Describe age and life-cycle segmentation with examples. What are the precautions that marketers should take when using age and life-cycle segmentation?

What will be an ideal response?

Consumer needs and wants change with age. Some companies use age and life-cycle segmentation, offering different products or using different marketing approaches for different age and life-cycle groups. For example, Kraft's Oscar Mayer brand markets Lunchables, convenient prepackaged lunches for children. To extend the substantial success of Lunchables, however, Oscar Mayer later introduced Lunchables Uploaded, a version designed to meet the tastes and sensibilities of teenagers. Most recently, the brand launched an adult version, but with the more adult-friendly name P3 (Portable Protein Pack). Other companies focus on the specific age of life-stage groups. For example, whereas most tablet makers have been busy marketing their devices to grown-ups, Amazon has spotted a tinier tablet market. Feedback from parents suggested that they were handing their entertainment-packed Kindle Fire tablet over to their young children for entertainment, education, and babysitting purposes. To tap this young-family market, Amazon introduced FreeTime Unlimited, a multimedia subscription service targeted toward 3- to 8-year-olds. Marketers must be careful to guard against stereotypes when using age and life-cycle segmentation. For example, although consumers in all age segments love Disney cruises, most Disney Cruise Lines destinations and shipboard activities are designed with parents and their children in mind. Marketers must be careful to guard against stereotypes when using age and life-cycle segmentation. Although some 80-year-olds fit the doddering stereotypes, others ski and play tennis. Similarly, whereas some 40-year-old couples are sending their children off to college, others are just beginning new families. Thus, age is often a poor predictor of a person's life cycle, health, work or family status, needs, and buying power. Companies marketing to mature consumers usually employ positive images and appeals.