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Introduce the activity by posing several questions to the class:

What was your most recent purchase?

Why did you make that purchase?

What influenced your decision to purchase?

What, if any, research did you do before that purchase?

What was your family’s most recent purchase?

Why did your family make that purchase?

What influenced your family’s decision to purchase?

What, if any, research did members of your family do before making that purchase?

Consider assigning a class scribe to record key points on the board or chart paper.

Have students review their answers and discuss the differences they see in purchase patterns, how their own purchase patterns might have changed over time, and how they think those might change again.

Explain that marketers ask these questions when formulating marketing mixes. Review the term “demographics.” Review or introduce the term “segmentation,” the grouping of consumers into sets based on common characteristics, such as age, attitude, and gender. A group can be segmented by one or more characteristics, for example: working women aged 35 to 40.

View the clip Boom, bust and echo and the additional clip The nexus consumer from the topic Generation X: Lives on Hold on the CBC Digital Archives website. You might also distribute a copy of the download sheet Demographic Groups in Canada (from the introductory activity Demographic Groups in Canada) to help students understand the broader context of demographic groups.

Distribute copies of the download sheet Demographic Segmentation and Marketing. Either alone or in pairs, students take notes about the different life stages and experiences of the different groups, focusing on how the clips explain that these differences affect purchase patterns. Students complete the chart by identifying how the demographic groups impact the marketing mix. For example, the younger generations (Bust/Nexus and Echo) would be more likely to adapt to e-commerce as a channel of distribution in the “place” column given that they grew up with more technology than previous generations.

Debrief by having students discuss their responses as a class.

Assessment Tip
Provide students with criteria for assessment of class discussion. Recommended criteria include:

active participation in discussion

thoughtful and reflective comments that refer to the video clips viewed

respectful responses or reactions to remarks

thought-provoking questions

connections to class texts, previous lessons, or other reference points

Assign to groups of students a demographic group (e.g., Baby Boom, Generation X). Groups can develop a product or service idea suited to that demographic group, addressing all 4 Ps in the marketing mix. Students present their product or service idea to the class, and explain the rationale for their marketing mix selections.