Brand, Identity and Reputation: Exploring, Creating New Realities ...

Do Generation Z Understand Brands Differently?
A Cross-Disciplinary Review
Dina Bassiouni, Royal Holloway University of London, UK
Chris Hackley, Royal Holloway University of London, UK
Introduction
This paper focuses on the online experience of ‗Generation Z‘ children, broadly defined as those born since 1995. This
generation is often assumed to have a different orientation to the world to previous generations of children because of
the degree of their engagement with digital, and especially online, communication media. Questions about the
experience of this generation and how it influences their worldview and socialisation are important for social policy and
brand strategy issues. This paper reviews literature from diverse disciplines to elaborate on this question and to generate
insights which could inform future studies. The findings suggest that this generation of children have proved highly
adaptive to a digital and online world in ways which have profound implications for their understanding of brands and
branding. In particular, their experience of passing between the online and offline worlds in a fluid and seamless way
means that they may develop different cognitive and social strategies to previous generations, and therefore need to be
reached and understood in new ways.
The Experience of Generation Z
This study focuses on the group that marketing agencies often know as Generation Z. Other terms identifying this
generation include The Post Millenials (Oblinger & Oblinger, 2005), The New Silent Generation (Saldik, 2007), Digital
natives (Prensky, 2001), Generation M (Roberts et al., 2005), and the Net Generation (Tapscott, 2009) among many
others. Researchers from various disciplines have tried to identify this age group and the characteristics that set it apart
from the previous generations (Strauss & Howe, 2006; Lancaster & Stillman, 2003; Martin & Tullgan, 2001; Zemke et
al 1999). The general consensus about this generation, is that it consists of those children born, roughly, from 1995
onwards (Saldik, 2007).
Recently, attention from social scientists, marketing and media agencies has been channelled to this generation since it
is widely considered to be exposed to commercial and social influences which previous generations did not experience,
at least not to the same degree (Berk, 2009). Specifically, Generation Z is the first generation of children to have access
on a wide scale to online, interactive computer games in their own homes; they are said to be ―born with a chip‖ (Berk,
2009; Abram and Luther, 2004). Not only this, but there is a sense that profound cultural shifts are being seen around
the conduct and experience of this age group. For example, unlike earlier generations, they are considered by the
marketing industry to have a high degree of autonomy as consumers (Ekström, 2007): they are regarded as having
considerable influence in family consumer decision making (Thomson et al, 2007; Tinson & Nancarrow, 2005): they
are more socially isolated in the sense that they have less autonomy than previous generations to play away from adult
supervision out of doors (Weir et al, 2006) and therefore spend more time in their home playing on video and computer
games and watching TV or communicating with friends via mobile devices (Burdette & Whitaker, 2005); finally, and
importantly, their psychology may be different to previous generations because, since they interact so much with games
or through virtual communication, they have a strong urge for immediate gratification: they are known as the ‗now‘ kids
(McNeal, 1999). This implies that Generation Z may have a different form of socialisation to previous generations and
that their experience of life and responses to it may be different since their behaviours are framed within a social and
technological environment which is, in some ways, distinctive to this generation (Ekström, 2007).
Many of these possibilities are not grounded in robust social research but are regarded as common knowledge in
marketing trade press and popular psychology (e.g. ―Kidfluence‖ Sutherland & Thomson, 2003; ―Brandchild‖
Lindstorm & Seybold, 2003; ―Born to Buy‖ Juliet Schor, 2004; etc). Nonetheless, they have wide credence even though
it is difficult to support such assertions conclusively. What cannot be doubted is that knowledge about Generation Z is
still relatively under-developed given the fact that they are the first generation to have online gaming as a regular part of
their daily routine as a substitute for the traditional outdoor play (Weir et al, 2006). More speculatively, their ownership
of mobile devices, access to the internet and the exposure to an influx of information from online and offline adult
media (Gunter et al, 2005) seems to be different, and in particular more, than any previous generation.
Living in a Virtual World- a negative or positive influence?
Some educators have suggested that Generation Z has a shorter attention span, and there is some evidence that there is a
rise in instances of ADHD and related developmental psychological conditions (Hill, 2006; Chan & Rabinowitz, 2006).
It is a matter of speculation as to whether such conditions are related to the lifestyle of Generation Z. A first step would
be to discover more about the subjective experience of Generation Z and in particular with regard to their virtual lives,
by which is meant their online experiences of games, communication and consumerism. Not all the assumptions about
Generation Z are negative. As Beastall (2008) states, this generation has an advanced relationship with technology. For
example, according to Childwise, a leading UK research specialist on children and their families, in 2009, half of the
UK children aged between 5 and 10 were reported to have mobile phones compared to 95% of those aged between 11
and 16, while all children in the UK aged between 5 and 16 have access to a PC at home, with half of them owning their
own (Childwise Trend Report 2009). One in five children aged between 0 and 4 access the internet and 40% of these
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