Mass Customization & Understanding Age

I just recently read an interesting thought from Boomer Marketing News. Why does one day matter? That is one day you are 54 and the next you are 55 yet once you reach 55 no one cares to get your input anymore. With the lengthening life span, people in the US today may live over 25 years in their second life. And many of those people will have spending power that will exceed the spending power of Gen Y. We spend so much time worrying about the 2o somethings that we forget about the 50 somethings that are leaving us. Today's 40 - 60 year olds will not be living their lives like today's 60 - 80 year olds. And we still use the family reunion marketing target, 25 - 54 years old.

As a financial institution we do have to be all things to all people and that means changing what we do for the upcoming 60 - 80 year olds just as much as we are changing what we are doing for today's 20 - 30 year olds. Segmenting by age is not a relevant fact anymore for any age group. Lifestyle, life cycle and social responsibility are more important characteristics to segment the membership and those factors cut across age demographics. Above all, each individual wants uniqueness and therefore, mass customization is the key. We have to give members the ability to define their experience on their own terms instead of trying to fit people into how we want to serve them. Yet, build our systems so it is the same system for everyone. Let's face it, a checking account is a checking account, it is what all is wrapped around it including the service that makes an account different. Once we accept that fact, perhaps true innovation will occur instead of marketing gimmicks.

Wouldn't it be cool if our target market segments were something like this: Carries $200 or more in cash all the time; buys 75% of all gifts online; debit card is best friend and uses over 25 times per month; will drive for miles for best deal; never balances check book; has young kids really involved in sports; golfs three times per week; likes to take adventure vacations, etc...

Many need the same products but with slight tweaks, they could all get their own version of our service. Maybe it is too far fetched but much of this data we have as a financial institution.