“Generation R” — a new segment to be targeted?

News: October 2012

“Generation R” — a new segment to be targeted?

First there was Generation X (born in the 1960s) and Generation Y (born in the 1970s and 1980s); now there is Generation R — a term coined to describe the generation of people born since about 1990. This market segment consists of many frustrated professionals who have survived the recession and now find themselves working hard with expanded roles but with the same level of pay.

Some suggest that Generation R stands for Generation “Rent” — alluding to that fact that this generation are likely to be less economically well-off than their parents’ generation and are more likely to live in rented accommodation since they don’t have the purchasing power, or indeed the access, to debt finance from banks to purchase a property. That’s not to say that Generation R has no spending power; this generation tend to delay settling down and having a family — therefore they have a high percentage of disposable income. The question is how do businesses target Generation R in order to secure a share of their spending power?

The key to reaching out to Generation R is the use of new media. This generation is highly connected via smartphones, laptops, tablets and so on. Social media isn’t just a new wave of marketing – soon it could be the only wave of marketing. Generation R are not doing anything new. They are just doing it online via social media. They want to make friends and connect, discuss topics they find interesting, exchange views, research products or services, and social media is facilitating this. In order to target Generation R, firms must either compliment the discussion or provide something of value to draw people in. The key to cracking the social media savvy segment that is Generation R is to stay relevant with communications that resonate well and work with social media channels.

The beauty of marketing to a social media savvy customer group is that impacts can be measured and campaigns can be tweaked in order to maximise click-through rates and hits. The link between marketing and closing the sale is transparent and traceable, meaning that marketing budgets can be better utilised to deliver measurable results.