Talking ‘Bout My Generation: Comparing Older & Younger Gen Yers’ Perception Toward Advertising Sheila RahelCourtney Jones Jennifer Azzolino

2Executive Summary

Generation Y consumers are an important target market for many products and services.  Being the children of the “Baby Boomers”, Generation Yers are a very large group of the population.  According to Business Week, these consumers have a “positive” and “optimistic outlook on life”, making them more approachable with advertising. 

The younger population of Gen Yers, those under the age of 29, have a more positive attitude toward advertising than those 29 years of age and older.  For this reason, managers should focus on this target group when designing and implementing advertising objectives.

It is important to maintain these positive outlooks in order to hold the attention of these consumers, and gain their loyalty.   

3Context Objective

Understand general attitudes and beliefs of Generation Y consumers toward advertising

Identify if a relationship exists between age and income comparative to attitudes of Gen Yers about advertising

Design A self-administered questionnaire was distributed to 500 recipients

Input data for analysis using SPSS

Content Non-students and working Gen Yers, born between 1978 and 1998, responded at a

rate of 53% which is a total of 266 returned

The Gen Yers were categorized into two age groups:

28 and younger

29 and older

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Nate is 29 years old.  He lives in Downtown San Francisco with his girlfriend of four years.  He is a student at San Francisco State, and enjoys surfing the internet in his spare time.  He recently purchased an iPad, and was the first of his friends to own one. 

He works part-time at Starbucks near the San Francisco Centre.  When he has a free afternoon, he searches the mall for the latest trends.  One of his favorite stores is Nordstrom, where he looks for a trendy tie that he saw earlier that day while watching Glee.  

Target Gen Yer

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Key Findings

Generation Y consumers under the age of 29 tend to have a more favorable outlook on advertising. The analysis shows that the specified respondents seem to agree that advertising is more effective when the beliefs are positive. Among the two age groups, the older Gen Yers disagreed with the younger Gen

Yers when it came to advertising playing a role in convincing consumers to buy unnecessary goods

Compared to older Gen Yers, the younger age group further acknowledges that advertising increases the standards of living

Although a majority of younger Gen Yers favor the belief that advertising results in better products, there is a slight shift towards a neutral view

The younger age group are more likely to say that most product advertising is accurate and truthful

The belief that advertising is a factor in producing a larger volume of goods is fairly neutral between both groups, however, the younger Gen Yers believe that the volume of goods produced increases with advertising

Younger Gen Yers tend to consider the standards of advertising to be more extreme today in contrast to 10 years ago.

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Key Findings (Continued)

There is no significant difference between Gen Yers that make less than $40,000 and those that make more than $40,000 in relation to their attitudes toward advertising. The attitudes were similar across all values of income, therefore income is not a significant factor.

2.2 2.45

2.35 2.52

3.18 3.34

3.18 3.24

3.44Most product advertising is truthful

Advertising in this country does not result in a larger volume of goods being produced

Today's standards of advertising are higher compared with ten years ago

Higher Income Gen Yers Income: Means

3.45

3.36 3.5

Advertising often persuades people to buy things they shouldn't buy

Advertising helps raise our standard of living

Advertising results in better products for the public

Lower Income Gen Yers

2.19 2.54

2.32 2.59

3.12 3.5

3.09 3.41

3.33Most product advertising is truthful

Advertising in this country does not result in a larger volume of goods being produced

Today's standards of advertising are higher compared with ten years ago

Older Gen YersAge: Means

3.65

3.31 3.63

Advertising often persuades people to buy things they shouldn't buy

Advertising helps raise our standard of living

Advertising results in better products for the public

Younger Gen Yers

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“Since Gen Yers are coming of age during the most consistently expansive economy in the last 30 years, of course they have a more positive, optimistic outlook on life, work, and the future than Xers did at their age.”

“You can count on it: Gen Yers will be curious not only about your culture, mission and goals; products, services and customers; compensation and benefits, but about the technology you use to support them.”

8Managerial Recommendations

Because the analysis shows that there is no significant difference between the different income groups of Gen Yers, management should focus on age

Advertisements should be direct and straightforward with few extras that could potentially distract from the main focus of the ad

Main focus of the advertisement should be placed on how the product will not only benefit the consumer but the general public as a whole

According to Business Week the younger Gen Yers “will continue to grow every single year for the next ten years”, and since they have more positive perceptions about advertising, this group should be the main focus

The standard of advertising has continuously increased; therefore, managers must be creative and innovative in their advertising designs in order to grasp the attention of Gen Yers

9Appendix 1A

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Appendix 1B

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Appendix 2

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Appendix 3

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Appendix 4