1. 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.

2. “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 What made
of the generational spectrum. In carving up Baby Boomers into three subgroups in the 1969 a
watershed
1990s, Yankelovich based the segments on how old Boomers were in 1969, which it year??
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.
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

3. 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 How does
opportunity.” In their 2000 report, “A Psychographic Analysis of Generation Y College this
Students,” Marquette University advertising researchers Joyce Wolburg and Jim compare
Pokrywczynksi found Gen Ys to be alienated from and wary of the mainstream media, in with other
large part because they felt their views had been misrepresented on important issues. In a age groups.
2001 Northwestern Mutual poll of 2,001 college seniors, “Generation 2001,” conducted Has this
by Harris Interactive, a mere 4 percent gave the the people running the press and media been typical
an “A.” of this age
group in the
MTV 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
Is this
have created a propensity toward a type of visual style that speaks specifically and observation
effectively to Gen Ys: loud graphics, rapid edits, moving cameras, etc. “That MTV style generational
of editing is impossible for adults to follow,” she says. “But I suspect that there's some or cohort
difference in today's kids' hard wiring now because they've had this rich, rapid visual
growing up.”

4. 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 Are these the
because his new Gen Y employees didn't respond to a traditional training manual or result of video
lecture method. Others think that the MTV video style leads to shorter attention spans, overload or
normal traits
stimulation overload, chronic boredom, and even attention deficit disorder. In Next:
of adolescents
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.”
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
Factoid that
regular people, which I think makes them much more realistic about who they look up does not
to.” The Northwestern Mutual poll of college seniors proves the point. According to the demonstrate
survey, 57 percent cited a parent as the person they admired and respected the most; an the point
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.

5. 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 Mixed
the private realm as well as in the public arena. Several major polls have shown young metaphor
people have a broader definition of what constitutes a family; they tend to be more and
tolerant of cohabitation, single parenting and extended families. The spring 2001 irrelevant
factoid
Lifestyle and Media Monitor study reveals that half of today's college students believe we
combined
will have a black president in the next 20 years and 58 percent think there will be a
female president.
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.
Another
“One teenager I know said to me, ‘This just goes to show what happens when two Baby disconnected
Boomers who took drugs when they were young run against each other in an election.’” factoid. How
The 2001 Northwestern Mutual poll of college seniors found that 44 percent are very do college
concerned about the political leadership in this country. Compare this with other issues seniors
that fall low on their radar, such as nuclear war at 19 percent, and terrorism at 16 percent. compare to
general
population.

6. 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 The internet is
easy, they seem natural. You can create your own Web site, make a movie with your own a significant
webcam or digital camera; post your thoughts, pictures and writings online; even be on tool for
organizing
television. Part of the draw of reality TV shows like The Real World, Survivor and
divergent
Temptation Island , is that “real people” can become stars. The Northwestern Mutual poll opinions
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.”

7. 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 EVENTS THAT MADE THE BIGGEST
EXPERIENCES OF THE BABY IMPRESSION ON THE HIGH SCHOOL CLASS
BOOMERS OF 2000
Are people
1. Women in the workplace 1. Columbine
different or
2. Sexual revolutions of the Pill are their
2. War in Kosovo
and AIDS cultural
3. Economic expansion of the references
3. Oklahoma City bombing just different
'60s and early '70s
4. The Space Race 4. Princess Di's death
5. Rock ‘n’ roll 5. Clinton impeachment trial
6. The Vietnam War 6. OJ Simpson trial
7. The oil crisis of the '70s 7. Rodney King riots
8. The stock market boom and
8. Lewinsky scandal
bust of the '80s
9. Watergate 9. Fall of Berlin Wall
10. Disney 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.”

8. — 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.”
Instant
• “I think the most important invention during my lifetime was the cell phone. Messaging
I just got one for Christmas. I got like 7,000 calls a day because I have the on cell
easiest number to remember of all my friends. Everyone calls to find out phone
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 DUH
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.”

9. • “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
In the States President Carter 1987 stock crash; Bush pardons
pardons Bush/Quayle beat Iran-Contra
Vietnam draft Dukakis/Bentsen; convicts;
dodgers; Three Oliver North Clinton/Gore

10. WHEN THEY WERE BORN 1977-1983 1984-1989 1990-1994
elected; World
Trade Center
Mile Island; testifies and is bombed;
Reagan shot convicted Nixon dies;
L.A.
earthquake
Jurassic Park;
Star Wars; Home Alone
Rain Man; Back to
Saturday Night 2; Dances
the Future;
Fever; Raiders with Wolves;
Beverly Hills Cop;
of the Lost Ark; Pretty
Indiana Jones and
Grease; Animal Woman;
the Last Crusade;
House; Roots Nirvana hits
Fatal Attraction;
Culturally miniseries; Billy big and Kurt
Toni Morrison's
Joel wins Cobain kills
Beloved;
Grammy; himself; Dr.
Madonna's “Like a
Norman Mailer, Seuss dies;
Virgin” tour;
Tom Wolfe and Woodstock 94
Thirtysomething
William Styron concert;
debuts
best-sellers Friends
debuts
Jim Henson
dies; Pee-
Wee Herman
Elvis, Chaplin, arrested;
Groucho Marx, “Don't Ask;
Norman U.S. first officially Don't Tell”
Rockwell and observes Martin policy
John Lennon Luther King day; instituted;
die; Kramer vs. life expectancy Michael
Kramer; passes 75 years; Jackson
Socially Ordinary homelessness accused of
People; 10% crisis; Andy sexual
unemployment; Warhol dies; harassment;
affirmative Michael and first black
action affirmed; Jessica most woman
Michael and popular names elected to
Jennifer most Senate;
popular names Michael and
Ashley most
popular
names
In CNN and MTV Prozac debuts; Gopher
Science/Technology/Business launch; Pac- CDs start to Internet
man; dawn of outsell vinyl; Apple interface; CDs

