Posted by WebMaster (128.112.122.11) on January 18, 2004 at 18:47:36:
In Reply to: Products appreciated by gen. X posted by Mariam on January 05, 2004 at 23:28:29:
Did you check our GenXer's page?
Here's how to market to Generation Xers:
http://boomersint.org/GenXmkt.htm
here's some info. on GenYers:
Calling All Teens
High-Tech Products for 12-18 Year-Olds
By Tim Bajarin
Special to ABCNEWS.com
Oct. 11 — I am not sure when it happened but sometime
in the last five years I became old and grew out of
touch with the young generation. At least that's
what my son tells me.
Now, this did not come from a lack of trying to keep
current.
I tried to stay up on the game market by buying him
the latest Nintendo, Playstation or what ever the
popular game system of the time was. I even got
myself a Game Boy so I could relate to him and his
friends.
I even tried Internet gaming when that took off in
order to keep abreast of the role of Net's impact on
the young gamers of the day. Finally, when MP3 players
came out, I admit, I bought one for myself so I could
see what all the fuss was about.
But it appears that this it was not enough to help me
stay young in spirit and keep up with the current trends
and culture of pop culture. In fact, now that most of
us in the computer industry are middle aged, it appears
many of us our not quite in tune with the young crowd
as we once were, although the fact that they represent
a very serious market for technology has not escaped us.
It's All About the Accessories
In recent talks with Sony, Apple, Hewlett-Packard, and
many other vendors in the PC and consumer electronics
market, it is clear that the teenage bracket represents
a highly sought-after buying group — one the companies
are starting to target in more aggressive ways.
For example, the new operating system for Microsoft's
Pocket PC includes the ability to display custom skins.
Skins, or the backgrounds of a PDA screen, are
translucent and tend to carry the corporate logo,
they can just as easily be changed to a picture of
Britney Spears, The Backstreet Boys or just about
any image that catches youth's fancy.
A similar movement is going on with some of the
cellular phone makers. They currently feature clip-on
face plates that lets users sport the logo or colors
of their favorite sports team. The next generation
phones will have backlit screens on them and will
also allow people to create custom "skins."
Consider that this next generation of cell phones
will also let customers play games on them and
a direct aim at the youth market emerges.
Another way to reach teens is through music.
While most MP3 players contain expensive,
solid-state media to record songs downloaded
off the Internet, Sony is now starting to push its
magneto-optical MD tapes for a similar purpose.
Although the new Sony MD recorders are a bit
pricey and are not actual MP3 players, they do
connect to a PC via a USB cable and can store
up to five hours of music on a single $2 tape.
Flash memory, used on almost all MP3 players,
costs between $1-2 dollars per megabyte while
an MD tape cost 1-2 cents per megabyte, offering
teens a much more cost effective way to download
and store a great deal of audio. Sony is about to
launch a big campaign aimed at the young shoppe
over the holidays.
And Microsoft's new Xbox game system is a clear
marketing ploy to cross over from the mainstream
PC market and into the youth-driven consumer
electronics arena.
Since the big players out there have recognized the
importance of the adolescent consumer, you can bet
that many more companies will gear their products
toward that demographic in an attempt to raise their
profit potential.
Tim Bajarin is a consultant and leading computer
industry analyst and futurist, covering the field of
personal computers and consumer technology.
He's based in Campbell, Calif.
http://boomersint.org/genyers.htm
: What products and services, the Generation X would likely to need or want to buy?