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The Age Curve: How to Profit from the Coming Demographic Storm | 
 enlarge | Author: Kenneth W. Gronbach
Publisher: AMACOM
Category: Book
List Price: $24.95
Buy New: $14.44
You Save: $10.51 (42%)
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Rating:  19 reviews
Sales Rank: 29478
Media: Hardcover
Pages: 288
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.3
Dimensions (in): 9.1 x 6.1 x 1.2
ISBN: 0814401813
Dewey Decimal Number: 658.8343
EAN: 9780814401811
ASIN: 0814401813
Publication Date: July 3, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: Brand New, Perfect Condition, Please allow 4-14 business days for delivery. 100% Money Back Guarantee, Over 1,000,000 customers served.
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Product Description
For years, marketers have held on to unwavering beliefs that have dictated how they market to their consumers. But the hard truth is that the changes we see in marketing and business are based on one undeniable factor--the size of the generations we are selling to. As each generation ages, what they buy and how much they buy will change. Each product and service has a "best customer" that sustains a business. As these customers grow up, the smartest marketers will stay ahead of them--and their money. In The Age Curve, marketing guru Kenneth Gronbach shows executives and entrepreneurs how to anticipate this wave of predictable demand and ride it to success. Using impeccable research, Gronbach reveals how our largest generations, the Baby Boomers and Generation Y, are redefining how we market and how businesses can anticipate their needs more effectively. Complete with entertaining examples of companies like Apple who have perfected their strategies for building a loyal customer base, as well as those who haven't (Levi Strauss and Honda Motorcycle), this book will show readers: how to determine their best customers * how successful companies are earning the loyalty of Generation Y and cultivating allegiance to their products for years to come * why Generation X is a much less valuable market than any of us have been led to believe * and much more Both shocking and compelling, The Age Curve will change the way companies look at their customers and how they market to them.
Book Description
For years, marketers have held on to unwavering beliefs that have dictated how they market to their consumers. But the hard truth is that the changes we see in marketing and business are based on one undeniable factor—the size of the generations we are selling to. As each generation ages, what they buy and how much they buy will change. Each product and service has a “best customer” that sustains a business. As these customers grow up, the smartest marketers will stay ahead of them—and their money. In The Age Curve, marketing guru Kenneth Gronbach shows executives and entrepreneurs how to anticipate this wave of predictable demand and ride it to success. Gronbach reveals how our largest generations, the Baby Boomers and Generation Y, are redefining how we market and how businesses can anticipate their needs more effectively. Complete with entertaining examples of companies like Apple who have perfected their strategies for building a loyal customer base, as well as those who haven’t (Levi Strauss and Honda Motorcycle), this book will show readers: • how to determine their best customers • how successful companies are earning the loyalty of Generation Y and cultivating allegiance to their products for years to come • why Generation X is a much less valuable market than any of us have been led to believe • and much more Both shocking and compelling, The Age Curve will change the way companies look at their customers and how they market to them.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 14 more reviews...
 A great service! January 6, 2009
Gary Jones
Ken Gronbach has done a great service to us all. Not only those in business who must depend on marketing information, but also for laymen who simply want to know what is going on. In a simple and delightful way, Ken gives us answers to much of what we see everyday and wonder why.
Ken takes a profound subject and puts it down where the lambs could eat it. I find myself reiterating what he wrote as I hear everyday news.
Age Curve is a great read and I recommend it to everyone.
 Repetitive and Somewhat Misguided - Read His Blog Instead January 5, 2009
The Mad Hapa (Orange County, CA)
Have you ever gone to a movie because it had a really funny trailer - but been disappointed after viewing the entire film? You feel ripped off because all the good parts were shown in that three minute preview and now you'll never get that two hours of your life back. That's how I felt after reading The Age Curve.
I visited Kenneth Gronbach's website before purchasing his book. He had some interesting things to say so I bought the book. Don't make the same mistake I did: all the worthwhile info is on his website / blog.
Out of 241 pages he has only a few dozen pages worth of good material (evidenced by the larger-than-average font size IMHO). The book is also very repetitive - something I could forgive if it weren't for other glaring problems.
Okay, here is his thesis in a nutshell: the US population we call Gen X doesn't consume as much because there are fewer of them (roughly 9 Xers for every 10 Boomers). This causes beer sales, motorcycle sales, home sales, etc to decline. Things will stay in decline until Gen Y is old enough to start buying homes, cars, etc.
So what does Gronbach suggest? Retailers should write off the Gen Xers entirely. Ignore 69 million people approaching their prime spending years and prepare for the Gen Y gravy train. What idiocy. Besides, what's a struggling retailer to do for the next five to ten years while Gen Y slugs through college and their 20-something poverty years? Gronbach has been consulting with big corporations for too long.
To make matters worse: Gronbach doesn't give any worthwhile suggestions for how to market to Gen Y. He spends page after page hammering into the readers head that we must market to Gen Y and then has little "how to" advice.
I DID read the whole book; however, I almost had to put it down after reading Gronbach's description of how (due to high unemployment) Gen Y will take jobs now held by immigrant labor. He says, "once again a blonde-haired blue-eyed girl will take your order at a fast-food restaurant." Ha! This guy needs to visit Southern California. I've met those blonde teenagers and I've gone to those fast food joints. This guy is a few tacos short of a value meal.
While Gronbach's basic premise is sound:
#1 If your primary customer is between the ages of 30-45 (a Gen-Xer) reduce your short-term sales goals. Gen X will never consume at the rate the boomers did. There aren't enough of them.
#2 Make plans for how and when you'll target Gen Y.
... and you can get this info from his blog. Save yourself three hours of reading.
Full disclosure: I'm 29 years old. Depending on how you slice it, I'm either the first part of Gen Y or I'm the tail end of Gen X. My degree is in marketing and my job is small-business consulting with a focus on online marketing.
I get it! January 5, 2009
C. Mikaitis
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
After reading this book, I can honestly say "I get it". My wife and I own a small business. Using the information outlined by Ken, we could immediately see how demographics trends affect our business. Ken has taken a complex topic and made it entertaining and easy to read. I would highly recommend this book.
 repetitive and oversimplified January 3, 2009
A. Golden (boston, ma)
I'll preface this review by saying that I only read about 1/3 of the book, and that I am not really a marketer.
The author's central point is that market researchers typically assume that the number of americans with a particular age is constant or linked to overall population size. In fact, the age distribution in the US can change dramatically (e.g. baby boom). Further, he thinks this assumption is a mistake because market size can, for example, decrease dramatically if the 25-40 year old demographic shrinks as people age and generation Y takes over that demographic. He seems to forecast the problems with the Detroit auto industry, among other things.
He stated this central point early on, and then apologizes that he will repeat it over and over so things sink in. Therefore, I expected to glean a deeper understanding for how this age distribution factor interacts with or compares to other market research factors. However, I stopped reading because he only provided oversimplified examples with little discussion of other market research factors before concluding that age distribution in the population explains it all.
 Very interesting and easy to read December 2, 2008
Philip E. Lipp (Los Angeles, CA)
The book is a fast read with great insights. Highly recommended for giving meaning behind today's markets present & future.
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