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Generation Z: Marketing’s Next Big Audience

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Generation Z: Marketing's Next Big Audience

Generation Z: Marketing’s Next Big Audience

Move over Millennials, there’s already a newer generation businesses are interested in, and it’s called “Gen Z”.

If you were not familiar with this new generation label, no one would blame you. Generation Z is currently under construction, with a vague birth range that starts in the mid-90’s to present day. This generation is the most tech savvy ever, period. They were born with cell phones, video games, non-dialup internet, and all the other tech perks you weren’t lucky enough to have when you were young.

However, it’s not all fun and tech games for Gen Z. As the first wave of Gen Z is set to graduate college within the next few years, they will be entering a competitive realm with fewer opportunities. The previous generation of Millennials still find themselves underemployed and competing for the same entry-level positions. Couple that with the ever-rising cost of living and housing, there is a bleak outlook for these youngsters.

Businesses will need to communicate with Gen Z differently than other groups. Investors should watch for macro trends in Gen Z demographics and psychographics to see what opportunities are worth taking advantage of. Here are some basics on Gen Z:

For starters, they are a multi-screen user demographic. As the infographic suggests, Gen Z’ers prefer to multi-task on up to 5 screens. The best way to get to their wallet is through the devices in their pockets. The majority of their screen time is spent on smartphones. Also, video content is huge for educating and connecting this demographic. It makes sense, as the average American’s attention is only 8 seconds and most people are visual learners; long winded messages or blocks of text are just not effective at getting people’s attention.

Although Gen Z’s purchasing power has not come to fruition yet, it is important for businesses to connect with them early on and maintain that connection as their incomes grow. Youth today want to connect and trust those that they buy from and do business with. Relationships are paramount for business, and Gen Z is no exception.

 

Original infographic from: Marketo

 

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Countries

Charted: The Number of Democracies Globally

How many democracies does the world have? This visual shows the change since 1945 and the top nations becoming more (and less) democratic.

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Charted: The Number of Democracies Globally

The end of World War II in 1945 was a turning point for democracies around the world.

Before this critical turning point in geopolitics, democracies made up only a small number of the world’s countries, both legally and in practice. However, over the course of the next six decades, the number of democratic nations would more than quadruple.

Interestingly, studies have found that this trend has recently reversed as of the 2010s, with democracies and non-democracies now in a deadlock.

In this visualization, Staffan Landin uses data from V-DEM’s Electoral Democratic Index (EDI) to highlight the changing face of global politics over the past two decades and the nations that contributed the most to this change.

The Methodology

V-DEM’s EDI attempts to measure democratic development in a comprehensive way, through the contributions of 3,700 experts from countries around the world.

Instead of relying on each nation’s legally recognized system of government, the EDI analyzes the level of electoral democracy in countries on a range of indicators, including:

  • Free and fair elections
  • Rule of law
  • Alternative sources of information and association
  • Freedom of expression

Countries are assigned a score on a scale from 0 to 1, with higher scores indicating a higher level of democracy. Each is also categorized into four types of functional government, from liberal and electoral democracies to electoral and closed autocracies.

Which Countries Have Declined the Most?

The EDI found that numerous countries around the world saw declines in democracy over the past two decades. Here are the 10 countries that saw the steepest decline in EDI score since 2010:

CountryDemocracy Index (2010)Democracy Index (2022)Points Lost
🇭🇺 Hungary0.800.46-34
🇵🇱 Poland0.890.59-30
🇷🇸 Serbia0.610.34-27
🇹🇷 Türkiye0.550.28-27
🇮🇳 India0.710.44-27
🇲🇱 Mali0.510.25-26
🇹🇭 Thailand0.440.20-24
🇦🇫 Afghanistan0.380.16-22
🇧🇷 Brazil0.880.66-22
🇧🇯 Benin0.640.42-22

Central and Eastern Europe was home to three of the countries seeing the largest declines in democracy. Hungary, Poland, and Serbia lead the table, with Hungary and Serbia in particular dropping below scores of 0.5.

Some of the world’s largest countries by population also decreased significantly, including India and Brazil. Across most of the top 10, the “freedom of expression” indicator was hit particularly hard, with notable increases in media censorship to be found in Afghanistan and Brazil.

Countries Becoming More Democratic

Here are the 10 countries that saw the largest increase in EDI score since 2010:

CountryDemocracy Index (2010)Democracy Index (2022)Points Gained
🇦🇲 Armenia0.340.74+40
🇫🇯 Fiji0.140.40+26
🇬🇲 The Gambia0.250.50+25
🇸🇨 Seychelles0.450.67+22
🇲🇬 Madagascar0.280.48+20
🇹🇳 Tunisia0.400.56+16
🇱🇰 Sri Lanka0.420.57+15
🇬🇼 Guinea-Bissau0.410.56+15
🇲🇩 Moldova0.590.74+15
🇳🇵 Nepal0.460.59+13

Armenia, Fiji, and Seychelles saw significant improvement in the autonomy of their electoral management bodies in the last 10 years. Partially as a result, both Armenia and Seychelles have seen their scores rise above 0.5.

The Gambia also saw great improvement across many election indicators, including the quality of voter registries, vote buying, and election violence. It was one of five African countries to make the top 10 most improved democracies.

With the total number of democracies and non-democracies almost tied over the past four years, it is hard to predict the political atmosphere in the future.

Want to know more about democracy in today’s world? Check out our global breakdown of each country’s democratic score in Mapped: The State of Global Democracy in 2022.
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