4 Challenges for Research: Understanding the New Generation

gen y

Based on our wealth of experience and diversity of clients over our first 15 years, here is the last in our series on the 4 current challenges across 3 key sectors of FMCG, Retail and Hospitality. In case you missed them, here’s Challenge 1: Making the Case for Distribution, Challenge 2: Identifying Value Drivers and Challenge 3: Shifting Lifestyles.
 
In our final part of this series we’re focusing on the newest wave of consumers and how this impacts on all 3 sectors of FMCG, retail and hospitality.
 

4. Understanding the New Generation

 

The fourth big challenge applies to each of the sectors above (and more besides): it is the fully fledged emergence of the new generation (Millennials or Gen Y, and the early Gen Z). The impact of a new group of digitally native and attitudinally complex people is being felt by brand owners in two ways as they seek to engage them as workers and as consumers. Whilst there is an increasing blurring of boundaries between these two dimensions, there is also a separation of behaviour and personae.

The result is a need to understand this fastest growing and most significant new cohort as it becomes even more important and economically active.

This is the single hottest topic in strategy planning and the common questions we are asked to use research to answer include “who are these people”, “what motivates them”, “how can we understand them enough to show we care” and, perhaps most importantly, help define what needs to change to get them on side.

 
We would be interested to hear if you have more topics to add to the list. If you would like more information on how to face the 4 Big Challenges please get in touch.