AS SEEN IN Meetings & Incentive Travel Magazine
Going Beyond Generational
Differences
Chris Gaia
Vice President of Marketing
Maritz Travel Company
Jim Ruszala
Director, Marketing
Maritz Travel Company
True or False? Incentive Travel participant preferences vary greatly based on
generational differences.
Answer: False.
Based upon a National study by Maritz, there are actually more commonalities than there are
differences. The key is discovering what program design decisions are common versus unique
and how the order of individual preferences fall.
During the design phase of any travel incentive program, stakeholders and planners face
the harsh realities of making choices that need to be the right one’s to effectively drive
the broadest levels of motivational value. This challenge is made even more difficult by an
increasingly diverse participant base. Making the right decisions in program design go a long
way towards creating the “WOW!” factor that drives excitement, buzz and performance.
Demographics have been used for years to cluster and understand what might best motivate
incentive program participants. One of the most frequently used demographic categories is
based upon age, which in turn also allows us to breakdown a participant base into what is
commonly known as generational segments. These generational segments are then used to
infer program design choices.
Generational segments are greatly influenced by such areas as the world events and societal
trends that they are raised within. In addition, we tend to think about how generations
tend to think, feel and react differently throughout the course of their life. However, the
important thing here is that generational differences and lifecycle assumptions alone can also
be quite misleading.
Based on a number of surveys completed by Maritz that look at the question of effective
program design, we can see some interesting information on the role generational attributes
play in incentive program design. For example, a large insurance company client, with many
of their earners in the 50-60 year old range, discovered that their greatest design request
was that the guest policy be expanded from being able to take children on family friendly
programs to also including grandchildren.
While generational segments are important, they are not the only consideration for
program design. Overall, the focus shouldn’t be just about generational differences, but
rather more so on how you better engage different people in more meaningful ways to
drive performance. Attending to this fundamental shift will help better shape incentive
travel program design as it relates to destination, activity, rule structuring, promotional
communications and other decisions to achieve stronger and broader motivational appeal
and value for participants.
TRAVEL
For more information, please
visit Maritz at www.maritz.com
or call (877) 4 MARITZ.
© 2011 Maritz All rights reserved
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