Abstract: Disclosed herein is a method for a merchant to gain information about the purchasing characteristics of a group with which the merchant wishes to interact. Merchants wishing to target group members are not able to specifically identify members of the group through depersonalized transaction data available from financial institutions. Group members are therefore identified through a traditional method: market research. The method also includes noting the purchasing behavior of group members, including providers of goods and services to group members, merchants not patronized by members of the group, and demographic characteristics of the group. An example of such a group is the so-called “millennials”. The identification of group members may be validated through test runs of financial data and fine-tuned to ensure correct identification of group members.