by Cindy Hennessey
I went to my son’s high school open house. He's taking a marketing class, and I sat in on the presentation his teacher gave. The teacher, let’s call him Mr. M., was describing some of the projects he would be giving his students throughout the year. He rarely gave homework, he explained, opting instead to have students do hands-on projects during class. (I had just read a marketing plan my son and his team had written for a new product they’d created: an energy drink called VelociTea.)
Oh, and there was no textbook for the class, Mr. M. added, because Generation Y doesn’t take the time to read. (The term Generation Y, by the way, first appeared in an August 1993 Advertising Age editorial to describe those born between 1985 and 1995. Today it includes anyone born between 1976 and 2000.)
I thought about my 16-year-old and 13-year-old at home. True, they rarely sat down with a book or newspaper. Yet they constantly amazed me with their knowledge of the world and of how things work. They’re my kids, so I don’t look at them in terms of demographics or statistics. But I started wondering about what type of consumers and – if they become entrepreneurs, which is likely given the shrinking opportunities in corporate America – what type of marketers they’ll eventually be.
So I did a little online research about my kids’ generation, and here’s what I found out:
• At 70 million strong, Generation Y is the biggest demographic group to hit the American scene since the Baby Boomers. In the next decade, Gen Y will represent 41% of the U.S. population.
• Every generation is shaped by cultural and political events of its time. This group has been weaned on some rather nasty and transformative national traumas – including the O.J. and Monica scandals, the 1999 Columbine school shootings, and a presidential election that failed to pick a winner. And all this before September 11.
• In a 2000 survey of Gen Y buying habits, Cone/Roper found that 91% of teens valued companies and products that support good causes, and 89% of teens would be likely to switch brands to one associated with a good cause. In anecdotal follow-ups, Cone/Roper found comments like this from a 16-year-old in Charlotte, N.C., to be typical: “The idea that an airplane crashed into a 110-story tower and thousands of people were pretty much executed, that makes you set aside all the materialistic things and all the little selfish ‘whatevers’.” She said it made her want to “give back.” John Burnett, professor of marketing at the University of Denver’s Daniels College of Business, put it this way: “They are far more socially conscious than any generation since World War II.”
• Gen Y is also remarkably diverse – and noticeably tolerant. About one-third is minorities, primarily African-Americans and Hispanics. One in four lives in a single-parent home. Every high school student seems to know someone who’s gay. And none of these scenarios is a big deal.
• At the same time, traditional values and parental approval are important, more so than for Generation X before them.
• The most common characteristic of Gen Y-ers is that their awareness level is very high. Given their hours spent in front of TVs and computers, they’ve grown up on slick ads and commercial messages. As a result, they don’t trust advertising.
My son and I had a conversation recently about global warming. When I asked him about purchasing a laptop, he had definite and informed opinions about which one was best – and it wasn’t the most expensive one. My daughter shops at a consignment shop geared to teens, because she thinks it’s ridiculous (for me) to spend $60 on a new pair of jeans. My son’s marketing class is scheduled to go on a field trip to one of Buffalo’s largest malls. Mr. M. says they will come away with valuable knowledge about how stores market their wares, even down to the distinct and deliberate aromas that waft through each store as people shop.
I wonder how that knowledge will be applied?
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