How Can Gen X Market to Gen Y and Z?

Businesses are facing some of the worst sales and profit numbers in the last decade. When the money just isn't coming in, how does a marketing team work to realign ad campaigns and marketing plans to pull in the multi-billion dollar Gen Y and Gen Z wallet?

We have cars that update Twitter and Facebook. Kids that know more about Twitter than history and a digital music library holding more volumes than the local public library. Generation X is faced with a constantly growing population of kids and young adults who are more media driven than any other previous generation. The newest generations are Y and Z, but X is running the marketing push and according to the sales predictions for many major companies, it is time X got into gear and chased down Generations Y and Z for a short, social media chat.

When to Focus on Y and Z and When to Leave Them to their Tweets

Not every business should focus marketing campaigns on Generations Y and Z. The common rule is to push to a generation if you have a product or service that generation is looking for. For instance, Depends Undergarments will probably not see much of a sales and profit increase or return on investment from a marketing plan created around Gen Y'ers and Z'ers. On the other hand, Zune can take the newest multi-media sources and use them for all they're worth because younger generations are listening to MPs not wearing Depends.

Don't Be a Poser - Know What Your Marketing Lingo Means

One of the worst decisions the Generation X marketer can make is sounding like a poser in marketing campaigns. A poser is someone who uses terminology out of context or without the "cool points" needed to appear to be part of a given generation. Just because a 13 year old says, the newest Techno CD is "beast" does not mean your Generation X marketing campaign involving a 25 year old dancing to techno is also "beast".

Putting All Your "Beast" Ideas to Play in the Most Connected Generation

Generation Y and Z are connected to everything all at the same time and they still find time to study, socialize and compete in extra-curricular activities. Most of their parents have no idea how they keep everything straight let alone how to market a product or service to them. When a generation is constantly connected, Generation X marketers need to do three important things:

Be connected.

Never make promises you can't keep.

Continue to grow.

Businesses pushed by Generation X marketers must contend with a newer, more mobile generation of buyers who are saving more, spending less, but still represent the largest open pool of money in the world. It may be a bit tricky, but Gen X marketers need to think about how they would talk to their own children about an important subject and market in a way that is completely opposite that angle.