Demographics can be broken down into many compartments or niches. Traditional
demographic categorizing can be divided into age, income and gender. The most striking difference in
demographics are by age. The generations that exist today in America are diverse in their background
and influences that affect buying decisions. Yet, there is one factor that unites them, the desire to
believe. They have the desire to trust and want to trust corporations, government, media and non-
governmental organizations.

Many factors have gone into each generation’s buying habits and willingness to trust
others in position of leadership. The information disseminated in the media affects each
generation in different ways. Events that occur in every decade that affect the level of cynicism
can be seen. Ron Zemke describes the differences in generations in the book Generations at
Work. (Zemke, 2000)

• Greatest Generation - The “Greatest Generation” was generally born between 1915 and 1935. Their
  formative years were spent during the Great Depression; many of them served their country during
  World War II either in the war effort here at home or overseas in the military service. They have retired
  over the past twenty years. This generation has provided our nation with a great number of innovators
  and entrepreneurs. After World War II the Greatest Generation started some of the most successful
  companies in the country, or added to the success of the environmental movement we saw in the
  1960′s with the Wilderness Act or the Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act and the Endangered Species Act of
  the 1970′s. Veterans of the 110th Mountain Division from World War II typify this type of innovation.
  Some of those members of the 110th went on to start some of the top outdoor recreational facilities in
  the West, developed the running shoe for Nike and were leaders in the Sierra Club (Shelton, 2003).
• The Greatest Generation exhibits certain buying habits. Generally speaking they have highbrand loyalty, quality and believability of products is important in their buying process. They aregenerally financially conservative. They are also the instruments in the largest transition of wealth toanother generation in the world’s history. (Zemke, 2000)
• Baby Boomers – Born between 1940 and 1955, the Baby Boomers grew up during the Cold War andhave been bombarded with consumerist messages from birth. They are the first generation to bemarketed to literally from the cradle to the grave. They have high purchasing power and have workedhard and want the “good life” that has been promised to them. They exhibit mid-level brand loyalty.Baby Boomers research products and ideas before they buy into them. Family is important. As theygrow older they are caring for children and sometimes their own parents simultaneously. They arelooking at how they will spend the rest of their lives and what kind of legacy they will leave behind. Thisdemographic group is either in the retirement stage from the work force or rapidly approaching it. Theyhave large amounts of discretionary income.
• 40 Something’s – Born between 1955-1965, they are currently involved heavily in the work force.40 Something’s have owned an average of 3 different homes. They have mid to heavy levels ofdiscretionary incomes. Heavy emphasis and focus on family as most of their children are still at home.They can be motivated to change brand allegiances in consumer habits. 40 Something’s rely greatly onthe Internet as a source of information for not only concepts and ideas in society but purchasing goodsand services as well.
• Generation X – Born between 1965 and 1975. This generation generally exhibits a strong sense of
  individualism. They have young families at this point and are heavily involved in the work force. This
  generation is the first one to have grown up in the digital age and the period in which disposable
  products were marketed. They also have been exposed since an early age to massive amounts of
  information from a wider variety of sources than precious generations.
• Nexters – also known as Millennials- Born since 1975. Nexters exhibit the highest level of computer
  literacy and low discretionary income due to their level in the workforce. They will spend money on
  products after research was done on the Internet. Nexters are extremely cynical, probably due to the
  massive amounts of marketing targeted at them. They question authority and the status quo.

One striking side of demographics is that such a small percentage of the population can have a
drastic influence on the economy, political elections and public sentiment. Mark Penn points out in his
book Micro trends that one percent of the population, 3 million people, can powerfully shape society.
Think of a demographic as a fraction of the population. 3 million people is a large city in America. What
if three million people were targeted to change their buying habits? Those habits that exist could
radically affect an entire industry or an entire social behavior. Ideas that Bill McKibben (2007) exposed
in his book Deep Economy such as food sources, transportation and purchasing of eco-friendly products
could be marketed to the American population. This marketing to a niche demographic is done
everyday. The best selling car in America in 2006 was purchased by barely 300,000 people. We are
seeing a trend developing in 2007 that the Prius and Honda Civic hybrid are set to break US sales records
(Job, 2007). This consumer behavior could signal a change in environmental consuming. Karl Rove was
able to catapult George Bush into the White House by targeting religious minded conservatives and
turning them out to vote in the 2000 and 2004 presidential election. (Cannon, 2005) This group of the
population is relatively small in comparison to the whole population. Niche demographic marketing
could be effective for the environmental movement. If an organization could zero in on a small
demographic niche, choose the appropriate media and then dominate the media, people could be
swayed into taking action on a well-defined issue.

