The Up & Coming Generation Laurel Kennedy, Principal, The Kennedy Organization What's next after Generation X? Generation Y, of course. Or perhaps you prefer "Millennials," "Echo Boomers," "Generation Tech," "gen.com," "Netizens," "Baby Boomlet," "Clickeratti," "Wired Generation" or other too-numerous-to-mention takes on the name.
No matter how you spell it, these Baby Boomer offspring represent a marketing juggernaut. The convergence of three trends: 1) a return to family values, 2) fertility drugs, and 3) large immigrant families, have shaped this generation (born 1982-2002) into a huge cohort, numbering 76 million at the close of 2000.
Power of the Purse Factor in the effects of additional immigration and births through the year 2002, and the Millennials may become the first 100-million-person generation in history. In dollar terms, this translates into direct spending power of roughly $600 billion per year, not to mention their influence over parental expenditures.
Looking at the age 13 to 17 segment alone, a 1998 TRU/ Statmats study assigned this subset group a burn rate of $80 per week per teen--$141 billion a year.
English: Picture of Simon Property Group's Headqua...
English: The logo of Simon Property Group.
The computer that Tim Berners-Lee used to invent t...It's no wonder that marketers view them as Generation Market Clout.
The trend holds for Canada as well, where 2.5 million tweens (age 9-13) control $1.8 billion Canadian, as reported in the "YTV Kid & Tween Report 2000, Wave 6." In addition to allowances and part-time work wages, Canadian tweens have very happy birthdays indeed, receiving $90 in cash on average.
Values and Attributes In their seminal work on Generation Y, Millennials Rising: The Next Great Generation, authors Neil Howe and William Strauss talk about a "good news revolution." Perhaps in response to the so-called "slacker" traits of their immediate predecessors, the Millennials on the whole can best be described as optimistic, upbeat, team players who follow the rules and believe in...