The Age Curve: How to Profit from the Coming Demographic Storm

The Generational Parade

Every twenty years or so, the United States creates a new generation. Each generation is bound together by similar wants, needs, motives, and events. As they pass through time, all generations age and consume as they go.

In other words, there’s a parade moving through our marketplace. But instead of marching, the parade is aging. This three-dimensional marketing model has generational sections. Those at the front—the oldest—are already disbanding, while the youngest in the back of that parade are just now forming at the fairgrounds. The parade has a pace of its own and we can’t slow it down, speed it up, or change the order of each section.

The generational sections vary dramatically in size. This fact makes their consumption ...