Marketing to Lifestyles: Action Sports and Generation Y

The youth market is a highly coveted consumer segment that is difficult to both reach and influence. The current youth market has been called the Echo Boom Generation, but it is most commonly known as Generation Y. This generation of Americans consists of individuals born between 1982 and 2003 (Howe & Strauss, 2000). Generation Y makes up almost 25% of the United States population, while Generation Y's predecessor. Generation X, makes up only 16% of the population. Individuals born between 1946 and 1964 comprise the Baby Boom Generation, which currently makes up a larger percentage (28.2%) of the United States population (Gardyn & Fetto, 2000); however, this advantage will decrease as Baby Boomers continue to age. As the number of Baby Boomers decreases, the spending power and influence of Generation Y will subsequently increase. The sheer size of Generation Y, coupled with the reported spending habits of young people, makes this segment a desirable target of corporations and sport marketing professionals. The action sports genre is a growing segment of the sport industry that has, in many cases, connected with the elusive Generation Y market (Bennett, Henson, & Zhang, 2002; Bennett, Henson, & Zhang, 2003; Bennett & Henson, 2003). Action sports are an eclectic coUec-