While I enjoyed seeing and participating some of these outside activities, there was one thing in particular that has really stuck out in my mind. Earlier this week, I was walking to class on campus and I noticed a father and son playing catch. Fairly typical, I know. But the interesting part was that the father was using a baseball glove and the son was using a lacrosse stick.
It is a very simple thing, but it really caught my attention. It made me think of a generational gap that this father and son were able to overcome in order to spend time together. Perhaps
the father enjoys a more traditional baseball-style catch, while the son's interests
lie in the more modern, newly popular lacrosse-style catch. It made me think that they were able to find a way to find a connection, a similarity, between the new and the old, the traditional and the modern, and they were able to use that connection to spend time together in a way that met the standards of both the father and the son.I think there are so many other similarities between new and old that can be connected together to make a cohesive team and encompass multiple generations, just like this baseball glove/lacrosse stick example. The one thing I can think of off the top of my head is Facebook. While it was originally designed just for college students, it is now popular among a much older demographic as well. Here, the game of catch (or the common factor) is ease of communication. The ability to easily stay in touch with relatives and long-lost friends could be considered the baseball glove, while sharing your latest YouTube discovery or updating your friends on your spring break plans, would be the lacrosse stick.
I'd say, if we were able to find those connections in other products, and portray them that way to consumers, we'd have a pretty good way to expand the product's demographic to multiple generations.
