Modern Family: why Gen Z are more grown up than you think.
by Ryan Deluchi
Photo by Kelly Sikkema on Unsplash
Gen Z are growing up and in some cases, that still means starting a family of
their own.
Try to predict the must-have purchases of someone under 25 and you’d be forgiven for not including nappies and baby formula.
But for a significant cohort of young people, it’s these items that are topping their weekly shopping lists.
“Wait a second - but weren’t Gen Z in nappies themselves not so long ago!?” I hear you cry.
Not really. With those born in the mid to late nineties now well into their twenties and potentially a decade out of school, the upper percentile of this generation are no longer the responsibility-free children that they’re all too easily painted as.
In a world where our perceptions of reality are still hugely skewed by a capital city-centric bias, it’s easy to assume that anyone under 25 is too immature, too poor or too woke to start a family. The notion of being a young parent flies in the face of everything we’re told about the plague of prolonged adolescence.
And whilst the average age of new parents in the majority of the world is going up, a significant portion of society are still choosing to have children young. In the UK, 20% of all new mums in 2019 were under 25. It seems the widely acknowledged barriers that young people face when it comes to careers and house buying aren’t putting everyone off from starting a family.
Instead of forcing young people to postpone or cancel parenthood, what if an inability to climb the housing / career / any other kind of metaphorical ladder is simply making them reevaluate the long established order of things?
To lean heavily on a gaming metaphor, perhaps it will transpire that this linear, arcade-style approach to life will become the preserve of previous generations, with the next generation seeking fulfilment through a sandbox approach; treating life as an open-world experience in which they dictate the sequence of events.
If any generation is going to throw up two fingers to society’s linear expectations of how and when to move through life stages, it’s probably this one.
What does this mean for brands?
Gen Z aren’t kids
Time flies, doesn’t it? Many brand conversations around Gen Z revolve around trying to predict the future in order to safeguard businesses against tomorrow’s consumer habits, but the here and now is just as important for many brands. The products and services that help people to start families or buy houses are now just as relevant to a generation that’s now finding its feet in the world.
Identifying their values is important
The next generation of parents is going to have unique styles, beliefs and behaviours when it comes to raising children. It’s important that any brand looking to engage with young parents is hyper aware of their values, particularly when it comes to things like the environment, social justice and diversity. Brands like Tommee Tippee are already one step ahead of the game through their raw, progressive depictions of parenthood.
Time to reflect
Whilst it’s relatively easy to adopt a progressive, forward thinking positioning as a start-up or new to market D2C brand, it can be far harder to pivot as a legacy brand (as Mothercare found out last year). The businesses formed to solve the parenting needs of Gen Y or even Gen X are the ones who need to reflect the most. Whilst Gen Z parents remain the minority for now, whether or not they identify with your brand now may be the difference between success and catastrophe in five years time.