How much buying
power
does our youngest generation, Generation Z, have? Try up to $143 billion.
Would it be useful for you to learn how to market to Gen Z without wasting money?
If so, let me introduce myself and share some quick tips on how to do it right. I’m a double agent: a 19-year-old who has been obsessed with marketing for the last decade. And here’s the intel I have for you on marketing to us.
Be Authentic
Studies show that Gen Z’s core behaviors are anchored in their search for truth. So tell the truth about your product in marketing, and be clear about the benefits and drawbacks. Your honesty can build trust, and that trust can improve how your benefits are perceived.
The best way to go about this is to tell the truth and accept responsibility. Telling the truth but making excuses is not nearly as effective. And in customer service interactions, cut the corporate speak and just be honest. You may be thinking: “What if the truth is ugly?” Tell it anyway, and resolve to improve. The research is clear: Honesty is the best policy, especially when it comes to Gen Z.
Panera Bread’s “Food As It Should Be” marketing campaign is a perfect example of authenticity. Rather than equivocate around the public’s criticism of their artificial ingredients, they publicly agreed that it was a problem and made a promise to stop using artificial ingredients by the end of 2016.
Speak Their Language
Do you prefer people who communicate using your preferred style? If you’re like most people, the answer is probably yes. And most of the individuals that make up Gen Z are no different, except they also communicate using memes, GIFs, emojis and textspeak.
Wendy’s Twitter account is a perfect example of this communication style. Using this strategy, they’ve been able to grow to over 3 million followers, and they’re especially popular among Generation Z.
So, speak their language, and immerse yourself in popular culture. Try using memes, GIFs, emojis and textspeak in your communication, and see if your engagement increases. Communicate like them, to them, so that your brand resonates.
One exception: If your brand is a formal institution, I’d advise being a bit more conservative with your approach. A few emojis in a bank’s customer service interactions may help build relationships with customers, but slapping memes on customers’ bank statements would be a disaster. Use your best judgment.
Use Influencers
Imagine being able to control how the people who mold popular culture talk about your business — how they describe you, how they associate you and how they share your value. Do you see how that could be valuable?
According to research, up to 70% of teenagers trust influencers more than traditional celebrities. The best part? Nearly half (40%) of teenagers say their favorite influencer understands them better than their friends.
So, which influencers should you hire?
Choose the ones that are the best fit for your brand in terms of the type of content they create and their audience demographics. Ideally, they already talk about your type of product a lot.
What should your influencer posts say?
Let your influencers communicate in their authentic, natural tone with their audience. Earning engagement and getting their fans to take action is what they do best.
Social media is inarguably essential for marketing to Gen Z, and one more way to leverage it for an effective marketing campaign is to …
Engineer Your Experience For Virality
Have you ever seen a brand post on social media go viral? Thousands of (free) likes, comments and conversations being had about a seemingly lucky brand …
It turns out there’s a science behind that, and you may not have to rely on luck. Making people feel like insiders by sharing, using triggers to make your customer experience remembered in customers’ daily routines and making people experience emotions like excitement throughout their customer journey can all lead to virality, according to experts Jonah Berger and Katherine L. Milkman.
This is the case with people of all ages, but it’s especially useful when marketing to Gen Z because of how much time they spend on social media, where virality and social sharing mostly happen.
So take the time to read up on the latest research on virality and social sharing. Then use it to engineer your customer experience for viral growth, to be shared among people.
Conclusion
Congratulations! You now have the basics for marketing to Generation Z. In summary, be authentic in your communication. Use influencers to advertise your brand, and engineer your customer experience to go viral on social media.
Now that you’ve got the secret weapons for marketing to Gen Z, how will you use them? Will you take action on capturing a larger portion of the $143 billion (and growing) in spending power and use these tactics to achieve your marketing goals? Or will you wait for your competition to beat you to it? The choice is yours.
