Do you know what Gen X is up to? Think again.

Posted by Tony

August 17, 2007

I found this little nugget of interesting information and thought I would share it. It is something that we have been trying to let our clients know about the upcoming class of consumers in the country.

Businesses who sell to Gen X and Gen Y may want to check out this sample from the Cassandra Report Vital Stats Issue. The lifestyle study identifies the spending patterns, online behavior and technology adoption of consumers ranging from 14 to 34 years of age based on a survey of 900 respondents that reflect America’s ethnic makeup.

In early 2007, 29 percent of respondents purchased a product that donated a portion of profits to a cause.
The faith-based music genre is expanding as Christian rock and musicians based in other faiths become popular. For example, Jewish-American reggae musician Matisyahu is the second most popular artist among the studies’ trendsetters.
Some of the hottest activities in 2007 include volunteer vacations, social sports clubs, self-publishing and board game leagues.
Young people are still creating virtual lives on social networking sites, such as Facebook and MySpace, but many maintain them because they fear being left “out of the loop” with friends. Cyber-bullying is also on the rise.
Machinima, or the creation of movies from video games, is being used effectively in marketing. Last year, Sony collaborated with a broadband provider to create a Machinima ad series to market their God of War video game.

So it’s a wild wild world out there. Your members are doing some things that your board may have never even heard of before (watching a little machinima before the lan party anyone?). These aren’t only the folks that you are trying to attract now - these are the members that you will have (if you are lucky) for the next 20 to 40 years.

I fall into this category and maybe I take it a little more seriously than I should. I think the folks I grew up with are intent on affecting change in their environment. We are the Live-Aid generation. We are the Farm-Aid generation. We are the Comic Relief generation. We were born into the 70’s and 80’s raised by parents from the 60’s. We buy into the power of the individual. We became part of the world community during the Gulf War - our first REAL war. We are the generation of multiracial students. More than 75% of the people in my immediate circle of friends are either non-white or multi-racial. This is who we are and how we grew up. Race is a competition of speed. Ethnic is a type of food. We are a generation from single parents, we are latchkey kids with divorced parents. We are strong. We are independent and we know what we want. We spend more time in front of the computer than the T.V. or sadly in front of a book. For all of our warts, pierced nipples, purple hair and funny clothes - we are your members and we are your future board members. Talk to us as we are - individuals, and not who you wish us to be.

So if you think you know Gen Y or Gen X - think again. We are far more complicated than you think. Get to know us. We have a lot to say and we aren’t shy about letting you know what we think.