Centennials and Alphas will account for about 60% and will have a combined population of approximately 4 billion people globally – making them the largest generations ever in the world.

It should be noted that arriving on the heels of Millennials are theCentennials (Generation Z) and more recently the GenerationAlpha (Gen Alpha or simply Alphas).  Centennials are a generation cohort born between 1995 and 2010 has made her presence known by entering the workplace, earning their own income and starting own families. Most members of Gen Z are children of Generation X.

Generation Alpha

Preceding the Centennials are the preschoolers, kindergarteners and primarians – theAlphas. They are born between 2010 and 2025with the eldest being 12 years. These are largely children of Millennials. They are the first generation to be entirely born and shaped in the 21^st Century, and are the only generation that will see in record numbers the 22^nd Century as well. Whereas they don’t have money to buy, they influence purchase decisions through their

unwavering demands. Alphas are the most materially endowed and technologically literate generation to ever grace the planet. Gen Alphas are bound to evolve and surprise us in the years to come. After all, their mentality and purchasing patterns are still developing. Many of those within the cohort are in their childhood and a few of them are at the margin of their teenage.Time will tell how brands can truly cater to this changing consumer. But the key for companies is to be aware of the growing cohort and start catering for their needs and interests to stay relevant and competitive.  They are a market to watch in the next decade.

According to By Professor Joe Nellis, Professor of Global Economy at Cranfield University, more than 2.5 million Alphas are born every week and by 2025 there will be almost two billion of them. Born to digital technology like it’s a fifth element of nature, Alphas will be the wealthiest, the most intensely educated and most dynamic generation that human society has yet seen.

The business world is going to be confronted with the most demanding customers and employees in history, expecting speed, responsiveness and customization as a standard: an app-style service from any business they choose to have a relationship with. The opportunity for powerful – perhaps even more powerful – global brands will remain, but the stakes and risks will be even higher. It will be a tougher job to win the attention and loyalty of consumers, and much more likely that established brands will be ditched – due to news, spreading via a social media wildfire of a poor product, service, or ethics.

Manufacturers and retailers have spent the past 200 years working with consumers on the basis of cycle of product technology, opening up and refreshing their markets by introducing a series of new and surprising products – smaller, faster, better. Alphas will be expecting more than mass produced, off-the-shelf products. Each of them will be more like a market fragment of one demanding businesses that offer mass customization. Given the access to information, they will know all about the products and how they can work, and will instead be looking for personalized services. Why buy any product that can in itself be provided free – like our smartphones – with just our custom services being paid for? It’s a model that will be more in demand for everything from personal transport to TVs. Alphas won’t want to pay for a car, just mobility.

Much more will be expected from the behaviour of businesses than tokenism in the way of CSR reporting. Large organizations and their brands will, as a matter of routine, need to demonstrate they are a force for social good – through their environmental footprint, the provenance of raw materials, treatment of staff, supply chains, and how profits are used. Being a machine of wealth won’t be enough. The Alphas will be a generation more keenly aware of inequalities of all kinds, and the available alternatives to vote with their wallets. As with any other generation, it’s a moot point how far they will be willing to make the necessary trade-off between a social conscience and quality of life – but it’s likely their increased levels of wealth generally will allow them to make more of those ethical choices.

As employees, Alphas will be tougher to keep motivated and challenged. In response, many types of work will become more like a series of individual projects and challenges with their own rewards.

They will be better able than previous generations to deal with complexity – all the multiple inputs from digital sources, new and changing projects – and translate the complexity into what’s simple and essential. This ability to process larger amounts of data, not be bogged down in the detail and work with what’s important will be a fundamental Alpha quality. They will have far more complexity to deal with. When it comes to work there will be more choices, and people will be moving in and out of employment, self-employment and periods of learning and pure leisure.

The freedoms and challenges of being an entrepreneur will be more attractive to more people. But they will see the role differently. Being an entrepreneur for them will mean less about profits and personal wealth and more about the chance to tailor their own careers and daily experiences, have an impact on local communities or in addressing bigger global issues.

The first Alphas are about to leave primary for secondary schooling. Over the coming two decades, they will become the most educated of any generation, but in very different ways to the norm. When it gets to the stage of making choices, Alphas won’t be looking for a broad education any more, a strict curriculum to follow, or generalist qualifications. They will be looking to train as specialists, going far deeper into particular topic areas and niches.

