Generation X Marketing: Understanding the Next Wave of Decision Makers
One of the challenges in leading marketing is differentiating between media buzz and real information. We need to react appropriately to each. Increasingly, we’re hearing about GenX, Millenials, GenY and the like. From U.S. News and World Report to MSNBC to the Boston Globe and beyond, news reports and analyses are popping up that focus on Generation X, the next population surge to influence our culture, government and financial outlook.
In marketing, it is time to sit up and take notice. Generational marketing is gaining a foothold with U.S. and global corporations and the trickle down effect for regional and local companies will soon be here. But what, exactly, is generational marketing? To answer that, we must first understand how generations are created.
According to Chuck Underwood, author of The Generational Imperative:
“In the first 18 to 21 years of our lives, while we’re still in the fulltime classroom and not yet into adulthood, we’ll mold most of the core values and core beliefs that we’ll embrace for a lifetime. What we experience during those formative years, and what we are taught by parents and educators, will largely dictate our basic belief system for life. And those people our age, who experience the same times and teachings, will by-and-large share the same core values, and by doing so . . . become a “generation”. Whenever the times or teachings change significantly, as they have done regularly during our nation’s last century, a new generation is borne, with unique core values.”
Generation X is the Baby Boomer generation’s offspring. Typically in their mid-20’s to late-30’s, they are over 50 million strong and gaining momentum in affecting the products and services provided over the next decade and beyond. So what influenced them?
Divorce and working moms created “latchkey” kids out of many in this generation. This led to traits of independence, resilience and adaptability. At the same time, the rapid advance of technology trained Generation X to expect immediate results and receive constant ongoing feedback.
Watching parents get laid off and the public dissection of government and corporate scandals has led this generation to a healthy dose of skepticism of large companies, their employers and authority figures in general. Their commitment is to their work, not the company they work for.
Work-life balance is very important to Generation X after living with burned out workaholic parents. Considering careers as fluid, they are climbing the corporate lattice rather than ladder. They dislike authority and rigid work requirements and put their families first.
You may be thinking this is important only to those involved in consumer marketing. But consider a recent study that found today’s C-Suite is often occupied by those much younger than a generation ago:
“While executives in 1980 looked pretty much like those in previous decades, a dramatic shift in careers, and in executives themselves, began in the years after 1980. Today’s top managers of Fortune 100 companies are fundamentally different: They are younger, more of them are female, and fewer of them were educated at elite institutions.”*
Given what we know about Generation X, combined with the fact that many in our target market fit within this demographic, take into account the following guidelines
in all of your marketing:
DO go overboard to document that you’re giving it to them straight.
DO give it to them fast, using bulletpoints, short call outs, etc.
DO appeal to their desire to seek a reasonable work-life balance.
DO talk family with them—they value their home as a distinct refuge from the outside world.
DON’T use an inflated message or sales hype.
DON’T use the term “Generation X”—they view labels as an insult.
DON’T talk to them in terms of being part of a generation. X’ers don’t feel like a generation
No matter what generation you belong to, the best marketing approach speaks directly to the target market and their needs. You can never go wrong by conducting your marketing from your prospect’s point of view and keeping the focus on benefits.
*From a report by Peter Cappelli and Monika Hamori published in the Harvard Business Review that compared profiles of the top executives of Fortune 100 companies in 1980 with their 2001 counterparts.
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