Marketing to multiple generations can feel like balancing on a tightrope. Each age group brings its own expectations, communication preferences and values, all of which must be considered when crafting a campaign.
For many marketers, the challenge lies in delivering messages that resonate across age groups without sacrificing relevance or authenticity. To help you meet this challenge, 16 members of Forbes Communications Council share the real-life obstacles they’ve faced in reaching audiences from all age groups, along with the solutions they’ve implemented to overcome them.
1. Engaging Audiences While Maintaining Your Brand Voice
Keeping the balance of adapting your messages, language, visuals, the channels you use and so on to resonate with and reach different generations while staying true to your core brand voice is the biggest challenge. One way of addressing this is by building and truly empowering multigenerational teams to be in charge. – Diana Scholz, Bayer AG
2. Using The Right Tone
While our research revealed that 85% of people worldwide find video to be crucial when shopping online, marketing content must be tailored per generation to align with differing preferences in tone, messaging, consumption habits and more. By segmenting video campaigns to reflect these differences, marketers can improve engagement across demographics and increase brand loyalty. – Sara Griggs, Brightcove
3. Satisfying Differing Values
The biggest challenge in marketing to multiple generations is addressing their diverse values and their comfort levels with tech. When you’re a long-established brand, it’s easier to target older generations. To overcome this, my team developed a content strategy using platforms like Facebook and X for mature audiences and newer platforms for engaging younger ones, fostering cross-generational connections. – Nandini Sankara, Suburban Propane
4. Determining The Right Content Length
A huge challenge across multiple generations is the time the audience is willing to spend on a piece of content. Younger generations want to know immediately what you are trying to sell. The older generations spend a little longer understanding the messaging before moving on. You can tailor your content to fit the needs of both with short- versus long-form content. – Sarah Lero, A.L. Huber
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5. Avoiding A Generic Value Proposition
When it comes to messaging across a range of generations, it’s hard to appeal to anyone really well. This results in a value proposition that can tend to appeal to the masses but also be pretty generic. We’ve tried to take core messaging and adapt it slightly depending on the audience, and this has been more successful in connecting with our target market. – Roshni Wijayasinha, Prosh Marketing
6. Creating For Varied Expectations
It’s hard trying to create for a diverse audience. Each generation has unique values, expectations and ways of consuming information. The key is to create content that resonates with each of them. Use different channels, messaging, visuals and stories that appeal to specific demographics. Understanding each persona will help marketers create more effective campaigns that resonate. – Joe Ariganello, MixMode
7. Aligning With Communication Preferences
The biggest challenge in marketing to multiple generations is catering to their communication preferences. NCBI says middle-aged adults prefer phone or email, while senior citizens favor phone, email or in-person communication. We overcame this hurdle by introducing a multi-channel feedback system offering requests via text, email and calls, leading to a significant rise in reviews across all age groups. – Lauren Parr, RepuGen
8. Balancing Personalization With Brand Identity
Striking the right balance between personalized messaging and a unified brand identity is a challenge. To address this, we’ve adopted a “segment and conquer” approach. We segment our audience by generation and tailor our messaging and channel selection accordingly. For example, we might use TikTok to engage Gen Z with short-form video content, while relying on email marketing to reach Baby Boomers. – Patrick Ward, NanoGlobals
9. Challenging Stereotypes
The biggest challenge in marketing across generations was overcoming internal stereotypes. We introduced reverse mentoring, pairing younger team members with experienced colleagues to exchange perspectives. This fostered empathetic leadership, enhancing productivity and reducing turnover. The result was more effective campaigns and better team cohesion, leading to successful market engagement. – Leslie Poston, Mind Media Tech LLC
10. Ensuring Messages Resonate
The biggest challenge is crafting a message that is received in the right manner by all generations. Not all generations understand the presented message the same way—it has to do a lot with how our thinking evolves based on our experiences. One method we keep in mind is to craft our message around a recent world experience, one that we all experienced together. This closes the gap. – Sahil Sethi, Freshworks
11. Avoiding Alienation
One of the challenges in marketing to multiple generations is crafting messaging that resonates with everyone without alienating any specific group. I focus on creating adaptable content that can be personalized for different platforms or formats. I’ve used broader messaging for older audiences in email and print, while using more interactive, bite-sized content for younger audiences on social media. – Maria Alonso, Fortune 206
12. Engaging Audiences On Their Preferred Platforms
Marketing across generations means engaging audiences where they naturally spend time. I customized messaging for each segment and collaborated with influencers native to their platforms, using TikTok for Gen Z, Instagram for Millennials and LinkedIn for older professionals. This approach ensured content resonated authentically, boosting engagement and expanding our reach. – Prateek Panda, Tonic.ai
13. Crafting Messages That Resonate Broadly
One of the recent challenges was finding a message that resonates across all age groups. In our Trainee Engineers Program, we tackled this by introducing an AI robot mascot. It wowed the younger crowd, entertained our leadership and boosted social media interaction. The result? Positive vibes, great PR coverage and both groups loved the idea—amplifying engagement and employer branding. – Dora Hrkac, Esyasoft Holding
14. Navigating Buying Motivations
A big challenge with marketing to multiple generations is conflicting purchase motivations. This challenge is overcome by understanding buyers’ personas and creating messaging that leverages the overlapping motivational factors of multiple generations. For non-niche items, this approach yields a generally effective outcome because it offers multiple compelling points to emphasize “this is for me.” – Deetricha Younger, Deetricha Younger, LLC
15. Adapting To Shifting Communication Styles
The biggest challenge is navigating evolving communication styles. I stay updated on changes in how people communicate verbally and visually. Yet, the core fundamentals—authenticity, transparency and giving more than asking—remain constant. Trust and genuine connection are timeless motivators, regardless of generational differences. – John Schneider, Betterworks
16. Tailoring Reengagement Strategies
Each generation requires distinct reengagement strategies. Gen Z craves real-time interaction, so we leverage time-sensitive, exclusive content drops on social channels. Gen X, on the other hand, values deeper connection and brand loyalty, engaging well with curated email content and personalized offers. By embracing these nuances, we’ve driven stronger long-term retention and brand affinity. – Brittany Garlin, The Sustainable Marketing Corp.
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