Generation WHO

So where are we going after Gen Z?

I’m serious, we need to work this out. They started in January 1996.

Millennials were 1977 to 1995.

Generation X were 1965 to 1976. Something went wrong there.

Baby Boomers boomed from 1946 to 1964.

The Silent Generation from 1924 to 1945.

The Greatest Generation 1901 to 1924.

So I make the average 18.2 years.

That means sometime in March 2014 a baby was born and he or she wasn’t Gen Z. They were…what?

I know, I’ll run some research groups with five-year-olds. Then I could be first out of the traps with a new list of clichés.

Like Gen Z - digital everything, wanting to make the world a better place, worthy.

Or Millennials - immune to marketing, unable to grow up, babies.

Or Generation X - Yuppies, Lads, Sloane Rangers, addicted to Friends, divorced.

Or Baby Boomers - idealistic and wealthy, swingers and hippies, smug.

Or the Silent Generation - jobs for life, children should be seen and not heard, quiet.

Or the Greatest Generation - no TV, no planes, no fridges, no electricity, no nothing.

If I’m doing some groups, I’ll need some stimulus. Nobody really spends time thinking about their generation, except in families.

Mood boards? No, they’d just look gloomy.

Benefits? But what are the benefits of belonging to a new generation. Beyond new-ness, that is. Youth, I suppose. Wasted on the young.

Insights? What they really want, deep down. Their needs. But they’ll vary, won’t they? They always do. That’s why you have need maps.

Maybe all you can do is go for the central need. What do they want as a whole? Then find a distinctive and memorable way of talking about it.

I suppose I could use the same stimulus as last time. And the time before that. They must used it first for the Boomers. They loved their rock and roll.

Not so much benefits or insights, more like lines in a song. Things that may or may not strike a chord. There were eight of them originally.

People try to put us d-down.

Just because we get around.

Things they do look awful c-c-cold.

Hope I die before I get old.

Why don’t you all f-fade away.

And don’t try and dig what we all s-s-say.

I’m not trying to cause a big s-s-sensation.

I’m just talkin’ ‘bout my g-g-g-generation.

That should cover it.