As Generation Y Millennials are aging (sorry Millennials, yes you are aging and sooner or later you will be like us Baby Boomers) startups and companies need to reassess their brands, their market fit and targets. By 2020 Gen Zs are going to be the largest group of consumers globally.
While marketers are busy strategizing how to engage the Millennials of Generation Y, there’s a younger, more tapped-in audience of consumers they should be targeting: The Gen Z—people aged seven to 17.
Some might choose to tackle the Gen Y demographic and wait on learning more about younger kids. Others might just group these audiences together and figure they’re killing two marketing birds with one stone. Marketing research shows Gen Y and Gen Z want very different things from brands, and now that people who are a part of Gen Z are making independent purchasing decisions, that distinction is very important.
It seems this Gen Z generation is more tolerant of online advertising than its Y counterpart. Twenty-eight percent of Gen Z consumers want marketers to reach them with online ads compared to just 16 percent of millennials. Also, Gen Z prefers being sold a cool product (60 percent) over a cool experience (40 percent), while Gen Y prefers the opposite. Gen Z is more than twice as likely to respond to advertising that features “real people” as opposed to celebrities. This fits right in with the study’s finding that Gen Z’s favorite website is YouTube, where celebrities are often relatable people who share digital experiences with viewers and introduce them to new products. Meanwhile, Gen Y’s favorite website is Amazon.
As far as behavior is concerned, Gen Z has separated itself from previous generations by prioritizing independence and eschewing tradition: “Gen Zers are growing up in a healthier economy and appear eager to be cut loose. They don’t wait for their parents to teach them things or tell them how to make decisions.” Similarly, research found that 93 percent of parents surveyed said their teen and tween children have at least some influence on their family’s spending and household purchases. (That is Gen Zs influencing their parents buying decisions!) In a nutshell, if, as a brand, you are not putting energy into understanding Gen Z behaviors, you are losing an opportunity to anticipate the future of consumer behavior.
Check out the infographic below for more telling data about the generation gap:
Infographic from Deep Focus, the Cassandra Report.
Just when brands feel that they’ve finally mastered the art of advertising to Millennials, up comes the next generation of consumers: Generation Z.
Although sharing some similarities to the elder Millennials, Generation Z is far more savvy to brand intentions, meaning digital marketers will find themselves embarrassed if they try to implement Millennial advertising strategies for this younger generation.
So what is it that makes Generation Z different? And how can digital marketers successfully engage with this next wave of consumers?
Watch for our next blog presentation about the the Gen Z market differentiations.