GETTING INSIDE GEN Y
BY PAMELA PAUL
American Demographics, Sep 1, 2001
A chain e-mail has been spreading like wildfire among bewildered Baby Boomers. “Can
you believe this?” the subject heading reads. “Just in case you weren't feeling too old
today…” What follows are some facts about today's college freshman class. Among
them:



They do not remember the Cold War and have never feared nuclear war.
The expression “You sound like a broken record” means nothing to them.
There's no such thing as a busy signal or no answer at all.
Baby Boomers aren't the only ones struggling to get their collective minds around
Generation Y. Companies across the country are trying to understand this next big
consumer market: the 71 million children of Baby Boomers who are now beginning to
come of age.
Gen Y, also known as Echo Boomers, has been heralded as the next big generation, an
enormously powerful group that has the sheer numbers to transform every life stage it
enters — just as its parents generation did. Already, even before all the members of this
generation have reached adulthood, businesses in nearly every consumer spending
category are jockeying for a piece of this market. But with a generation so complex and
huge, how can a company communicate effectively with all its members? Will businesses
need to market differently to the youngest members of Gen Y than the oldest, considering
that this group spans 17 years?
After all, Gen Y's parents, the nation's 78 million Baby Boomers, have proved that the
umbrella definition of a generation doesn't always makes sense, says J. Walker Smith,
president of Yankelovich, a research firm based in Norwalk, Conn. In a report last year,
the company argued that the most effective way to reach Boomers was to separate them
into three segments. Yankelovich classified Boomers into three subgroups: Leading Edge
(those born between 1946 and 1950), Core (born between 1951 and 1959) and Trailing
Boomers (born between 1960 and 1964).
By studying birth patterns from the U.S. Census Bureau, American Demographics found
that Gen Y, too, can be looked at in terms of three distinct age groups. Gen Y is usually
defined as those born between the years 1977 and 1994; the youngest in this generation is
7 years old this year, the oldest 24. We found that 36 percent of this generation has
reached adulthood; this year they will be between the ages of 18 and 24. Another 34
percent are teens, currently 12- to 17-years-old; 30 percent are pre-pubescent “'tweens,”
ranging in age from 7 to 11 this year.
“Just like Baby Boomers, Gen Y is a very large generation, so particularly at different life
stages, it makes sense to look at them in terms of older and younger groups,” says Susan
Mitchell, demographer and author of American Generations . Adds Louis Pol,
demographer at the University of Omaha: “It's essential to look at the different formative
experiences within a generation — what they've experienced and what they've witnessed
growing up.”
Formative experiences are significant in that they help mold specific preferences and
beliefs — psychographic tendencies that marketers use in developing messages to target
varying groups of people. Yet, formative experiences and the resultant attitudes,
sensibilities, hot buttons and cultural reference points can vary for members at either end
of the generational spectrum. In carving up Baby Boomers into three subgroups in the
1990s, Yankelovich based the segments on how old Boomers were in 1969, which it
considered to be a watershed year in Boomer lore. Arguably, a comparably significant
year for Gen Y has not yet occurred — or if it has, historians have yet to put it in
perspective.
What made
1969 a
watershed
year??
But the pace of business has changed dramatically since the 1960s, and marketers are
especially eager to understand this next generation of consumers. In an attempt to predict
what the formative experiences and resulting psychographics may be for Gen Y,
American Demographics interviewed a dozen demographers, sociologists and marketing
experts about the cultural and historical events that have taken place so far. To help us
understand this huge generation, we asked this panel of experts to name some events that
have had enough impact to possibly become defining moments for this generation. While
this information is less than scientific, these opinions may provide businesses with insight
into creating more targeted marketing messages for this generation. According to the
experts, here are some recent events that have impacted Gen Y's lives today — events
that may shape the attitudes of this generation in the long run:
COLUMBINE
Although school violence actually decreased dramatically during the 1990s and the
percentage of high school students carrying a weapon dropped to 19 percent in 1997 from
26 percent in 1991, according to the Centers for Disease Control, the attention paid to
