Healthcare and Marketing Experts Release eBook “Don’t You Forget About Gen X: One Generation’s Crucial Role in Healthcare”

A new eBook, Don’t You Forget About Gen X: One Generation’s Crucial Role in Healthcare, will be released on Amazon on November 2nd. The book focuses on Generation X’s unique role as healthcare “triple threats” and why healthcare marketers need to begin taking them seriously as an audience.

Don’t You Forget About Gen X is a collaboration between Dan Miers, Chief Strategy Officer of SPM Marketing and Communications, Dean Browell, Principal and Co-founder of Feedback, Alan Shoebridge, Director of Marketing and Communications for Salinas Valley Memorial Healthcare. Together, they bring decades of experience in the healthcare space, research and social listening tools, and a deep understanding of what makes different groups of healthcare consumers tick.

Baby boomers and millennials have dominated conversations happening in conference rooms and marketing campaign briefs for years, leaving one of the most crucial audiences, Gen X, out. Over the course of ten chapters, the book uses research, hard data, pop culture references, and personal anecdotes to make a strong case for why Gen X cannot be ignored by healthcare organizations and marketers. It also provides in-depth explorations of how baby boomers, Gen Xers, millennials, and members of Gen Z interact with healthcare and each other, COVID-19’s impact on the generations (and Gen X’s moment in the spotlight as masters of social distancing early in the pandemic), and why life stage is also key to understanding consumers’ behavior.

“The influence of Gen X has been discounted – if not outright ignored – for much of the past 20 years. Believe it or not, we do exist and the more than 65 million members of Gen X in this country are now between 40 and 55 years old. We’re coordinating care for our kids, personally dealing with the fun side effects of our own aging bodies and dealing with the increasing health needs of our parents,” said Shoebridge. “In short, we are the best target audience for healthcare in 2020. Gen X’s window of influence and importance is going to be at its peak for the next 10 to 15 years. That’s where this book comes in. Readers will learn what makes Gen X tick, get strategies to engage this important audience and have some fun along the way.”

“The erasing of Generation X as a generation worthy of attention is a problem worth confronting within any industry, but in healthcare it’s an especially egregious error,” said Browell. “We go beyond just Gen X’s relevance to examine how and why misunderstanding generations happens and provide tools for ensuring readers don’t let it happen again with other generations."

The book is now available for purchase on Amazon. The authors plan to host multiple virtual events to discuss and expand on concepts covered in the book over the next several months. For more information, contact the authors at genx@spmmarketing.com. 

About the authors

Dan Miers is the Chief Strategy Officer at SPM Marketing & Communications. He anticipates “What’s Next” in our complex industry and keeps SPM on the leading edge of healthcare policy and strategy. He holds two master’s degrees in the field, including one in Healthcare Administration and another in Healthcare Financial Management. After finishing his post-graduate fellowship at Rush University Medical Center, he spent seven years at Northwestern Memorial Hospital in business development. He is a frequent lecturer at healthcare marketing conferences and an active SHSMD Board member.

Alan Shoebridge is the director of marketing and communications for Salinas Valley Memorial Healthcare System. He has also held senior leadership roles at Kaiser Permanente and Providence St. Joseph Health, two of the nation’s largest healthcare providers. Alan has more than 15 years of direct marketing and communication experience for healthcare and medical insurance organizations with a focus on marketing plan development, advertising, messaging, research and other areas. He earned his BA in English from the University of Oregon. He currently serves on the board of SHSMD. Additionally, Alan was an adjunct professor teaching marketing to graduate students enrolled in the OHSU/PSU Healthcare MBA program. He writes frequently about healthcare and marketing topics at alanshoebridge.com.

Dean Browell has led Feedback’s research as resident PhD and Principal with a passion for how generations interact online. His work can be seen across many industries including tourism, automotive, retail, healthcare, education and more with clients that have ranged from Mini Cooper to CamelBak. He is a Board Member of the Society for Healthcare Strategy and Market Development (SHSMD), the Poe Museum, and University of Richmond’s Institute on Philanthropy where he has taught for over 10 years. He also teaches a Master’s level class in Digital Ethnography at Virginia Commonwealth University’s School of Business. In 2009 Dean co-founded social listening research firm Feedback to employ a human element in understanding online behavior around the world.