7 Vital Strategies to Use When Marketing To Generation Z

With an annual spend of USD 44B and projected to account for 40 percent of all consumers in the United States by 2020, the Generation Zs are a force to reckon. Herald the new kids in town — a sizeable target audience that is still coming of age. The majority of these digital natives born between 1996 and 2010 are still in their uniforms, colleges, universities while some are young adults who just started working. For those who are earning their income, winning their share of wallet proves no easy feat, while the rest who are studying have influential power over their parents or guardian’s income. Having said that, engaging the Gen Zs is vital for a business to flourish and secure long term growth.

Here are 7 Vital Strategies to Use When Marketing to Generation Zs:

• Adopt A Personalized Marketing Approach (gender marketing segmentation is the must!)
• Offer Interactivity In Outlets
• Differentiate with Affordable Luxury
• Be Experiential
• Provide Ultimate Convenience
• Encourage Clients To Review Your Service or Products
• Create Share-Worthy Content and Photo Opportunities

1. Adopt Gender-Based Personalized Marketing Approach

Gender based marketing is not a thing of a past — it is a fundamental marketing mantra that is growingly important in today’s digitally crowded landscape. Both males and females present with varying needs, behavior and psychological preference, hence adopting a gender-based marketing segmentation strategy will provide marketers a competitive advantage. From traditional E-mail marketing to retargeting via popular among Generation Z platforms such as snapchat and Instagram gender-based consumer segmentation is an integral component of any online business strategy. Some of the key differences between Generation Z males and females demand a personalized marketing approach:

• In the US, women are more likely to open an e-mail that is marked as “sale” (84% of females vs. 78% of males).
• Men are more engaged with e-mails that deliver information about new products (whereby 45% of men vs. 33% of women will open such emails).
• E-mails that suggest products based on previous buying decisions are more popular with men than women (83% vs. 73%).
• 71% of male shoppers were more engaged with personalized e-mail correspondence in the subject line, as opposed to 66% of women.

With these findings, marketing to Gen Zs can be more effective when gender-based marketing strategies are employed. Personalizing marketing content (email, ads or Instagram stories) based on gender-based segmentation is preferred by the respective gender and will pave the way for higher click-through rates and conversion rates. The best way to test your way into gender-based marketing is to rely on reputable list providers such as NameGenderPro.com to identify the consumer’s gender based on their first name.

With NameGenderPro, you will receive a comprehensive list of more than 177K unique names of female and male names, thus allowing you match your newly acquired base of clients collected through your website based on the gender name list from NameGenderPro. As one of the world’s largest list provider for first names by gender, you can start customizing your content based on customer’s viewing history and re-market successfully to clients who are at the brink of purchasing and nearing the check-out stages of your conversion funnel.

2. Offer Interactivity in Outlets

Born with a tablet in their palms, Generation Zs expects to interact with technology in most aspects of their daily life. To Gen Zs, technology is a necessity and not an exceptional perk. Businesses have to embrace technology in every aspect of communication with their clients, and technological laggards risk being ousted from the market place, thanks to this digitally-savvy generation.

Businesses must find creative ways to integrate technology. Patrons of a Japanese restaurant in Tokyo use touch panels to find a vacant table, contrary to being greeted by a receptionist. Once seated, they navigate a tablet to order food from a menu spanning from more than 100 items including soba noodles, fried chicken, sushi and hot coffee. The dishes are then delivered directly to the table with a conveyor belt.

A famous well-known chain of restaurants in Malaysia uses mechanical humanoids to improve the quality of service by reducing wait-time by half during the peak period. The artificially intelligent robots are programmed to speak in English and Cantonese and can converse in an array of 36 languages, plus reply to simple questions posted by patrons.

Gen Zs like to interact with brands and allowing them to do so give them a sense of contribution and positive customer experience. The impact of positive customer experience should never be underestimated, whereby research has shown that 71% of consumers who had positive experiences with a brand on social media are likely to recommend the brand to their friends and family.

3. Differentiate with Affordable Luxury

Gen Zs surprisingly is not as cost-conscious compared to the Millenials. Millennials, who account for the largest population in the United States with 75.4m consumers, tend to be more penny-wise, as a result of growing up during periods of recessions.

