Cultural Studies & Analysis has developed a set of basic
tools relating to human behavior in groups, the basic unit of culture. The Age Stage Development system charts human
development from birth into the mid-seventies (and beyond). This chart is the secret weapon for the ad
agency, consumer products company, experience design studio, and most recently,
the transformation economy.
We have distilled a large body of work by both physiologists
and psychologists documenting the evolution of human needs over a lifespan. By
comparing this to the consistent cultural patterns of behavior over time, it is
possible to develop a picture of the human lifespan as a decision-making process. In sum, we all are a different person every
twenty years—in our thinking, needs, and buying lives.
This development process is not linear, but cyclical: a repeating progression of awareness, learning, application (reconciling), and transforming. As we move from one developmental stage to the next, we edit our mental database, dropping what no longer works, making and testing new discoveries, adding useful information in our new operating environment, and developing new recognition patterns to direct new solutions to new problems.
Reconciliation stages, those of Application, are particularly significant. During these periods the brain is preparing to re-set for the coming stage of transformation. It subconsciously scans for significant patterns of the upcoming stage ahead, as well as searching for significant moments in the past. Nostalgia exerts a strong pull, as do positive visions of the future.
Every twenty years we all transition through a sort of “systems upgrade.” We emerge from the transformation stage of each cycle as a distinctive new entity: from teenager to young adult, from young adult to maturity, from maturity to a cycle of reflection to resolve the contradictions within our own 60-year-old identity for final acceptance of our life story.
Each transformation carries marked economic consequences. Ages 20 to 35 are the hot demographic for consumer sales because these are the most socially mobile years in American life. In the previous adolescent transformation, teens are developing an identity independent from their parents. Very soon in the next column, they also have several other identities thrust upon them in rapid succession — student, employee, peer-group member, partner – even parents themselves.
During this conflict of the early 20s, you can be — as far as your brain is concerned — a different person every few months. Whenever we change, our immediate environment must also transform to reflect and enhance our changing self-image. Socially mobile beings are more inclined to buy a new and wider range of “stuff” than the more self-actualized (i.e., older and more stable).
In the mid-30s, this social mobility slows. We start a second stage of reconciliation leading to transformation. We stop buying new stuff, skipping entire generations of technology before replacement. But while the things around us remain relatively stable, we start buying experiences--until our next transformation stage, when we start buying meaning.
At every stage of this process, brand loyalty can disappear when the consumer moves into a new stage. In the new mindset, values based on the product name no longer enjoy utility.
Age stage determines which values the consumer is drawn to at what age, and how those values are recognized and acted on. Understanding age as a process, rather than an event or a seamless progression, reveals not only why the majority of any particular age group behaves the way they do, but also where they are going, what they need, and what they will gravitate to in the future.