school violence has increased exponentially. In particular, the impact of the 1999
shootings at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colo., and the subsequent news
coverage is likely to affect today's youth in two ways: Gen Ys are not only more careful Is this true?
and watchful about their own personal safety, but they are also more wary of the news
media's interpretation of, or intrusion into, their personal sphere.
First, Columbine brought the issue of school safety and gun violence directly to families'
front doors. In a 2000 Newsweek poll of 509 parents of teens and 306 teens nationwide,
teens' top fear was violence in society: 59 percent of teens say they worry about it a lot.
Among parents, the poll showed that 55 percent worried about their teenagers' safety on
the street and 37 percent worried about their safety at school. Concern among college
students is also quite high. According to the spring 2001 Student Monitor report, based
on a national survey of 1,200 undergraduates, 19 percent of college seniors think violence
is the most important domestic issue; 26 percent of freshman agree, ranking violence —
alongside drugs — higher than any other issue, including AIDS and education.
Tim Coffey, CEO and Chairman of the Wonder Group, a Cincinnati-based youth
marketing firm, says that Columbine showed how fears have changed for this generation.
Whereas for Boomers and Gen Xers, threats came from beyond our shores in terms of
communism and nuclear annihilation, today it's more local. “There's more of a threat
from within. It's in my school, my house,” Coffey says. “And that has created a bit more
risk-averseness with kids. The size of the backyard, psychologically, is a lot smaller than
it was before. Yesterday's kids ventured from one yard to the next to play after dark.
They rarely do that anymore.”
Second, Columbine not only made kids more fearful within their communities, it's made
teens more mistrustful of the media. “I would say that even more important than the event
itself was the way in which it was handled,” says Michael Wood, vice president of the
Northbrook, Ill.-based market research firm, Teenage Research Unlimited (TRU). “It's
made teens today very skeptical of the news and has led them to really question the news.
I think they felt like the media exploited the situation and handled it as a media
opportunity.” In their 2000 report, “A Psychographic Analysis of Generation Y College
Students,” Marquette University advertising researchers Joyce Wolburg and Jim
Pokrywczynksi found Gen Ys to be alienated from and wary of the mainstream media, in
large part because they felt their views had been misrepresented on important issues. In a
2001 Northwestern Mutual poll of 2,001 college seniors, “Generation 2001,” conducted
by Harris Interactive, a mere 4 percent gave the the people running the press and media
an “A.”
MTV
How does
this
compare
with other
age groups.
Has this
been typical
of this age
group in the
past
Having recently celebrated its 20th anniversary, MTV is almost as old as Gen Y itself. For
most Gen Ys, MTV is as natural and ubiquitous as the Big Three Networks were for the
generations before them. After all, even most Gen Xers didn't have cable TV in their
households until they were in their early teens. Not only does this fundamentally change
the way this generation thinks about music (remember when it was about LPs and concert
tours?), according to demographer Susan Mitchell, it's created a way of thinking that
impacts many aspects of Gen Ys' daily lives.
In a spring 2001 Lifestyle and Media poll of 1,200 college students, MTV was by far the
favorite cable channel, with 39 percent of students calling it their top choice. The
influence of MTV on all kinds of media, especially those created by or targeted to this
younger demographic has been dramatic. Mitchell thinks that MTV and video games
have created a propensity toward a type of visual style that speaks specifically and
effectively to Gen Ys: loud graphics, rapid edits, moving cameras, etc. “That MTV style
of editing is impossible for adults to follow,” she says. “But I suspect that there's some
difference in today's kids' hard wiring now because they've had this rich, rapid visual
growing up.”
Is this
observation
generational
or cohort
Mitchell says the impact of MTV visuals extends beyond marketing and advertising
messages in the media — into the classroom and workplace. She cites as an example an
employer who told her he had to turn to a video game format for training purposes
because his new Gen Y employees didn't respond to a traditional training manual or
lecture method. Others think that the MTV video style leads to shorter attention spans,
stimulation overload, chronic boredom, and even attention deficit disorder. In Next:
Trends for the Near Future , Ira Matathia and Marian Salzman point out that for
