James Hinson Blog #7 – The Rise of Gen Z

With generational change comes the changing of marketing focus.  Gen Z, the generation born roughly in the lase 90s  until now, has already been aggressively profiled by marketers, eager to find the right angle to influence their growing buying power and familial purchasing decision influences.  Here are some of the major takeaways I’ve seen,  both from a internal marketing presentation on Gen Z that I was fortunate enough to see here at St. Edward’s.

“Digital Natives”

The one people always start with is calling them digital natives, who have always lived with social media, particularly Facebook and Snapchat.  This means that they are essentially always viewing content, and they are labeled as tech savvy.  However, I believe it is a significant mistake to label them as ‘savvy’.  Savvy implies a deep knowledge of the underlying systems behind the tech.  While they are heavy users, that does not make them knowledgeable, no more than driving makes somebody a mechanic, and watching a lot of TV makes somebody able to troubleshoot one, but I digress, they are tech enthusiasts.

“8 second attention span”

It is notoriously difficult to maintain the attention of certain segments Millennials, and this is even more true with Gen Z, who you have an attention span of roughly 8 seconds.  It is said that Gen Z use 5 screens at once to Millennial’s 3.  I question how they came up with that metric, but it is roughly indicative of the difficulties of catching an eye constantly darting between multiple screens.

“Authentic Marketing”

Gen Z don’t want to be marketed to by celebrities, they want to be marketed to from real people, in real scenarios, describing real usefulness of the product or service.  A stark departure from the drop-dead humor approached use to appeal to cynical Millennials.  They also want to participate in movements, even marketing movements, particularly those which do societal good.

Sources:

5 Things Marketers Need to Know About Gen Z

https://www.mni.com/generation-z-marketing.html

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