cover image Marketing to Generation X

Marketing to Generation X

Karen Ritchie. Simon & Schuster, $25 (177pp) ISBN 978-0-02-926545-1

Baby-boomer Ritchie's epiphany regarding selling products to younger consumers serves as the springboard to this primer for perplexed--and, yes, aging--marketers. Amply armed with relevant anecdotes from her personal experience as an advertising and media executive, as well as an arsenal of statistics, Ritchie presents detailed, contrasting portraits of her contemporaries and the now formidable generation born between 1961 and 1981. The author's insights function as a road map for deciphering the considerable information presented. Most interesting are the parallels drawn between generational perspectives, e.g., ``To Boomers, television is a mirror.... To Generation X, television is not a mirror, but a window.'' Although much of the media buzz surrounding Generation X has cooled, Ritchie wisely cautions that it is essential to understand this diverse and ultimately powerful group of 79.4 million people. This title will be a useful tool for many a baffled Boomer, as well as a pop-culture history lesson for ``Xers,'' validating much of what they already know. (Mar.)