One brand, four generations: Why trust doesn't transfer

0:00Mari Considine: Trust is the thing that is less transferable than other things. So when we look at mediums, we look at what channels people are on, there may be more crossover, but really that trust piece, there's not as much crossover. That is pretty different per generation. Welcome to On Top of PR with Jason Mudd.

0:20Jason Mudd: Hello and welcome to On Top of PR. I'm your host, as always, Jason Mudd with Axia Public Relations. Today, we're talking about reaching four generations with one voice. Our special guest today is Mary Considine. She is the Chief Brand and Marketing Officer at Ascenda Integrated Health. She has spent her career thinking about how people communicate with brands, especially in healthcare. She's also a national speaker and educator. She's a speaker at PRSA Icon about what it really takes to reach four generations of patients who don't all communicate, search, or make healthcare decisions the same way.

0:56Jason Mudd: And that's why our topic today is reaching four generations in one voice. Mary, welcome to On Top of PR.

1:03Mari Considine: Thank you so much, Jason. I'm really excited to talk to you today. And I'm really excited to share what I'll be talking about at ICON, which is talking about the generations, which is certainly something that's very different, I think, for all of us.

1:15Jason Mudd: Yeah, I agree. I'm excited to have you on the show. I saw you were speaking at ICON, and so I wanted to have you on the show to talk about this exact topic of reaching four generations with one voice. I think it's a really important conversation that we have within the profession. For the record, we're recording this on October 8th. ICON is later this year or later this month. I'm not sure if our audience is going to hear this recording before or after or whatever it might be. But here we are providing this content for them as kind of a preview to your presentation, which I'm excited about doing.

1:46Jason Mudd: And as we talk through kind of what do we have here? I think we have five different things to consider as we're trying to reach four different generations, which I think is very helpful. Mary, let's start off. Let me ask you a question about one thing I always think about is we talk about generations, we stereotype generations and their attributes or their preferences. And I think there's some truth to that anecdotally. But I also think there's always exceptions when we're thinking about generations, right? Some of it is introverts and extroverts are going to behave differently. And you're going to see similar personality types among and within generations.

2:20Jason Mudd: But generations do have these tendencies that they tend to align with based on experiences and how they were raised and things like that. So I'm excited to dive into this a little bit. How do you think about kind of do you blend in like thinking about generations plus, you know, personality types simultaneously? Or does that get to trying to be too much all at once? What do you think?

2:46Mari Considine: Well, I think you can do a little bit of both. But when we talk about generations, we're really talking about patterns, right? We're not talking about kind of a hard and fast truth because we do know there's nuance. You know, there's even nuance within the generational set. So if you're looking at our millennial generation, right, there's the younger millennials, which are closer to that Gen Z age, all the way up to the older millennials, which are closer to the Gen X age, right? So there's going to be a lot of nuance even in between. mean. But when we look at patterns, we see things that come up over and over again as we're exploring the generations.

3:21Mari Considine: And that's really what I'll be talking about. Again, you know, you may have a baby boomer who's on TikTok, and you may have a Gen Zer who's reading a print publication. So again, it's not saying that these are hard and fast truths. It's definitely looking at patterns. but also we're thinking about things, other demographics and other things along the way. But really what I'm talking about is how we kind of make sure we're in the right place. We're using the right messenger. And really that trust piece is so important generationally. And that really doesn't cross too much. And so, you know, definitely excited to talk a little bit about that because we want to make sure we have the right messenger when we're communicating.

4:07Mari Considine: And so very important. And again, not a lot of cross-bridging between the generations when it comes to who everyone trusts.

4:14Jason Mudd: Yeah, that's really well said. I think we can find a baby boomer who loves TikTok. And at the same time, we can find somebody who's maybe a millennial or younger who can't stand AI or doesn't want to be on social media. So the stereotypes usually don't hold up. But I think there's obviously some thoughts and thinking this through properly when you're going to market. So one of the topping points I know we want to cover is one message doesn't mean one voice. And I like this, especially because there's often a pattern or a viewpoint of speaking with one voice, right? And so I want to dive into this a little bit more with you.

