With every new generation, brands and marketers faced new challenges and had to learn how to forge their strategies in a way that will allow them to be successful among all age groups. Each era has its particularities and the big question is how brand builders, market and social strategists can adapt.
Generation Z is one like no other because it came up with new challenges and demands that probably very few though about ten years ago. Any smart business should consider them by adapting their strategy accordingly and this starts by understanding who they are and how they communicate.
Getting to know the Gen Z
This is the generation of youngsters born after the 90’s, that now reached an age which gives them a greater power to influence not only what they buy, but also what others buy. This very diverse generation, coming from mixed cultures is represented by teenagers whose identity was shaped online. Their identity is represented by what they express, share or like on social media. They all want to differentiate themselves from their peers and they are always in a quest for attention.
They put great price on their privacy and independence. Unlike the previous generations, most of the Gen-Zs want to transform their passions into their jobs, to ditch the big corporations and to become entrepreneurs, even though they might not have a clear image of the domain in which they want to be their own bosses. They reprehend their parents’ surveillance and they lean towards different social media networks that will offer the freeway to their online independence.
Win their hearts with slick content
The content strategy is a business asset that should be carefully integrated into a complex marketing campaign. When addressing such a niche group is mandatory to get under their skin. Creating content that appeals to this generation is no easy task. The Generation Z, could easily be called the fast forward generation because everything is happening so fast with them. They are browsing through different newsfeeds and they will only share what they find relevant for their identity.
Marketers need to experiment through all social media platforms by creating content that defines their brand in a few seconds. Don’t stick to the old Facebook and Twitter. Try them all because Facebook and Twitter are no longer alone among social media networks. Gen-Z represents a great percentage of the population and they are always finding new ways of expressing themselves. 140 characters are no longer enough and parents may invade their privacy on Facebook so now they have Snapchat, Vine, YouTube and Instagram to express themselves more dynamically. Why not creating and adapting content for these platforms? Results will show how popular was one particular strategy or another.
Thanks to this generation new terms were coined and a new language represented by signs, symbols and images should be used to communicate with them. For a closer communication and a better understanding of this generation strategists should learn their language. Teens are interested in the colloquial content that gets closer to them. Consider using digital stickers, memes, videos, emojis and all sort of images that will make yourself understood in their world.
Growing up with smartphones, they learned to process more information at higher speed and they are better at multitasking. However, this also means that their speed can become a disadvantage for those eager to catch their attention. In this case the average attention span got to eight seconds so if you don’t come up with something interesting enough, you are doomed to be ignored.
It is irrelevant if we agree with them or not because it is more important to understand them. They are a great source of data on which a content strategy can be based.