Studying to Master’s degree level is likely to become the standard, with students not being so quick to enter the jobs market until they have a high level of knowledge and expertise. Secondary and tertiary providers of education will face challenges in keeping the interest and engagement of their students, used to choice and many different channels of content rather than following a linear route to a single goal. Formal education may well become focused on delivering tools for how to learn, a structure for reaching new heights of knowledge, accessing practical skills and networks of opportunities for employment and enterprise.

Alphas will be blessed in many ways, able to benefit from a world created by previous generations. But it’s a world also loaded with challenges. The psychological impact of digital lives – the pace, the relentless change, connectivity, the lack of face-to-face contact – is yet to be fully understood. Alphas may become battle-hardened – or they may be a time-bomb. Alongside the freewheeling flexibility and excitement of opportunities will come everyday awareness and closer attention to supporting mental well-being. And education, from primary level upwards, will play a crucial role in preparing people and societies as a whole to be adaptable, open to learning and re-learning, dealing with risk, resilience, and the importance of communities and social interactions in this context.

Marketing to Alphas is tricky because young minds are impressionable, and you must ensure you are sending the right message. Moreover, children’s health and safety are paramount while marketing children’s products, hence it is essential to get parents’ approval when you plan a marketing campaign for kids.

Many millennials are parents or primary caregivers of children now, who have grown up in an era of exploration (search engines), connectedness (social networking), and digitization. So, when it comes to making decisions for their kids, they are pretty hands-on parents and more aware (and sometimes less trusting). And today’s kids are widely exposed to the use of technologies like voice search, hyper-personalized experiences, artificial intelligence, and social media as a way of life. This exposure makes them expect more from their day-to-day experiences.

This generation tends to have a strong influence over their parents’ buying decisions – the millennial caregivers who are more willing to spend on their children. How do you engage kids and caregivers alike? While marketing to kids, you need to be ethical and empowering to win the loyalty of children and the trust of caregivers. Interactive and experiential marketing can help engage the kids better and let caregivers experience your product for themselves, making it a win-win for everyone. This looks at how interactive and experiential marketing of children’s products can be effective and ethical.

Brands looking to reach Gen Alpha and their families must think about how this generation will evolve and change some industries, as well as the importance of ethical and transparent communication.

Centennials

According to Kandar Futures, Centennials believe in openness, are resiliencethrough hard work and grit, and realismwith grounded expectations. Demographically, this is one diverse group – the most diverse in world history. They have grown up in pluralist, multicultural societies that value diversity and the freedom of expression. They are more risk averse, seemingly less appreciative of conformity, and less “in it for the fun”than their millennial counterparts according to Kandar.

Centennials are now the largest generation ever and account for about 30% of the world’s population. Globally, they are almost 2 billion. They are the first fully global generation, shaped in the 21^st Century, connected through digital devices and engaged through social media.

Centennials look for shopping experiences more than just products. They are looking for fun and social experiences when it comes to shopping and interacting, and according to the Snapchat study, 97% of them are interested in using augmented reality to shop. Social networks, Snapchat among them, are offering brands the possibility of generating more personalized and immersive shopping experiences than ever before.

As digital natives, Centennials are unique because they have never known life without digital technologies like smartphones and social media. This shift has shaped the way we communicate, connect and market to the fastest growing consumer markets in the world.

 Growing up in the wake of environmental debates and countless government scandals, Centennials have been alive for some of the most horrific acts of gun violence and risen above to speak about it. Consider the Bobi Wine and People Power movement in Uganda for instance. Its progress can’t be ignored.

By projecting this sense of contribution and caring in your brand, Centennials may be more susceptible to interaction.Within the millennial generation and with the Gen Z consumers who follow them, there is a shift happening from mobile-first to mobile-only.

As smartphones become more powerful and more ubiquitous, Gen Z consumers are expecting increasing functionality out of them.The idea that a customer’s first and only contact with a company could be happening entirely through the smartphone interface is one that has emerged in recent years with the success of new, digital, app-driven businesses like Uber.

Companies need to be asking themselves whether they can provide a fully end-to-end, mobile-only customer journey.

While one cannot predict the future, it is possible to prepare for it. With the pace of technological innovation only set to increase, companies need to be ready to serve a new digital-savvy consumer.