Don’t Sleep on Gen Z: Your Company’s Future Needs Them
As Gen Z gets older, more and more small businesses are recognizing how important it is to reach out to them with their marketing. However, to market to Gen Z, you’re going to have to understand them first. Marketing research on Gen Z has shown that they are a unique generation, and certain things influence substantially more than other generations. And remember, as Gen Z gets older they are going to take up a bigger a bigger piece of of your business’ audience pie chart. If you’re planning for the future, you should be planning for Gen Z.
Gen Z Quick Facts
While a lot of Gen Z are now full-fledged adults, most of Gen Z is still young and establishing themselves financially. They have a limited budget and have to be conscious of their spending.
Further exacerbating their spending limits, Gen Z is entering adulthood with a high cost of living and less money than past generations.
Gen Z is a not a trusting generation—they often spend their dollars not just based on price of goods but also based on a company’s ethics and values.
The most important issues for Gen Z include: companies that support mental health issues, climate change and sustainability, ethical manufacturing processes, and LGBTQ+ rights. They care about these things more than any other generation.
Communication That Works with Gen Z
Gen Z is not a trusting generation. They have authenticity-radar, and if your brand comes across as disingenuous, they will pass you by in a heartbeat. The key to reach Gen Z is through storytelling,
Gen Z hangs out on Instagram (91%) and TikTok (86%) and love short-form video or images.
Gen Z loves User-Generated Content (UGC) and influencer recommendations when they discover a product.
As much as Gen Z loves ethical companies that back causes they believe in, they DON’T like them to oversaturate their content with activism or political issues. They expect this content more from influencers, not companies.
Gen Z uses Google less than other generations, and finds information on products on Reddit and social media instead.
Shopping Behavior
Gen Z’s top drivers are quality, if it’s on sale, lowest pricing, and if it’s recommended by a friend.
Over 60% of Gen Z poll participants said they usually buy clothes when it’s on sale. This is likely to apply to many other products, too.
Gen Z is particularly focused on self-expression and individuality, so they buy more personalized and customizable products than other generations, and are willing to pay more to do so.
48% of Gen Z (compared to 38% of everyone else) value brands that don’t classify items as male or female.
Gen Z tends to research a company for its values and ethics before they make a purchase. 65% say they check where a product is made, what it’s made from, and how it’s made.
Gen Z will cancel you! 80% of Gen Z shoppers polled will not buy from companies involved in scandals. Ethics are a huge priority for them. However, they will forgive you if your company corrects itself.
How You Can Take Action
Hopefully this fact sheet gives you a good amount of insight on the unique differences of Gen Z, but here are some suggestions I have to put this data into action:
Don’t neglect your social media, especially Instagram and TikTok (especially now that TikTok is probably not getting banned).
Have a fully developed About page with a clear mission statement and list of your company’s values. It seems like Gen Z is going to do their research, and that will likely include looking for these things on your website.
Consider adding a Social Pledge to your website, which dives deeper into your company values and lays out how your company is walking the talk: what specific actions is your company taking to support those values or support causes? This could include discounts for veterans or donations/sponsorships to certain organizations.
Invest in influencer marketing. Check out influencer networks like Later or Upfluence.
Create incentives like generous discounts or freebies to encourage your customers to create product reviews.
Remember, when you are trying to reach out to a specific audience, do your best to understand and respect them. Gen Z deviates so much from other generations because they grew up during strange times. As much as every generation likes to point out how hard they had it, remember that every generation had their own struggles and had to earn their existence just like your generation did. So my last piece of advice is to drop the “kids these days…” attitude if you find it creeping into your communications. The best marketing outreach happens when it is done with respect, empathy, and an attitude of unity.
Want to learn more about UGC? Check out our other blog post, Leveraging User-Generated Content to Boost Your Brand.
