GenM …Generation MOBILE. How well are you connected to a $200bn purchase-power audience?

GenX, GenY, GenZ …as a marketer you get lost in Gen’s these days. And let me launch another one: GenM, probably the only one that really matters, esp if your brand(s) target teens & millenials in general. Forget age group (the base of the other Gen’s), GenM is truly about lifestyle, habit, and about what this generation stands for …

GenM or Generation Mobile is what it’s all about nowadays. Millenials of today are ‘effortlessly mobile‘ … mobile is EVERYWHERE, in every single aspect of their lives. Mobile is in their blood, in their DNA. They are the ‘mobile natives‘ – born in the comfortable environment of a mobile (first thing their new mom and dad probably did was take their mobile and post sth on facebook about their birth)! They get an android phone from very very early age these days, and it is an extension of their arm; not just “a phone”; a gateway to the world outside themselves. They don’t know life without a device that is ‘on them’ and ‘with them’ at all time. They are the hyper-connected and the hyper-engaged, and social media addicted.

Hence, if your marketing and engagement is not inherently mobile centric, you don’t really have a strategy! I’m saying nothing new here… just feel that more/better focus on GenM and mobile in general might make a difference. You need to ‘lean in’ as a marketer (see also here)

A FEW KILLER FACTS ABOUT GENERATION M

• 78% of teens have a cell phone. That increases to nine out of ten for the 18-29 year-olds.
  
• 92% use smartphones, tablets, or laptops to go online <compared to 57% of all adults>!
• Seven out of ten go online via their phones at least once a day. A lot of them more than 10 times a day!
  
• 93%  take pictures with their  phones. Highest among any demographic!
• 52% use banking apps, and 72% of those use such apps several times per week

What age are we talking about? Millenials are largely qualified as 18-29 <born roughly between the years of 1980 to 2000 – the oldest being appr.30 and youngest  10>

There are more than 1 billion of them around the globe and there is a >$200bn spending power in this target group. [fact1] [fact 2]

More importantly, look at their habits …  the world at their finger tips, literaly … they are multitask personalities … they can access anything anywhere at any time (that makes them also powerful and actually increases their intelligent impact in the world, even from early age onwards) …they spend an average of 7+ hours per day consuming media content, with more of that time spent on mobile devices than any other platform! They also have an enormeous learning pattern thanks to their behavior: they use their mobile devices for quick information, simple interaction, and one-click answers to their problems.

What do you have to do, marketing wise, to connect your brands to GenM?

1 – Make mobile central to your brand

2- Don’t BS ; this is a generation that will see right through you

3- Give them multi-experiences, and always beat them (they are all about splurging; they expect a lot; but also appreciate getting a lot more)

4- Keep it bite-sized ; they are thinslicing like no other group (read this)

5- Make everything sharable; everything!

6- Draw them in to co-create

7- Start thinking and implementing mobile eCommerce now rather than later

8- Go green and do good. They are pro-social [fact]

 Most importantly … GenM is ‘always on’ ; are you, as a brand?

Banks have largely discovered the power of going mobile, and the importance of GenM doing transactions (including financial transactions) with their phones.

The ultimate proof-point of GenM not being as superficial as we might think is one of the videos going viral with this audience: DOVE REAL BEAUTY SKETCHES. It has already close to 60 million views, and 4 million shares to date. Suprisingly, nothing fast, bold, violent or weird about it. I guess “authenticity” is indeed a big thing with this generation.

GO MOBILE!
Thanks for stopping by and reading this article! Let me know what you think – here, on twitter (@kurtfrenier), on facebook, or on LinkedIn. Kurt.

Tagged as: android, engagement, Generation Mobile, GenM, genZ, mobile, phone