Generation 2001, such “millennial afflictions” are widely thought to be “symptoms of an
Information Age in which kids are weaned on computers, consumer electronics and the
high-octane programming of MTV.”
Are these the
result of video
overload or
normal traits
of adolescents
CELEBRITY SCANDALS (MONICA, OJ, ETC.)
The 1990s were racked by major scandals that made national spectacles of formerly
unimpeachable heroic figures — an African American football hero/spokesman and the
U.S. president. According to William Strauss, co-author of Millennials Rising: The Next
Great Generation , these scandals have deeply influenced Gen Y values, which are
different from, and in many ways more conservative than, those of their Boomer parents.
While public opinion polls showed Boomers to be more tolerant of former President
Clinton's misbehavior, teenagers thought Clinton was a hypocrite who dishonored his
office, Strauss says. “That's the impact of the Clinton scandals. They liked the things he
said, but not how he upheld his own words. They were much more judgmental of Clinton
than the public at large.”
The net effect: extensive media coverage of celebrity scandals during the 1990s further
demystified celebrities as heroes, says Michael Wood of TRU. “Today's teens no longer
have an unquestioning admiration for public figures,” he says. “The scandals with
athletes and celebrities have made teens realize that though these people are leaders,
they're also very human. It's broken down the facade that existed between celebrities and
regular people, which I think makes them much more realistic about who they look up
to.” The Northwestern Mutual poll of college seniors proves the point. According to the
survey, 57 percent cited a parent as the person they admired and respected the most; an
additional 8 percent named a grandparent.
Wood sees the impact of celebrity scandals playing out in the long run in terms of an
increasing emphasis on privacy among today's youth. “I think the media coverage of
these celebrities' personal lives has made teens today much more conscious of their own
privacy and has heightened their concerns about protecting their information. They do not
like the idea of companies collecting information and knowing things about them.” This
may have started to play out already — at least in terms of online behavior. In the spring
2001 Lifestyle and Media poll, four out of 10 said they were extremely or very concerned
about the safety and security of transmitting personal information online; only 8 percent
were not at all concerned.
Factoid that
does not
demonstrate
the point
DIVERSITY
Today's kids live in a world where diversity prevails. Not only is society increasingly
multicultural, but kids today are used to a range of global viewpoints, an array of
nontraditional family types and different sexual alignments from an early age.
“Look at The Real World — there's always a gay teen on there,” says Wood. While in the
Gen X ‘80s, homophobia in high school was rampant, many high schools today have
lesbian and gay clubs. “A lesbian was named prom king in one high school this year,”
Wood says. “Then there was a big story about a high school football player who brought
his boyfriend to the prom.” Public opinion polls bear out this growing tolerance. In a June
2000 Medill News Service poll of 1,008 18- to 24-year-olds, 66 percent favored allowing
gays into the military and only 25 percent opposed the measure outright.
“I would say the single biggest influence on this generation has been the increasing
diversity of America,” says Yankelovich's J. Walker Smith. “It's changed their sense of
what they have permission to do, where they look for cultural styles, their whole sense of
possibility. Because it's not just ethnic and linguistic diversity — it's different household
types. It's a global mix and match of cultures. Marketers who don't speak that language
should go to their high school yearbook and flip through them page by page next to a
child's yearbook today to see the transformation.”
Gen Y attitudes reflect an interest in and acceptance of diversity in all areas of life — in
the private realm as well as in the public arena. Several major polls have shown young
people have a broader definition of what constitutes a family; they tend to be more
tolerant of cohabitation, single parenting and extended families. The spring 2001
Lifestyle and Media Monitor study reveals that half of today's college students believe we
will have a black president in the next 20 years and 58 percent think there will be a
female president.
Mixed
metaphor
and
irrelevant
factoid
combined
THE ELECTION CRISIS
The presidential election crisis of 2000 will not only go down in history, it is also likely
to influence the next generation of voters in several ways. William Strauss believes the
election will have a long-term impact on today's youth. “I think it's going to make them
