The Aging Boomer Origins of Gen Y Attitudes and Behavior

Signs abound of the influences today’s middle age defined PCG is having on younger people like 22-year-old Generation Y’ member Bret whose comment to a post inspired this series.

Gen Y’ers have been described in consumer trends reports as more concerned than previous young generations about worklife quality than income, and as being more responsible, independent, and skeptical.

One Yankelovich poll found Gen Y’ers giving higher value than previous generations to the importance of volunteering or helping people. In adult development research, this attitude is more strongly tied to midlife, when people commonly begin thinking more about “giving back.”

Weaker brand loyalty is more evidence of today’s older PCG’s influence on younger consumers. Despite consumer power unrivaled by any preceding generation, Gen Y’ers are not as driven by the same kind of brand label consciousness as Generation X’ers were at the same point in time. Gen Y’ers seem more like people in midlife to whom brand labels often lose someting of their cache.

A Wall Street Journal article puzzled over sagging interest in designer labels: “The most pronounced ambivalence toward designer emblems came from consumers in their 40s and 50s – an indication that designer-brand loyalty diminishes with age.”

Consumers in the first half of life are strongly influenced by a need to make social statements. Designer labels are about making social statements. But interest in designer labels tends to weaken as people enter the second half of life, because of being less driven to make social statements in their buying behavior.

The revival of interest in spirituality in the 1990s is another indication of the PCG’s wide reaching influence on attitudes and behavior in all age groups. Over 50 million boomers entered middle age in that decade, reflecting a broad cultural shift toward a more nurturing, feminine ethos.

In sum, then, one cannot fully understand contemporary attitudes and behavior of younger consumers without connecting the dots between what they think and do and today’s middle age PCG.

Comments

[Cruninov]

Class site.
Your site has very much liked me.
Different work!!!

[Alextoss]

Hey All ! ! !
Want to spend your vacation to be remembered for long?
Tourism ...
help you carry out your wishes !