Transcripts

"Commentary"-The Roaring 20's

SUSIE GHARIB: Tonight's commentator looks at the influence of professionals in their 20s. He's Richard Levin, founder of Richard Levin and Associates.

RICHARD LEVIN, FOUNDER, RICHARD LEVIN & ASSOCIATES: If you work in a company that employs 20-somethings or if you're marketing to young adults, there's something you should know called the quarter-life crisis. It's the strain people experience when they've lived about a quarter of a century and feel they haven't accomplished anything worthwhile. Quarter-life is the transition between classroom and cubicle, the period of time after college when parents stop telling their children how to live their life and stop paying for it as well.

What makes this a business story is that 20-somethings are going to trigger a seismic shift in management policies, marketing decisions and human resources. They're also a formidable group of consumers. When you add in today's teenagers, they are collectively known as generation Y and together, 20-somethings and teens are powerfully influential as both consumers and workers. Even the youngest among them are making buying decisions, have credit cards, are taking on debt and are saving up for their first cars and first mutual funds, while those in their mid-20s are grappling with paying off college loans, buying their first home, investing their money for the first time and jumping rather quickly from job to job. Young people between 15 and 25, give or take a few years, are the first demographic that's big enough as consumers, to hurt an established brand and strong enough as workers, to threaten the status quo. And, yes, they are even more influential than the boomers. I'm Richard Levin.