Home, Cheap Home Looking to hit young adult consumers where they live? Try their parents' houses.
Opinions expressed by BIZ Experiences contributors are their own.
En route to the driveway, where their little graduate student isproudly unveiling his brand-new Passat, Mom grumbles to Dad thatBilly isn't socking away enough for retirement. But Billyenvisions a rosy financial future, so long as he saves by livingunder his parents' roof. Some 18 million 20- to 34-year-oldscurrently dub their parents roommates, according to AmericanDemographics. While such living arrangements were considered a signof serious slackerdom 10 years ago, today's twentysomethingssee living at home not as a sign of failure, but as a financiallyrational decision.
"The stigma [of living at home] is gone for the mostpart," says David Morrison, president of Twentysomething Inc.,a strategic planning and marketing research firm in Radnor,Pennsylvania. "Parents still feel it, but graduates donot."
What young adults do feel is spending freedom, making them amassive market for you. According to Rebecca Ryan, founder of NextGeneration Consulting Inc. in Jackson, Wisconsin, companies thatwill benefit include broadband providers catering to thatpost-university high-speed access withdrawal; cellular companiesoffering "family talk" plans; insurance firms sellingextended coverage for over-21s; home construction and remodelingbusinesses that can convert basements to bedrooms; and the bookmarket. "There are a growing number of books being written forparents on things like 'how to negotiate rent when your cherubsmove back home,'" says Ryan.
Cars, clothing, travel and entertainment are also hot purchasesamong this segment, Morrison says. How to reach them? Start early:"Start a dialogue with them while they're juniors andseniors in college through e-mail and direct mail," Morrisonadvises. "[Then] continue that dialogue once they'vegraduated." Tongue-in-cheek advertising is a fabulous tool formaking light of the back-at-home scenario while attractingbusiness. "You don't want to make them feel mocked, butoffer something that speaks to that tension," says Morrison."But speak to their aspirations as well, and say 'Let ushelp you get there.'"
Contact Sources
- Next Generation Consulting Inc.
4459 Honeywood Ct., Jackson, WI 53037 - Twentysomething Inc.
(610) 940-5860, www.twentysomething.com
