It’s highly unlikely that mass numbers of Generation Z will swarm stores for the new iPhone8 and Samsung Galaxy Note smartphones when they become available this month. Despite the much-touted wireless recharging and enhanced camera capabilities, hefty price tags will stop most youth in their tracks. That said, results of our latest “Summer of GenZ” survey bode well for brands hoping to cultivate the generation’s must-have mentality in the future.
Summer of GenZ National Survey Results
In last month’s national survey of 895 tweens and teens (age 13-20), our WeRGenZ think-tank wanted to know just how American teens spent their summer. We looked at a range of activities including who had full or part-time jobs, paid or unpaid internships, to how respondents did or didn’t spend their money and leisure time. Generation Z is widely known to account for a whopping $44 billion annually and influence as much as $600 billion each year when including their sway over family spending.
Since GenZers are the first true digital natives, we also wanted to account for how the Internet and social media played into their summer activity. 58.55% of respondents claimed to have spent their down time surfing the Internet. That’s probably extremely low based on reality. Teens are perpetually on their phones and are often obsessive about keeping their Snap threads (an extremely popular Snapchat feature) alive. More than twice as many respondents spent significantly more time online during the summer months than during the academic year. 59.10% calculated that they had spent as much two or more hours a day on social media and/or chat sites. 41.79% spent their free time playing video games- also a good sign for the burgeoning phenomenon of e-sports.
Will They or Won’t They
Since the typical teen seems tethered to a smartphone (¾ of Americans own a smartphone: Pew Research Center), it’s not a major leap to suggest that exploding consumption rates will push teens to find some way to purchase or upgrade what seems to be an indispensable tool of youth.
Over the next couple of weeks, I’ll be sharing more details on the first WeRGenZ survey of the school year with new surveys each month. October’s survey will explore how GenZ will factor into the holiday buying frenzy so check back regularly for valuable insights straight from the mouths of GenZ.
Interested in more specifics, a customized GenZ survey or presentation to better understand this group of consumers, employees and influencers? Follow @WeRGenZ on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook. You can also contact me: Kathleen Hessert on Linkedin, khessert@buzzmgr.com or call BuzzManager 704-906-3600.
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