Marketing to Generation X, America’s Top Spending Power

Target the “forgotten generation” for an edge over your competitors

Millennials and Baby Boomers may get all the attention – but if you’re not marketing to Generation X, you’re ignoring the most financially powerful generation in the country.

Generation X spends more money on housing, entertainment, clothing, and eating out than all other generations. They earn 31% of the total U.S. income even though they’re just 25% of the population. With unmatched spending power, you’d think that brands would be catering to this group – but instead, Generation X is being overlooked.

 

Who Is Generation X?

Born between the years 1965-1979, Generation X is 66 million strong and highly educated (35% have college degrees vs. 19% of Millennials). Now 40-54 years old, Gen X’ers are running companies and starting businesses. They’re also caring for aging parents and raising children, many of whom are returning home to live with mom and dad well into their 20s and 30s. With the highest level of disposable income, Gen X’ers are buying more products than any other generation. So why are they being ignored?

The Forgotten Generation

Sandwiched in the middle of the Baby Boomers and the Millennials, Gen X’ers came of age at a time between two major cultural shifts in America. The 1960s were an era of immense social change fueled greatly by the Boomers, who formed a strong generational identity around this spirit of revolution. The 2000s welcomed the digital onslaught and the internetization of our lives, and Millennials were the first to grow up empowered by this brave new online world. The hyped-up battle between Boomers vs. Millennials is keen fodder on social media, where each derides the other for destroying the entire known universe.

Shrugging it off with a laissez-faire cynicism is Generation X. Caught between the analog and digital worlds, these ignored and neglected consumers are the slackers, the latchkey kids, the disaffected youth of the 80s and 90s. If you can successfully market to Generation X, you’ll tap into a wealth of attention that everyone else is forgetting.

Don’t overlook Gen X

In addition to their robust buying power, Generation X’ers have numerous unique characteristics that the group highly attractive to marketers:

• Generation X has major influence. With powerful positions at home and on the job, they are influencing purchase decisions at corporations, Millennials in the office, and Boomer parents who rely on them for support.

• Generation X has the highest brand loyalty – but you have to earn it. Get them in the door, give them a great experience, and they’ll return again and again.

• Generation X is upsizing. 18% of Americans now live in multigenerational homes, most of them headed by Generation X. While Millennials and Boomers are downsizing, many Gen X’ers are buying larger homes to accommodate their adult children and parents.

• Generation X uses traditional and social media. Your marketing messages can reach them in both places. Facebook is a favorite, with 95% of Gen X’ers on the social site.

• Generation X is nostalgic. Stir their emotions easily with a nod to 80s or 90s style in your marketing message.

• Generation X craves marketing attention. 54% of them feel overlooked by brands; give them attention and you’ll alleviate this frustration. 

How to Better Serve Generation X’ers in Your Store

• Offer promotions for loyalty. Given their affinity for supporting brands they like, your showroom or store should be thinking about ways to reward Generation X’ers for spending a certain amount of money with you.

• Emphasize quality and longevity of products. Emphasizing how products can transition as their lives eventually changes adds value and justifies an investment.

• Promote the benefits of smart furniture. Generation X’ers need furniture that will adapt to their changing lifestyles: kids growing up, larger home purchases or in-laws moving in. Adaptable, multifunctional or technologically integrated furniture — what we call smart — fits Generation X’ers’ lifestyles today and for the future.

• Shorten the sales cycle. Offering Generation X’ers flexible financing options with generous no interest periods and lower interest rates can keep them coming back for more.

• Utilize retargeting ads. These are the ads that follow you around online after you visit a website. When you customize the ads to show Generation X items they really want, you’ll get them back into your store to buy more.

Master Marketing to Generation X with Furniture Branding

Discover how you can tap into the purchasing power of Generation X with a customized marketing plan from Furniture Branding. Please contact our team of marketing experts online or by calling 818.714.2484.