vote more,” says Strauss. “They say they're going to vote more than Gen Xers. Some of
them are already starting to register.” Indeed, the spring 2001 Student Monitor study of
college students found that a majority has strong feelings about the need for political
reform.
Strauss sees Gen Y's reaction to the election crisis as illustrating generational differences.
“One teenager I know said to me, ‘This just goes to show what happens when two Baby
Boomers who took drugs when they were young run against each other in an election.’”
The 2001 Northwestern Mutual poll of college seniors found that 44 percent are very
concerned about the political leadership in this country. Compare this with other issues
that fall low on their radar, such as nuclear war at 19 percent, and terrorism at 16 percent.
Another
disconnected
factoid. How
do college
seniors
compare to
general
population.
In addition, a meager 3 percent gave the people running the election process an “A.” This
was the lowest rating among America's social and political institutions.
Before the election, Gen Ys seemed cynical about their impact on the political landscape.
In the Medill News Service poll, 68 percent of 18- to 24-year-olds said they had an
important but unheard voice. Yet the crisis may change their perception of the importance
of voting: only 53 percent agreed before the election that their vote would make a
difference. After the debacle, that view shifted dramatically. In the spring 2001 Monitor
report, 85 percent of college students said we need a uniform and consistent method to
count votes. And 81 percent agreed with the statement, “My vote matters.”
TALK SHOWS/REALITY TV
For Gen Y, anybody can be a star. We can all have our 15 minutes of fame. Everyone
deserves to have their say. According to New York-based market research firm, the Zandl
Group, “There's a sense that everyone can be a star. It's very populist. Talk shows, reality
TV and the Internet have created a mindset in which every voice gets an equal hearing.”
Where does this belief come from? According to TRU's Wood, in an Oprah-infused
culture, everyone's voice deserves to be heard. And with so many different points of view
out there, not only in the public arena as articulated in TV shows, but also on the Internet,
teens today are less likely to believe there's one right answer. Wood says the talk show
mentality has even affected the way in which today's teenagers learn. “What's changed
the whole classroom atmosphere are shows like Jerry Springer,” he explains. “They think
it's OK to be disruptive and to challenge what's being said. There's this ‘prove it to me’
mentality. And teachers and everyone in the school environment are struggling right now
with figuring out how to teach to that mentality.”
For young people, getting heard, having your say, and becoming well known are not only
easy, they seem natural. You can create your own Web site, make a movie with your own
webcam or digital camera; post your thoughts, pictures and writings online; even be on
television. Part of the draw of reality TV shows like The Real World, Survivor and
Temptation Island , is that “real people” can become stars. The Northwestern Mutual poll
found that college seniors' ideal careers centered around fame: 19 percent dreamed of
being a movie actor, 15 percent a professional athlete, and 13 percent president of the
United States.
Another result of the talk show/reality transformation of television programming (as well
as the convergence of TV, the Internet and the use of the remote control), is that for this
generation, TV has become a more interactive, rather than passive, experience. In their
psychographic portrait of Gen Y, advertising professors Joyce Wolburg and Jim
Pokrywczynksi describe today's 18- to 24-year-olds as being “active channel surfers”
who have “personalized technology as it developed.”
The internet is
a significant
tool for
organizing
divergent
opinions
GEN Y'S WOODSTOCK?
For Boomers, the war was in Vietnam, for Gen Y it's in Kosovo. The Clinton
impeachment replaces Watergate as the government debacle of the decade.
THE TOP TEN FORMATIVE
EXPERIENCES OF THE
BABY BOOMERS
1. Women in the workplace
2. Sexual revolutions of the Pill
and AIDS
3. Economic expansion of the
'60s and early '70s
4. The Space Race
5. Rock ‘n’ roll
6. The Vietnam War
7. The oil crisis of the '70s
8. The stock market boom and
bust of the '80s
9. Watergate
10. Disney
EVENTS THAT MADE THE BIGGEST
IMPRESSION ON THE HIGH SCHOOL CLASS
OF 2000
1. Columbine
2. War in Kosovo
3. Oklahoma City bombing
4. Princess Di's death
5. Clinton impeachment trial
6. OJ Simpson trial
7. Rodney King riots
8. Lewinsky scandal
9. Fall of Berlin Wall
10. McGwire-Sosa homer derby
Source: Class of 2000 Survey (1999). Virginia
Source: Yankelovich statewide poll of 655 members of class of 2000,
conducted for Neil Howe and William Strauss
VOICES OF THE ECHO BOOM THE FIRST WAVE: GEN Y ADULTS, AGES 18
TO 24

