FEEDBACK

Ageless

HATS OFF to all of you for the great articles on marketing to the different generations in the November 2006 issue. Many of us have been bringing the editorials to meetings for discussion purposes. In fact, [one of our executives] has been making copies for everyone who doesn't have a subscription, and jotting tons of notes for use in upcoming presentations. Congrats on [exploring] such an important topic and one that is affecting businesses every day.

Candace Flynn

Manager, Analyst, and Public Relations

AS A LOYAL READER of CRM I was intrigued with your Generation Nation issue (November 2006). Most intriguing was the "Y Me" article and its Gen Y and Echo Boomer titles, as well as the start birth year of 1977. We accept 1982 as this generation's first birth year, and 2000 being these people's first year of high school graduation-thus, Millennial.

"Y Me" omitted one of the greatest insights to understanding Millennials' purchasing-their best-friends relationship status with their parents. It creates copurchasing on just about every major household item, vacations, automobiles, and especially the college choice. These constant, hovering Boomer parents are known as Helicopter Parents and the more intense ones as Blackhawks. This relationship is now transforming graduate school, job searching, and postcollege purchasing. To reach Millennials, marketers must also reach their parents.

Jeff Kallay

Experience Evangelist

TargetX

Editor's note: CRM magazine defines generations by population swells measured by the U.S. Census Bureau.

Without You, We're Nothing

AFTER READING the Chief Plagiarist and Research Officer's report (November 2006), I knew I had to write. Mr. Lager is the highlight of CRM magazine. The bit about the coke bottling plant had me in stitches.

Debra Kurtz

Kurtz Consulting

THE ARTICLES "Forecasting a Flap" and "From Crayons to Calculators" read like two perfectly matched companion pieces. The concept of leveraging new, userfriendly SAS with end-user deployment via a friendly dashboard portal is spot on. The new alignment of IS with marketing hits the mark. And finally, the move to true statistical analysis within the marketing group is the honest truth. Why do I agree so completely? Your two articles are an almost verbatim retelling of our business intelligence strategic plan for 2007.

We are looking at Oracle Business Intelligence instead of Cognos, but in total it was frankly a little scary to see my BI plan rolled out to your subscriber base. Cheers and congratulations on two very relevant pieces.

Shawn Spott

Associate Vice President

Letters may be edited for length or clarity.