Echo growing louder

It is coming.  It is huge. It is inevitable.  It is the largest domestic demographic cohort ever.  And it is going to cause massive adjustments in the economy, society and politics.  The same way the boomers moved through as a wave their children, Gen-Y or echo boomers, are poised to break upon the scene.  They are more sophisticated technically, have been endlessly exposed to marketing, confident in themselves and more team oriented than their parents or even their Gen-X brothers and sisters.  The earliest of 45 million Gen X who grew up with HotWheels and Madonna, labeled by observers as over-educated, self-absorbed, overly medicated and overly cynical are turning 40 this year.  The more formidable Gen-Y - self-assured, assertive and self-empowered - will be 35% of the population a decade from now.

The sheer number of echo boomers, so dubbed because many of their parents are baby boomers, bears out their importance. More than 83 million people were born between 1977 and 1997, according to the National Center for Health Statistics. The number born between 1946 and 1964, called baby boomers, totaled about 75 million. Like adolescents and young adults of every generation, echo boomers influence the buying decisions of their peers. But their clout also extends to their parents, something even their older siblings may not have enjoyed.

This brief from the WSJ's Startup Journal 'Echo Boomers' Are Key To E-Tailers' Success discusses some of the ways their shopping and online experience will change and challenge retailing - brick and click.  This group responds to electronic communication, they seek out opinions of others, understand and access instant information routinely and they will mix and match products to satisfy their needs for style and convenience. 

According to a recent report form Internet Retailer's 2005 Conference:   

Echo Boomers are "an extremely powerful" force, representing 35% of the U.S. population and $180 billion in annual spending, said Doug Akin, managing partner of Mr. Youth, a marketing company that specializes in youth marketing.

The typical Echo Boomer is 18 years old and spends 14.8 hours per week on the web, doing everything from downloading music to chatting with friends to looking for deals, he said. "Online is where this consumer grew up," Akin said. "While many of you may have grown up riding bikes in the suburbs, these consumers are surfing the web. They`re growing up quicker, they`re much more marketing savvy."

In the course of doing some work for a start-up targeting boomers I've come across some research that suggests that many retail businesses never really understood how to market to large segments of the boomer group.  That had to effect their bottom line.  If businesses didn't get the boomers who shared many common characteristics that were easy to figure out, they are going to be in a world of trouble trying to figure out individualistic Gen-Y.  And it may not just be a drag on revenue but very well could threaten the viability of their business.  It will be interesting to watch the changes to marketing, advertising, selling and consumer behavior that Gen-Y consumers will stimulate.

Comments

[Yvonne DiVita]

This is good reporting. I welcome your insight on the Echo Boomers. I just discovered your blog and I'm so glad I did. You have a lot of great information here. And, I see we read many of the same books.

[john dmohowski]

Thank you, Yvonne.