“My earliest memories of American history was the Challenger crash when
I was in second grade. And the 1984 Olympics with Mary Lou Retton.”

“I didn't start using the Internet until 11th or 12th grade. The VCR was the
most influential invention during my lifetime. Huge. Every day I tape
something, it's a part of my daily life.”
— Caroline McClowskey, 22, writer, Milton, Mass.

“I envy the activists of the ‘60s for having the ability to unify. My generation
looks out and sees a country mired in big problems and we don't know
where to begin. We don't have one thing to rally around like Vietnam or
segregation. So we don't have the same urge or impetus to coalesce as a
generation.”
“I remember the whole OJ Simpson thing. I thought the trial was very
frustrating-a lot of money and attention spent for no real reason. It was a
circus.”

Are people
different or
are their
cultural
references
just different
— Caitlin Casey, 20, Harvard junior, Washington, D.C.

“My first recollection of American history is the first Bush being
inaugurated. I don't remember Reagan in office and I don't remember
Challenger. I remember the Gulf War, but it didn't seem important at the
time; it didn't really affect America that much. I definitely remember the
L.A. riots though-that seemed kind of frightening-people in an uproar,
fighting in the streets.”

“When were CDs invented? I don't remember using records. I guess CDs
were the invention that had the biggest impact on me, probably more than
the Internet.”
— David Plattsmier, 18, high school senior, Fort Worth, Texas
THE SECOND WAVE: GEN Y TEENS, AGES 12 TO 17

“The Berlin Wall came down when I was only 6 years old, but I remember
the Gulf War pretty clearly. I was completely under the impression that we
were going to save the Kuwaitis. But I was annoyed because my parents
watched CNN every night and I just wanted to watch baseball.”

“I think the most important invention during my lifetime was the cell phone.
I just got one for Christmas. I got like 7,000 calls a day because I have the
easiest number to remember of all my friends. Everyone calls to find out
what's going on.”
— Tanner Rouse, 17, high school senior, Phoenixville, Pa.

“With my parents' generation, you had to save money because nobody
had money. But our generation always finds a way to spend money. Even
if we don't need something. Even if we don't have money to spend.”

“I loved The Phantom Menace. I saw the other Star Wars movies on video
but they weren't that good. Technologically, they just weren't there yet.”
— Bill Callahan, 16, high school junior, Huntingdon Valley, Pa.

“I wish I had been more aware of the Gulf War at the time. I've never been
around for a real war. Some people don't count the Gulf War as a real war,
but I do. I'm interested in what happens to your state of mind during
wartime. World War II and the Vietnam War totally fascinate me.”
Instant
Messaging
on cell
phone
DUH

“Kids are exposed to more adult things earlier. In the media, on the street,
everywhere. People aren't as secret anymore about what they do; they're
not as discreet. So kids today are much more aware of what's going on in
the world.”
— Peter Cohen, 15, high school sophomore, New York City
THE THIRD WAVE: GEN Y KIDS, AGES 7 TO 11

“I think the best invention during my lifetime was the scooter.”

“Clinton is the earliest president I can remember.”
— Chris Callahan, 10, fifth-grader, Huntington Valley, Pa.

