Gen Xers and Marketing

I was reading through this article about Gen Xers, and I found this a bit interesting..

"They desire to control their own destinies and their own experiences. You can see this in the incessant advertising aimed at ’lifestyle" choices. These ads attempt to sell not a particular product or service, but the experience consumers might have using a particular product or service. Products and services are now being sold as lifestyle solutions by companies that understand the deeply rooted desire of these new consumers to control what kind of lives they have".

- Greenburg, P 2006, Gen-Xers want more collaboration with Corporations, CIO: IT Organisation: Staffing, viewed 5 August 2008,
http://www.cio.com/article/17907/Gen_X_ers_Want_More_Collaboration_With_Corporations

I found this to pretty much sum up a lot of what we found in our research: Gen Xers are the so-called creators of "Me, Inc"; they have to feel a strong sense of individualism and prefer products that either allow them to gain satisfaction from use, or allow them to control some aspect of their life so there is a balance between work/family life - one of their main values.
It's interesting how companies have responded to such values of generational groups; they're now actually considered and promoted as "lifestyle solutions". And Gen Xers will most likely buy them!!

I also read in the article about how a large percentage of those within the generation actually research the products they're after to a high degree before considering a purchase -- might be something we might have to consider when moving onto concept generation -- the products will have to really satisfy these customers because they know what product they want, what they want it to do and what the results should be.