11. WHEN THEY WERE BORN 1977-1983 1984-1989 1990-1994
AIDS; first IBM outsell
PC; cassettes;
NutraSweet; tuberculosis
artificial heart Mac with mouse resurfaces;
implant; Mount debuts; Bell phone human cells
St. Helens system broken up cloned;
erupts; Microsoft
Walkmans sales hit $1
introduced billion
WHEN THEY ENTERED
1982-1988 1989-1994 1995-1999
GRADE SCHOOL
Panama
Gorbachev
Canal turned
Falklands; becomes
over; bailout
Grenada attack; president; Deng
of Mexico;
Around the World Princess Grace Xiaoping resigns;
Rwanda
and Brezhnev Persian Gulf
massacre;
die invasion; Mandela
Rabin
freed
assassinated
Columbine
shooting;
Challenger Bush inaugurated;
Oklahoma
explodes; “Star NAFTA approved;
City bombing;
In the States Wars” bill nixed; Clinton accused of
Clinton
Iran-Contra; sexual
impeached;
Bork borked harassment
Unabomber
arrested
Titanic; The
Sixth Sense;
E.T.; Tootsie;
Toy Story;
The Big Chill;
Home Alone; Babe; Jerry
Ghostbusters;
Batman; The Lion Garcia,
Return of the
King; Aladdin; Sinatra and
Jedi; Michael
Lucille Ball, Frank Ella Fitzgerald
Jackson's
Culturally Capra, Fellini and die; TV ratings
“Thriller;” Cats
Greta Garbo die; system
opens; The
The Simpsons debuts; Harry
Cosby Show
debuts; Beanie Potter fever;
debuts;
Babies Pokémon;
Cabbage Patch
Tamagochi
kids
and
Teletubbies
Socially ERA fails; crack Robert Bly's Iron WWW
hits U.S.; Band John; Anita Hill becomes
Aid; Rock accuses Clarence ubiquitous

12. WHEN THEY WERE BORN 1977-1983 1984-1989 1990-1994
with 150
million
Americans
Hudson dies; online; Million
Thomas; L.A.
Oprah Man March;
riots; Woody-Mia-
syndicated Pope John
Soon Yi triangle;
nationwide; Paul II visits
Jackie O dies
Sally Ride U.S.; OJ
Simpson
acquitted;
welfare reform
CDs introduced; First WWW
Microsoft server; Hubble
PlayStation
Windows launched; Earth
introduced;
debuts; dawn of summit in Rio;
Dolly the
In desktop home video
sheep cloned;
Science/Technology/Business publishing; New games sales
Melissa virus;
Coke; Nintendo reach 40 million;
Hale-Bopp
debuts; PC Apple II
comet
Magazine discontinued;
launches Isaac Asimov dies
WHEN THEY ENTERED
1989-1995 1996-2001 2002-2006
JUNIOR HIGH
Ayatollah
Netanyahu
denounces
elected;
Salman
Madeleine Albright
Rushdie;
first female U.S.
Around the World U.S.S.R.
secretary of state;
collapses;
Hong Kong
Thatcher
returned to China;
resigns; E.U.
The Euro debuts
formed
Exxon Valdez; Timothy McVeigh
Clean Air Act; sentenced to
In the States
OJ Simpson death; Monica
arrest and trial Lewinsky scandal
Culturally Sex, Lies, and Independence
Videotape; Day; Mission:
Forrest Gump; Impossible; The
Philadelphia; Ice Storm; The
Schindler's List; Full Monty; Philip
Seinfeld and ER Roth, Rick Moody
debut; Howard and Frank
Cosell and McCourt best-
Mickey Mantle sellers

13. WHEN THEY WERE BORN 1977-1983 1984-1989 1990-1994
die
R.D. Laing,
Bette Davis and
Americans go
Laurence Olivier
online in vast
die; flag burning
numbers; Matthew
banned;
Shepard and
Backlash
Socially James Byrd
published;
murders; JFK Jr.
NC-17 rating
dies; Ellen
debuts; Waco
DeGeneres comes
siege; River
out
Phoenix
overdoses
“Virtual reality”
debuts; White Carl Sagan dies;
House Web site mad cow disease
built; approval of breaks out; Mars
In
first genetically exploration; Viagra
Science/Technology/Business
engineered approved; John
food; Sega and Glenn revisits
Power Macs space
debut
Source: American Demographics
BOOM, ECHO BOOM
In a certain way, Gen Ys may not be so different from their parents' generation after all.
LEADING CORE TRAILING
BABY BOOMERS
BOOMERS BOOMERS BOOMERS
YEAR BORN 1946-1950 1951-1959 1960-1964
CURRENT AGE 52-55 42-51 37-41
PERCENT OF
23% 49% 28%
GROUP
ECHO BOOMERS GEN Y ADULTS GEN Y TEENS GEN Y KIDS
YEAR BORN 1977-1983 1984-1989 1990-1994
CURRENT AGE 18-24 12-17 7-11
PERCENT OF
36% 34% 30%
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)

14. 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:
Asked in the same poll to choose one thing that would improve their lives forever, most Is this a
chose “having more money” (26 percent). surprise
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

15. become cooperative partners in this endeavor. We call them the ‘4 eyed, 4 legged
consumer.’ The 'tween and mom act as one consumer.”