Marketing to the X and Y Generation
If you can’t understand why some of the potential customers you are trying to reach don’t seem to be fascinated with your sales talk, your touchy, feely ad, or your one-look-fits-all brochure, your bag of tricks may just be too boring or relevant to them. What works for the boomer generation, or most of management over fifty, just doesn’t for the largest consumer group in our history, the Y Generation, nor those late-twenties through early forty year olds known as the X Generation.
Even if school-aged young people, college students, and the young execs who are often supervising their much more experienced seniors are not your market, they will be within the decade, when they are shopping for their first homes, and their first mutual funds. Their buying habits for toys, clothes, games, and technology will follow them into young adulthood, and they believe they can have anything they want. Currently, teens (13-19) spend $94.7 billion annually and young adults (20-21) spend $61.2 billion. Don’t assume it is the parents making the buying decisions and flipping out the credit cards. Out of today’s Y population, 37 percent of teens and 7 percent of young adults are relying mostly on jobs for their income. This is the generation of the racially diverse, single-parent home with three in every four working mothers. They are ready to work for what they want, especially when the result offers immediate gratification and value.
Marketing strategies for both the Y and X Generations have to bring the messages to places they congregate, both offline and online. They might catch your television spot, but only if it is humorous, ironic, or popular with their friends and totally void of heavy commercialism. You will have a better chance at getting their attention at the Tides game, on the ATM machine, or at the 5K run.
Most of the biggest brands on the market that have been around for years are getting a mere yawn from these generations. Pepsi Company, The Gap, Nike, and even Levi Strauss & Co. are going to battle with newcomers selected by the Y Generation. Of course, this began way before today’s college students started keeping the tags off their new clothes with names their parents couldn’t even pronounce. Many boomers’ brands had already flopped with the Gen X who grew up without any heroes and interpreted their Watergate, Three Mile Island, massive layoff world alone on the tube while their parents pursued their careers. Not trusting the commercials much less the brands, they cynically responded to key messages with “who cares if Michael Jackson wore the jeans. J.C. Penney & Co. understood this consumer when it gave its Arizona Jeans brand the tagline, "Just show me the jeans."
Most of us in business can not survive without either of these generations, and the more that I have gotten to know them, I can’t imagine why we should not totally embrace the marketing strategies which they want us to use.
Just is important as marketing to these generations to buy products and services is the recruitment marketing so necessary to replace retiring older workers and snag the best employees in healthy, competitive markets. It’s a misconception that Gen-Xers don’t want security. More varied job experience equals more security. The more marketable they are, the more secure they feel. Be sure your job descriptions allow for challenging work, special projects and personal development and that you express these messages in your advertising and interviews. You also will not impress them if you talk too much about work hours and too little about the value of the results, regardless of the hours.
You don’t have to prod a Generation Y employee to talk about their experience and skills. They expect to work faster and better than your other employees. Whereas other generations might shy away from asking how their performance will be evaluated, The Gen Y college grad wants to know he will be coached all the way and get instant feedback. If he can’t apply for a position online, receive e-mail feedback, and have an interview a couple of days later, he will think you are not doing your job. Learn to appreciate this generation’s enthusiasm, candor, and needs and you will receive excellent performance.
Know that generational demographics should be only one aspect of your market analysis as so much of our buying habits are the result of our lifelong personal experiences, behaviors, and values. Most of us cross generation descriptors depending on these factors. However, it is worth your time to review your marketing strategies in light of Gen X and Gen Y. Just as MTV rejuvenated its markets by switching from celebrity lifestyles to practical information on decorating a room, adapting your brand and the marketing strategies for these generations may bring the results you are looking for in your business.