All of this cynicism in the public shows why private industry has stepped up it’s marketing efforts
to sell more products and to encourage their own corporations to be accepted in the marketplace.
Private Industry has reacted to the change that has occurred in the marketplace. They expanded
product lines, established new market niches and developed entire new markets. They have done
this with effective marketing. Marketing itself has adapted and changed over time to accommodate
clients of the marketing industry’s needs. Successful private industry capitalized on methods of
communication, which focused on enumerating the benefits that products have for consumers.

While adaptation to market changes was occurring in the private industry sectors,
environmental groups continued to do business as usual. Cynicism is being overcome by effective,
long lasting marketing in the private sector. They are using strong Primary and secondary appeals.
Consistency and proper budgeting are also occurring.

Careful precision and planning must be made in identifying the proper demographic
that could be motivated to change. It takes selection of the proper media to reach that identified
demographic. It takes advertising messages that will identify primary probable appeals and
secondary appeals to justify the decision made by consumers. It takes enough budget to
dominate a media and use it for the long haul. Cynicism must be overcome with truth in
messaging. It takes research, direction, creativity, market knowledge, focus and commitment.

Businesses have to overcome one of many obstacles in order for marketing to be effective:
cynicism. They need to expand their market and communicate outside of their own core supporters/
buyers. Additionally, they must have the willingness to allocate enough funds to effectively
communicate their message.

Cynicism has crept in the American consciousness for the past fifty years. This cynicism affects
private industry and the environmental movement. The populace within the United States has become
jaded and now exhibits signs of not believing many of the messages that emanate from elected officials,
companies and the media that is used to distribute those messages. People do not trust what they hear
anymore. On the private industry side this is reflected in the declining effectiveness of retail sales
events. Our firm has seen sales events decline in level of effectiveness for the past ten years.
Consumers have been bombarded for years that the price of items will go down and become a great
bargain only during a pre-selected time period. This time period is promoted as a sale event. For
example, look at a Sunday newspaper showcasing all of the great deals one can have at a department
store, car dealer or furniture store. Really, how many “One day sales” can JC Penney have in a month?
People do not believe anymore that it is such a great opportunity to purchase products during the sale;
sale events are so frequent that the novelty of the event has decreased. People are bombarded with
over 3,000 advertising messages a day, more than double what they were a decade ago. (Condon, 2007)
Everything from the toothpaste packaging in the morning, to the ads on the radio driving to work, to the
billboards on the highway, and the pop ups on the internet. This cynicism has risen over the past fifty
years due to the manner in which media has related information. This is relevant to effective marketing
and overcoming consumer apathy due to the fact that media is the device used to communicate to
broad and targeted expanses of the public.

Cynicism started to be noticed in the 1960’s. After World War II the consumer age took hold.
Returning servicemen took jobs in manufacturing facilities where prior those facilities were utilized in
the war effort. They had to be converted for domestic use and the federal government subsidized the
capital expenditures during the war production era. These facilities were ready to go to produce
consumable goods. Jobs were needed as well to fuel the cycle. The World Bank and the International
Monetary Fund funded projects worldwide. (McMichael, 2004) The boom of industrialization fueled
increased consumerism. Those consumable goods needed to be brought to the marketplace and
showcased so that the population would buy them. This was also one of the great booms in the
marketing industry (Hopkins, 1966). Increased use of media occurred to promote the products. At the
same time media shifted from primarily print forms to the introduction of television.

On the national and international stage things started to change, people could now see and hear
what was occurring from around the globe. Although events have always unfolded politically, now the
public could witness them. Thus the population began to become more informed. Media itself has two
functions, to entertain which brings the audience and to inform which brings the advertisers. These
relationships are symbiotic; you cannot have one without the other in a capitalist system. With these
two converging functions of entertainment and information dissemination, many political events were
now covered in the news and on the media. The greater number of events covered led to more
information being disseminated. Political and national events covered by the media began to
proliferate. Due to the nature of combining entertainment and informing, consumers naturally lumped
both components together due to the fact that the entertainment and informing emanated from the
same source, television.

Over the past five decades the American public has been made aware of so much information
that they are starting to become de-sensitized (Rademacher, 2003). This is why marketing techniques
are becoming ever more sophisticated and persistent. It is no longer enough that an advertisement runs
during prime time programming on Thursday nights, but the ad must be “streamed”, “blogged”, “you-
tubed” and “downloaded”. Marketing as an industry has diversified to find more outlets to disseminate
information.

On March 24th,  The Montana Radio Company was presented with the Business Support for the Arts Award from the Missoula Cultural Council.

The Missoula Cultural Council’s Annual Arts Awards program and luncheon honors those individuals and businesses that have shown consistently outstanding contributions to the arts community. Established in 1999, the awards demonstrate the importance of the arts as they relate to Missoula’s quality of life by honoring those who have made significant and creative contributions in selected categories. This specific annual award is given to a business that has provided long-term support to Missoula arts and cultural organizations.

We’re proud and honored to have won this award and we hope to continue to champion our local arts and cultural organizations.