• by Jennifer Rignani , Columnist, December 5, 2017

“Gen X was a generation that grew up cynical, angry and profoundly insecure—or so goes the common perception. Why would any brand marketer want to target such a group?” – Adweek 

I’ll tell you why. We may be the smallest generation, with about 60 million sandwiched in between 77 million boomers and 83 million millennials, but there’s a lot of meat in this sandwich. We aren’t your mama’s middle-agers either. Not only are many of us at our peak earning position, we pay the bills for our Millennial, Y and Z kids and we respectfully show our Boomer parents how to upgrade their iPhones. We care about what we put into our bodies and all of the bodies we’re responsible for. But what most makes us stand apart is that marketing to Gen Xers doesn’t require finding a sweet spot. Because we traverse generational trends and share habits all day long.

A Pew study found only 49% of Xers think their generation is unique as opposed to 58% of Boomers and 61% of Millennials. I shared this fact with a Gen X colleague who replied with a shrug, “Eh, I guess we’re just more laid back about stuff.” His response epitomized our most famous label, that of a Slacker. We’ve been through a lot. You tend to roll with the punches too, when there’s much larger and louder generations in front and behind you.

So, we’re no marketer’s dream because we aren’t picky nor easy to define. But there’s the rub. Because we aren’t beholden to the way things were or the way they will be, we’re wide open. According to Forrester Research, traditional media is still important to Gen X (48% listen to the radio, 62% still read newspapers and 85% have favorite TV shows). We love our phones nearly as much as Millennials, but we’re more likely to use social media to “tell” not “show.” A whopping 75% of us turn to YouTube not to be entertained but to learn how to do.

Conversely, if the world has a power outage, we’ll stroll to the corner store and buy a newspaper for information about the apocalypse, so you get our attention in print. Every generation has their rep. The media has a Shakespearean love affair with Millennials, draping them theatrically on the covers of national magazines (Time, 2013.) Gen X had our moment on Time, too, (1990) but instead of being portrayed as self-absorbed, we were lazy. We can relate to generational generalizations. The crop of grungy losers from ’80s movies and music doesn’t help. But it’s just not true. We’re crushing it quietly.

Companies who take the time to pay attention to the influence of people in their 40s and 50s will win the day. Our lack of definition might be terrifying in the data-driven, audience segmentation, demographic-obsessed world of advertising, but our stuck-in-the-middle status means we’ll get the message no matter what. We can’t avoid you, so we pay attention. Buy ads on college financial aid search pages and retirement communities and you may catch us twice in 30 minutes. 

Gen X is continuously connected to other generations, so by targeting us, you can spread messages to other people who are actually listening. Be the Patrick Swayze of brands. Don’t stick us in a corner.