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September 5, 2005

Adults Living at Home Prime Targets

After years of stories aimed at helping parents adjust after their children grow up and move away, the media have suddenly discovered that many couples face the exact opposite dilemma -- children who don't leave, even after they've reached adulthood. Earlier this year, Time coined a new term, "twixsters", to describe today's 20-somethings who are still dependent, financially and otherwise, on their parents. The phenomenon of adults still living at home gained even more media attention this summer.

"It's a trend that is definitely here now," says David Morrison, president of TWENTYSOMETHING Inc., a Philadelphia-based marketing research firm, who adds that grown children still living with mom and/or dad represent a potentially lucrative, yet still untapped consumer base.

"Do most boomerangers have a plasma TV? Definitely not," he says, "But they are spending more proportionately than their friends who are slaving away and paying rent, so this is a demographic that has a very high return for brands, especially luxury goods."

Young people are moving back home for a variety of reasons: lack of money due to unemployment or low-paying jobs, to save up for a house, to recover from a breakup, or simply to delay having adult responsibilities. And while it's more socially acceptable, it's still nothing to brag about, and rarely will you see an article endorsing the boomerang lifestyle. It's simply hard to glamorize a lifestyle in which your mom still does your laundry, and Morrison notes that any pitch aimed at this group has to be done just right.

"There are about 18 million young adults between 20 and 34 living at home right now, which represents 38% of all young adult singles, so we're talking about a huge market," he says. "But at this point, there's a great deal of uncertainty with marketers and publicists in terms of how to go after this audience." But there is some media traction behind stories targeting the parents of boomerang children. One publicist relays, "What we're finding in media pitching is the sense of stigma of having grown children living at home has been greatly diminished. From the standpoint of PR, there are tremendous opportunities because it cuts across every part of society."

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