Tweet

"Mind Your X's and Y's: Satisfying the 10 Cravings of a New Generation of Consumers" by Lisa Johnson

Written by: Kevin Lee

Article Overview: Learn how to turn your business into a breakaway brand like Facebook.com, Jones Soda or VocationVacations by using as many cravings of the Connected Generation as possible! Rating: 4/5

"Mind Your X's and Y's: Satisfying the 10 Cravings of a New Generation of Consumers" by Lisa Johnson

In "Mind Your X's and Y's", brand consultant and corporate trainer, Lisa Johnson reveals the key elements of success for breakaway brands. Johnson believes the Connected Generation (i.e. Gen X and Y or the 18-to-40-year-olds) is the most important group of consumers a business can have today because they not only have a lot of buying power, but they're also changing the way we find, sample, purchase and share products. The tech savvy and sophisticated Connected Generation are also immune to traditional advertising, so their attention and loyalty can only be won over by satisfying their cravings for things such as "Extreme personalization" for recognition, "Raise my pulse Adventure", "loose connections" in the form of social and professional networks, "brand candy", "Editors and filters", the "influence of peer-to-peer networks" and "a dramatic sense of theater" in everyday experiences (pg. 13 & 14). Moreover, Johnson's numerous case studies on brands like Tickle.com, Skype, Flickr, and Scion illustrate a direct relationship between their phenomenal success and having fulfilled at least one of the ten cravings, while some even use up to eight!

As an added bonus, the book's conclusion is actually an extra chapter about the five "New Players You Need to Know" in order to build compelling brands for the Connected Generation. Regardless of the industry you're in or the size of your organization, "new key players" every business should have on staff or at least strategic partnerships with include "Content strategists", "Community connectors" and "Change agents" to name a few (pg. 239-247). The case study on Facebook.com is also especially interesting as it explains how it (along with MySpace) was able to surpass Friendster in popularity (pg. 71). Yet, I found Johnson's incessant need to emphasize every point with exhaustive case studies to be a little redundant and patronizing at times (thus the reason for the imperfect rating). In fact, there were instances where I thought I was reading over the same page twice:(

You can actually visit The Reach Group's website and read a PDF summary on "The 10 Cravings" (http://www.reachgroupconsulting.com/reach-x-and-y/mind-you-xs-and-ys/ ), so I'm not sure why someone like Johnson who is always advocating how "Time is our most valuable currency" (pg. 234) would stretch a one page article into a 247 page book?

Bottom Line: The book offers amazing content, and I'd still buy Lisa Johnson's next revelation, but I'm hoping she'll limit her future works to a maximum of 200 pages (i.e. the average length for these kinds of business books). And the fact that bestselling author, Seth Godin and branding expert, Martin Lindstrom endorse this book (i.e. with positive reviews on the back cover) can be enough reasons to run out and purchase it today!

Related Articles
  "Don't Think Pink: What Really Makes Women Buy—and How To Increase Your Share Of This Crucial Market" by Lisa Johnson & Andrea Learned
  Lesson #2: Reflect Your Market
  A Man of Firsts: How Johnson Achieved Success
  Lesson #5: Do What Cannot Be Done
  Lesson #5: Communicate Success

Article Tags:



Related Forum Posts
My reading log - Hi OmnivoreInk, Before starting my business, I read the following books as research: -"The Art of the Start" by Guy Kawasaki -"The AdSense Code" by Joel Comm -"Don't Think Pink" and "Mind Your X's and Y's" by Lisa Johnson And since then I've continued my "research" by reading (in this order): -"Technical Tennis" by Rod Cross -"For One More Day" by Mitch Albom -"The Twits" by Roald Dahl -"Little Black Book of Connections" by Jeffrey Gitomer -"The Secret" by Rhonda Byrne -"The Profitable Retailer" by Doug Fleener -"Blink" by Malcolm Gladwell -"Little Gold Book of YES! Attitude" by Jeffrey Gitomer -"The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian" by C.S. Lewis -"Little Green Book of Getting Your Way" by Jeffrey Gitomer -"Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" by J.K. Rowling And I'm currently reading and am in the process of finishing the following: -"There's No Such Thing as Public Speaking" by Jeanette and Roy Henderson -"The Tipping Point" by Malcolm Gladwell -"The Book of Tells" by Peter Collett -"Little Red Book of Sales Answers" by Jeffrey Gitomer -"Chocolates on the Pillow Aren't Enough: Reinventing The Customer Experience" by Jonathan M. Tisch -"The Artist's Way: A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity" by Julia Cameron -"The Inner Game of Tennis" by Timothy Gallwey
Re: Traditonal Demographics Do NOT Work with Generation V - That article is the first time I ever heard the term. I found this definition - [i:189o61sy]The term Generation V (for Virtual) is used to describe the online culture in which relationships, services and communication are carried primarily and preferably through electronic media. Generation Virtual is made up of people from multiple demographic age groups who make their social connections primarily online - through virtual worlds in online games, in social networks, as bloggers, or through posting and reading user-generated content.[/i:189o61sy] I like the targeting options the internet offers much better than the typical demographics. Age is particular is not nearly as effective in finding a target market unless you want to target kids. Too many of the typical demographics rely on stereotypes and just seems outdated for many types of promotion. That's one of the reasons this article title caught my eye. Shri
Re: MUST READ: Rules & Guidelines for Review My... - That's a pretty good mock review without ever having to buy one of those things. I think it's a good angle that they have with the diet program but not enough positioning to make it standout or justify that $100+$40. Consumers look for value these days.
Promoting Software On A Shoestring Budget - Once again, great comments enlivener! Boomer - my first company, Redasoft, was a biotech software company. We started with nothing and built it up to have clients in over 30 countries including NASA, Johnson & Johnson, etc so it is possible! SEO is a great option for you as it's cheap and can bring highly targeted people to your site. You should also look at print media. We've found that it works much better than tv or radio. We had the major scientific journals like Science review our software and it led to a lot of sales and traffic because our clients read those publications. If you sell one reporter on the idea of doing a review, they'll do the work of selling to 1000's of potential clients for you so it's a great ROI (as long as your product works!)
Re: Hello one and all - Hi Lisa, Welcome to the club. You will find all the resources you need here.What do you do? Let us know more about you


Share this article with your friends. Fund someone's dream.

Leave a comment below or share on the left and you'll help support entrepreneurs in Africa through our partnership with Kiva. Over $50,000 raised and counting - Please keep sharing! Learn more.

Tweet

Newsletter

Get advice & tips from famous business
owners, new articles by entrepreneur
experts, my latest website updates, &
special sneak peaks at what's to come!

Name:
Email:

Popular Articles

Ready for a Fresh Image?

How to Handle the “I Am Not Interested” Objection

Leading with Discernment

Suggestions

Email us your ideas on how to make our
website more valuable! Thank you Sharon
from Toronto Salsa Lessons / Classes for
your suggestions to make the newsletter
look like the website and profile younger
entrepreneurs like Jennifer Lopez.