4:51Jason Mudd: Tell me more about your theme here of one message doesn't mean one voice.

4:56Mari Considine: Yeah. So let me look at what one voice might mean, right? None of this means we change our campaign. We change our core messaging. None of that, right? But look at a baby boomer, for example, right? They like more formal language. You know, for a baby boomer, and even myself, I'm a Gen Xer, I don't like informal language as much. But if you look at the younger generations, you know, they're going to tune that formal language out. So when we're talking about, you know, having different voices, it's really making sure your message is communicating both maybe with the formality it needs to, to reach one area, and certainly with a little bit of a less corporate tone for a younger generation.

5:37Mari Considine: I work in healthcare. That becomes very challenging because we don't want to be too informal when we're talking about, you know, very important topics, healthcare, healthcare decisions, things like that. But we do know that that real corporate formalized tone just does not connect with our Gen Z and younger audiences. And they're buying things. They're picking their own healthcare. They're old enough to be doing things on their own at this point. So we know we need to reach them in that way. And so when we look even at a millennial, they like that family-focused kind of communication. They want to hear, you know, a little bit more about family.

6:14Mari Considine: They want to hear a little bit more about, you know, even reviews and collaboration. You know, it's just a little nuanced. And so when we're looking at what those voices are, it's really making sure that we're hitting all of those high notes in the right places. So again, we don't want to use informal language in, you know, an ad that we're featuring a physician, for example. I mean, that would be a complete mismatch. But, you know, we might want to have something a little bit more informal if maybe we're on TikTok with a peer talking about either product service or in my case, healthcare.

6:50Jason Mudd: Yeah, I like that a lot. Thank Thank you for sharing that. I think we should do a little due diligence here and just set the table for our audience without making any assumptions. Let's talk through the four generations that you're thinking of and let's identify the name for them and the description for them just so everybody's on the same page today.

7:09Mari Considine: Yeah, absolutely. So we're looking at our Gen Z. They're typically a and again, there's nuance to this, but we're looking at them as ages 14 to 29. and they are a digital-first peer-influenced group. Next up would be our millennials, and they are aged 30 to 45. They are typically family managers, and they're very research-driven. We look at our Gen X, which is me, proud member of, 46 to 61, really efficiency-focused, and in many cases, caregiver-balancing. Oftentimes, this is now the sandwich generation, right? They're taking care of their children and also taking care of their adult parents. And then looking at our baby boomers, and we have to be careful not to call them boomers because in pop culture, that's now become a derogatory term somehow.

7:57Mari Considine: But our baby boomers are 62 to 80 and they're really provider trusting and they're really relationship driven.

8:06Jason Mudd: Yeah, thank you for that. I appreciate it. And I'm a proud Gen Xer and it's great to connect with you here. So I do sense it can be difficult, right? when you're reaching, especially if a healthcare provider, such a broad audience of four generations and at the same time trying to be accommodating to all, right? And inclusive of all. Do you ever find yourself, you know, kind of defaulting in a certain direction? Is there a certain recommendation that when you're reaching, trying to reach such a broad audience that you might want to lean into?

8:35Mari Considine: I think that's really the challenge here. And that's really what I'm talking about. It's we all do it. We default, right? So we use our core messaging on oftentimes who we think that particular target is. So, you know, for myself in healthcare, I think we tend to fall more on the older generation, but that is really a mistake because now our younger people are spenders. They have money. They have, and guess, again, in my case in healthcare, they have their own insurance. They're making their own decisions. So if we're missing the boat and only speaking and defaulting to that more formalized communication, you know, again, that, you know, very much focused on those older generations, we will tend to lose the younger set.

9:17Mari Considine: I think if we're looking at potentially a product or service that goes to a younger generation, we may default to that younger generation and be missing out on, again, the older generation, which isn't just, you know, the generation that might be interested in your product and service. They may be the purchaser. They may be the caregiver. They may be the person that's actually making that purchase. So oftentimes, you know, when we're looking at our audience, Again, we've become very focused on looking at things a certain way. And I think my whole idea is just really getting us thinking a little bit differently.

