Feature: The Generation Game

The recent Va conference provided a great platform to keep our members up to date with the many innovations and debates that are fuelling the evolution of the industry and equally provided inspiration for association members to continue working towards long-term success.

With such a diverse membership, ranging from retailers to handling houses, printers to card processors and even a hotel group, one of the greatest tasks that we faced in arranging the conference was trying to fit everything in! Vouchers, gift cards and stored value solutions function across increasingly varied markets and the topics for discussion really needed to reflect this diversity.

Marriott International’s head of marketing strategy, Michelle Lapierre, presented a particularly captivating talk entitled ‘Generations at Work’. This presentation examined typical behavioural traits from different generations as well as their relationships and conflicts with each other. Michelle’s argument was that ‘generational differences can either be a source of creative strength and opportunity, or a source of stifling stress and unrelenting conflict.’ This was certainly a highlight of the conference and raised many issues on how best to engage different generations.

Michelle identified four active generations: The ‘Matures’, aged over 63; the ‘Baby Boomers’, aged between 43 and 62; ‘Generation X’, aged between 28 and 42; and ‘Generation Y’ aged 27 and below.

Matures are loyal, comfortable with hierarchy and trust the system. They are committed, disciplined, reliable and hardworking while duty comes before pleasure. Group needs are considered ahead of their individual needs and they associate their career with their company. However, while they are trained to follow the leader, they are uncomfortable with conflict and are reluctant to buck the system. Instead of adapting to new technologies they will look to the past for all the answers.

Baby Boomers are idealist optimists, service orientated, good at relationships and comfortable in teams. They are motivated by self-improvement and are driven to excel. On the other hand, they value process over results and are not naturally budget-minded. They can be self-centred and judgemental of those who see things differently.

Generation Xs remain loyal to individuals, are multi-cultural and work with ease in the virtual world, viewing technology as an extension of self. They are resourceful, entrepreneurial and experimental and are motivated by self-development. At the same time, Generation Xs are impatient and cynical, with poor service and people skills. They distrust leadership and try to morph rules to suit themselves, while they prefer a ‘tribal’ rather than a ‘group’ approach to teamwork.

The youngest of the generations, Generation Ys, have high integrity and strong values while being technically proficient, ethnically diverse and highly energetic. They are resilient, worldly, educated and optimistic with a good ability to work in teams. Their challenges include the need for supervision and structure, making them ‘fawned-on’ and ‘coddled’. They have a need for immediacy and can be rude in achieving it. While being uncomfortable in handling difficult people situations, Generation Y clashes with Generation X.

Michelle provided insightful opinions on how to engage each generation and I felt that her ideas might alter the way that sales promotion initiatives can be approached by responding more directly to the values and ideals that define each generation.

For example, Michelle highlighted that accounting for traditional gender roles is important to ‘Matures’ and they expect more explicit direction than younger generations. Younger generations, on the other hand, are much more receptive to technology and are impressed with rapid, quick-fire results.

The bottom line is that, when communicating, a simple ‘one style for all and, perhaps a one product for all approach’ is not the most effective way. Instead, a range of different approaches will be required when attempting to engage people of different generations. The full presentation can be downloaded from the Va Conference website at www.theva.co.uk/conference and should provide some interesting food for thought.