End of the love-in?

Thanks to Gill Walker of Evergreen for alerting me to this article, from The Australian, that is all about how the captivation of the media and marketers with Generation Y is running a bit thin as their spending power diminishes and their credit card bills grow.

It has been a phenomenal situation, but people are now sitting back and taking note and saying: OK, if you are into popular music or trying to attract them to a social networking website that is fine, but as for getting them to spend money, when it needs to be justified people are taking a few significantly higher in the 45 to 64 bracket than the 15 to 34 bracket.

If the lack of spending power was not bad the article goes on to talk about the difficulty of reaching and retaining contact with Generation Y.

I think part of the problem is that the gen Y groups are so fickle. The gen Y focused groups can do all they can to look after that target market to try to build the loyalty and the respect of the generation, but they get bitten back. I mean, we are talking about a very fickle, self-obsessed and fast-moving life stage in talking about the teenage (years) and middle 20s. So there is no loyalty, very little beyond themselves and their social networks.

The conclusion of the article – rightly so – is simple: “follow the money” and that does not lead you to Generation Y. Dick Stroud