9:51Mari Considine: And when we're putting out a new campaign, launching a new product, launching a new program, really be thinking about, are we hitting every generation? Do we want to hit every generation? We may not, depending on what you're looking to do. But if you're looking to hit every generation, making sure that you're looking at those things that are very important to each one, who they trust, where they are, which is vastly different, right? You know, somebody who is on TikTok and gets a lot of their information from social media is in one area. But then, you know, if that's where you're focused is social, you're going to miss on maybe your older generations that are still using traditional search and more and more using AI.

10:33Mari Considine: So I think, you know, again, it's not about being everything to everyone and your target audience is everyone, right? That like nightmare scenario. That's not what we're looking to do. We're really just looking at the campaigns that we're running, the messaging that we're doing and making sure that we're tweaking it enough and we're in those spaces. So we are reaching everyone if appropriate.

10:54Jason Mudd: Yeah, you know, I was having a conversation with somebody I know who their target audience is the most affluent consumers in our country. And as we were talking, you know, He's very focused on making sure that he wanted to use earned media to improve his visibility among AI citations and references and referrals. And I kind of challenged him a little bit. And I said, well, you know, this audience that you're going after typically is older and maybe less likely to be inclined to trust AI. And, you know, I wanted to kind of hear if he's thought this through at all. And it was so funny because he had a great observation that I hadn't thought of yet, which is when his research shows these individuals will go on Google and they'll search Google for your reputation or for finding a solution, then they'll want to connect with somebody who has experience working with them.

11:49Jason Mudd: And he said, so what's happening, though, is they're using Google to perform their search. And this was very interesting to me. He said, but the first thing Google is serving them is an AI overview. And that individual may not realize that they're interacting in that moment with AI because they've built this habit of just trusting Google and searching on Google. And so I applauded him for being open to thinking that way and realizing that people are using AI even when they either don't want to or don't realize that they are. And that's a perfect example in this particular demographic that they could be adverse to using AI, but they're actually using it and maybe unbeknownst to themselves are not realizing that those particular results are AI.

12:31Mari Considine: So yeah, I think we do sometimes default to, you know, kind of what we think. And again, that's, you know, one of the things I talk about is that we have to listen. right? And so I was, this was probably about a year ago, I was in Nashville and I was giving a presentation, very similar to this one, really talking about how we're going to reach every generation. And so I provided some research data and it was where are they searching, right? And so we talked about our older generation, which is absolutely correct. They're still on Google. They're using reviews, more traditional search. When we look at the younger generation, the data of shows us social media is where they're searching.

13:07Mari Considine: They're using social search. And I had somebody raise their hand and really argue with me that that's not true. Gen Z is using AI. They want instant answers. They're using AI. And let me tell you, I had about 10 Gen Zers in that audience who got up and were like, absolutely not. I don't use AI. I don't like AI. It's not what I'm doing. And so it really is. I think the natural inclination is, you know, a generation like Gen Z wants things instant, right? They don't like to wait. They want that instant gratification. So they're going to go to chat GPT and AI. But the research is showing us they're really not.

13:44Mari Considine: And there's a lot of reasons they're not doing that. One, lack of trust. They really trust peers. They really trust people. They like that communication piece. The other part is the environment, sustainability. They're really very different than other generations. They're thinking broader than how we thought as, you know, Gen Xers when we were younger. And so when you put all of that together, it really makes sense to them, but might not make sense to us, right? Like, of course, they're using AI. Why would they use social search? Why would they be searching on social media? Well, I had one girl and I wish it was recorded.

14:21Mari Considine: I mean, she told me all about how she finds a provider on TikTok. And I mean, I think it was shocking for people to hear. But again, the research shows us that is where the younger generations are looking for information. And so when we're talking about trust, do we want to have the CEO on TikTok providing information? Probably not because they're not going to trust that even though we're on the right medium. We're going to more likely have someone that's more peer-driven, someone that they trust there. And we're not going to have the young person on that video that's on that landing page that Google's driving an older person to, we really want to have that more authority figure, perhaps a CEO, an expert, somebody who is, again, more formal.

