Forget about the old ways of generation definition where you define groups of people by the obvious and certainty of information such as demographic, psychographic, etc. The pandemic has really accelerated a real change to that definition.
Welcome to the Generation N, the generation of now knowing what's happening next. It is the first time in the history that we, and I mean literally everyone, are in the same generation for the first time in history of mankind.
All of the sudden, we all became the early adopters of the unknown pandemic and adopted the behavioral change by force, and literally by design by the mother of nature.
What we as the Generation N know for sure are below;
The Uncertainty is Certain
The only thing we really shared as the generation is the uncertainty. Pantone Color of the Year for 2021 which for the first time in its history to have two complementary colors for its annual colors of the year; ultimate grey and illuminating yellow reflecting the juxtaposition of our unknown human needs during this soon-to-be-normal life.
Implication for marketers; normalize the uncertainty, play it to an advantage by creating values at both side of the needs. It is time for double on double. Parallel marketing strategy for long-term and short-term together while normalizing the juxtaposition of needs into the strategy.
The Privacy is Protected (Finally)
Cookie-less world of data privacy is finally here. For the first time since the internet economy that we, can really and hopefully control our own privacy. No more interrupted ads and meaningless attention stealing for the sake of eyeballs or top funnel conversion. Cookie-less world obviously benefits consumers, not so much on advertisers and their fancy programmatic ads.
Implication for marketers; utilize data with real meaning, for real people and not for google's SEO. It is time to really make data meaningful for consumers in order to earn their trust before asking for their data.
The Empathy is Real
According to Google's 2020 Year in Search, it shows a clear intent from all of us that we demand for a change to survive in the NOW. We still search for certain answers during this uncertainty. We asked why certain things happened to certain people. We asked why certain disaster happened to certain part of the world. We asked why because we care as the generation cohort, we do care about each others. We asked why because we wanted to be able to do what we can to help where we can, despite our own struggles during this pandemic, we still ask why not just for ourselves but also for others.
Implication for marketers; humanism couldn't be any more real. Humanize the brand to really gives meaningful value to your audiences, no BS on PR buzz or bogus attention, be human, be real.
Although Generation NOW seems to be clueless about what is going to happen, I think being clueless is not entirely a bad thing. Being clueless gives us the ability to reset and discover our unknown potential in order to survive this uncertainty. It gives brands and businesses to revisit their values for consumers, employees, and communities. Cluelessness can be really meaningful if we, marketers, really care to make value out of it.
Reference:
https://www.pantone.com/color-of-the-year-2021
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