Intergenerational Perceptions about Online Platforms and Digital Marketing Activities

Abstract

Generation is a group of individuals born within the same range of birth years and share similar experiences, traits, behaviors and attitudes. When developing a digital marketing strategy businesses and marketers need to understand the perception of every generational cohorts as their time spend online, online purchase decision and platforms used differ. Generations X, Y and Z form a prominent group and comprises of more than 90% customer segment and this study tries to explore their perception towards online platforms and digital marketing activities. GenX are digital immigrants, GenY are digital natives and GenZ are mobile natives. From this study we understand that traditional media has more influence on Gen X than online media. Gen Y cohorts are aware of both the media whereas Gen Z do not see any difference among them. All generations use WhatsApp for communication and email for official purpose. YouTube is the most commonly used online streaming platform among all generations. Gen X prefers social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, whereas Gen Y mostly uses Facebook, Instagram followed by Twitter and LinkedIn. Gen Z use Instagram & SnapChat and are slowly shifting away from Facebook. Gen X group are generally ignored or overlooked by businesses while developing digital marketing strategies. Inter-generational similarities and intra-generational differences in perceptions are not considered while promoting the products and services. Single online platform marketing may not be effective, as online platform preference differs and hence multi-online platform approach may be considered.