Marketing for the Homelands: Meet the Next American Generation

They are already the force behind more than $150 billion in spending—and they haven’t even started junior high.

Meet the Homeland Generation: the future of retailing and the arbiters of the American marketplace circa 2030. Despite their youth, there is already so much that we can know about this evolving and intensely influential generation.

Whereas Boomers are more likely to go for it all with gusto, and Millennials use their personal tastes to make everything their own, Homelands operate on a “fusion model.” They’ll take bits of wildly different data, viewpoints, and experiences and forge a reality all their own, creating a way of consuming that no marketer or retailer could ever have envisioned.

Living in this personally defined and adaptable world, Homelands don’t view fun as a standalone entity. For them, the process of shaping their realities and customizing the world around them will provide all the entertainment they’ll ever need. Life will be a continual process, and their lexicon will reflect the palette of possibilities.

How can we know so much about a generation that has yet to come of age? Well, we can’t—not with 100% accuracy, at least. But we can make some very educated guesses. According to William Strauss and Neil Howe (in their book, Generations: The History of America’s Future), the model for Homelands is the Silent Generation, so by examining their experiences and behaviors—and factoring in the importance of transformational technology—we can offer an informed analysis of how the Homelands might act.