Effects of COVID-19 on the Future Habits of the Generations

Have you ever asked WHY is this generation the way they are? WHAT influenced them to have the beliefs they have or why they respond to marketing initiatives a certain way?

The generations are not just randomly assigned years with a random name given to them. For marketing, the generations are broken up based on historic cultural events that occurred and influenced our society as a whole. I specify for marketing because you will notice different years for each of the generations based on who did the research and the purpose that it will be used for.

Our identity is shaped by these shared experiences and each generation has specific ones that left an impact on them at a pivotal time in their physical and psychological development. These events influence their social values, attitudes, and preferences. Because of these similar experiences, each generation shares a bond and developed common preferences for music, movies, foods, and other products, and they have a tendency to respond to the same type of marketing.

Generational patterns can surface for things like money management, views on education, or even religious or spiritual beliefs to name a few. For these, the generations may have different years because how a societal event affects someone in their mid-teens is going to be different than how it affects a young child.

I want to highlight a few key historical events for each to help you truly understand this:

• Boomers (1946-1964)—First nuclear power plant, President JFK was assassinated, Civil Rights Act of 1964
• Gen X (1965-1979)—Rise of the personal computer, Watergate Scandal, Three Mile Island Meltdown
• Millennials (1980-1995)—Girls’ Movement, TV talk shows, School violence, Rise of social media, Desert Storm
• Gen Z (1996-2010)—Terrorism and war, Social networking, Smartphones, Great Recession, Election of Barrack Obama

We’re in one of those moments right now with COVID-19. None of these generations has personally seen a pandemic, knows how it affects families, knows how it will affect our economy, or how it will influence Generation Z or Generation A (they are after Z, but too young to have any relevant information about them). As a part of the key developmental ages of these kids, both Gen Z and Gen A are being taught to “stay home and don’t leave”, “fear someone may get you sick”, personal space is now extended to six feet plus. Kids of emergency workers are being shown that they are not important enough to protect—they can still go to daycare and live life “normally” while their friends just disappeared, or that they must sacrifice themselves for others.

Other effects this COVID experience could be strengthening the family bond (or amplifying abuse), re-teaching people how to be bored, the realization of the value of personal time, identifying there are other ways to accomplish old goals or habits, and a complete re-thinking of formalized education as we know it and what truly is important.

I’m not going to dive into the individual effects of the possible social values, attitudes, and preferences. It is too early to tell what those will be. I would like to highlight some areas that I see directly affecting these generations and our society post-pandemic COVID-19 and how it could relate to your business and building your brand especially as more of Gen Z and A come of age.

• The Shopping Experience—there has been a big movement of stores online for the last ten years, the pandemic has shown us that if you do not offer online shopping you could be put out of business overnight through no fault of your own. Pre-pandemic, the aisles in stores are wide enough to comfortably get two carts through them, or two people walking through. Since personal space is now extended to six feet, then these younger generations who will have no other frame of reference will find this claustrophobic. We’ve already seen stores widen aisles which means stores will either need to be significantly bigger or they will carry a lot less. Checkout registers will also have to be rethought because we currently stand very close to each other and now there are lines on the floor to tell you where to stand—six feet apart. We may also be raising a generation that doesn't know how to grocery shop! Curbside pick up could become the norm, which means grocery stores can look more like warehouses.
• The Arts, Photography, and Videography—with every smartphone having a high-quality camera, and some two, it’s hard to justify paying for someone to do what you can do by yourself, today. Quality and raw-ness have been shown to have a direct impact on marketing results. Where marketing video was once competing with what was being presented on TV, the pandemic has made it acceptable to do what was normally done in a studio, possible in a boring everyday home without all the fancy equipment and associated costs. What else can we expect from this industry and the shifts it will have to go through? The shifts will affect social media, traditional media, advertising, and marketing for all businesses.
• Communication and the Office— the pandemic has made it a requirement for businesses to accept different ways of working. It also increases the cybersecurity risk that each company already faces. Remote working could possibly get rid of the 9-5 mindset. For years now, companies have been telling employees that working remotely isn’t as effective as being in the office, now they are having to say it is just as effective. The younger generations are growing up seeing its ok and expected that you work from home and that the office is something talked about, but not necessarily a reality. Why go to another location when you can do everything you need to do right here?
• The Education System—While I am not interested in going down the rabbit hole of what is perceived as right or wrong with our education system, the pandemic is showing us that the traditional model is not the only way. The younger generations are learning in a different way and from different people than what is considered traditional or “the way that works”. Will the younger generations value formalized education? Will they perceive it as better than what they were offered? Will these generations end up being the smartest generation because of the difference in how they are having to learn? Will they want to bring that into the places they work and teach that to their kids? Will the agricultural school calendar finally die? Will the “factory” model (classes at specific times, sit down, shut up, and listen) survive? Or will we see how we would have more options with a year-round less structured model?
• The Travel Industry—if every message that these young generations are receiving is “Stay home. Stay safe.” Will the curiosity of other places and other people ever develop? After all, airlines smash people together like sardines — clearly violating what is now the six-foot rule of personal space. And you can meet any person, anywhere in the world through Zoom, FaceTime, or Microsoft Teams. Will the auto industry continue to be as much of a pivotal part of our economy? Will owning a car be as important as it was pre-COVID-19? Or will it be less important?

This by no means is meant to be a political post or a judgment of how the pandemic is being handled, it’s simply to get you thinking about how this massive societal upheaval is guaranteed to forever change the lives, beliefs, attitudes, and preferences of both Generation Z and Generation A. What we know as normal, think of as traditional, and trust to be stable will be challenged by these generations. The office, how operations, cybersecurity, and policies and procedures are built and managed, and how marketing is managed. We now have a new foundation with new rules. I guarantee it.

Share what other changes you think we'll see.