Having said that, Gen Zs are willing to spend more money on unique experiences and one-of-a-kind-premium items, including a luxury hotel, bespoke clothing, and even private chauffeur experiences repackaged as Uber.

Uber in the United States recognized the importance of segmentation in marketing and the value of unique experiences placed by a select group of price-insensitive customers. By understanding the individualistic expectations of each consumer segment, Uber created a new segment called UberBlack — a premium offering above its economy-class Uber X and Uber XL service whereby Uber’s Black patrons get to ride in more luxury cars than its regular rides. By differentiating its service, Uber justifies its higher price for its premium UberBlack service, while addressing an un-served market need.

4. Be Experiential

Younger consumers like hands-on demonstrations, behind-the-scenes footages, and events, one-of-a-kind atmospheres, hints of nostalgia and local ties. In the context of the food and beverage industry and according to global business advisory and consultancy expert BDO, whether restaurants are focusing on the tech, the food or the room, what matters conclusively is that decisions are made with evolving consumer preferences in mind.

As Gen Zs gain more market share, their opinions grow louder and become significantly important. Adapting both online and offline strategies in response to evolving demands can help to carry concepts through sluggish seasons.

5. Provide Ultimate Convenience

Generation Z value convenience and are willing to pay a premium for ultimate accessibility. The growth of subscription services such as Blue Apron, Dollar Shave Club and Birch Box indicates that the newer generations value the unrivaled convenience of ordering via their device and doorstep delivery.

To put things to perspective, Uber Eats and Grab Food has experienced tremendous growth with the shift in consumer dining habits. Within three years, the Uber Eats restaurant food delivery service has grown from an experiment to covering a vast 70% of the US population by end 2018.

According to Jason Drege, the Vice President of Uber Everything in the US, younger consumers are willing to pay a premium for convenience. From a generation that was used to grocery shopping and dining out, to a generation that wants to stay home and Netflix binge or use social media while they eat, Gen Z inadvertently wants the access to hundreds of restaurants without having to leave their home. Recognizing this growing need for ultimate convenience proved to be a success factor for Uber Eats and its competitor GrabFood, in which the latter has a stronger foothold in the Asian region.

6. Encourage Clients To Review Your Service or Products

Generation Zs are increasingly interested in consumer reviews, and sites like Google, Yelp and Facebook make it easier than before to see what their actual connections thought about a particular business.

• 92% of customers will use a business with 4 or more stars

• 72% of customers will use a business with 3 stars

• 27% of customers will use a business with 2 stars

• 13% of customers will use a business with 1 star

Likewise, for Google search queries that use “best” and “near me” in a competitive location, businesses need at least a 4.0 rating to be shown in the top three listings, and an astounding 64% of mobile search clicks are to one of those top three listings.

Therefore, business should provide ease and ample opportunities for clients to rate its services or products. Friend-worthy ratings will improve web visibility and SEO ranking, thus serving up your business to more potential clients digitally. Some easy yet effective methods to encourage clients to rate your service includes distributing short questionnaires at the end of the dining experience, making follow-up calls for after-service feedback, triggering SMS to clients 2 to 3 days after a service is rendered to get their feedback on the car service experience or facial provided, giving out incentives to clients to review them on social media via coupon-offs for the following purchases.

7. Create Share-Worthy Content and Photo Opportunities

We know for a fact that Millenials love Instagram. To reach out to the Gen Zs, a strong and memorable presence on Instagram and SnapChat is needed:

• 59% of 18–24 years olds and 54% of 25- 24 years olds are on Instagram

• 62% of 18–24 years olds are on SnapChat

• 39% of 25–34 years olds are on SnapChat

Over and above, usage of Instagram Stories has gained enormous traction in a short span of time, whereby daily active Instagram Stories users increased from 150 million in January 2017 to a whopping 500 million in January 2019.

Acknowledging the above data, the main question restaurateurs should ask themselves is “Are your entrees SnapChat and Instagram-Worthy?”. If they are aesthetically less pleasing, then it is time to spruce up its presentation. Positive reviews and free publicity are within reach with a few simple tweaks to a plated presentation. Positive virality among the iGens is unmistakably important — so jump on the bandwagon if you are not or risk being bypassed by customers, for your competitors.