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Mind Your X's and Y's: Satisfying the 10 Cravings of a New Generation of Consumers [NOOK Book]
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In Mind Your X's and Y's, Lisa Johnson proves that the buying habits of 18-to-40-year-olds can be anticipated. Johnson, coauthor of Don't Think Pink and a leading marketing consultant, pinpoints the new rules of engagement for this Connected Generation. Based on her own and others' groundbreaking research, she looks into the heart of the Gen X and Y psyche to identify its ten core cravings -- for adventure, for high-concept design, for new families and social networks, and for personal storytelling, to name a few.
This revolutionary book is packed with fascinating case studies of established and breakaway brands from every major industry, interviews with dozens of maverick thinkers and hundreds of consumers, and numerous revealing statistics. Johnson analyzes the scope of each craving to determine how it drives specific buying behaviors and offers relevant data that illustrate its impact. Mind Your X's and Y's equips anyone who wants to reach these consumers -- brand managers and their advertising, online, creative, packaging, events, and promotions teams; small-business owners and their marketing staff; advertising agencies and specialists -- with the know-how to transform market research into profitable strategies.
Members of Generations X and Y are the most coveted and hard-to-reach consumers in the marketplace. Mind Your X's and Y's is a master class in how to create compelling brands for this Connected Generation.
Both groups have grown up amid rapid technological growth, which has changed the way they think, and what and how they buy. Many companies are too dependent on conventional product development and marketing methodologies to understand how to reach these multitasking, constantly upgrading, "connected" generations.
According to Johnson, these two Gen groups - together comprised of consumers ages 9 to 41 - constitute a newfangled market with extremely diverse needs and motivations that is changing the rules of engagement between companies and consumers, creating what Johnson calls the "New Market Code."
The Essentials
To kick off the book, Johnson details the five essential criteria (experience, transparency, reinvention, connection and expression) of the New Market Code. The first criterion is experience: Today's consumers want to try new activities, explore, test personal limits, feel truly alive and shake up routines. Experience is currency; it sparks conversation and connection and helps people understand each other.
Transparency is the second factor. The new market is an anti-spin zone. Nothing slick, overpackaged or fake will work. Both companies and consumers need to get comfortable with full disclosure. Accountability is key.
Reinvention also plays a large role in the new market. Once something new or a new way to buy it clicks, that item or procedure will rule. The pace is lightning fast and the old market hierarchies will crumble.
Connection is the fourth criterion. In Johnson's new market, people blend their talents and share information to improve the experience for everyone. Consumers want to interact with brands and companies and make suggestions for the products they like. Connections equal power.
Lastly, in the new market, there's a desire to express oneself, to customize everything. The result can be raw or amateurish, as long as it's real; nonetheless, it's all about expressing individualism. The anything-is-possible credo that drives people to seek their fame on reality shows and Web sites rules.
The 10 Consumer Cravings
According to Johnson, marketers can win over Gen X and Gen Y if they approach the following 10 consumer cravings - and demands - of this demographic.
Why We Like This Book
Johnson devotes a highly detailed chapter to each of the 10 cravings, along with brief case studies that look at how companies have successfully responded to them. Each chapter contains a workbook section with questions and exercises on how to implement ways of meeting these cravings, an addition that facilitates both personal study and group discussions and gives marketers the understanding and tools they need to reach Gen X and Gen Y. Copyright © 2007 Soundview Executive Book Summaries
| 1 | Shine the spotlight : extreme personalization gives marketing a new face | 15 |
| 2 | Raise my pulse : adventure takes its place as the new social currency | 35 |
| 3 | Make loose connections : the new shape of "families" and social networks | 55 |
| 4 | Give me brand candy : everyday objects get sharp, delicious, intuitive design | 79 |
| 5 | Sift through the clutter : editors and filters gain new prominence | 101 |
| 6 | Keep it underground : the rejection of push advertising and the rising influence of peer-to-peer networks | 125 |
| 7 | Build it together : connected citizens explore their creative power and influence change | 151 |
| 8 | Bring it to life : everyday activities are orchestrated to deliver a dramatic sense of theater | 175 |
| 9 | Go inward : spiritual hunger and modern media find common ground | 195 |
| 10 | Give back : redefining volunteerism and the meaning of contribution | 217 |
| Conclusion : the new players you need to know | 239 |
Overview
Today's 18-to-40-year-olds make for a notoriously elusive group of consumers: they're savvy, sophisticated, and particular. They're all but immune to traditional advertising and have an instinctive sense of quality and fair pricing. Inundated with choices, they are drawn to brands that satisfy not just what they need, but what they crave. At the same time, these consumers are spending money like it's going out of style. Generation X has firmly refuted its slacker reputation and is nearing the height of its earning potential. Generation Y has more buying power than any previous generation of teens and twentysomethings. But how to win their attention and ...