Autumn 2025 Buffalo Business 9
ARE
W
hen the series finale of M-A-S-H aired
on Feb. 28, 1983, it drew nearly 106
million viewers in the U.S. — a record
that holds to this day for a single episode of a
scripted television series.
From the 1960s through the 1980s, brands
could easily market to a wide swath of the baby
boomer generation by advertising during shared,
mass-culture moments like these on network TV,
radio and in print.
But with the development of cable TV, followed
by the internet, streaming and social media,
audiences have increasingly fragmented into
smaller groups, making it trickier for businesses
to market widely.
And although technology has introduced new
challenges for marketers, it also has provided new
opportunities, such as the ability to customize
messaging and more directly target the consumers
who are most likely to make a purchase across all
generations — from the boomers to Generation
Alpha.
Josh Seff, BS '07, has nearly 20 years of expe-
rience in marketing, including tenures at AOL,
Rakuten and the NBA. He currently serves as
senior product marketing manager at Amazon,
where he develops strategic product offerings
and marketing initiatives for the Professional
Seller Support service, ensuring both business
growth and seller success.
"I've seen the industry
shi from the traditional
approach of right person,
right message, right place
and time, which was a bit
more of a spray-and-pray
technique," he says. "Now,
with the introduction of
targeting technology we
have more powerful tools,
but things are also a bit
more complicated. So, for me as a marketer, I try to
think of the places where the different generations
exist and meet them where they are."
The evolution of marketing, from
baby boomers to Generation Alpha
Where
They
Meeting Consumers
By Kevin Manne
Seff
