Whether you want to admit it or not, with every passing day, Gen Z is becoming one of the largest generations in numbers. So it’s only acceptable to take a more in-depth look at what Generation Z entails.
To help you navigate how Gen Z carry themselves, we will take a look at who they are, and how they approach consumption.
Generation Z are people born between 1995 and 2015. They are currently between 4-24 years old (nearly 74 million in the U.S.)
They were shaped by watching older generations struggle, dealing with student loan debt, financial crisis, and unemployment.
All that not only impacted how they view consumption but how they make purchasing decisions too. Let’s take a more in-depth look at how you should approach marketing to this generation.

Who are they?

The connected, modern-day smartphone – bringing any information to the palm of their hands. This lead to Gen Z become more independent and proactive with their actions.

They value

Human Interaction

Gen Z are true digital natives because they grew up with technology from every early age. As much as they love all-things technology, they crave human interaction, openness, and collaboration.
They don’t distinguish between friends they meet online and friends in the physical world. They navigate between both communities seamlessly.
So, when it comes to online marketing, go beyond the typical sales, instead strive to create a guanine connection between your customers.

Transaprency

Transparency and trust are key. If you’ve been in the ecommerce world for a while, it can seem like a rollercoaster of emotions.
One day you feel like you can climb a mountain, and the next, you are just trying to get by. Hiding or withholding information can be detrimental to your success.
Gen Z is more likely to remain loyal when you are upfront and honest about what’s happening.

Self-expression

Gen Z generation loves to express their personality rather than trying to meet societal norms or fit the box of groups.
Generation Z is more than okay to step out of their comfort zone to be authentic.
Gen Z truly thrives on their freedom of self-expression. That’s where our swanky Personalization comes in play.
More than ever, they prefer to have an option to customize their products to liking. Thankfully, with CustomCat, you can offer just that. Generation Z is willing to pay a premium for products that highlight their individuality.

“Fifty-eight percent of A-class and 43 percent of C-class consumers say they are willing to pay more for personalized offerings.

What Products They Buy

In the world of social media, they are likely to be the most photographed generation because they live their life in the cloud, literally. Between the perfect squares on Instagram to Facebook Stories, they live in a constant time of comparison. Not only they care about self-expression; they are also about streetwear, athleisure, and fast fashion.

Things Gen Zers Do

Some kids purposely avoid shopping at American Eagle or any similar outfitters because they do not want to end up with the same clothes. They look for rare and authentic stores that they know no one else is shopping at. That way, they find themselves feeling different.
Not only they shop at boutique stores. They often swap clothes with classmates to avoid buying so many clothes to be able to keep up with social media standards.
Many Gen Zers find themselves stocking up on new looks to prepare for the music festival season. It’s super common for Gen Z to put together outfits to show off their style for the duration of the festival. Some may even go to different lengths by obtaining different outfits for every music festival they attend.

How to market to Gen Z

Stay true to your brand

Brand values are not only important to yourself but your customers as well. To win Gen Z over you, you must ultimately be aligned with your brand values even to be considered as an authentic brand. It comes down to having to follow through what you promised at the beginning. Always be honest with yourself, your brand, and everyone around you. You never know who may be watching.

People want to relate

So many brands tend to forget that people like to do business with people. If they can’t put a face to who is behind the brand, they are less likely to be trusting. The best way to do so is to share unique stories behind the brand and products. Things like customer shoutouts, customer satisfaction stories, and more.

Create non-curated feeds

Gen Z couldn’t care less about perfectly curated feeds. They want to see the messy and uncrated feeds. Don’t be afraid to show the real and messy side of your biz. Also, while you at it, down forget to mix in short videos that make sense with the sound off. Whether you choose to use subtitles or closed captions depends on your audience. However, both are becoming increasingly important as the internet connects your footage to the entire world. Next time you scroll through your feeds without the sound turned off, remember you aren’t the only one that watches videos with the sound off. It is more likely that your audience doesn’t use the audio on their devices unless they listen to music.
If you are down to market to Gen Z, we would suggest starting with creating a brand new marketing strategy based on what you’ve learned from this article. Go ahead and give this a try. Let us known in the comments if you have any experience and suggestions on how to market to Gen Zers effectively.