Growing Up With Your Consumers
As marketers, we need to grow with our consumers. Our audiences deserve and need more to prove we’re with them every step of their lives. Marketers should craft ultimate campaigns that can be relevant through all parts a consumer’s life, so as they mature, what we offer needs to, as well.
Subaru 
Subaru pulled at consumers’ heart strings, inspiring trust in their brand, when they ran the tv ad featuring yellow lab parents dropping their puppy off at obedience school.
Subaru has mastered the cradle to grave technique, the art of remaining true to their brand while evolving to support their customers’ needs, like more space in the backseat for a puppy. Brand evolution is crucial to any company’s success. If we don’t evolve, we lose loyal consumers and potentially entire businesses.
Subaru went as far as targeting the next step in their average consumer’s life: parenting humans (instead of puppies). Subaru introduced their SUV with the same rugged reputation as their Imprezas and BRZs to appeal to consumers in their late 20s and 30s.
Their Crosstrek, Forester and Outback models keep the Subaru notoriety that appeals to someone in their 20s while providing the room for a small family, which appeals to an individual in their 30s.
Most recently, Subaru previewed its largest vehicle to date, the Ascent, which includes three rows of seating and will officially launch summer of 2018.
Offering a vehicle for every age group, stays with their consumers from the first days of driving to the years with car seats and Cheerios in the back seat.
Chuck E. Cheese’s
Kids between the ages of five and 12 beg for birthday parties at Chuck E. Cheese’s. This kid-approved entertainment center is known for their arcade games, jungle gym, ball pit and, of course, the pizza.
As Chuck E. Cheese’s loyal consumers (kids) grow up, they need something to entice them back. When these new parents bring their children to their beloved childhood rendezvous, what will be there for adults?
Chuck E. Cheese’s tackled that question head on in 2015, offering a new and improved menu that caters to both young and matured tastes. Featuring wings, signature pizzas and artisan sandwiches, the modernized menu even offers beer and wine for parents to enjoy while their children pull tickets out of the skeeball machine.
Chuck E. Cheese’s confirmed that when consumers’ tastes change your brand should, too.
Kellogg’s
Kellogg’s is the powerhouse behind everyone’s favorite, sweet childhood cereals. As children mature into adults, tastes, preferences and priorities change, which is why Kellogg’s created Special K.
The Special K diet suggests individuals substitute two meals a day with cereal, accounting for roughly 520 calories per day. With the common goal of eating less than you burn, Special K helps create a healthy deficit of calories, allowing for up to three pounds lost per week according to Livestrong.com.
With a second target audience of individuals in their 30s, Kellogg’s has kept in touch with the people who grew up eating Frosted Flakes. And now, they offer a healthy alternative, proving they know their consumers and their demands.