A Singapore beverage company Out of the Box launched two complementary brands: Anything and Whatever. Anything is carbonated and comes in six flavors (Cola with Lemon, Apple, Fizz Up, Cloudy Lemon and Root Beer). Whatever is non-carbonated (Ice Lemon Tea, Peach Tea, Jasmine Green Tea, White Grape Tea, Apple Tea, Chrysanthemum Tea). Consumers don’t know which flavor they're getting until they take a sip. According to forums, teens immediately got the concept and love it.

The lesson: Use age demographics to your advantage. If your plan is to stay in the insurance game for 10 or 20 more years, you will have to sell to a generation you may not particularly understand.

Regardless, the next group of viable customers are the soda swilling, gum popping kids loitering outside your grocery store. Stay in the game by tweaking your product lines to better fit a twenty-something, thirty-something and so on.

Although generational marketing is no longer the rage, it still makes sense to modify your product lines to target specific age groups and to market to those individuals through different mediums. Diversifying your marketing methods will help you acquire a broader clientèle and make your business more recession proof.