Now you’ll remember our earlier story of the dentist who climbed into another dentist’s chair to find out what patients went through. Well heres a fantastic example if young people are your market (or even if you have to relate with them for that matter)! Each year staff at Macquarie University in Sydney put together a list to try to give the faculty a sense of the mindset of the incoming students who were born in 1982. Heres this year’s list:

What do the people you do business with really know?

·     They have no meaningful recollection of the Whitlam era and probably did not know who he is or was.

·     They were prepubescent when the Persian Gulf War was waged.

·     Black Monday 1987 is as significant to them as the Great Depression.

·     There has only been one Pope.

·     They were 11 when the Soviet Union broke apart and do not remember the Cold War.

·     They have never feared a nuclear war.

·     They are too young to remember the space shuttle blowing up.

·     Tiananmen Square means nothing to them.

·     Bottle caps have always been screw off and plastic.

·     Atari predates them, as do vinyl albums. The expression “you sound like a broken record” means nothing to them.

·     They have never owned a record player.

·     They have likely never played Pac Man.

·     As far as they know, stamps have always cost about 45 cents.

·     Most have never seen a TV set with only 4 channels, nor have they seen a black and white TV. They have always had cable.

·     They cannot fathom not having a remote control.

·     They have no idea when or why flares were cool or maybe even what they were.

·     Popcorn has always been cooked in the microwave.

·     They have never seen Ian or Greg Chappell play.

·     They never took a swim and thought about Jaws.

·     The Vietnam War is as ancient history to them as are WW1, WW2 and the Boer War.

·     They don’t know who Mork was or where he was from.

·     They never heard: “Boss, de plane, de plane”.

·     They have no idea who JR is and don’t care who shot him.

·     Michael Jackson has always been white.

·     McDonalds never came in Styrofoam containers.

·     There has always been MTV.

·     They don’t have a clue how to use a typewriter.