Generation Alpha: Educated, confident kids with technology at their fingertips are coming to the scene

Although Generation Z is the largest revenue generator for most streetwear brands, global sports giant Nike has chosen a new strategy. Of course, they will continue to pamper their golden Z chicks, but the focus is shifting to children under twelve, or Generation Alpha. Or, as Nike’s CEO John Donahoe stated for American media: – Most companies view consumers through the lens of their disposable income. We do not do that. We ask who sets the trends, who is the future.

Therefore, in addition to launching collections exclusively for kids, they are trying to keep pace with them – in both the real and virtual worlds. Nike may be the loudest, but it is by no means the only brand that has decided to better prepare for the new generation of consumers who will soon be the ones who ‘manage their own income’, and currently influence how their parents and guardians manage theirs. Although the picture of typical representatives of the new generation of kids is not yet clear enough, marketing experts, psychologists, and analysts have managed to agree on some of their characteristics and noted that Alphas will be the most educated generation of all time, the most connected to technology, and also the wealthiest. Interestingly, compared to previous generations, the most Alphas will spend their entire childhood or part of it in living arrangements where both parents are not simultaneously involved (single parenthood, joint custody, etc.).

Blurred boundaries

As The Atlantic magazine writes, some marketers and consultants who analyze different generations of consumers have tried to be more precise in defining Alphas, concluding, for example, that they will be very impatient because they have become accustomed to technology fulfilling their desires and needs from a young age. At the same time, research recently published by Business Wire showed that Alphas (excluding basic care for food and shelter) will worry about more things than their predecessors, Millennials and Baby Boomers, did at their age (the research covered kids aged seven to nine). However, as sociology professor Dan Woodman explained to The Atlantic, they are still kids, so it is too early to say how they will behave when they grow up, but certainly, some ideas and important content will swirl in their heads as they approach their teenage years.

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In addition to experts now trying to discover the characteristics of the new generation, they are also trying to agree on the age or year of birth that delineates Generation Z from Alphas. As The Atlantic continues, these boundaries were previously determined less arbitrarily than today. For example, Baby Boomers are the generation born after World War II, during the baby boom that lasted from approximately 1946 to 1964. Experts estimated that a new generation (Generation X, Millennials) appears every fifteen years, but major social changes do not follow such divisions. Thus, younger Millennials, born in 1996, have more in common with older representatives of Generation Z than with older Millennials born in 1981. It has also been claimed that Millennials are the children of Baby Boomers, and representatives of Generation Z are the children of Generation X. Today, such divisions are inaccurate because women give birth at ages 21, 31, or 41, and Millennials and representatives of Generation Z often experience such a significant life change (parenthood) in the same year but at different ages.

Better prepared

Although it is very difficult today to determine boundaries among generations and attribute certain characteristics to just one, Quilta CEO Anurag Banerjee highlighted some specifics of the new kids at the ‘Bazaarvoice Summit’ conference. For example, he concluded that due to the pandemic and fear of climate change, Generation Z has become anxious, but the good thing is that it is the first (so early) to articulate the need for mental health care. Younger kids have thus prepared the ground, showing them that they should not be afraid to talk about the state of their body and mind, which is why Alphas will be confident. Also, since this is a generation that is almost born attached to the virtual world, their parents, more than any previous generation, will pay attention to how they consume new media and how that content affects their mental health. In other words, they will better prepare Alphas for virtual life, which Millennials and Generations X and Z learned on the go.

Interestingly, Banerjee claims that Alphas do not care about brands, but about products, and will use them to build their identity. In this sense, it will be more important for companies to have a strong product that will carry the brand, rather than the other way around, as has been the case until now. Research in American schools has shown that almost all children know what organic, sustainable, or vegan food is, and awareness of these issues has been rapidly growing over the last fifteen years.

Still just predictions

Regarding inclusivity, a term that has only entered dictionaries in recent years, for Generation Alpha it will be normal; it is, as the analyst claims, ‘multicultural by default’. Conscious parents teach these kids that inclusivity is as important as math or the alphabet, and because of this, they predict that in adulthood they will be more confident and less anxious. Since Generation Z grew up in a crisis, they are much more cautious with money than Millennials (they only became so after the recession), and Alphas should be financially and technologically literate. While representatives of Generation Z, prompted by the pandemic and the trend of the Great Resignation, are changing their view of business life, Alphas will initially view their careers differently from previous generations, especially Millennials, and will strive, whenever and as much as possible, to live their passion.

The mentioned characteristics are merely predictions based on trends and the ways in which the mental framework of previous generations has changed; they are not set in stone. Indeed, events that have transformed everyday life (the pandemic) have taught the world to expect the unexpected, so it is truly a question of whether representatives of Generation Alpha will be as experts describe them today or whether recession, inflation, and war conflicts will shape their lives in ways that are currently impossible to predict.