Now is the Time to Market to Generation Alpha

Ever wondered what comes after?Gen Z? The next generation of consumers is called Alpha, the Greek word for the demographic cohort born after 2010—the year that the first-generation iPad debuted and when Instagram launched. Time flies, doesn’t it?

Although Generation Alpha currently consists of kids and pre-teens, they will enter their 20s in 2030. That means beauty brands need to prepare now to understand the interests and habits of this influential generation in order to market to them successfully in the future.

The Birth of the Screenager

The children of Gen Alpha are born primarily to?millennial?parents, who marketers were going nuts trying to understand in the 2000s and 2010s. As the first generation fully immersed in the digital era, Gen Alpha is growing up in the screen age.?

Marketing to Children

While some members of Gen Alpha are still children with little disposable income, often relying on their more affluent millennial parents, they are still spending large amounts of time on social media and their mobile devices.?According to?research, about 25% of respondents spoke more to their Alexa devices than to their grandparents, while 66% were using tablets by their fifth birthdays, ultimately transitioning to mobile devices.

Virtual Experiences Versus Real Experiences

As children of millennials, Gen Alpha is composed of digital natives, unaware of a life without swiping and interfaces. They view virtual and real experiences as interchangeable, which is a stark difference from?Gen Z. Because they grew up with real experiences, Gen Z expects virtual experiences to be just as engaging as real ones.?For Gen Alpha, real experiences need to match up to virtual ones—putting pressure on marketers to ensure that virtual experiences are as cutting-edge yet genuine as possible. This gives way to completely immersive worlds, whether they are in beauty, fragrance or tech.

Transactional Versus Experiential

As pandemic restrictions are lifted, beauty brands continue to debate the merits of online versus offline shopping. In pre-pandemic times, retail stores were experiential, and online experiences were transactional.?

However, as consumers took advantage of delivery, buying online and picking up their purchases in store, curbside pickup, and other variations during the pandemic, online experiences became more sophisticated and experiential, while?retail storefronts?became transactional.

Communities: The New Social Party

Gen Alpha is infamous for being less social than other generations. However, the truth is that their personal connections are maintained online versus interpersonally. Time or geography do not affect the strength of these relationships. Some fondly call these “‘invisible communities.” That means brands must build online communities on apps like?TikTok?and?Instagram?to market effectively to their consumers. It will allow them to mine valuable marketing information from the conversations in the comment threads alone.?

Inclusivity of Fluidity and Diversity

Millennials sparked the social media and Instagram boom with debates on mental health issues, phone addiction and self-esteem doubts.?Gen Alpha, while heavily involved in video and scroll culture, prefers brands that go out of their way to overcome these societal ills and cater to being beautiful inside out, sans comparisons.?

Read the whole article and my insights on Global Cosmetics Industry (GCI) here.