Dubai: Lowe & Partners has coined a term for all those emerging market consumers who should be on markets’ radar — the ‘andgeneration’.
“A growing middle-class not only changes how a country spends but also how it thinks,” according to the agency based on a survey it commissioned. “They are hungry for progress, they are competitive and connected, and unwilling to settle with the status quo.”
And what should brands and brand marketers need to do to connect with them? “A more sophisticated approach is required recognising that customers among the AndGeneration cannot be pigeon-holed easily and may hold contradicting stances and attitudes.”
Making an impact
“Any brand that aspires to making an impact in popular culture cannot ignore the tensions at play in the AndGeneration. So it needs to decide which tension to address and how to address it.
“Do you pick one side or the other? Do you exaggerate the tension? Or do you try to resolve it? A brand which addresses a core tension, which helps people take a position, helps them to define themselves or helps to reconcile contradictions in their self-image becomes very valuable.”
According to Tony Wright, chairman of the agency: “Markets have still not been won or lost – there are huge categories to play for — which is why we are investing in things such as the Andgeneration study — it is all about understanding consumers and realising that they are different in important respects from those in the west but are also different from each other — Mexico and Indonesia are both strong growth markets, but with hugely different cultural traditions.”