Businessweek
An Investor’s Guide to Gen Alpha
Consumer companies and investors that only just wrapped their head around Generation Z have another thing coming for them: Gen Alpha.
Although this cohort, born between 2010 and 2024, is still too young to vote or, in the vast majority of cases, even drive a car, its members are rapidly emerging as a global economic and cultural force. The first generation born entirely in the 21st century already has more than $100 billion a year in direct spending power in the US, thanks to a mix of parental allowances and wages from first jobs, and it will grow only more influential as its members age into the full-time workforce. “Gen Alpha is forming their financial habits earlier, with digital commerce available to them like no previous generation,” says Michael Moran, bank president of financial-services company USAA. “Arguably, Gen Alpha is ahead of the curve.”
With Gen Alpha spanning toddlerhood to teendom, some corporations might be inclined to put off getting to know this school-age group. After all, millennials are increasingly the decision-makers sitting in the C-suite, while the Gen Z crop that followed (at least the eldest of them) are starting to reach major life milestones, such as marriage and kids.
But ignoring this generation—the world’s largest, with about 2 billion members—would be a mistake, says Americus Reed, a professor of marketing at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. “You better be thinking about how to talk to these younger consumers and how to make sure you don’t misunderstand their language, their habits, their social media preferences, their desires to engage with their peers and brands, and their communication devices,” he says. “All of that has to be sociologically unpacked if you want to understand them at a deep enough level to be able to capture their fascination and their marketplace behavior.”
For brands and investors looking to snag a piece of that spending, some of these values and traits can help you understand the newest generation. (Newest, that is, until Gen Beta takes over.)