Gen Z Gets the Hype, Gen X Writes the Cheques: The Real Engine of India’s Festive Boom

India’s 2025 festive numbers make for spectacular reading: record Diwali sales, robust consumption sentiment and platforms reporting all‑time‑high GMV. But behind these headline figures lies a quieter structural driver that corporate India and global boards often underweight in their planning – the spending power and decision influence of urban Gen X, roughly 40–55 years old. This cohort now sits at the centre of India’s festive economy, even though most strategy decks and campaign plans are still written as if Gen Z were the primary engine of demand.

From a marketer's lens, the starting point is the macro. The 2025 edition of the JioStar Festive Sentiment Survey reports that 92% of Indian consumers intend to maintain or increase festive spending versus last year, with an average planned budget of about ₹16,500 per shopper. MiQ’s Festive Shopper Insights 2025 adds another layer: four in ten consumers say they plan festive purchases above ₹20,000, signalling a sizeable confident‑spender segment that is comfortable with high‑value discretionary outlays. The Dentsu–PhonePe report “The Bharatiya Consumer: A Generational Study” finds that Gen X in India focuses spending on high‑value categories such as financial services and healthcare. While many of these reports headline millennials and 25–34 year‑olds as the “core festive shopper,” the reality inside households is that Gen X often underwrites or approves these spends – especially for higher‑ticket categories.

This becomes clearer when the festive cycle is seen not as a single event, but as a corridor. Between August and January, urban Gen X navigates Raksha Bandhan, Ganesh Chaturthi, Navratri, Diwali, the wedding season, and Christmas–New Year in one continuous arc of social and financial obligations. The JioStar survey notes that nearly half of respondents plan to shop for others, not just themselves, and that categories like holidays, jewellery and beauty sit alongside apparel, mobiles and electronics in the festive basket. In practice, that means Gen X is the segment most likely to fund large‑screen TVs, white goods, smartphones, home upgrades, gold, and family travel – while also orchestrating multi‑recipient gifting for relatives, staff, and corporate networks.

For marketers, this has three important implications. First, Gen X is both the “shock absorber” and the “multiplier” in the system. With 85% of respondents in the JioStar survey reporting stable or improved finances, this cohort has the resilience to maintain core festive spends even in a volatile macro environment. Second, Gen X converts macro optimism into high‑value orders: MiQ data on the rise of the ₹20,000‑plus shopper, combined with platform‑reported surges in large‑ticket electronics and durables, points to a customer base comfortable stacking carts with multiple oversized items when the right offer and timing align. Third, this is the group most likely to have entrenched relationships with banks, brands and platforms – an asset for firms that can deepen loyalty and a risk for those still treating festive demand as a series of tactical bursts.

The way Gen X shops should also shape marketing strategy. Festive research from MiQ and others shows that discovery and evaluation begin weeks before Diwali, with YouTube, OTT, online ads and marketplaces driving much of the early‑stage exploration. JioStar’s survey underlines that 76% of consumers cite online advertising as their top information source, 52% plan to shop online, 42% offline, and 61% prefer cashless payments, led by UPI and wallets. Gen X is deeply embedded in this behaviour: they treat online channels as their primary research layer, but still value in‑store validation and service, and they use credit cards, EMIs and exchanges as sophisticated cash‑flow tools rather than as a last resort.

Yet, despite this centrality, most festive marketing remains over‑indexed on younger imagery and cues. Creative work is often built around 18–30‑year‑old protagonists, slang‑heavy scripts and impulse‑buy categories, while the 40–55‑year‑old who is actually signing off on the ₹80,000 appliance or ₹1.5 lakh vacation is either invisible or caricatured. This is not just a representation issue; it is a conversion issue. If, as JioStar’s data shows, 65% of consumers head into the season undecided on which brand to buy, and MiQ’s work highlights that 45% are open to trying new brands. The failure to speak directly to Gen X decision‑makers leaves a significant share of the market on the table.

What should marketing leaders do differently? At a minimum, three shifts are required.

• Segment design: Move beyond “youth” as the default growth proxy and build explicit Gen X segments in planning – by age, life stage, income band and city tier. Use external benchmarks like JioStar’s average budget figures and MiQ’s ₹20,000‑plus cohort to pressure‑test your own CRM and category data.

  
  

• Proposition and product: Shape offers around the way Gen X defines value – reliability, service, warranties, total cost of ownership and the ability to create experiences for family, rather than only headline discounts. In categories like durables, electronics, autos, insurance and travel, this means packaging EMIs, exchange bonuses and service guarantees into clear “smart ownership” narratives.

  
  

• Media and measurement: Align investment with actual influence. If mid‑life shoppers are doing six weeks of research, then awareness and consideration media must front‑load the festive calendar, not just cluster around Diwali week. Success metrics should track Gen X‑heavy signals: higher average order values, multi‑category baskets, repeat festive purchases and cross‑sell into adjacent categories.

  
  

The macro story is clear: consumer sentiment is robust, festive budgets are holding up, and high‑value purchase intent is rising. The micro reality inside households is equally clear: urban Gen X is orchestrating and funding a disproportionate share of that spend. For corporate India and global boards looking at the market, the task now is to close the gap between who campaigns celebrate and who balance sheets depend on. The data already identifies Gen X as the backbone of the festive economy; strategy needs to catch up.