Forget Gen Z, It's Gen Alpha!

I was saving 25th article about Gen Z in my computer’s 30th opened tab to read later. I believe I need to read, watch, observe a lot more to fully understand who my successor generation really is. (Well I am one of that Millennials who are about to be taken into trash in a couple of years by marketers because of them. So I have to do these…) I know those young people are very different from us. Their values, things they care, things they want to spend their money and many more habits, insights etc are different. And I was in the looong path of learning them.

 Then this happened.

 Gen Z lost their status as being the youngest generation ever. Their successors, Generation Alpha  (or so called iGeneration or Glass Generation) entered the world scene and became the youngest ever. They were born after 2010. They are our heirs, the children of Millenials… So let’s look at them and their impact on us, consumption and earth. There are some findings and highly probable assumptions for them by experts in this area.

·        First, definition: They are the generation born between 2010-2025. (The first time “Generation Alpha” description is believed to be given by sociologist Mark McCrindle) By 2025, when their last members would be born, there would be 2 billion of them around the world.

·        They were born along with iPhones, smart screens, tablets and etc (that’s why they are called Glass Generation) so they get used to them from like no other generation. They are learning a lot from watching and touching screens. So they have the most virtual and shortest attention span among all generations. The physical world will interest them less and less (at least at the beginning).

·        With the help of Internet and advancing infrastructure development, these kids believed to be the most educated generation ever. The education will be much more democratic and cheaper. The proportion of intelligent devices and interactive content in their education will be highest compared to classic audio-based classroom learning.

·        As they will be the highest sufferers from the demise of environment by experiencing catastrophes in front of their eyes, they will be very proactive and demanding from every stakeholder responsible of World’s sustainability.

·        The AI, voice command speakers, smart home devices and 5G will be their natural toys or they seem these as normal rights to use as much as possible. They won’t be afraid of trying all new tech stuff if they believe they will benefit from them.

So what should we prepare ourselves to?

·        This generation uses multi screens and technology to communicate, learn and live. So there will be tonnes of new ways to interact with them. Classic methods of message delivery would possibly be less and less ineffective. More personalized and seamless messages should be delivered in order to reach them. So all marketers need to invest more to this new techs and benefiting both for themselves and their brands.

·        This generation will be so accustomed to online commerce that instead of brick and mortars retail space wars, we will see e-commerce platforms’ domination for the purchase, thus pushing marketers to share more of their revenues with them. This will lead brands to adapt or build new ways or channels to convert potential buyers.

·        Their access to information is easier than ever, so they are believed to skip higher education more by replacing it with online alternatives. They will be the most sceptical generation to any information. Influencing them with marketing messages will become harder and harder. Maybe marketers will stop sending messages to them and instead they really listen them to understand their needs and adopt their products and services accordingly.

·        As they are very interested in world problems, corporations are at great risk to be found the main reason of these problems. Thus, companies need to contribute to the society and environment more or cease every possible action to harm them. How dare companies to pollute the world! (Respect to Greta Thunberg)

·        Some experts believe this generation will also be the wealthiest generation ever in the history. Their business environment will be much more different than us. (Millenials and older generations especially) They are believed to pursue 5 different careers in 17 jobs. Even Gen Z have very different habits about spending money and owning possessions, but it seems this generation will outperform them and surprise us about how they manage their wealth.

·        As they were born after the social media has matured, they may use it differently from us. With the help of AI and other technologies, this generation may build their own social media channels or private groups where no parents or unknown people are allowed to enter and communicate. Staying connected but somewhat isolated from the rest of the world may be a social status or a need to be satisfied.

·        They are keen to new technologies so there are tens of tech toys (robots, programming devices etc) that are marketed to them. They will manage to build their own robots like their brothers in universities but at a much earlier age.

·        The language barrier won’t possibly exist for them with instant translating technologies. Therefore, they will have friends all over the world as they would be more connected than ever.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UqsVRNeVfvE

Each week a new robot is launched for this generation.

What is being done now?

We see some initial actions taken by brands and corporations to capture attention of this generation like financial institutions. PNC Bank had made a partnership with Sesame Street creators to produce content to familiarize some financial knowledge to these kids. Snapchat has its SnapKidz version and some media publishers like Vermont Public Radio and American Public Media broadcasted some interactive shows targeting this generation.

I am lucky this time to observe and learn this generation better than Gen Zs, because one of them is rising in my own home. My 6-year-old son will be among this generation. I asked him about what he wants to be in the future and he replied: “I want to be an Internet engineer” Why? Because he wants to fix the problems with connection so that he can watch Youtube videos and play games uninterruptedly. Well maybe not a world problem, but a good start I believe!

Resources:

https://www.fluxtrends.com/meet-generation-alpha/

https://mccrindle.com.au/insights/blogarchive/gen-z-and-gen-alpha-infographic-update/

https://www.axios.com/generation-alpha-millennial-children-63438b10-6817-483e-8472-38810df77880.html

https://www.jwtintelligence.com/2019/10/generation-alpha/?mc_cid=b68b5193ed&mc_eid=839d5d1182

https://interestingengineering.com/generation-alpha-the-children-of-the-millennial