A study by Nottingham Business School reveals Generation X ladies experience age in seven distinct ways, affected by factors such as caring obligations and menopause. These frames of aging range from viewing age as an attitude to declining it as a cultural construct.
A current study conducted by Nottingham Business School (NBS) reveals that Generation X ladies experience age in seven distinct ways.
The study looked into the self-perception of age among GenX ladies, defined as those born between 1965 and 1980, and analyzed if they experience aging in a sequential sense.
The focus of this research also encompassed its prospective implications for online marketers, considering the considerable function of GenX as a demographic carefully related to customer culture and with increased non reusable costs power.
Over a period of 3 weeks and utilizing online journals, 19 females with varying life circumstances (aged in between 41 and 55) reflected and reported on day-to-day events of individual age-related significance.
Analysis of more than 250 diary entries revealed seven converging, overlapping, and corresponding frames of aging that the scientists named Affective, Protest, Acceptance, Camouflage, Life-Stage, Inequities, and Inconsequence.
These age frames vary from considering age as just a mindset, to outright rejection of age as a culturally imposed label. Some diarists did accept their chronological age however others utilized beauty items and clothing to camouflage theirs.
Caring for children and/or aging parents strongly affected personal age perception as did the menopause, present or as a looming occasion. This generation likewise felt the weight of inequalities, unfairness, and predisposition that suggested they were relatively less valued– either than men of all ages and/or ladies younger than them.
Lastly, some diarists professed to regularly forgetting their sequential age, regarding this as unrelated or irrelevant to their individuality.
Sharon-Marie Gillooley, primary speaker in Marketing at NBS and research lead, said: “Its becoming significantly difficult to pin down the age of a GenX lady. This generation feels that it does not require to comply with age and gender-related roles/rules like their moms and dads, and for that reason they are all dealing and experiencing with aging in different methods– some are gladly old, others are young at heart; for some lives have plenty of possibility, whilst others feel family obligations taxing their shoulders.
” This research suggests that marketing to GenX females presents a specific difficulty for companies, as standard market age-informed targeting is unlikely to work– particularly as the research study also recommends these age frames “might apply to all of these women all of the time; all of these ladies a few of the time; a few of these females all of the time; or some of these ladies some of the time.”
As a significant market group, with increasing disposable earnings, GenX women are a progressively attractive market. While this is a friend that marketers should think about, the evidence suggests a sequential design of age categorization is not proper for their understanding of Gen X women. Rather, they are dispersed and distributed throughout many groups– a moving, rather than repaired and predictable target.
The study suggests generalizing, or stereotyping, GenX females using an age-related appeal positions a major danger for brands that are in risk of distancing, or not reaching, their target audience.
Recommendation: “The self-perceived age of GenX females: prioritising female subjective age identity in marketing” by Sharon-Marie Gillooley, Sheilagh Mary Resnick, Tony Woodall and Seamus Allison, 24 May 2023, European Journal of Marketing.DOI: 10.1108/ EJM-04-2022-0267.
As a large market group, with increasing disposable income, GenX women are an increasingly appealing market. While this is a cohort that marketers need to consider, the proof suggests a chronological model of age categorization is not appropriate for their understanding of Gen X women. Rather, they are distributed and distributed across numerous groups– a moving, rather than fixed and predictable target.
