Came across this interesting team-building game on Business Balls.

lifestyle acronyms game

A simple exercise to encourage thinking about demographics, generational ideas, language, and communications.

For groups of any size. Split into pairs, threes, or work teams and review as a creative exercise, or run the activity as a quick ice-breaker.

How to do it:

Acronyms are powerful in communicating a lot of information succinctly. If you are working in marketing, new product development, service development or brand development you may find this exercise interesting (and amusing) as a creative team-building game, which relates to generational issues.

It can be useful for your target demographic audiences more understandable to everyone, and making them more amusing than say the Acorn Demographic Profiling System.

We have probably all heard of amusing lifestyle acronyms such as DINKY (Double Income, No Kids Yet); GOFER (Genial Old Farts Enjoying Retirement); ORCHID (One Recent Child, Heavily In Debt); and the more formal term NEET (Not in Employment, Education or Training).

What acronym can you devise (or suggest one you know already) that is particularly appropriate for modern times?

Where groups devise their own acronyms you may optionally award a point for each letter in the acronym and bonus points for:

• true acronyms (which either seem like a word or make a real word, using the first letter from each word in the full expression.)

Review/discuss results as appropriate for your situation.

Optional equipment – dictionary and thesaurus.

DILDO

Double Income Little Dog Owners/Dual Income Little Dogs Only.

DIMWIT

Dual Income Mortgage We’re In Trouble.

DINKY

Double Income No Kids Yet.

DITCHED

Dual Income, Two/Three Children, Expanding Debts. Adaptation (devised by R Burn-Smith, thanks) of the famous DINKY demographic acronym.

GLAM

Greying, Leisured, Affluent, Married.

GOFER

Genial Old Farts Enjoying Retirement. Alternative meaning in similar context is Genial Old Fisherman Enjoying Recreation.

HEW

High Earning Worker.

HOPEFUL

Hard-up Old Person Expecting Full Useful Life.

KIPPERS

Kids In Parents’ Pockets Eroding Retirement Savings.

LOMBARD

Loads Of Money But A Real Donut/Dickhead.

LIFER

Lazy Ignorant Fool Expecting Retirement.

MUPPIE

Middle-aged Urban Professional.

NEET

Not in Employment, Education or Training.

NINJA

No Income, No Job or Assets.

OINKY

One Income, No Kids Yet.

ORCHID

One Recent Child, Heavily In Debt.

RABADAD

Running A Business And Doing A Degree.

ROB

Rich Ordinary Briton.

ROMEO

Retired/Rich/Respectable Old Men Eating Out/Enjoying Outings.

RUB

Rich Urban Biker.

SADFAB

Single And Desperate For A Baby.

SAL

Suburban Asset Lightweight.

SINBAD

Single Income No Boyfriend And Desperate.

SITCOM

Single Income Two Children Oppressive Mortgage.

SKI-ing

Spending the Kids’ Inheritance.

SNAG

Sensitive New-Age Guy.

SNERT

Snot-Nosed Egostical Rude Teenager.

SPOOLA/SPOOLAs

Stripped Pine, Olive Oil, Laura Ashley.

TEPID

Tastes Expensive, Pension Inadequate, Dammit.

VEST

Very Egotistical Stupid Twit.

WASP

White Anglo-Saxon Protestant.

WOOF

Well Off Older Folk.

WOOP

Well Off Older Person.

WOTCHA

Wonderful Old Thing Considering His/Her Age.

YUPPIE

Young Upwardly-mobile Professional.

You can find other team building exercises from Business Balls here