Beyond The Millennial Generation: Understanding Z Generation

"The new world is dominated by blue dot consumers.

They are all in the center of this new world, and everything surrounds them.

"He said.

"If they take a step to the left, your enterprise, brand or industry must take a step to the left.

This is the linkage you need to maintain.

If you take the consumer as the center, you will succeed.

-- Glacier Consulting, Ken Hughes

There is an interesting video on the Internet. A baby reading a magazine does not attempt to open the page, but begins to use its fingers to screen it and try to turn it over.

In adults' eyes, this may look cute, because "Hey, the baby thinks this is iPad."

But for babies, ha ha, this can be troubling.

Is iPad broken?!

The Z generation refers to people born between 1996 and 2010.

Glacier Consulting, a spokesperson and founder of Ken Hughes, delivered a speech at the recent Retail Innovation Conference in New York. He said that for the Z generation, magazines are bad iPad.

"In the retail industry, our job is not to be a magazine in the eyes of Z generation," Hughes said.

We build our businesses and stick to the old ones.

We think this is cool, but this is not the case.

Therefore, linkage is the key to your company's success.

As long as you grasp the linkage, that is, maintain your brand, your business and your methods are closely related to the next generation of consumers, you will survive.

For the clothing industry, the good news is that Z generation consumers like to buy.

。

According to the Cotton Corp lifestyle survey (Lifestyle Monitor Survey), clothing consumption (32%) is second only to electronic products (33%).

It is far more than cosmetics (11%).

(6%), and

Accessories, such as

And handbags (3%).

Z generation preferred clothing to the older generation.

Although the millennial generation (29%) is still the most favorite purchase.

Young Z generation also likes it very much.

The percentage of X generation buying clothing dropped to 24%, and the baby boomers dropped to 19%. They preferred to buy groceries (47% of boomers and 34% of X generation).

According to a study by advertising agency Barkley, the Z generation (at the age of 8-22) will account for 40% of the total population and will become the largest consumer group in the US and Europe by 2020.

The study also mentions that the Z generation is a successive generation, which means that they inherited from the past generations and maintained their unique identity.

Barkley believes that the direct purchasing power of the Z generation is as high as $143 billion, which may affect family spending to exceed $665 billion.

Although Hughes emphasizes the importance of keeping in touch with this consumer group, it is not easy. It is not the use of new slang in marketing activities to achieve goals.

This may backfire, giving you an embarrassing "overkill" label.

Barkley explained that the Z generation was influenced by their parents and family members.

They worship "real" people with "real content".

According to Barkley's research, they trust information from "people like me" - usually their favorite social media influential person, who has more influence than celebrities.

In addition, the Z generation expects every shopping interaction to have a high price performance ratio, and they have no time to waste the brand that can not achieve this goal.

Instant gratification has always been a characteristic of young people, and the WiFi culture that defines the Z generation is more ecstatic.

Hughes explains its origin through a new time measurement called BG and AG: before Google and after Google.

(BG=BeforeGoogle, AG=After Google)

He said: "if you were born after Google, that is, after 1997, you are already growing up in the sea of instant information."

Everything can be obtained in an instant.

Those consumers have been born for the Internet since they were born. "

And cable is ready to turn online shopping.

Z generation consumers prefer Internet browsing and research to clothing than other generations.

Compared with last year, 50% of Z generation consumers said they plan to conduct more clothing research in the coming year.

By comparison, the millennial generation indicated that the percentage of the plan was 39%, the X generation was 30%, and the baby boom generation was 13%.

In addition, 46% of the Z generation consumers plan to browse more clothing products online in the coming year.

This is far more than the millennial generation (32%), X generation (30%), and baby boom generation (15%).

According to the Cotton Corp lifestyle survey, when they browse the Internet, most Z generation consumers get their dress matching ideas from Instagram (58%) and Pinterest (40%).

Among the most popular websites, Amazon ranked first (48%), followed by Forever 21 (28%), WAL-MART (22%) and Messi department store (15%).

When shopping online, lifestyle surveys show that the most important factors affecting purchase decisions are detailed size information (65%) and buyer reviews (61%).

Hughes said that online reviews and sharing their views and experiences on social media are among the reasons why Z generation has become the most cooperative generation.

They actually feel that this is their right to cooperate with the brand in order to build a better product or business.

Hughes suggests that brands and retailers should pay attention to listening rather than criticizing.

Brands and enterprises must also be flexible.

Hughes takes Ford's automobile and Hilton Hotel's two long-standing traditional businesses as an example. Now they compete with Uber and Airbnb respectively, which are less than ten years old.

The emergence of clothing rental services such as Le Tote and Rent the Runway encourages traditional shops to innovate.

To this end, Ann Taylor has launched InfiniteStyle by Ann Taylor, an online subscription rental service, and Rentthe Runway is working with brand Neiman Marcus to set up shop store in its store in a department store in San Francisco.

Neiman Marcus is also considering Z generation's interest in customization, and recently launched its "creative factory" in selected shops.

It calls for "releasing a range of concepts, products and experiences", from products interspersed with personalized fashion products to candle making, gourmet and custom mixed beauty cream.

Hughes said that brands and retailers can personalize them in any part of the entire consumption process.

In fact, he said, at the point of retail personalization, "personalized or perish", because the youngest consumers want personalized products to be unique to them.

For existing or traditional retailers, some of these changes may be confusing and complicated.

But Hughes said that Z generation consumers are like the blue dots on Google maps, which marks the location of users, and immediately tells them where they are and what is around them, rather than traditional consumers. They have to map out their location and mark how to reach their destination.

"The new world is dominated by blue dot consumers.

They are all in the center of this new world, and everything surrounds them.

"He said.

"If they take a step to the left, your business, brand or

We must take a step to the left.

This is the linkage you need to maintain.

If you take the consumer as the center, you will succeed.