Consumer Behaviour: The Younger, More Digitally Adept Generation

Tesseras (2013), an author from Marketing Week, stated that together with email, phone and face-to-face interactions, today’s under-18s are using social networking sites, instant chat and text to communicate - connecting with family and friends more than 50 times each day. Furthermore, it has been previously assumed that because the youth of today are so digitally adept, that they are too trusting of the internet and unaware of its potential dangers; this is also untrue, as it was found that this generation is more wary about the potential dangers, particularly regarding online privacy.

Tesseras (2013) states some of the main findings from the research that was conducted exploring the views of more than 1,000 eight- to 17-year olds. It was then accompanied by diaries looking at how teenagers use digital devices, in conjunction with face-to-face focus groups and one-on-one, or family interviews with eight- to 12-year-olds. Similar research was then carried out among older age groups for comparison:

• Under-18s trust companies online far less than those aged 18 to 24 and are also more skilled at keeping their personal information safe, according to Intersperience Research’s Digital Futures study.

• A quarter of under-18s are confident in their ability to protect their personal information online, compared to 16 per cent of those aged 18 to 24, and 43 per cent are aware of how their privacy can be broken online compared to 32 per cent of the older category.

Maria Twigge, Insight manager at Intersperience Research states that she believes under-18s are very adept at using digital devices and are better informed about online behaviour and so are better at protecting their privacy.

• As a result, it was found that if teenagers are concerned about the integrity of a website or if businesses are not open about how they intend to use personal data, many have no qualms about supplying fake details to protect their privacy: 22 per cent of under-18s and 23 per cent of 18 to 24 year olds would consider giving out false information.

She continues in stating that the “businesses that are transparent about what they are doing will be the ones that are able to establish relationships with young people. There is a real need for brands to be open and upfront about their terms and conditions because this age group is so savvy about privacy,”

• Over 55 per cent say they can concentrate on what they are doing on one device while still being aware of what is happening on other gadgets. - This rises to 64 per cent for 14- to 17-year-olds, buy only 39 per cent for 18 to 24 year olds.

However, Twigge believes that this is a key finding as well as being rather negative due to the fact that it means that this generation are not as loyal to brands , as they are ‘operating in wider networks’ and so they therefore have looser connections, “So while it might be easier to get them to switch brands, at the same time it will be more difficult to establish long-term relationships,” she says.

 This continual connectivity has shaped a further ‘impatient consumer group that expects an instant response,’ particularly important in customer service (Tesseras, 2013). She states how brands need to recognize teenagers’ drive for using different channels in order to understand which channels they need to respond to quickly and how they should do it. “Young people are much more demanding. They are more impatient. They expect a personalised service and they expect it to be responsive and proactive,” Twigge states.

• Almost half (46 per cent) say they access social sites on their mobile phone, with 61 per cent of under-18s using social networking sites every day, and 64 per cent using instant messenger, which steadily decreases the older the category.

Consumer habits are evidently evolving, which is specifically visual among teenagers. Brands need to appreciate the way today’s under-18s communicate and duplicate that to remain pertinent if they are to have any chance of building relationships with this inconsistent demographic. As the age group grows older and becomes the target customer, knowing how to communicate with them effectively across multiple devices will only become more vital. If brands can develop a deep understanding of how to communicate to them early then it would make the process of following the trends and habit’s a much easier task.