Monday, August 22, 2005

It is not Monday as usual

It is Monday and marketers throughout the UK will be on their way to work with the vast majority totally unaware of sound of the generational gears grinding away as one age group of the population get a bit richer and another poorer. In the Sunday press some of them may have seen articles about a new report titled “Class of 2005” but only a handful would have thought it has any relevance to the world of marketing.

The report is called: The IPOD generation. For once the chance to create a silly name for a group of people who are not aged over 50. The IPOD generation refers to the sub-35 year olds. They are Insecure, Pressured, Over-taxed and Debt-ridden. IPOD, get it?

The report is published by a think tank called Reform and written by Professor Nick Bosanquet and Blair Gibbs. A not dissimilar report was written in the US by a research group called Demos about the same group of people only this time they were referred to as Generation Broke.

Most of the press picked up on one of the statements from the report: “The next half century is likely to see an unprecedented transfer of wealth from the younger to the older generation in the form of health and pension spending.”

Let’s repeat that: “The next half century is likely to see an unprecedented transfer of wealth from the younger to the older generation in the form of health and pension spending.”

Now if these findings don’t go to the very core of the way marketers view the future what will? Make Monday something more than the first day on the journey to Friday and read this report. Dick Stroud www.20plus30.com

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