Meet Generation Alpha: Your Future Customers
In 2019, AdAge published their 10 INFLUENCERS UNDER 10, which included Ryan, a 7-year-old boy who, according to Forbes, earns an estimated $22 million annually from his YouTube reviews of Lego and other toys.
For many of us, the concept of a 7-year-old having 17 million followers is slightly unsettling. “They grow up too fast,” is an adage said about every generation by those who are advancing in years, but what can we learn about Generation Alpha and the characteristics that will define them?
According to a video produced by Hotwire, a global PR and integrated marketing agency, most parents believe that by the tender age of 8, their kids’ knowledge of tech will have surpassed their own. "I'd rather have an iPad—better than a dog," says one five-year-old in the video.
According to Hotwire, 25% of parents asked their children’s opinion before buying tech related equipment. It is precisely because of this influence on their parent’s spending habits that Generation Alpha has caught the interest of many brands and marketers.
So, who are Generation Alpha?
Defined as anyone born between 2010 and 2024, the eldest Alphas are turning ten years old. The youngest are still a twinkle in their parent’s eyes. To contemplate marketing to someone who hasn’t even been born yet might seem like madness, but understanding the defining characteristics of every generation has been crucial to successfully reaching them. Today’s toddlers in diapers are tomorrow’s college graduates.
The key events that will come to define Generation Alpha are still in the process of unfolding, but there are some interesting features to note. If all generations are shaped by the attitudes of their parents, then it’s worth taking a look at Millenials and their parenting style.
Parents of Alphas are generally older than previous generations. The mean age of women having their first child in the USA is currently just shy of 27 years old, according to the CDC. In 1970, the mean age was 24.6. Birth rates for women in their 30s are at the highest level in 4 decades. Alphas are more likely than previous generations, to be raised in a single-parent household. They are also predicted to be the most educated and wealthiest generation to date.
Forget the photo album of yesteryear; Millennials are documenting their children’s first steps and first words on Facebook and Instagram. Only 19% of millennial parents have never shared a photo of their children on social media, according to a poll by TIME and Survey Monkey.
The iPad came out in 2010, the first year that Alphas were born and the same year that Instagram was launched. The voice of Siri or Alexa is as familiar to them as that of their Grandmothers’. These children have been raised in a ‘digital habitat’, with iPads and screens becoming a core part of their childhood and education. For this reason, Alphas have been termed ‘Generation Glass’.
Alphas will benefit from the ongoing developments in machine learning, AI and automation and its impact on health and education. Adaptive learning, sophisticated wearable health tech and robot surgeons will be a part of their future.
It will be interesting to see how the next ten to twenty years will define and shape Generation Alpha. By the time we start to fully understand them, a new batch of babies will be arriving on the planet, Generation Beta, who will be born between 2025 to 2039.
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