Gen-Alpha, Cannabis Labs & Mom Economy 👪

A new survey by Salesforce shows that 53.3% of SMEs have had staffing issues this year. Of these, 56.6% reported at least a 10% hit on revenue and profit. The report suggested that most employees leaving or refusing jobs fell in the millennial category and were motivated by the "You Only Live Once" mentality. 

Echoing this sentiment was a survey for the NFIB July jobs report, which found that 49% of small business owners had job openings that could not be filled—a 48-year record high. According to the report, the biggest concern for small businesses was labour quality and qualifications. Majority of the owners reported few or no qualified applicants.

A separate NFIB survey indicated that for most small businesses earnings fell by about 13%, owing, in part, to the lack of labour availability. Large companies, by contrast, have been reporting huge earnings growth. Majority of the S&P 500-listed companies reported revenues above the mean estimate for Q2, according to FactSet.

Job openings in the U.S. surged to a record high of 10.1 million in June, while hiring lagged behind that figure by over 3 million, painting a picture of an economic recovery held back by hiring woes.

Studies show that children as young as 3 can recognise brand names.

This finding is not lost on baby brands -- which have turned their attention to Generation Alpha (children born between 2010 and 2025).

This next generation of consumers is being born at the height of American excess. They will grow up in a world oversaturated with direct-to-consumer brands, one where social media is shoppable, Amazon is ubiquitous and marketeers are monitoring their behaviours since childbirth.

But right now, they are still too young to have preferences or identities. They don’t resonate with any brand or its values yet. Typical ad targeting doesn’t work on them because data about their characteristics is unknown. As a result, their mothers have now become a key marketing demographic. 

Data on Gen Alpha’s parents, the millennials (which is available in abundance), can forecast how these children will be raised. Whatever the parents expose the child to, the more often they will come to identify with that brand even from a very young age.

The parenting industry — or the “mom economy” — has moved largely online in the last few years. Mothers shop off Instagram, follow recommendation from mommy blogs, and are privy to staying in line with social media trends. Which is why traditional brick and mortar companies like Toys R Us and Hamleys are also moving digital to woe these parents. 

Starting from the turn of the century, we began to realise that millennials would wield the greatest consumer power in the world, compared to all other age groups. They were the first of the generations to become victims of ad profiling and targeted marketing.

And millennial parents now guiding Gen-Alpha’s choices, makes them the biggest marketing demographic of all time.

• Data of nearly 50 million T-Mobile customers hacked - customers' names, DOB, social security numbers and driver's licence numbers compromised. 
• United Airlines had to remind flight crews not to duct-tape passengers to their seats after a video of an attendant taping a passenger went viral this month.
• More than 100 million U.S. households, or 61% of all taxpayers, paid no income taxes in 2020, according to a new report. 
• Remote work leaves us more vulnerable to cyber-attacks. Network security firm Barracuda Networks said there was a 667% increase in malicious phishing emails in 2020. 
• Walmart may be headed towards cryptocurrency - the company is reportedly hiring a cryptocurrency lead strategist. 
• At one point last year, there were ~1.1B grams of marijuana held in storage in Canada. 
• Musk plans to send humans to moon before 2024 - per his response to a Twitter follower. 
• The Traffic Safety Administration in U.S. opened a formal investigation into Tesla’s autopilot technology after 11 reported accidents since 2018.