15:06Mari Considine: So it really is about that nuance, but it's about listening. And I think oftentimes we really are making those assumptions without really listening, and it's really up to us to listen, and that's to listen to our own audience and get information from them, but also look at research data and what it's telling us about each generation, which is oftentimes very different than what we think it is.

15:27Jason Mudd: That's right. And, you know, when you think about psychology, right, and our own brains, right, we're designed to make sometimes assumptions based on experience so we can survive. It's a survivalist instinct that we have. And I think what you're also describing is, you know, you don't want to say this is always the case, but it could often be the case, right, or most of the time the case. there's always going to be exceptions and we have to be open to that as we think through this. So I appreciate you going through how trust looks different across generations. Was there anything else about that you want to cover before we talk more about where consumers find their information?

16:05Mari Considine: No. And just really that trust is the thing that is less transferable than other things. So when we look at mediums, we look at what channels people are on, there may be more crossover, but really that trust piece, there's not as much crossover. That is pretty different per generation. And again, we're talking about patterns, nothing hard, hard and fast truths here, but that's really the area to focus on. It's really making sure that right messenger is in place. Because again, that trust really doesn't bridge different generations.

16:35Jason Mudd: Do you want to give another example of how that might work?

16:37Mari Considine: Yeah. So, I mean, looking at an internal communications, you know, example is perfect, right? You work for a large organization and you're, you know, launching a new piece of technology. And the default is oftentimes having the CEO be the messenger of something big like that. And that may work really well for some of our older generations, because again, it's about authority. It's about hearing from the top. That's really kind of generational. I mean, when we were kind of starting out in our careers, there was a hierarchy. It just is very different now. It's not like that. And so for us, that's ingrained.

17:17Mari Considine: Oh, it's coming from the CEO. And even for, you know, me, if it's not coming from the CEO, I'm questioning, is this, is there a problem? Is it maybe not a good decision? Or, you know, for me, I need that trust piece. But for a younger generation, they don't want to hear from the CEO. They want to hear from a more peer audience, somebody who's closer to them, whether it's a peer in their department or someone who, again, is closer to who they are. And so from an internal comp standpoint, you can even think about this, making sure that you're reaching the audience that you want to reach in the right way with the right message.

17:51Jason Mudd: You're reminding me of a meeting I was part of just yesterday. And I was Mr. Mudd. And every time someone said my name and other people were Mr. So-and-so or President So-and-so or Director So-and-so, it was very formal. And for me, it was a little bit of a taking back to like, oh, I haven't experienced a meeting with this formality before, but it came from the top. The CEO was in the room and that's how he addressed everybody. And, you know, it was just a different experience for me than I've had in a while in a meeting like that where everybody was speaking that way and using more formal titles in their referencing.

18:31Jason Mudd: So, you know, that's not my normal natural communication style, but I wanted to blend in and be helpful and integrate. So I had to pivot or as we do so often in this PR career, improvise so much, you know, to make it work. So I like what you're saying there. And so we've hinted to this a little bit that consumers find solutions in a changing ecosystem right now. What are you seeing happening there in your line of work? And what is your recommendation to our audience?

19:00Mari Considine: Yeah, so I think, you know, search engines remain important, right? Even as social and AI are really shaping how people find information, we still have a large segment of our population using traditional search engines. But as you said, very often they're getting an AI response, right? So it is very different. Now we're living in this zero-click world. We may not even know that someone's heard about us through Google because they might not reach our website. But for younger audiences, you know, search increasingly starts on social media. And whether that is an intentional search or they've stumbled across us by their time on social, because we all know that they're on social media and on their phones much more often than many of us are.

19:43Mari Considine: And in health care, we know that nearly three in 10 adults are using AI for health care information monthly. So, you know, it's an important insight to consider, but certainly we know that one's going to continue to grow. When we're looking at some numbers that, let me see, I pulled up some numbers. And again, some of this is certainly healthcare, but people are blending that human, digital, and AI sources to find all of the information that they need, right? So in healthcare, 80 % are still turning to healthcare professionals, but 68 % are searching online. 73 % use three or more sources to make a decision.

