This week I am embarking on a new market research project for a client with very little parameters about what it is they are seeking. The very first bit of data popped up, there isn’t much! In today’s information demand and overload on marketing to the millennials and their showy parents, the Boomers. Very little information has been captured to the degree that our friends on either side of us has been generated. Why? Well, for one, there aren’t that many of us. And, two, we are a surly bunch. Now I don’t mean that in a negative, we are in a bad mood forever stage, that was in the 80’s and 90’s. Although, we do rely on our moods because it makes us feel young. We really are quite content, it’s just not externally obvious as with our needy friends on the younger side and demonstrative pals on the older. If one is really going to get valuable, tangible data on this generation, you’re going to have to dig deep.

A recent New York Times article insinuated that Gen X were merely grunge and slackers and they hated hippies and yuppies. The only truth to this is that a generation is more than a label and generations are more than silos. An entire generation is not merely in a clique, like the stoners or the jocks. Generations are defined about how we were raised, who raised us, and what was important to society at the time. True generations can be a response to the previous that can make a pendulum swing back even further to where it was before. However, now we are talking about influence. We have an entire generation coming into their highest earning years, their most mobile years, active years, family years, and travel years. They are business owners, investors, and entrepreneurs. They volunteer, give-back, and donate. Yet we are given reports, strategies, tactics, and campaigns targeting millennials and boomers. Seems we are missing the mark.

Follow me through this journey to uncover this generation, what spurs them (us) into more action, and engage with them in a meaningful, tangible way. I’m excited to learn more about this topic during my market research project. Generation X is driving future generations including how they consume, spend, and experience. When we can capture this information now we can make assumptions for the present and the future.

Until next time; don’t you forget about me.