Introduction
Oxford English Dictionary defined entertainment as an activity that keeps the audience interested or gives pleasure and enjoyment. It can be an idea or task, but is more likely to be one with hundreds of years of development, activities or events dedicated to keep the audience's attention. Different generations have distinct entertainment patterns. According to the dictionary, Baby Boomers are defined as people born during post war baby boom between 1943 and 1960. Another definition from the same dictionary; is that Millennials were people born in the early 1980’s to the mid 1990’s to early 2000’s, who are generally the children of Baby Boomers and Generation X. “Top4 Team” (2016) reported that more and more people are spending on movies, one of the most popular entertainment activities ever is watching movies. With the rapid development of digital technology, modern society has given consumers the option to choose how to view movies outside of going to the movie theatre. There are also studies that show some movies can have a positive effect on helping patients overcome the effects of psychological barriers, drama or comedy class movies can make people relaxed, and incentive based films about historical figures can inspire people. Many films contain information that can increase people's knowledge and cultural understanding, people of all ages can benefit from this form of entertainment as it is vast and varied.
A strong relationship between Baby Boomers and Millennials has been reported in literature. “Marianne” (2011) claimed that Baby Boomers have taken a different attitude and lifestyle to the previous generation. Born through 1946 and 1964 between 78 million different Americans enjoyed various activities, from aerobics and exercise, to quality time with their family, as well as their favorite rock album. In modern society, although the entertainment pursuits of Baby Boomers are not mainstream entertainment, the fashions of recreation are still relatively uncomplicated. “Bob” (2015) indicated that the Millennials not only relax by sending text messages, social media or playing video games, but also on the basis of investigating, more than half of the Millennials would rather spend time on exercising to relax. Without doubt, the rest of the Millennials to incline to use social media, watch movies, play video games or recreational activities. In order to investigate this issue, this essay will use the example of movies, comparing the similarities and differences of consumer behavior between Baby Boomers and Millennials.
A strong relationship between Baby Boomers and Millennials has been reported in literature. “Marianne” (2011) claimed that Baby Boomers have taken a different attitude and lifestyle to the previous generation. Born through 1946 and 1964 between 78 million different Americans enjoyed various activities, from aerobics and exercise, to quality time with their family, as well as their favorite rock album. In modern society, although the entertainment pursuits of Baby Boomers are not mainstream entertainment, the fashions of recreation are still relatively uncomplicated. “Bob” (2015) indicated that the Millennials not only relax by sending text messages, social media or playing video games, but also on the basis of investigating, more than half of the Millennials would rather spend time on exercising to relax. Without doubt, the rest of the Millennials to incline to use social media, watch movies, play video games or recreational activities. In order to investigate this issue, this essay will use the example of movies, comparing the similarities and differences of consumer behavior between Baby Boomers and Millennials.
One of the similarities between Baby Boomers and Millennials are they both spend time and money on watching movies. A number of researchers have implied that youngsters and the aged will adopt diverse manners to watch movies. For instance, part of Millennials will use YouTube to watch videos. “Todd” (2016) has noted that the majority of young people today are watching movies on YouTube. The reason might be it has a group of loyal users. They are sensitive to fashion trends, helping YouTube do content summary. Another example from the same article is; older Millennials spend more money at the movies. They prefer buying tickets at the cinema. Baby Boomers also like watching movies. A effective example of this view can be found in an article by “Robert” (2014) who claimed that Baby boomers grew up with movies. It seems that Baby Boomers are the first generation to be engaged with films. The development of the film was particularly rapid in the fifties and sixties. With the invention of cable TV, DVD and the Internet, the whole magical movie kingdom was at their fingertips.
Another resemblance of consumer behavior with movies between Baby Boomers and Millennials is; the two choose cinema’s or theaters as a place for amusement. It can be found from the article by “Meriah” (2016), according to the latest research, eliminating universal hypothesis that Millennials do not like movies, Millennials accounted for 29% of box office sales. Furthermore, there are more than one million Millennials are active movie loyal members. More data has been reported from the same article, 20 to 35-year-old consumers who come from the United States attend the cinema or theatre 6.2 times a year. The same as Baby Boomers, the findings of the current study are consistent with those of “Hollywood Branded” (2013) which found that; over the past few years, the classic film industry has grown steadily. Recent films have proven that through the right script and the right actor, a classic movie has great potential. Baby Boomers offer the most disposable income for watching films. Consequently, Baby Boomers and Millennials are keen consumers; watching movies in the cinema or theater.
Nevertheless, Baby Boomers and Millennials also have a large amount of differences.
Firstly, most of the Millennials choose watch videos at home on the laptop, but a number of Baby boomers select spend money on going to the cinema and theater. The study that confirms that Baby Boomers prefer go to the theater is associated with “Don” (2012) who; indicated that the spectators of the theater are generally older, and vast majority of theaters can be seen with something missing, which is young people, most of them are occupied by Baby Boomers. It’s equally evident from this report; that most of the Millennial’s will have financial responsibilities to deal with, which leads the Millennials to choose not to spend too much money in the theater or cinema. A further example of this viewpoint can be found in an article by “Matt” (2012); which claimed that Millennials did not care about classic movies, part of the youngsters considered that this is a pattern to indicate the “fashion” not the art of the films. Therefore, young people prefer to spend money on new things, such as being paid members of a movie club / service. According to a monthly survey on entertainment which stated by “Mary-Leigh” (2016), the study implied that only 43% of people whose age is between 18-33 were willing to spend money on cable or television, over half of Millennials spend money on subscription services and online videos.
Why do Millennials have this consumer behavior? Based on the module from “Carmen” (2008); revealed that In order to understand the mechanism behind the behavior of consumers, operate conditioning is very important, a person's consumer behavior will be based on the environment or the stimulus or repeated attempts and stimulus and permanent changes. For this reason, Millennials first try to choose to go to the cinema to watch a movie and thus have to be carefully dressed up, so extend the idea of watching movies online at home, and this has been found to be a perfect choice, constantly exciting, easier access to a broader range of entertainment, they can control the time, which led to most of Millennials choosing not to go to the cinema the film.
The second difference between Baby Boomers and Millennials is the type of movie they watch. According to a survey by “Steve” (2015), the age difference leads to the Baby Boomers and Millennials generation having different preferences for the film, comedy is a popular type for Millennials, and Baby Boomers prefer a highly affluent or dramatic movie. “John” (2004) claimed that Millennials are in a new media world, many research reports that Millennials choose consumer media, because Millennials know how to use new media and networks in a good way to satisfy their needs better than any previous generation, that is why most Millennials as consumers like to spend more time with new media, they think it is much more rewarding. “Jeremy” (2016) indicated that the age group of Millennials are very modernized, the things that Millennials want are relatively fresh and eye-catching, Baby Boomers are more likely to see some of the film types that are of their age. Horror films are the most unwanted for the generation of Baby Boomers. As “Ben and Dan” (2015) noted that Millennials; as a young consumer of the new media era, watching movies with advertising of products throughout the film, will promote Millennials consumer behavior. Therefore, some of the products which appear from the movie become the new target of young consumers.
In conclusion, Millennials or the generation of Baby boomers, movies do have had an effective impact on consumer behavior in recent years. An increasing number of consumers watch movies and film. Therefore, because of the diversity of the age, Millennials and Baby Boomers produce distinct consumer behavior and patterns. Although Millennials and Baby Boomers have a great many differences, there is still a great amount of common ground between these two groups. The patterns of consumer behavior between Millennials and Baby Boomers in regards entertainment are diverse and multifarious, these two generations are inseparable.
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