Why Market to Generation X?


Generation X"--the 40 million or so people born between 1965 and 1976--understands it is living in a world of uncertainty where neither the govern¬ment nor private employers offer lifetime financial security. This is, however, the next generation of responsible adults, bright young people with families to protect and educate...and nearly 40 years until retirement.

Generation X was the backbone of Operation Iraqi Freedom and continues serving the US effort to bring peace to the Middle East. None had to be there. They chose to be there by becoming Marines, soldiers, sailors, airmen or Coast Guardsmen. For example, our son, Bill, 32, was finishing a four-year Marine Corps enlistment when September 11 changed his life plan. Completing Officer Candidate School and The Basic School would mean another four-year commitment-but one he gladly made. After receiving his commission, Bill was assigned to Okinawa, and recently returned from an 8-month deployment to Iraq.

So don't mistake Gen-Xers for Baby Boomers. Generation X detests labels--including the "Gen-X" tag it's had to live with--and unlike their Boomer parents, has no illusions about the future.

Gen-Xers are...

? Less status-conscious than their parents, Gen-Xers are not into show, they want re¬sults. Many Xers no longer view college as the only way to prepare for vocations lead¬ing to rewarding careers. These sharp young people are becoming a significant economic and social force.

? Boldly putting their own stamp on business. Launching hi-tech and other types of companies at a record clip, Gen-Xers are less tied down by old notions of bureaucracy, and they're ready to try out their own management styles. Yet, they view financial prosperity as a by-product of a well-rounded life, not the main event.

? Risk-takers. Surveys find adversity, challenges, and the high risk of failure, far from discouraging Gen-Xers, have produced a tough, even ruthless edge. Resilience, the willingness to abandon a losing project and try again, is fundamental.

? Motivated to make a difference. Gen-Xers are attracted to careers that compel interest and provide the challenge of competition. Thirty years ago, Peter Drucker in The Ef¬fective Executive, wrote: "Doing the right thing is more important than doing things right." Judging by the wave of successful Whiz Kids with neither formal business edu¬cation nor conventional management training, Drucker's message resonates.

? Interested in good personal relationships. Embracing racial and cultural diversity more genuinely and less self-consciously than any generation before them, Xers are also more likely to be tuned-in to personal relationships and do business with someone they like and believe to be competent than with someone claim¬ing to be an "expert."

? Delaying marriage and starting families. Maybe it's because they've seen so many Boomers end up in divorce court, the so-called challenge of being single in a couples-oriented world no longer squares with the demographics.

As a result, Xers also are:

? More stable when they do marry, Xers are about nesting and making a house a home. Today's newlyweds are typically more mature, well-established and have higher incomes than in the past.

? Better savers than their Boomer parents. In this they are more like their grandparents. The average Gen-X Moms and Dads start putting money away for college when their kids are 2½, while most Boomers waited until theirs were 7.

? Rediscovering traditional family values. Appalled by the moral relativism and situational ethics of their parents' generation--the Clintons were the last straw for many young Americans (Al Gore and John Kerry amusing poseurs) Xers similarly don't buy the notion that the government-as-nanny-state knows best. Their message: It doesn't take a village, stupid, it takes parents!

? Redefining the family-career challenge. Boomer women may have opened the door to the workplace, but their daughters are facing the family-career challenge in their own ways. "I have talked to women of all ages about balancing work and family life. What has surprised me the most is the difference in outlook between women my age, 27, and women just 10 years older," says Elizabeth McGuire, a graduate student at John Hopkins School of International Studies: "But most women I know who are in their 20's are dissatisfied with [family-career] alternatives. Concerned about infertility, many of us want to have children while we're young. And though many of the dual-career couples I know who have nannies are wonderful parents and have successful careers, it seems their relationships with each other have suffered. While others debate whether day care is harmful to children, we are more worried about avoiding the frenetic pace these families seem to keep."

In a word: Gen-Xers are unique. They don't do things or look at the world the way their parents did, and they have to be approached and worked with accordingly.

What This Means To You

Marketing and selling to Generation X is a work in progress. That means you can take what you do best and creatively wing it based on what you know about this unique mar¬ketplace. Declares motivational speaker and author, Sue A. Hershkowitz, CSP, "Look for ways to twist the familiar and success will beat a path to your door."

We say: Gen-Xers may not beat a path to your door, but you can show them the way.

Want More? Send questions and comments to [email protected].

Bill Willard has been writing high-impact marketing and sales training for over 30 years-but as Will Rogers put it: "Even if you're on the right track, you'll get run over if you just sit there." Through interactive, Web-based "Do-While-Learning?" programs, e-Newsletters and straight-talking articles, Bill helps small-business owners and independent professionals get the job done: profitably improving performance, helping grow your business, skipping expensive mistakes, making the journey to success faster, smoother, easier. And fun!