“I don't remember Clinton. Bush is the president now.”

“My parents say to me, ‘You know, we didn't even have computers when
we were your age.’”
— Anna Orens, 8, third-grader, Fort Bragg, Calif.

“I have my own iMac. My dad says to me, ‘You're so lucky. We didn't have
iMacs when I was little.’ I don't use the Internet at home because my Dad
thinks I'm not old enough yet.”

“I don't know if they were invented when I was born or before, but I think
scooters are the best invention during my lifetime.”
— Samantha French, 7, third-grader, New York City
FORMATIVE EXPERIENCES SHAPING GENERATION Y TALKIN' 'BOUT MY
GENERATION WHAT WAS HAPPENING: GEN Y ADULTS BORN 1977-1983
AGE 18-24 GEN Y TEENS BORN 1984-1989 AGE 12-17 GEN Y KIDS BORN
1990-1994 AGE 7-11
WHEN THEY WERE BORN
1977-1983
1984-1989
1990-1994
Cold War
Pope John Paul
Lockerbie;
officially over;
II ordained;
Tiananmen
Warsaw Pact
Iranian
Square; Berlin
dissolved;
Around the World
revolution and
Wall falls; U.S.
Germany
hostage crisis;
invades Panama; reunited;
Soviets invade
Chernobyl
apartheid
Afghanistan
repealed
President Carter 1987 stock crash; Bush pardons
pardons
Bush/Quayle beat Iran-Contra
Vietnam draft
Dukakis/Bentsen; convicts;
In the States
dodgers; Three Oliver North
Clinton/Gore
Mile Island;
testifies and is
elected;
Reagan shot
convicted
World Trade
WHEN THEY WERE BORN
1977-1983
Culturally
Star Wars;
Saturday Night
Fever; Raiders
of the Lost Ark;
Grease; Animal
House; Roots
miniseries; Billy
Joel wins
Grammy;
Norman Mailer,
Tom Wolfe and
William Styron
best-sellers
Socially
Elvis, Chaplin,
Groucho Marx,
Norman
Rockwell and
John Lennon
die; Kramer vs.
Kramer;
Ordinary
People; 10%
unemployment;
affirmative
action affirmed;
Michael and
Jennifer most
popular names
CNN and MTV
In
launch; PacScience/Technology/Business
man; dawn of
1984-1989
1990-1994
Center
bombed;
Nixon dies;
L.A.
earthquake
Jurassic Park;
Home Alone
Rain Man; Back to
2; Dances
the Future;
with Wolves;
Beverly Hills Cop;
Pretty
Indiana Jones and
Woman;
the Last Crusade;
Nirvana hits
Fatal Attraction;
big and Kurt
Toni Morrison's
Cobain kills
Beloved;
himself; Dr.
Madonna's “Like a
Seuss dies;
Virgin” tour;
Woodstock 94
Thirtysomething
concert;
debuts
Friends
debuts
Jim Henson
dies; PeeWee Herman
arrested;
“Don't Ask;
U.S. first officially Don't Tell”
observes Martin policy
Luther King day; instituted;
life expectancy
Michael
passes 75 years; Jackson
homelessness
accused of
crisis; Andy
sexual
Warhol dies;
harassment;
Michael and
first black
Jessica most
woman
popular names
elected to
Senate;
Michael and
Ashley most
popular
names
Prozac debuts;
Gopher
CDs start to
Internet
outsell vinyl;
interface; CDs
WHEN THEY WERE BORN
WHEN THEY ENTERED
GRADE SCHOOL
1977-1983
AIDS; first IBM
PC;
NutraSweet;
artificial heart
implant; Mount
St. Helens
erupts;
Walkmans
introduced
1982-1988
1984-1989
1990-1994
Apple Mac with
outsell
mouse debuts;
cassettes;
Bell phone system tuberculosis
broken up
resurfaces;
human cells
cloned;
Microsoft
sales hit $1
billion
1989-1994
Around the World
Gorbachev
Falklands;
becomes
Grenada attack; president; Deng
Princess Grace Xiaoping resigns;
and Brezhnev Persian Gulf
die
invasion; Mandela
freed
In the States
Challenger
explodes; “Star
Wars” bill nixed;
Iran-Contra;
Bork borked
Bush inaugurated;
