Fun-Loving, Free-Spending "Grups"

Marketers have a new audience segment to scrutinize: "Grups" are a new psychographic group of thirtysomethings and fortysomethings whose buying habits are more like twentysomethings with a lot more money.

The term "grup" was coined in a New York Magazine article, and comes from a "Star Trek" episode featuring a planet run by wild children trapped in perpetual youth. The children call Captain Kirk and his crew grups, short for grown-ups.

From New York Magazine: "He owns eleven pairs of sneakers, hasn't worn anything but jeans in a year, and won't shut up about the latest "Death Cab for Cutie" CD. But he is no kid. He is among the ascendant breed of grown-up who has redefined adulthood as we once knew it and killed off the generation gap."

For this demographic, work-life balance is often more important than a middle management job and company car. Reuters reports that "Grups' favorite activities might include going to see an unsigned guitar band, hanging out in hip bars and the occasional club, maybe jetting off to India or Brazil for a few weeks summer sun and heading to the slopes to snowboard each winter. The crucial difference these days is that the older generation aren't consuming to appear younger, they just aren't growing old like their parents," said Dylan Jones, editor of GQ magazine. "We are already seeing 60-something men who buy the same clothes, listen to same records, see the same films and browse the Web in exactly the same way as 20-somethings."

But even grups admit they cannot stop time, and some acknowledge that one day they may have to pass the Xbox to their children, spend Saturday night watching TV game shows instead of clubbing, and swap their hooded tops for what some might call more age-appropriate cardigans.

But not just yet. Market-away dear friends.