

Why Gen Y won’t buy what you’re selling - nvr219
http://xyzuniversity.com/2012/10/why-gen-y-wont-buy-what-youre-selling/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=why-gen-y-wont-buy-what-youre-selling

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zoidb
Maybe Gen Y are not the best consumers right now because they are over their
head in student debt and the economy sucks :(

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385668
Exactly, gen Y isn't choosing not to buy cars primarily out of concern for the
environment, it's that cars are expensive to buy, expensive to maintain, and
expensive to run.

As a gen Y person myself, I've also noticed that a lot of things I might
potentially afford that are marketed toward me aren't worth buying. In my
opinion, all three current gen game consoles have great technology and
terrible games. Why buy fashionable clothes, the clothing I have works just as
well, and doesn't cost hundreds of dollars? A new car? Why take out a loan on
a car whose value goes drastically down the moment I sign the paperwork?

In an economy where I'm lucky to have a few hundred dollars after I pay my
bills and eat for the month, I save most of that for the next time I get sick
without health insurance, the computer breaks down, or my car stops running.

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greenyoda
These two quotes from the article seem a bit contradictory (italics are mine):

"From cars to association memberships, jewelry, and non-light beer – _Gen Y
just isn’t buying_."

"Old-fashioned marketing won’t reach this generation that _spends $200 billion
annually_."

Hard to spend $200 billion without buying anything.

Plus, not a single citation to back up any of these claims.

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UntitledNo4
Semantically, there isn't really a contradiction. I can spend €9 a month on a
subscription to Spotify and in reality I didn't buy anything because no
ownership of anything was transferred to me. You can disagree and say that I
bought a service, but that is the point of the article -- market your stuff to
Generation Y on their "terms".

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evayanchina
As a member of the Gen Y, I particularly agree with the following when
shopping:

Trust their peers first and their parents second; Hates to be sold anything;
Actively researches prices and reads reviews before making a purchase; Expects
exceptional service, like Amazon.com which tells them which products they
might like; Seeks to do business with ethical, environmental companies; and
Values customization, customizing everything from their music to their jeans
and soda.

This is exactly what I will do when shopping. However, finding out the root of
these above habits can help us find a better solution.

The cause of these so called "Gen Y" behaviour is that everyone who has been
exposed to the type of hard-selling and non-ethical advertising, inevitably
feel repulsed by the bad ad men as affected by their experience of the past,
from time and time again.

But the above actions are not limited to Gen Y, any shoppers who want to shop
wisely in today's world will do the same.

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shousper
I'm part of Gen Y and I just bought a new VW Golf R the other week. I also
regularly buy toys, gadgets, etc. for myself or my girlfriend - who is also
part of Gen Y. That being said, the first set of 6 bullet points are quite
accurate of myself, but not so much my girlfriend.

I'm thinking the author has maybe generalised too much. Never mind that they
didn't reference the source(accuracy) of their information.

EDIT: To be clear, by toys I'm talking about pc/console games, books, apps,
etc.