NAFTA approved;
Clinton accused
of sexual
harassment
Culturally
E.T.; Tootsie;
The Big Chill;
Ghostbusters;
Return of the
Jedi; Michael
Jackson's
“Thriller;” Cats
opens; The
Cosby Show
debuts;
Cabbage Patch
kids
Home Alone;
Batman; The Lion
King; Aladdin;
Lucille Ball, Frank
Capra, Fellini and
Greta Garbo die;
The Simpsons
debuts; Beanie
Babies
Socially
ERA fails; crack Robert Bly's Iron
1995-1999
Panama
Canal turned
over; bailout
of Mexico;
Rwanda
massacre;
Rabin
assassinated
Columbine
shooting;
Oklahoma
City bombing;
Clinton
impeached;
Unabomber
arrested
Titanic; The
Sixth Sense;
Toy Story;
Babe; Jerry
Garcia,
Sinatra and
Ella Fitzgerald
die; TV
ratings
system
debuts; Harry
Potter fever;
Pokémon;
Tamagochi
and
Teletubbies
WWW
WHEN THEY WERE BORN
1977-1983
hits U.S.; Band
Aid; Rock
Hudson dies;
Oprah
syndicated
nationwide;
Sally Ride
CDs introduced;
Microsoft
Windows
debuts; dawn of
In
desktop
Science/Technology/Business publishing; New
Coke; Nintendo
debuts; PC
Magazine
launches
WHEN THEY ENTERED
1989-1995
JUNIOR HIGH
Ayatollah
denounces
Salman
Rushdie;
Around the World
U.S.S.R.
collapses;
Thatcher
resigns; E.U.
formed
Exxon Valdez;
Clean Air Act;
In the States
OJ Simpson
arrest and trial
Sex, Lies, and
Videotape;
Forrest Gump;
Culturally
Philadelphia;
Schindler's List;
1984-1989
John; Anita Hill
accuses Clarence
Thomas; L.A.
riots; Woody-MiaSoon Yi triangle;
Jackie O dies
1990-1994
becomes
ubiquitous
with 150
million
Americans
online; Million
Man March;
Pope John
Paul II visits
U.S.; OJ
Simpson
acquitted;
welfare
reform
First WWW
server; Hubble
launched; Earth
summit in Rio;
home video
games sales
reach 40 million;
Apple II
discontinued;
Isaac Asimov dies
PlayStation
introduced;
Dolly the
sheep cloned;
Melissa virus;
Hale-Bopp
comet
1996-2001
2002-2006
Netanyahu
elected;
Madeleine
Albright first
female U.S.
secretary of state;
Hong Kong
returned to China;
The Euro debuts
Timothy McVeigh
sentenced to
death; Monica
Lewinsky scandal
Independence
Day; Mission:
Impossible; The
Ice Storm; The
Full Monty; Philip
WHEN THEY WERE BORN
1977-1983
1984-1989
1990-1994
Seinfeld and ER Roth, Rick Moody
debut; Howard and Frank
Cosell and
McCourt bestMickey Mantle sellers
die
R.D. Laing,
Bette Davis and
Americans go
Laurence Olivier
online in vast
die; flag burning
numbers;
banned;
Matthew Shepard
Backlash
Socially
and James Byrd
published; NCmurders; JFK Jr.
17 rating
dies; Ellen
debuts; Waco
DeGeneres
siege; River
comes out
Phoenix
overdoses
“Virtual reality”
debuts; White
Carl Sagan dies;
House Web site
mad cow disease
built; approval
breaks out; Mars
In
of first
exploration;
Science/Technology/Business genetically
Viagra approved;
engineered
John Glenn
food; Sega and
revisits space
Power Macs
debut
Source: American Demographics
BOOM, ECHO BOOM
In a certain way, Gen Ys may not be so different from their parents' generation after all.
BABY BOOMERS
YEAR BORN
CURRENT AGE
PERCENT OF
GROUP
ECHO BOOMERS
YEAR BORN
CURRENT AGE
PERCENT OF
LEADING
BOOMERS
1946-1950
52-55
CORE
BOOMERS
1951-1959
42-51
TRAILING
BOOMERS
1960-1964
37-41
23%
49%
28%
GEN Y ADULTS
1977-1983
18-24
36%
GEN Y TEENS
GEN Y KIDS
1984-1989
1990-1994
12-17
7-11
34%
30%
BABY BOOMERS
LEADING
BOOMERS
CORE
BOOMERS
TRAILING
BOOMERS
GROUP
Source: Yankelovich Monitor, U.S. Census Bureau, American Demographics