20:21Mari Considine: And 52 % of adults under 30 are getting information from social media. And so that, again, look at the difference between, that's more than half are on social media. So if we're not on social media or we're not driving that audience to talk about us, then we're pretty much invisible. And so, again, when we think about the generations, we might start thinking about things differently. And so how are we positioning ourselves on social media? It's not just about putting a social ad out there anymore. It's really about who's talking about us, who is out there, who is, you know, where is our voice?

20:59Mari Considine: And so, again, having the right person, the right messenger on that right medium is just so important because any mismatch isn't going to work. Right. I mean, it's just not. So, again, that's why we're really looking at this from a generational lens. Because, again, we're not saying you're going to tweak everything you do. You're going to do it differently because we're talking generations. That's not what I'm saying at all. I'm saying thinking about things differently, taking what you are doing and listen. Listen to the insights, research, look at the generations. When you look at what you have planned, are you speaking to all the generations?

21:35Mari Considine: And then really localize, look at the generations and look at what your core message is. And can you tweak or should you tweak some of how you're saying it in a way that's going to reach a different generation? You might not need to, but in some ways you may. And then just layer that on top of what you're doing. So you're not really having to create a whole new campaign or do things differently. You're really just making sure that all of those pieces are there. So you are reaching everyone across the generation.

22:04Jason Mudd: I love that. Yeah, that's good advice. Leads us into your fourth point, which I'm going to ask you. So how do you do all the things you're talking about, but also being everywhere isn't the answer? Right.

22:16Mari Considine: And so you're really looking at who you're trying to reach, right? And so in many cases, we are trying to reach a particular target audience. And that may just be one to two generations. But so often we default on our old ways or we default on what we prefer. So if I am a Gen Xer and I'm like, oh, well, we need to be on TikTok, I may not be the right person to decide what our messaging should be on TikTok. Because again, it has to be native, right? It can't just be inauthentic, particularly if we're looking to reach those younger generations. It really has to have that authenticity. So it's not enough to just be on TikTok because we know we want to reach that generation.

22:55Mari Considine: It really is looking at who they trust, who that messenger is, what kind of language do they use and want to hear? Again, they're not going to want that more formal tone. They're going to want more informal language. That's what they're going to respond to. So really, it's just making sure we're considering those things and we're not defaulting on that kind of old scheduled way that we typically used to do things. You know, we never had four generations like this with the purchasing power that they have. Like, we're in a really different place right now. And so, you know, and we could even open up to Gen Y and even talk about the silent generation.

23:31Mari Considine: I mean, we really have a boatload of people here that we really could be catering to. Now, I always speak to the four core generations, but again, there's a lot of buying power within all four. And so if we're really looking at how do we reach them, we really need to be thinking about those things that are very specific to each generation. Again, not suggesting We ignore any other demographic information or anything else that we're looking at. It's just something to be cognizant of because, again, particularly with that trust, it's just not transferable like some other things are.

24:03Jason Mudd: Sure. That makes a lot of sense. You know, sometimes when I'm thinking about how we communicate about something, I'm thinking to myself at least less about the generations and more about how do we make this appeal both to the heart and the mind of the audience? because some people are motivated by logic and facts and other people are motivated by emotions and feelings. So you don't, at least when you don't know, when your audience isn't one-to-one and you need to think of a broad communication, I'm always thinking about this idea of how do I make this appeal logically to the audience without alienating the person who wants to think emotionally, but then also make it emotional enough to that person who prefers that without alienating the person who wants just logic.

24:50Jason Mudd: And I think there's a natural balance that you have to find between those audiences when you're not speaking one-to-one, but then you need to be able to pivot and improvise when you are speaking one-to-one, where you might have, again, a stereotype here, the CFO who's very logical and only wants to hear rational thoughts, right? And then you might have someone else who is more focused on the emotion and wants to be motivated by a good story or a good anecdote. And so I'm always looking at our content and thinking, okay, does this do a nice balance of both motivate the individual and tie them to an emotion that we want them to see and feel after they consume this piece of content?

25:31Jason Mudd: But also, is there the rational decision maker? You know, are we appealing to them as well? That feels hard enough. And then we're layering in these, you know, these, these tried and trued, you know, opinions or preferences of the generations within it.

