Life-stages Drive Consumer Patterns: Life-stages; turning points in life, a period of sudden, perhaps dramatic, change that requires new skills and a new frame of mind¾influence buying and giving patterns particular-ly among boomers. Key life-stages are fairly predictable; birth, childhood, education, work/homemaking, retire-ment and death. But the longer lives, higher incomes and greater flexibility of today’s mature adults allow for great fluctuation in life-stage patterns. Adults today follow more of cycle than a straight line, leaving and re-entering life-stages several life-stages several times as their life changes, claims Bill Burkart, CEO of Age Wave Impact, Emeryville, CA. His company has identified 20 distinct adult life-stages and dozens of life events within each life-stage. These life events are highly predictive of changing buying and giving patterns. (DM News, 1/17/00)
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