SHOW ME THE MONEY: Divvying Up the Gen Y Spending Pool THE FIRST
WAVE: GEN Y ADULTS, AGES 18 TO 24 (36% OF THE GENERATION)
The biggest distinction between leading Gen Ys and their Gen X predecessors is probably
their attitude toward money. Today's leading Gen Ys are optimistic about their earning
power. In a March 2001 Northwestern Mutual poll of college seniors, 73 percent said
they thought it very likely they would be able to afford the lifestyle they grew up in; and
21 percent said it was somewhat likely. They expect to have money because they want it: Is this a
surprise
Asked in the same poll to choose one thing that would improve their lives forever, most
chose “having more money” (26 percent).
At the same time, they like to spend. According to the Northwestern Mutual study, 37
percent currently own three or more credit cards, while only 13 percent claim none. The
fall 2000 Lifestyle & Media Student Monitor reports that overall, college students today
have a purchasing power of $105 billion, and that 6 out of 10 earn this money through a
part-time job. According to Student Monitor's spring 2001 report, the average monthly
discretionary spending of full-time undergraduate college students is $179; their average
annual personal earnings, $5,140.
THE SECOND WAVE: GEN Y TEENS, AGES 12 TO 17 (34% OF THE
GENERATION)
According to Teenage Research Unlimited (TRU), teens spent $155 billion in 2000-$2
billion more than they did in 1999-an increase of 1.3 percent, and the fourth annual
increase in a row. (Previous annual growth was in the 9 percent to 18 percent range.)
TRU estimates the average teenager's weekly spending at $84, $57 of which is their own
money. In large part, they are spending money on clothing: According to Harris
Interactive, 75 percent of girls' expenditure and 52 percent of boys' goes toward apparel.
Yet they also have longer-term plans: An astounding 18 percent own stocks or bonds. In
a study of 2,030 12- to 19-year-olds nationwide, TRU found that 30 percent of teens are
interested in getting their own credit card and of the 18- and 19-year-olds, 42 percent
already have cards in their own name. In the meantime, they use a variety of debit cards
and pre-loaded cards such as American Express's Cobalt Card.
THE THIRD WAVE: GEN Y KIDS, AGES 7 TO 11 (30% OF THE
GENERATION)
'Tweens may have even more spending power. According to the Wonder Group, today's
'tweens spend an average of $4.72 a week of their own money, typically from an
allowance. In addition, these 'tweens get a lot of money through cash gifts-mostly from
their grandparents. That amounts to $10 billion a year out-of-pocket-with either their own
allowances or with money acquired through gifts. In addition, there's the spending they
influence, estimated by the Wonder Group at $260 billion annually.
“This is the most influential youth segment,” says Dave Siegel, president of the Wonder
Group. “Unlike teens, they still have to rely on their power to influence their parents in
order to get the goods and services they want. And today's parents are different from
yesterday's. Instead of being the gatekeeper that puts off their kids' nagging, they've
become cooperative partners in this endeavor. We call them the ‘4 eyed, 4 legged
consumer.’ The 'tween and mom act as one consumer.”