25:46Mari Considine: Exactly. And that's exactly a great example. So that whole core message and what your goal is to really reach the head and the heart of the consumer, that would be the core message. And that would not change. It would just be looking at it in a way, how can you localize that to reach that generation? And then how do you layer that on top of the work that you've already planned? And that's essentially, you know, kind of how you can do it without having to pivot from your original plan, but just making sure that if you're trying to reach a multi-generation audience, that you're able to do that in a successful way.

26:20Jason Mudd: Right, right. So we want to talk about generational differences should change our implementation, but not fragment the brand. So how do we do that?

26:29Mari Considine: Yeah, I think that's, you know, that's going to be the challenge, right? But I think it's looking at each generation. So I'm going to use, I'm going to use a telehealth kind of example. So we offer telehealth services and telehealth services do reach all generations. So our Gen Z, who's a digital first native, they like telemedicine because they like to not have to go into an office. But then if we look at our older generation, they might have challenges getting out. They like the ease of having that telemedicine visit. So it really appeals to all generations. So our approach, you know, again, for Gen Z might be short form video, peer storytelling, making sure it's mobile first and immediate access to scheduling or support.

27:12Mari Considine: And we had talked about that earlier, you know, the Gen Z, they want immediate access. They don't want to wait. So if we're promoting something, we better make sure that they're going to have access to that immediately. So again, if we're looking to promote that telehealth, that might be how we do it to the Gen Z audience. Then we're moving to our millennial audience and we're looking more at that family centered care. They want practical resources and guidance, digital tools. So we might focus more on the actual digital tool than, you know, the easy access and you can get this immediately. And they like content that supports self and family, you know, so we might really address the dual roles as patient and caregiver if we're looking at a millennial audience to sell that telehealth service.

27:55Mari Considine: For Gen X, it's direct, no nonsense, right? It's clear steps, support that caregiving and life balance. And then if we're looking for the baby boomer generation, it might be physician-led. We're still going to talk about the digital tools, but we're really going to talk about the safety of those tools. We're going to make it physician-led, and we're going to make sure that it becomes familiar, and we're going to establish that trust a little differently than we might do for the younger set. But we're promoting the same product. We're promoting the same service. And again, we're going to use the same core messaging.

28:28Mari Considine: We're just going to tweak how we tell the story a little bit and where we're going to appear.

28:33Jason Mudd: Got it. Yeah. Well, Mary, this has been a great episode. I've really enjoyed kind of thinking through this with you, both intellectually as well as practically and how we can apply it to our own individual practices. We have been living in what is the Chinese proverb of may you live in interesting times for quite a while now, I think. And it makes this profession and the work that we do, in my opinion, very rewarding and yet simultaneously very challenging. And so I've really enjoyed this conversation with you, and I'm glad that we're able to connect today and talk through it a little bit. Wonderful.

29:08Jason Mudd: Did you have any closing thoughts that you wanted to share?

29:10Mari Considine: No, just that as you know, this is what we're talking about today. But as with everything else, next year, some of this may change. So again, we're really looking at a fast moving target when we're talking about the generations and how to reach them. And so it really is looking at that listen, make sure you're listening and make sure you're always looking at that research. So it's always relevant. Don't forget that piece because that's so important because things are changing rapidly.

29:34Jason Mudd: Right, exactly. Well, again, Mary, I really enjoyed having you on the show today. I'm looking forward to connecting with you in a couple of weeks at ICON in Orlando for the Public Relations Society of America. If our audience wants to get connected with you, is LinkedIn the best way to do that? And how do they find you on LinkedIn? Yep.

29:51Mari Considine: Mary Considine, M-A-R-I Considine on LinkedIn. Look forward to connecting with everyone.

29:57Jason Mudd: Yeah, absolutely. I'm looking forward to seeing you there as well. Okay, well, this has been another episode of On Top of PR. Thank you for tuning in and joining us today. Thank you to our supporters who have left us an online review. If you haven't done that yet, take a moment to go to ratethispodcast.com slash on top of PR and give us a review on your favorite platform so that we can attract even more audience and help you and others stay on top of PR.

30:49Jason Mudd: Thank you.