From time to time we have experienced different generations from baby boomers, generation of millennials but now we must recognise that millennials don’t represent the youth anymore rather they are young professionals. So who are these future customers? what is it that businesses must do? Does this mean that business needs to go back to the drawing board to identify their market?
Even though millennials no longer form part of the youth market the iGeneration mostly carry characteristic of the millennials.
Things that businesses must keep at the back of their minds when thinking about the iGeneration:
Usage Of Emoticons, Memes And Slang
The iGeneration is not susceptible to using long text writing and they do not make use of formal written English. This group makes use of images to replace words, they use visuals to interact on different platforms, so business needs to take note that these images and text evolve over time. So for businesses to remain relevant and capitalise on this market, they need to stay ahead of the visual language trends to design advertising that speaks to this group and that the iGeneration can relate to.
Snackable Content
The iGeneration was born in a world where information is very easy to access on any subject you can ever imagine. Therefore, this is the one reason they feel like they have the world in the palm of their hands. They know everything about anything. They snack on content, rushing to move on to another piece of content or reading about the latest trends and news.
Content producers or businesses should, therefore, produce content that is short, precise, and catchy in order to stand out amongst the abundance of other content. This is the utmost reason social media marketing is key to the iGeneration and has the ability to capture their interest and keep them engaged for longer. It is for this reason that platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Whisper and Snapchat appeal to the iGeneration.
Pursuing Experiences And Following / Creating Trends
This generation takes notice of any brand communication that is full of experience in any type or form and is emotionally engaging. However, This does not guarantee their brand loyalty; and they are merely looking to appreciate the creativity that brands utilise in their campaigns.
“Generation Us”: The Collaborative Bunch
The iGeneration works together as one. They like to team up and engage in activities that not only benefit them but other people as well. They prefer to open speciality businesses where they can optimise their skills and collaborate with other boutique enterprises to create a holistic service offering.
They Are Industrious
Entrepreneurship is a culture amongst this generation; they want to make products or help in making products. They are not just about leaving a legacy, but rather living the legacy. They witnessed the recession and the effect it had on their parents, which caused many job losses. Therefore, entrepreneurship is often seen as the only option for them to long term sustenance and self-actualisation.
They Are Tech Innate
The iGeneration was born in the smartphone era, as such unlike the Millennials who are generally able to navigate between two screens at the same time, they can navigate as many as five screens at the same time. Furthermore, they are likely to join new social networks such as Whisper and Snapchat, rather than Facebook. This means that when targeting the iGeneration, businesses must integrate new social media platforms into their digital campaigns, or risk being outdated and thus not in touch with the latest trends.
They Are Socially Aware And Active
Unlike generations before, the iGeneration are increasingly aware of social issues such as obesity, politics, animal cruelty, climate change, women, and child abuse, amongst others. Therefore, they have seized the opportunity to find solutions to help eradicate these social issues in future.
Looking at these traits of the iGeneration businesses must be agile and adaptable. At Interact RDT we offer research methodologies and techniques that get the mind and behaviour of the iGeneration and their interaction with different products and services so that companies and marketers can create customer experience solutions that fit client needs.