How companies must orient their strategies to attract Generation Zers

8

October

2020

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Generation Z was born between 1996-2014 and don’t know a world without the internet – they are digital natives (Earls 2017). Technological innovations are nothing new for people that are part of this generation and according to Earls (2017) they are connected between “six and nine hours” daily and 96% of this generation owns a smartphone. They are characterized by Francis and Hoefel in a research conducted by McKinsey in 2018 as the true generation – “True Gen”. This is because this generation is seeking the truth with the following four behaviors:

  1. They promote self-expression and don’t like being labeled.
  2. They take action on various causes.
  3. They strongly believe in the effectiveness of talking to resolve conflicts and creating a better world
  4. They rely on analytics and pragmatism in their relationships with institutions and in the choices they make.

This is defined in particular in contrast with their preceding generation, the millennials, which is usually defined as the “Me generation” – a very self-centered generation (Francis & Hoefel 2018).

According to the characteristics listed above, companies should therefore adapt their strategies in order to meet the requirements of this very digital generation. Francis and Hoefel (2018) list three aspects the companies should pay attention to: “consumption as access rather than possession, consumption as an expression of individual identity, and consumption as a matter of ethical concern.”. Hence, companies need to move away from mass production and reorient themselves towards strategies that focuse on other values than just owning material (Williams & Page 2011). For example, selling experiences or car sharing services. Furthermore, as mentioned above generation Z doesn’t like being labeled, which is why companies’ strategies should focus on personalized marketing (Williams & Page 2011). Moreover, as the generation Z is aware of ethical and ecological issues, brands should focus on improving their global corporate citizenship (Francis & Hoefel).

I think our master is divided with people from Generation Z and generation Y (millennials). Which generation do you feel you belong to most and do you think this strategy answers your needs?

 

Earls, A,, “Facts and Trends – 10 Traits of Generation Z”, Facts and Trends, Accessed on 8 October https://factsandtrends.net/2017/09/29/10-traits-of-generation-z/

Francis, T., Hoefel, F, (2018). ‘True Gen’: Generation Z and its implications for companies. McKinsey&Company. Accessed on 8 October https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/consumer-packaged-goods/our-insights/true-gen-generation-z-and-its-implications-for-companies.

William, K., & Page, R. A., 2011, Marketing to the generations. Journal of Behavioral Studies in Business, 3(3), pp.1-17

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The future of education with VR

2

October

2020

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Education is a field that is constantly changing. New teaching methods emerge frequently, and schools adopt them but above all, new technologies have led to big advancements for the education field. A basic example is the access to information. Before, all information was found in books and therefore libraries. Today, the same information is available to us in our phone, computer, iBook, etc. (Vera et al. 2005) The education is evolving, but still presents the two following problems. Firstly, most courses are based on a fact retention format, which becomes obsolete as people can access information at any time anywhere. Secondly, schools are still based on stiff educational concepts which do not fit to everyone. This is why Virtual Reality (VR) is offering alternatives to these mentioned issues. (Babich, 2019)

VR education enables students to live something, by seeing and hearing it through 360° glasses blinding out the real world and blocking any external distractions. That way, students can visit places and understand mechanisms, by experiencing them instead of only hearing or reading them (Gadelha, 2018). According to Gadelha (2018), technology is already so prominent in our lives, it would be absurd not to include this technology to the educational system. Schools are evolving and using new tools such as electronic boards, tablets or others but most of them have not taken the step of including VR to their pedagogical methodologies.

VR is assessing the two mentioned problems in the following way. The approach of fact-retention is addressed with VR, as it is shown that students can remember theories more easily by experiencing them instead of reading or hearing them. Furthermore, concepts can be adapted to individuals instead of a one-size fits all approach, currently putting students in difficulty who don’t correspond to the teaching method. To conclude, it can be said that VR has big potential in the educational field and its benefits are still underestimated by schools.

Do you think school education would have been different with VR?

 

Babich, N. (2019), “How VR In Education Will Change How We Learn And Teach”, Accessed on 2 October 2020 on https://xd.adobe.com/ideas/principles/emerging-technology/virtual-reality-will-change-learn-teach/

Gadelha, R. (2018), “Revolutionizing Education: The promise of virtual reality”, Childhood Education, 94(1), pp.40-43

Vera L., Herrera G., Vived E. (2005) Virtual Reality School for Children with Learning Difficulties. Proceedings of the 2005 ACM SIGCHI International Conference on Advances in computer entertainment technology, Vol. 265, pp.338-341.

 

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