Sport-SOS since 1994

Generation Y also known as Echo Boomers, Generation "Net," and the Millennium Generation. Born during a baby bulge that most demographers locate between 1979 and 1994, they are as young as five and as old as 20, with the largest slice still a decade away from adolescence.

At 60 million strong – more than three times the size of Generation X – they are the biggest group to hit the American scene since the 72 million baby boomers. They are the first generation, large enough to reach a critical mass, that will force marketers to move away from baby boomers as the end-all and be-all.

Generation Yer’s are an important emerging market. Raised by baby boomers and Generation Xers who encourage them to participate in family decisions, and exposed to media from all sides, these kids are becoming active and sophisticated consumers at an extremely young age. For example, last year, 6 to 11 year olds (as the kids market is generally defined), spent $25 billion of their own money and influenced another $187 billion of spending.

Gen Y is also remarkably diverse. About one-third minorities, predominantly African-Americans and Hispanics. They are noticeably tolerant. One in four teens lives in a single-parent home; every high school student seems to know someone who's gay. Neither is a big deal. Even so, traditional values and parental approval are important, more so than for Gen X before them.

Today’s teens strongly support cause-related marketing. Over half (55 percent) would switch brands and two-thirds (64 percent) would switch retailers to one associated with a good cause, when price and quality are equal.

Lots of Gen Y choices come from viral marketing — another name for peer-to-peer recommendations.

It is especially important to remember that Generation Y teens, are destined to be the largest teen population in U.S. history, currently there are some 31 million kids between the ages of 12 and 19 and projected to grow to 34 million by 2010.

Kids, 12- or 13-years-old, have a totally different life experience than did people who are now 23 or 24. Changes in family composition, elevated expectations, the accelerated delivery of information all have made this generation more self-reliant and more discriminating of messages directed at them.

Generation Y teens are coming of age during one of the hottest domestic economies in recent history. Many of their parents are earning more than ever, and they are sharing it with them. The kids are, in turn, spending like never before.

Many teenagers have about $90 a week to spend. This may be from their parents or earnings from a part-time job. Unlike their parents, they don’t have to worry about paying bills and mortgage payments. Their income is primarily disposable. Thus Generation Y forms a less homogeneous market than their parents did, with more ethnic and racial diversity. In fact, today, 15 to 24 year olds are the most racially mixed group America has ever spawned. They are 60 percent more likely to be non-white than their grandparents’ generation. And, as a result, they have a global perspective that earlier generations did not.

Unlike Generation X, there are few slackers in Generation Y. They score high on maturity and while their attitude is often edgy they are very optimistic. These kids are smart. They’re interactive. They are the Internet (Net) generation.

The Internet lets kids everywhere find out about even the most obscure trends as they emerge. As a result, ads that push a slogan and an image and a feeling don’t work. Marketing ads based on traditional positioning, image, and emotion simply don’t work. When communicating to this group, recognize that in an information economy smarts are the key to success.

Use technology as a way to stay connected, as a way to grow. The Internet fuels generation Y’s autonomy, where anyone with a search engine can become an instant expert, an instant artist, an instant shopper, with comparisons at their fingertips.

Generation Y have lives driven as much by changing household patterns and the presence of two working parents as by computers and access to information over the Internet. Three out of four have working mothers. Unlike previous generations that have had a sort of surly sense of entitlement, this generation doesn’t. Echo boomers are taking on increased family responsibilities in the present and nurturing high aspirations for the future.

Their most valued traits are individuality and uniqueness. Children, teens, young adults want to customize and personalize their image, dip into different streams of history, iconography, and symbolism, and craft an individual message that communicates individuality even as it confirms membership in a group, or groups.

One of the macro-trends for older Generation Yers, those 18 to 24, is neo-traditionalism. According to Kirsty Doig of Young Intelligence, a market research and trend-forecasting group in New York City, "these kids are fed up with the superficialities of life. They have not had a lot of stability in their lives. It’s a backlash, a return to tradition and ritual. And that includes marriage. Focused on finding the right one, they look for opportunities to meet others in values-oriented, friendship, and situations. They believe in volunteerism. Many return to or seek spiritual roots through organized religion."

As millennial kids move into maturity, what will life be like for them? Life in 2020 will be dynamic and challenging but, unlike older people who married for life and anticipated a job for life, most will have no difficulty in adapting to the daily social changes they will meet. The new lifestyle set to emerge in 2020 includes:

• Jobs for life are replaced by short-term contracts.
• One in five people will be self-employed.
• Old age will be postponed by active senior participation.
• The family of choice replaces the family for life.
• One in five Generation X women will choose to remain childless.
• First time mothers will often be in their late 40s.

As you see, sweeping changes are in the making. Be alert and start preparing your family and businesses to accommodate and embrace this bold new group known as Generation Y. After all, they are our future!

• Reach out to the next generation to keep your business thriving.
  

• Attract younger clientele to build teenage, Gen X and Gen Y client base.

• Increase your market share with younger generations.

• Target a younger demographic to keep your business healthy in the long term.

• Find and build relationships with next generation of clients.

• Embrace user-generated content to attract younger clients and to be part of their world.

• Reach out to multigenerational, local, regional, national and global youth sports community.

• Communicate direct to families, relatives, friends, schools, community organizations and the private sector.