Why You Need to Start Thinking About Marketing to Gen Z
We all know that things tend to change quickly in the marketing world, but it’s not just how we market that changes, it’s also who we market to. In the earlier days of marketing, the focus was on the product. More recently, the focus is on the customer, and these days, it seems that customer is getting younger and younger. You’ve probably heard that it’s all about the millennials, but that way of thinking is very 2014. Now that we are in 2015, we are seeing a shift from Gen Y to Gen Z which means that marketers are beginning to focus more and more on people who are under the age of 18.
You may be wondering why you should even care about this demographic in the first place. Sure, people under the age of 18 may get an allowance, but is it enough to really matter? Studies show that it is. One adolescent’s allowance may not matter, but when you take into account that Gen Zers make up over 25% of the population, the numbers start to get large – and we’re talking billions large – more specifically, over $40 billion large. On top of that, the younger generation has a lot of influence over their parents and their buying decisions. All that said, it’s hard to deny that there is a lot of potential opportunity in this market.
So now that you know why you should focus on this age group, it’s time to actually do it and start marketing to Gen Z. Sounds easy, right? In reality, not so much. The problem isn’t about what to say to this group, it’s about how to reach them. Just like old school marketing techniques weren’t enough to reach millennials, what you may consider new marketing techniques aren’t enough to reach Gen Zers. Big social media networks like Facebook don’t resonate the same way with this group, so once again, it’s time to make a change.
While millennial purchasing decisions were certainly hugely affected by the Internet, Gen Z is really the first generation out there that didn’t know a world without it, and that is going to have a huge impact on how they make decisions, as well as how we reach them. On top of that, those in the Gen Z generation are unbelievably resourceful at getting the information they need from multiple sources across all different types of platforms and not only are they tech-savvy in ways some of us will never understand, but they also are very entrepreneurial and crave transparency. We won’t just be marketing to Gen Z, we’re going to have to be marketing with them.
Time is fleeting, especially in the marketing world, and it’s important to stay on top of the latest and greatest in techniques and trends. It seems like just yesterday that we realized we needed to focus on millennials, but now those millennials are getting older and we’re starting to really see the potential opportunities that lie with the generation behind them. That also means that you may not have as much time as you think to reach Gen Zers because before you know it, they’ll be older too and it’ll be time to look to the next generation – just because we’re at the end of the alphabet doesn’t mean they’re not coming. The time is now or never, so start thinking about how Gen Z fits into your company and how best to reach them before your competitors have a chance to. Click here to learn more about marketing to Gen Z and to find out how Athena Marketing can help.