Who is Gen Z?
Born between 1996 and 2010, Gen Z differs from the Millennials in their creative and bold approach toward things. They not only believe in “keep it real”, but are also tech-savvy and value-conscious. They are an ethnically and culturally diverse generation with a huge spending power of over $140B. From listening to music on Spotify to socializing on social media apps, Gen Z is anywhere and everywhere. However, you must know as a marketer that you cannot effectively market to Gen Z through a generic lens. Therefore, you need to tailor your marketing efforts to the Gen Z audience. Understand their interests and behaviors, and use the right channels to reach them. Connect with them on the platforms they use and create content that resonates with them.
What Drives Gen Z?
Before diving deeper into the topic, one thing that you must know is that Gen Z is driven by subcultures that are comprised of things this generation is greatly passionate about. Gen Z has different preferences for discovering brands, interacting with them, and making purchases.
Additionally, brand authenticity is what makes a brand attractive to Gen Z. Both millennials and Gen Z prefer a consistent experience across all platforms. With that said, it is worth noticing that while Millennials are allured by offers such as free delivery, Gen Z is more attracted to offers such as that buy now pay later.
Gen Z also wants to be sure that the products they buy are responsibly sourced and produced with sustainable methods. They are interested in buying products from companies that have a positive social and environmental impact. They also prefer companies that have a transparent supply chain. So, you ought to be considerate of these factors while targeting Gen Z.
5 Strategies For Effective Marketing to Gen Z:
- Market With Hyper-Personalization: Hyper-personalization is probably one of the strongest strategies you can implement to market your products and services effectively to Gen Z. It is different from traditional personalization and involves creating customized solutions for every individual. The following are the factors that contribute to an effective hyper-personalized Gen-Z marketing campaign;
- Data Collection and Analysis
- Real-Time Decision Making
- Content Customization
- Email Marketing
- Dynamic Website Experiences
- Behavioral Triggers
- Be Transparent and Accountable: With prices still ranked as the first factor, the second factor that Gen Z evaluates is the credibility and authenticity of your brand. This generation looks for your brand’s reviews by evaluating the brand’s social media platforms and filtering out its comments section. Brands manage to climb up the ladder of progress at a rapid pace because they hold up to the morals and values that they communicate. They also ensure that their customers are satisfied and their expectations are met. They continuously strive to improve their services and products in order to remain competitive in the market. Companies that fail to do this risk being left behind.
- Develop Your Brand’s Persona: Your brand’s persona should be strong enough to make the waves. While millennials prefer perfectly curated content, Gen Z gets attracted to the bold, energetic, and dynamic persona of a brand. Brands that can successfully capture both these preferences can enjoy the best of both worlds and stand out from their competition. It is important to remember that staying relevant or developing a bold persona does not mean changing with every trend. Instead, companies should focus on creating a unique identity that resonates with their target audience. For example, the ‘Share a Coke’ campaign by Coca-Cola in Australia was a success due to its ability to captivate the audience through personalization and storytelling
- Entertain: You might have guessed by now where it is going. Well, if not, then let me state that entertainment is the key to developing the potential connection between your brand and Gen-Z. And this is the secret behind the success of influencer marketing as influencers present the information in an entertaining way and in a much more natural setting than most marketers do. As Gen Z is more about smartness and humor, showing them that you can take a joke can help increase your brand’s fame and reach without any spending. This is similar to the way a good storyteller enchants his audience, with a captivating and engaging narrative that draws them into the tale. Just as those in the audience become invested in the story, the same can be true when information is presented in an entertaining way to a Gen-Z audience. They become invested in the brands and help to spread the message to a wider audience.
- Choose the Right Platforms: No matter what strategy you use, it might always be at the risk of going wasted if you are not using the right platforms to implement them. You ought to use the same social media platforms as that of Gen Z to make your campaigns a success. It’s similar to shooting an arrow at a target – if you don’t have a clear focus or if you’re aiming in the wrong direction, no matter how powerful the shot is, you won’t hit the mark.
Though there are a number of strategies you can implement, you must opt for those marketing strategies only that are in alignment with your brand’s persona. And while you are striving to market effectively to Gen Z you must not miss out on a number of things such as utilizing the right platforms, making the content relevant, communicating your brand’s morals and values, and being authentic in what you do. The other measures you can adopt are to be inclusive, to collab with influencers, to stay updated with the latest trends, and to sprinkle some fun and entertainment in your content and campaigns.
If you think that it’s too much to handle for you, then let Digitize 21 take care of it while you focus on other potential prospects.
