Gen Xers and the Middle Child Syndrome

Every marketer knows that Millennials are a critical segment. They are highly coveted, highly researched and highly targeted. But really – enough about them. What about Generation X? Why are we (I mean they!) so often overlooked? Particularly when Generation X has paved the way for Millennials on so many fronts?

Pew Research Center has dubbed Generation X (those ranging in age from 34-49) the “neglected middle child,” the generation “stuck in the middle.” Contributing factors include:

• Gen Xers are “bookended by two much larger generations – the Baby Boomers ahead and the Millennials behind.” Gen Xers account for 60 million people, Boomers 75 million, and Millennials 70 million*.
• Because Gen X has a shorter span than others (only 16 years as opposed to two decades that other generations span), there are fewer of them, making them more easily forgotten about.
• Generation X has not received the media attention and sensationalism that Boomers and Millennials have – they are the “straight-line bridge between two noisy behemoths.”
• Gen Xers literally fall in the middle (between Boomers and Millennials) on a range of demographic, political, social and technological key measures.

But read on, financial services marketers – particularly those of you tasked with marketing to the affluent.

A recent MediaPost article reports that while total spending power still resides within the Boomer segment, Gen Xers ranked #1 for average household incomes and net worths.*

More specifically, the article indicates:

• About 6 million of the Gen Xers are truly affluent (they either live in households with household incomes of $250,000+ or their personal net worth is $1 million or more),

• The Gen Xers’ share of total estimated net worth dollars (29 percent) ranks #2 of all the generations (Boomers are in first place for this metric), and

• The Gen Xers’ share of total personal income dollars (31 percent) ranks #2 of all the generations (Boomers are in first place for this metric).

Bottom line: Generation X is a target-worthy segment. You may not have paid much attention to Gen Xers to date, but as the MediaPost article suggests, you can’t afford to ignore them any longer.

(Ok, so, not so secretly, I am a Gen Xer AND a middle child. There seems to be a theme here… )

*Based on The Bureau of the Census statistics.