Marketing to millennials has already seized tremendous attention and has propelled extensive research on what catches their fancy. But, are you ready to attract the next big rush of fresh shoppers—Gen Z? This online generation is stealing the spotlight and is here to shake your old marketing ways.
With an anticipated overshadowing population in the coming years, marketing to generation Z demands to be more phenomenal than ever. The iGeneration, advancing with evolved personas, is making disruptive marketing the wave of the future.
Your business needs to speak the same language to gain the invincible attraction. These digital natives are pushing the brands to shift with the old trends and focus on a new dimension of marketing.
Why is marketing to Generation Z important?
Generation Z has arrived in style post the millennials and your brand message must excite them in ways as never before. This generation is packed with energy striving for visibility, inclusivity and uniqueness.
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They have a buying power of over $44 billion which can go up to $200 billion and even more. Your business can’t afford to underestimate that gigantic value.
What can catch their attention? What moves and holds them? The answers to these questions are going to shape your gen Z marketing campaigns and branding.
What to keep in mind when marketing to Gen Z ?
Generation Z comprises people who are born between 1996 to 2010. They have an affinity towards money, trends and technology. How to make them gravitate towards your BRANDS?
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1. Get established online: The Gen Z dwells in the online platforms like Snapchat, Instagram, Pinterest, Twitter, Facebook and more.
They are the largest content consumers so far lounging on the internet. Use digital marketing to extend your brand and business to where they are.
2. No hard-selling: They are marked by urgency and are immune to traditional advertisements or campaigns. Beware, they can smell fakeness and spontaneously avoid exaggerations.
3. Be concise, clear and innovative: They have minuscule packets of attention span, irresistible urge, and passion. Cut it short and make your ads thought-provoking.
4. Match their attitude: Generation Z has a distinct outlook towards brands and their approach to brands has evolved.
They are the social-justice warriors who are always up for a cause or a change or a strong purpose.
What is more, they have an entrepreneurial mindset and they envision themselves as self reliant— paddling their own canoe.
5. Be budget considerate: They decide where or what to buy depending on the price and their affordability.
Too pricey? They would rather buy the cheap yet classy clothes available in the small store next to the mall. Well, financially focused after all.
6. Acknowledge their struggles to shape your ways: These kids are the selfie generation who may even spend hours photographing themselves.
They are used to frequently updating their social audiences about their lives. This puts them under pressure to buy new clothes or products, giving birth to go-as-you-please rental and resale shopping.
7. Adopt a cheap-&-chic marketing formula: The Gen Zers constantly look for ways to stand unique while saving money. You have to design attractive offers and update your products to suit their interests.
You have to run a deep understanding on what these kids are most inclined to and work out the best gen Z marketing trends to captivate the younger demographics.
However, Gen Z fashion brands like Nike, Adidas and Louis Vuitton have advanced to adapt with the shifting sands of taste over generations.
How to tailor your marketing campaign to captivate these newly arrived buyers? Here you go.
The 5 crucial strategies to follow when marketing to Generation Z
Your marketing strategies must involve extensive trend research, and psychological marketing approach to discover the post-millennial buyer personas. You have to play your cards right to catch these teens’ attention.
1. Sell stories and speak of experiences
Stories are powerful tools to inspire and attract your new age customers. Drive them to your business with tales and adventures that breathe your brand voice.
As reported by Prezi, 9 out of 10 people find a strong narrative or story more engaging. Also, 73% of business professionals use visual presentations to seize attention and pump engagement.
Airbnb has taken a dip into the art of storytelling to teleport their audience to places. Airbnb uses stories as a medium to spread it’s brand voice and to showcase how the experience with Airbnb feels like.
What more? It doesn’t itself make stories. It gets the customers to share their experience through stories. They have a section called “stories from the Airbnb community“ on their page.
How else could you merge stories with implicit marketing? Many ways, but this is one of the top ones.
2. Win at digital marketing using videos, GIFs and images
As opposed to millennials, who believe in texts and ads, Gen zers are too motive driven to give your long ads a look. You can effectively use quizzes for marketing to study your Generation Z shoppers’ spending habits and indulgences.
Visual stimulation is the key to drawing undivided attention. A visual persuasion study states that creative and animated graphics are the best ways to immerse your iGeneration users. Also, 79% of people find animated visuals as effective tools for grabbing the audience’s focus.
The Red Bull Media House has mastered the skill of advertising through inspiring videos. The Red bull social accounts have an array of videos ranging from mini series, short documentaries, long videos, live-streamed events on sports, surfing, gaming and so much more.
This has paid them off with 9 million YouTube subscribers and about 3.9 million subscribers across other channels. This, being one of their gen Z marketing trends, is outshooting their sales in more ways than imagined.
3. Influencer branding is everything
A strong Gen Z influencer branding can take your brand or business to the next level. Gen Z is accustomed to seeking authenticity and relies on products backed by their peers or more essentially, the influencers.
According to recent research by Tampa, 63% of consumers revealed that they are more likely to try the brands that are recommended by influencers and content creators.
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The highest-paid Instagram influencer, Kylie Jenner, has reached a dominating amount of loyal fan following that fetches her all the dollars.
Having over 110 million followers on Instagram, this 20-year-old billionaire reaches her fans and customers with convenience.
She endorses brands like Fashion Nova, SugarBearHair Vitamins, Quay Australia eyewear and many more reputed brands on Instagram.
Before reaching out to an influencer, you need to ensure the following —
- Does the influencer align with your brand values?
- Do they have a loyal following or is it deceptive?
- Are the followers the right audience for your brand?
4. Build your audience & communicate a brand promise
Marketing to generation Z has to be executed fairly and with loads of engagement on digital platforms. You are dealing with a generation that will sneak into Quora to find real people answering the questions than sliding into your brand page.
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Your brand should prevail everywhere making an evolving presence on nearly every platform including TikTok. When it comes down to purchasing a product, an estimated 97% consumers resort to reliable reviews for information.
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Disney communicates its brand message in an eloquent way. When you think of kids & family, vacation and entertainment, it is Disney that strikes your mind!
Disney communicates an emotional brand message to connect with its audience. The same has worked for Coca-Cola that shines a tagline— open happiness.
Both the brands share emotional brand connection with their consumers. This has led to an outstanding marketing campaign by Disney and Coca-Cola partnership.
5. Boost your brand loyalty and earn their trust
For this generation, which has crawled straightly into a technology dependent century, information flows at the tip of their fingers. Brands, specially emerging brands, have to play it raw and real to stick this iGeneration to their businesses.
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Connecting with the flaws and their core values will lead your business ahead of the curve. This generation appreciates diversity and finds comfort in embracing their originality.
Look at how the revolutionary app Tik Tok has snatched all the graceful Gen Z traffic. The application serves as a platform for people to act raw and show their real, awkward selves.
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This has intensely resonated with over 42% of US Gen zen Xers causing an upsurge of Tik Tok users. Globally, around 66% of TikTok users are below the age of 30. TikTok is in talks!
Keynotes
After this read, you might ask, “Will these strategies drive all the attention we are aiming for?”. Well, the answer is ‘no’.
Your business should not be targeting a vast audience, rather it should be targeting the right audience. The perfect Generation Z audience who needs you for who you are and the values you offer.
We believe, your business has to pick the right route and the perfect tools to win the attention. Still not sure how to proceed?
Get your consultation now to apply the strategies that best suit your Gen Z marketing. We got your back!
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