Mind Your X's and Y's: Satisfying the 10 Cravings of a New Generation of Consumers [Hardcover]

Lisa Johnson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 29, 2006

Today's 18-to-40-year-olds make for a notoriously elusive group of consumers: they're savvy, sophisticated, and particular. They're all but immune to traditional advertising and have an instinctive sense of quality and fair pricing. Inundated with choices, they are drawn to brands that satisfy not just what they need, but what they crave. At the same time, these consumers are spending money like it's going out of style. Generation X has firmly refuted its slacker reputation and is nearing the height of its earning potential. Generation Y has more buying power than any previous generation of teens and twentysomethings. But how to win their attention and loyalty?

"In Mind Your X's and Y's," Lisa Johnson proves that the buying habits of 18-to-40-year-olds can be anticipated. Johnson, coauthor of "Don't Think Pink" and a leading marketing consultant, pinpoints the new rules of engagement for this Connected Generation. Based on her own and others' groundbreaking research, she looks into the heart of the Gen X and Y psyche to identify its ten core cravings -- for adventure, for high-concept design, for new families and social networks, and for personal storytelling, to name a few.

This revolutionary book is packed with fascinating case studies of established and breakaway brands from every major industry, interviews with dozens of maverick thinkers and hundreds of consumers, and numerous revealing statistics. Johnson analyzes the scope of each craving to determine how it drives specific buying behaviors and offers relevant data that illustrate its impact. M"ind Your X's and Y's" equips anyone who wants to reach these consumers -- brand managers and their advertising, online, creative, packaging, events, and promotions teams; small-business owners and their marketing staff; advertising agencies and specialists -- with the know-how to transform market research into profitable strategies.

Members of Generations X and Y are the most coveted and hard-to-reach consumers in the marketplace. "Mind Your X's and Y's" is a master class in how to create compelling brands for this Connected Generation.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

For those who want to know what the wired generations want to consume and experience, this book provides plenty of insights. CEO of marketing consultancy ReachWomen, Johnson clearly knows her topic, providing many examples of brands that have appealed to the desire for personalization, adventure, high concept design, loose family and social networks, spirituality and five other core "cravings" of 18- to 40-year-olds. Each chapter is also sprinkled with case studies to illustrate marketing success stories, ending in workbook sections with exercises that will help readers apply the advice in each chapter. In fact, readers would do well to read this book close to a computer or keep a pen at hand to jot down URLs. The volume of information is at once its strength and shortcoming: 10 chapters deliver on the subtitle's promise, but the information can be overwhelming. Fortunately, the author addresses that concern in the book's conclusion, where she outlines some ways to put new ideas to work within an organization. (Sept.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

As baby boomers move past their peak spending years and begin to move toward retirement, marketers are focusing their attention on a new generation of consumers. Generation X (1965-79) and Generation Y (1980-97) are technology-fluent individuals who have embraced cell phones, BlackBerries, e-mail, and text messaging, but they have also been so inundated with advertising that they are cynical and difficult to reach. Johnson, CEO and cofounder of the Reach Group, is an award-winning marketer and expert on Gen X & Y and female consumers. She notes that as Gen X & Y have come into dominance in the marketplace, immersed in highly networked, "always on" gadgets and technologies, they have emerged as the "Connected Generation." Johnson identifies 10 core "cravings" that drive these consumers to connect with and buy products, and she highlights the challenges in reaching this group with real-world success stories such as the Motorola Razr, Chipotle Mexican Grill, Target, and Red Bull Energy Drink. The result is effective as both a marketing workbook and a study of social trends. David Siegfried
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 288 pages
• Publisher: Free Press; annotated edition edition (August 29, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0743277503
• ISBN-13: 978-0743277501
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.3 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,133,400 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Lisa is the co-author of Don't Think Pink, author of Mind Your X's and Y's, and CEO of The Reach Group. A leading corporate trainer and brand consultant, Lisa has worked with top companies nationwide and has up-to-the-minute knowledge of market forces, trends and consumers' buying minds. Her marketing concepts have appeared in Harvard Business School's Working Knowledge, the New York Times magazine, The Chicago Tribune and on NPR's Marketplace. SoundViews named her first book, Don't Think Pink, one of the top marketing books of all time.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A book that hits you where you live and shows you step by step how to influence one of the biggest markets in the nation today, September 6, 2006

By 

Dave Lakhani (Boise, ID United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Mind Your X's and Y's: Satisfying the 10 Cravings of a New Generation of Consumers (Hardcover)

I loved this book, it is one of the best that I've read this year.

This is an important book because it gives you a clear, step by step roadmap for influencing and persuading one of the most fickle (and over marketed) consumer groups of our era, those consumers between 18 - 40.

The author goes into exacting detail about how this market consumes information and how you can create messages that resonate with them and stick. She also tells you what doesn't work (I cringed several times as I recognized mistakes that I made).

If you are in this age range you'll find this book one of the most refreshing you've ever read because it will describe you and how you consume information (I know it did for me) and it will help you make the transition between the kind of marketer you are today and one that can be even more effective.

This book is a guidebook, a roadmap and a manifesto. Grab this book today, even if your market it older, one of the things that the author didn't cover is how much more like 18 - 40 year olds older generations are becoming in their consumption of information and their resistance to advertising. Most of the information in this book applies to anyone who is active in today's world regardless of their age.

I wish I could give this book more than 5 stars.

Dave Lakhani
Author: Persuasion: The Art of Getting What You Want and The Power of an Hour: Business and Life Mastery in One Hour a Week

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Worth reading once, December 1, 2008

By 

F. Portell - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

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This review is from: Mind Your X's and Y's: Satisfying the 10 Cravings of a New Generation of Consumers (Hardcover)

I think the author makes some good points that explain how generation X and Y think and make decisions and relate to others. After about the first half of the book it doesn't seem to offer as much "meat" as the beginning of the book. Instead, in a strange way, the book goes on to discuss endless case studies with the basic theme of pampering your customer. For $7 it is worth reading once. After which you can donate it to the public library.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Amazing assessment of the X and Y generations, January 4, 2007

By 

Janine Warner "Janine Warner" (California) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Mind Your X's and Y's: Satisfying the 10 Cravings of a New Generation of Consumers (Hardcover)

If you need to understand how young people make purchasing decisions, this book will put you way ahead of the competition. Even my young, technically savvy friends have learned new things from reading this book.