Business strategies are changing in order to reflect the ways in which increasingly techno-savvy consumers are using channels, according to new research from HenleyCentre.
The research points to two distinct groups with their own expectations of business. The first, now in their late 20s or early thirties are comfortable using PCs and find them commonplace (these are the PC generation). The second group, the i-generation, was born after 1980 and this group has grown up immersed in digital technology.
The research says that at the end of the internet boom in 2001, many businesses read this as a collapse in confidence in the internet rather than being a financial market correction. Budgets were cut, investment plans scaled back. But consumers continued to go online, and increasingly used the internet both for shopping and researching. The e-commerce numbers show a smooth upward trajectory over ten years; the number of Britons who buy online, for example, increased by 10% between May 2004 and September 2005, when it reached 16 million.
The study says that 80% of the i-generation and 75% of the PC-generation use the internet regularly, and expect their service suppliers to do the same. The i-generation lead the way in wanting SMS connectivity, for example, with 52% wanting to be sent text messages to their mobile phone from their bank and 60% wanting to be informed of transport delays to their journey in the same way. By contrast, almost half of the over-65s do not want to be sent text messages by companies. The research claims that businesses have some catching up to do, with the i-generation being much more of a mystery than the PC-generation.
The HenleyCentre research said: “These two cohorts together already represent about half of the UK population. In a decade their influence will be pervasive. The shift from a world of limited channels dominated by businesses to a world of fluid digital channels in which consumers have a greater share of voice will be all but complete.”
In addition, according to HenleyCentre Headlight Vision’s annual UK survey Planning for Consumer Change, 72% of British households own a PC, 63% have the internet, of which 44% have a broadband connection, and 80% have a mobile phone (70% of individuals). A recent study by Informa Telecoms & Media said that the UK was the most digital country in Western Europe (see UK Named Most Digital Country In Western Europe).
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