Where Is Generation X?They may have grown up listening to Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit,” but a lot of things have changed since then. The Internet came along, for one.
Generation X has come of age. No longer the grungy, ripped-jeans kids Time magazine first described in 1990, Gen Xers are in their peak years of product and service consumption. And they are embracing electronic media more fervently than they were even 18 years ago.
According to US Census Bureau statistics, as of July 2007, 83.8 million people were in the 25-to-44-year-old Gen X age bracket. At approximately the same time, the Pew Internet & American Life Project estimated that a full 90% of Gen Xers used the Internet—only one percentage point less than Generation Y.
“Generation X fervently embraces electronic media,” according to the new eMarketer report, Generation X: Coming of Age Online: “Computers, PDAs and mobile phones are ingrained into all aspects of Generation Xers’ lives. They eagerly embrace new gadgets and applications as replacements for existing ones.”
Anderson Analytics places Gen Xers in the number two slot (right after the much-touted boomers) as the most important marketing demographic. Since most Xers are still earning full salaries, they have money to spend. According to Javelin Strategy and Research, Generation X’s total income was $3.67 trillion in 2007—and that figure is projected to grow to $4.2 trillion in 2017.
But there is a problem: Gen X presents challenges to marketers. Gen Xers’ media usage is fragmented. They embrace a wider range of lifestyles than previous generations. And weaned on MTV and cable television, they are largely immune to traditional advertising. Fortunately, after a discussion of Gen X new media usage, eMarketer’s Generation X: Coming of Age Online concludes: “By embracing the growing forms of pinpointed electronic media that Gen X reveres, marketers stand a greater chance of increasing their visibility among this elusive, hard-to-reach generation.”
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