period. An example of a member of Generation Y is the singer Justin Timberlake.

The Millennial generation is one that many people have a hard time agreeing about. Some say that they are the youngest of the Generation Y but really they are just people born after 1995. Millennials are great with technology. They feel the ned for a work-life balance because they have seen their parents working stressful jobs first hand. An example of a Millennial is actress Bella Thorne.

As you can see, companies have a lot to think about when they making a commercial. They always need to keep in mind the differences of the generations. A video game company obviously wants to target the Millennials instead of a Baby Boomer.

References:

Bella Thorne. Digital image. N.p., n.d. Web. 08 Feb. 2015. 

Charlie Sheen. Digital image. N.p., n.d. Web. 08 Feb. 2015. 

Environmental Scanning. Digital image. N.p., n.d. Web. 08 Feb. 2015. 

Environmental Trends. Digital image. N.p., n.d. Web. 08 Feb. 2015. 

"Generation." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, n.d. Web. 08 Feb. 2015. 

"Generation X, Generation Y, Generation Z, and the Baby Boomers." RSS 092. N.p., n.d. Web. 08 Feb. 2015. 

Justin Timberlake. Digital image. N.p., n.d. Web. 08 Feb. 2015. 

Si Robertson. Digital image. N.p., n.d. Web. 08 Feb. 2015. 

"What Is Social Force? Definition and Meaning." BusinessDictionary.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 08 Feb. 2015.