What Generation is the Most Valuable for Brands to Target While In-Store?

For many years, marketers have believed that millennials were the golden generation to target. Many products, marketing campaigns and even businesses have been built with the idea in mind that millennials were the easiest target market to reach because of the mediums they use. Mediums such as social media and mobile have been marketing gold mines in the past and still show strong promise to this day. However, things may be changing when it comes to who brands want to reach via mobile, especially while users are in-store.

This leads to the reason why brands and retailers may want to rethink who they’re targeting via mobile in-store. While most brands and retailers are doing everything in their power to connect with the millennial generation, there may be more promise in reaching Gen Xers.

inMarket, a location intelligence company that works with brands like Heineken and retailers like Rite-Aid to enhance in-store experiences, also works with dozens of shopping apps representing 46 million Americans each month. We see an enormous amount of data on consumers’ mobile usage in-store across demographics. Sixty-six percent of the people we see are above the age of 35. Therefore, Gen X and baby boomers are not only heavy mobile users while in-store, they're also using their mobile devices to enrich their shopping experiences. Because the ultimate goal for brands and retailers is to make the overall experience more efficient and enjoyable, this is a perfect fit.

The entire industry is seeing deep adoption throughout all generations. RealityMine, a consumer insights and research company, found that 47 percent of Gen Xers actively use shopping apps in-store, compared to millennials (32 percent) and baby boomers (39 percent), showing that Gen Xers are the most active across the board when it comes to using their mobile device to supplement their in-store shopping experience.

While Gen Xers have proven to be active mobile users while in-store, this subsequently makes them a very valuable generation as a potential hidden treasure within mobile marketing. According to American Express, Gen X has more spending power than any other generation, with 29 percent of estimated net worth dollars and 31 percent of total income dollars. This is a stat that brands and retailers need to be paying very close attention to, especially when wanting to raise awareness around a new product. If a brand or retailer is debuting a new product, it needs to be looking at how the product could be useful to Gen Xers. Not only are they reachable via mobile while in-store, they also have a tremendous amount of buying power.

Not all advertising is about selling energy drinks and eggs. When inMarket ran a mobile campaign with an adult incontinence brand that was targeted towards Gen Xers and baby boomers, the product saw a 5.6 times lift in purchase intent and a 1.6 times lift in return on investment, showing that the older generations interact with and respond well to mobile ads while in-store.

As the mobile marketing space continues to evolve, it's imperative to understand which consumers are using mobile and how different groups are doing so. In a space where it has been a foregone conclusion that millennials are the biggest adopters of mobile, we're seeing other groups who not only are heavy mobile users, but also use mobile in their shopping journey. With all of these factors, brands and retailers should begin to reconsider who they are targeting and how they deploy their strategies for maximum ROI.

Todd Dipaola is the founder and CEO of InMarket, a beacon proximity and location intelligence company.