Is Your Brand Ready for Gen Z? The iGen is growing and mowing down brands

“Move over. The Centennials are on their way. In the fifth of this series, Neil Osborne highlights how the first cohort of this generation – now a mere 16-20 years old – are already being depicted as difficult to engage, extremely design conscious and have exceptionally high expectations of all brand activities, especially digital. But is that really so?

Surprising. That’s what Gen Z are, once you get to know them. Sadly, though, as young as they are, they’ve already been written off as having the attention span of a gnat. But much of that, is the older ‘generational rite’ of complaining about ‘the kids these days’ and is loaded with preconceptions, stereotyping and biases.

If instead, you try to glimpse the future through their eyes, you may have a very different perspective. And then the worlds of retail, brands and society as a whole, will open up intriguing new opportunities and approaches for your business.

Why would you bother? They’re so young. How can they possibly affect your business, right now? Well, this generation’s behaviour is vastly different. Already they have US$44bn in annual purchasing power. As that grows, if you don’t understand them, you won’t be positioned to adapt to this tech-savvy generation.

This generation offer you the opportunity to see what the future is going to be like. It’s a challenge that every business needs to come to grips with… so let’s do some backgrounding and myth busting on this young, emerging market force…”