Marketing to Gen Z

A Blue Light Media Blog

Effectively marketing to Generation Z can be a bit of a challenge to those belonging to other generations. Very much its own co-culture, Gen Z has its own social norms, lingo, and relationship with marketing and advertising. These defining characteristics are important to understand when seeking to understand how to best communicate with the generation.

Therefore, there are a few general rules that marketers should understand and live by when trying to relate to and reach Gen Z in a marketing strategy:

Use a Relatable Yet Authentic Voice

Using a voice that is relatable and authentic, yet still lighthearted and humorous is incredibly crucial for building trust with Gen Z. Because the generation is so highly media literate and digitally native, any disingenuous attempts from outsiders to connect with them are easily recognized.

Using slang or pop culture references in a way that is unnatural or outdated is a surefire way to ensure that Gen Z’ers will write your brand off for trying too hard. Trends among Gen Z move extremely quickly, so it can be a challenge for your brand to keep up.

It may seem too obvious, but a great way to combat this challenge is to hire a Gen Z’er themselves to generate content for your brand’s social and marketing channels. The oldest members of Gen Z are entering the workforce right now, which could be a great opportunity for your brand to begin to develop an effective marketing strategy towards the generation as a whole.

However, above all, members of Gen Z look for authenticity in brand voice. If it isn’t your brand’s voice to sound like a younger person, don’t try to push it — Gen Z can identify inauthenticity within marketing with ease.

Generate Engaging and Aware Content

While the voice of your brand’s content is incredibly important, the content itself is too. Gen Z’ers prefer to interact with brands directly and prefer to feel as though there is a reduced power distance between them and the brands they interact with. A good way to create such a relationship is to make marketing content interactive.

Generating content that employs the use of things like videos, polls, quizzes, and giveaways is a great way to encourage Gen Z’ers to engage with your brand. Choice of platform is an important consideration, too — you’ll find many more members of Generation Z on TikTok, Instagram, and Snapchat rather than Facebook and Twitter.

Additionally, don’t stick to just creating content to promote your brand/products/services. Bring content into the mix that is socially aware and speaks to the values your brand holds. Generation Z is a generation of thoughtful, collectively minded individuals (many of whom would consider themselves activists on varying topics), and so speaking out on social issues and the principles your brand values is an expectation, not an exception. Gen Z members would rather you sell them your brand’s story, not your brand’s product.

Keep it Quick and Cohesive

Finally, it’s important to make sure that the content you’re generating is optimized for quick consumption. Because Generation Z grew up in a world characterized by technology and instantized information and gratification, marketing and advertising messaging must adapt to be to the point and, ideally, able to be consumed in under 10 seconds.

Generation Z is a fascinating and diverse generation of future business leaders and world changers — and a major segment of the United States’ population, with a lot of purchasing power. Therefore, it’s important for marketers to understand their complex relationship with media and marketing in order to communicate with them effectively.